First Impressions

by annie

We arrived in Aranjuez last Monday evening via bus, and walked to the train station to meet Alfredo and his brother Jaime. It was probably around 6pm or so when we arrived. We toured Alfredo's home and learned about our projects for the week- cleaning up the garden and painting his indoor patio bright yellow. Alfredo only speaks Spanish. I miss a lot of what he says and Brian does a great job of filling me in when he can.

On the first night, Alfredo told us that he usually eats dinner around 11pm. We were hungry, so we said that we would go to the store and cook something earlier for ourselves. He mentioned that maybe one night, he might eat early with us. Since it was just the two of us, I had a random idea to try: pasta with a sauce of tomato puree, lentils, asparagus, onion and red pepper, topped with goat cheese. Mind you, I've never made this dish before, and I'll reiterate, I thought I was just cooking for Brian and I.

We started making food and Jaime and his wife Gema reappeared. Jaime placed three hot dog buns on the counter, insinuating that he was making three sandwiches of sorts for him, Gema and Alfredo. I assumed he left them there because it was too early for them to eat. Somewhere along the way, the hot dog buns disappeared off the counter and Brian picked up some vibes from Alfredo that we were cooking for five.

We had obviously missed a cultural cue somewhere along the line, probably because we had already discussed us eating much earlier than the others. I was happy to make dinner for everyone, but I probably would have chosen to make something different... say, something I had actually made before (and maybe not so weird). These are ham-and-cheese-on-white-bread people, not vegetarian experimentalists. It was too late to change course, so Brian and I exchanged covert smiles and added more lentils and tomato puree to make the sauce go farther. Alfredo expressed surprise at using goat cheese on such a dish. It's optional, we told him.

I was glad to sit down to a meal with everyone, despite the feeling that like I had accidentally locked myself out of my comfort zone. Here's a pic before we dipped our forks in (that there is a photo at all, clearly demonstrates that Brian was eating up the experience and making the most of it. Later, behind closed doors, we laughed about it a lot):


Everyone politely ate their portion of the dish, although it wasn't until half-way through the meal that any of the Spaniards ventured to try the goat cheese on top. Brian and I liked it, I knew we would, and they were all polite enough to say so as well. I'll never know for sure what they really thought. Probably something about a crazy American taking over the kitchen, and why would you put lentils with pasta!?!

We have since learned that Alfredo himself is also an adventurist when it comes to cooking. After the first night we have always cooked collaboratively with Alfredo and eat all our meals together, often staying at the table long after eating for good conversation and laughs. One day, we had been out and came back just as Alfredo finished his lunch. We started making our own lunch, and he joined in, eating a second lunch with us. Meals are very social and community-oriented here, and we have really enjoyed that.