Today's diet meal recipe was new. I'd not tried it because it involves aubergine and courgette. I don't really care for either. The recipe also called for a splash of chilli and tomato sauce. There was none in the cupboard and I knew it was hopeless to go and see if it were available in any of our local supermarkets, it's just not the sort of thing that they carry. Easy to make some though as the name gives away the principal ingredients. Whatsmore a nearby supermarkets is one of the few I know that stocks chillies in a routine way. It reminded me, but just to be sure I just checked, and it's true, that we have nothing "pre-prepared" in our freezer. There's pitta bread and frozen peas and chicken breast and some very chemically ice pops but there are no prepared meals - no lasagne, no spag bol, no microwaveable burgers or kebabs and obviouslly no chilli con carne. Most Spaniards don't go in for prepared food. Frozen and chilled pizzas are popular enough and there are pre-prepared things in the freezers and chiller cabinets of most Spanish supermarkets but they are not a usual purchase. Glance at the person in front of you in the checkout line and you will see raw materials for building dishes rather than packets of ready to go meals. Spaniards don't even eat a lot of things like breakfast cereal and fancy biscuits.
I don't know whether this is good or bad. I'm just saying it's different. I know, for instance, that my mum gets lots of ready made meals from a company which delivers frozen meals to her door. She says that they are first rate and save her money and waste. When I lived in the UK, years ago, I would often pop something in to the microwave, when I came home from work, and it would heat through as I went to shed my suit and tie. Life would have been harder without those frozen meals. I know that the urban myth is that, nowadays, no British family still sits down to eat together, unless they order in takeaway and, even then, there will be no conversation, just the movement of thumbs on the mobile phone keypad. I have no idea whether that fireside scene is real or not but I have seen the takeaways of every colour and hue on English High Streets and I know from our infrequent visits to one of the "British" supermarkets on the coast here that there is lots of interesting sounding food in boxes and packets.
Back in Culebrón I sometimes wonder about the time it takes to prepare a detailed shopping list and the time it takes to cook the food as compared to the time it takes to eat and to do the washing up after. And the aubergine and courgette thing? Even with the splendid sauce it was horrid.
