Italian Christmas

Some of our friends here in Barcelona have had the good sense to date Italian men with a penchant for cooking. They graciously invited us to come and spend Christmas with them. It was a two day event in which we went shopping in the open air market and subsequently cooked all of the food. Here is a picture of Sergio, the head cook holding triumphantly his octopus.

We cooked, chopped, fried, basted, salted and sauteed all day. By the time dinner actually rolled around we were all very hungry. Rana and I made 4 liters of sangria which was devoured and the rest of the group brought wine. The first course that came out was a cold vegetable salad.

As we ate that, the fish went into a deep bed of salt. It was completely surround by salt in fact. On top was a little shrimp. We also had a salmon, creme pasta with caviar and a number of other delicacies. It was a lot of fun. Here are some happy customers.

Then as the evening grew later silly began to kick in.

And we ended the evening with a tried and true christmas tradition, the group picture.

Well that's it for the Italian Christmas. It was great fun, and no one needed to eat again for a week!