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Green Spain, and the most expensive shellfish in Europe
Galicia is the wet corner of a country most visitors think of as dry, and the difference is not marginal. The north-west coast receives several times the rainfall of Madrid, spread through the year rather than concentrated, and the result is the landscape the Spanish call la España verde — green Spain, running along the Atlantic and Cantabrian coasts from Galicia through Asturias to the Basque Country. It looks more like Ireland than like Andalusia, and in August, when the rest of the country is at forty degrees, that is precisely its appeal. The rain has its own vocabulary because it has its own varieties. orballo is the fine hanging drizzle that soaks you without ever seeming to fall. A chubasco is a short violent downpour. A temporal is a multi-day system that shuts the fishing fleet in harbour. The Camarera's correction — eso no es lluvia, es orballo — is the local view that what Alex walked through barely counts, and it is meant kindly. That same Atlantic produces the food. Galician shellfish is among the best and most expensive in Europe, and the system behind it is worth knowing: the catch is landed and auctioned at la lonja, the market, in the morning, and a restaurant's menu that day depends on what came in. That is exactly what the waitress means by lo de la lonja de esta mañana, and it is the reason asking what they have today makes more sense here than reading a printed menu. Two items deserve explanation. El percebe, the goose barnacle, is prised off wave-battered rocks by percebeiros working from the shore between waves; people are killed doing it most years, and the price — which can run to well over a hundred euros a kilo at Christmas — reflects that rather than fashion. And pulpo á feira is the national dish of Galicia in all but name: octopus boiled to tenderness, cut with scissors, and dressed with nothing but olive oil, coarse salt and paprika. The absence of technique is the point. One note on ordering. In Galicia, marisco is often sold by weight rather than by portion, and the price on the menu may be per kilo or per hundred grams. Asking ¿a cómo está el percebe hoy? before ordering is entirely normal and saves an unpleasant surprise — and the answer will come with a shrug about the temporal, because the weather sets the price.