So, Tuesday night was the big night. The night of Rach’s (or “Ratch” as Alexa calls her every time she connects her phone to the device) birthday dinner.

As said previously, we were getting catering in from El Truc. We knew our chef was Sergei, and we had been told to expect him from around 6:30 pm to eat at 8:30 pm.

6:30 pm arrived. And left. 7:00 pm arrived. And left. No sign of Sergei. We had cautiously opened a bottle of champagne, and Josh kindly agreed only to drink half a glass in case he had to be a taxi service into Agramunt if he did not turn up. (He and Ali had already sussed out the family kebab shop as being a possible contender as an alternative dining venue.)

Ratch’s tension levels were rising, so she had a second-class of champagne. Around 7:30 pm, there was a ring at the door, and Sergei and his sous chef Eduardo appeared. Tibu showed them into the kitchen, and Ratch had a third glass of champagne to celebrate their arrival. Tibu was just delighted that they had bought napkins!

The thing was, we had no idea what we were going to eat. We had told them allergens and intolerances, but they never made any indication as to what our actual courses would consist of.

So, we sat down with some expectation and trepidation, as Sergei and Eduardo came out and told us exactly what to expect.

We were going to have a nine course meal (that’s like 3× Menu del Dia!). Some of the dishes were on the menu at El Truc, and some were new creations. Effectively we were a focus group.

Before every course, one of them explained in great detail what the dish was, what it consisted of, where the ingredients came from, how it was prepared. With it being nine courses, the portions were quite small, and sometimes the description took longer than the time to actually eat it. But by the time course nine arrived, we were all feeling rather stuffed.

Josh very kindly made a note of the descriptions as they were being explained to us. Below is his description, and then my interpretation/observation on the dish.

Just so you know, the were a couple of dishes that I forgot to take photographs of, somebody in the rest of the group has said that they have got a photograph of these courses, but haven’t sent them onto me yet. So you will find some placeholder pictures for those.

Here we go. …

Buñuelo of pigs cheek and ear with aged garlic honey and tempura

⁃ Deep fried crispy meatball, but considerably better than IKEA’s. I could have happily just had a meal of just these.

Escalivada of red peppers and aubergine cooked in vermouth, with burrata and whitebait

⁃ Cheese, chutney and ickle fish.

Scallops marinated in yondu (soy), tomatillo, Granny Smith apple, basil oil and soup of cucumber, tomatillo and green pepper.

⁃ Thinly sliced lovely stuff in an unbelievable tomato soup.

Mackerel marinated in salt and soy, Peruvian sauce of carrot, beetroot and goat’s milk, capers.

⁃ Small bits of fish on a 3 colour sauce.

Barbecued lobster stew, fish stock, potato, fried egg, lemon sauce, aioli.

⁃ Now we are onto the rich section of the meal. Beautiful, but I struggled to eat 2 portions (it was a bit fishy for Nik so I ate hers so as not offend our chefs. The things I have to do).

Barbecued grouse, mushrooms, green beans.

⁃ Yeah, this is pretty much as described. He did say grouse but we think he corrected it to quail.

Slow cooked goat shoulder, goat rib with goats milk bread crumbs.

⁃ I’ve had goat curry before but not goat stew. Goat is one of those meats that actually tastes like it smells. Again exceptionally rich, but delicious).

Waikiki melon, melon sauce, coconut milk ice cream, citrus granizado, mint.

⁃ A sorbet to cleanse the pallet.

Peaches cooked in miso and caramelised sugar, manchego cheese ice cream, crumble.

⁃ A crumble without custard! Ok, it was delicious without it. (And fun fact…there is no Spanish equivalent word for “crumble”).

So that was it, nine courses down and we were done. We are also done for the holiday, as the boys have already returned, and we return to the UK tomorrow.

I hope you’ve enjoyed reading these ramblings and with a good wind, I may even do them again for our next holiday.

See you all soon.

PS, is it raining in the UK?