Just took an hour-long trip to Galicia, imagine that! In reality, it was just a visit to the little Galician Gastronomic Fest they are having in the square near my house. Galicia is the north-western autonomous community of Spain, with its own language gallego. Therefore, I assume Basques are on extra-pleasant terms with them since we both have the second tongue. Anyways, a main point of interest in Galicia is Santiago de Compostela, where people make a pilgrimage. San Sebastián is on the official Camino de Santiago--Way of Santiago. Galicia also seems to have some Celtic roots, although their language is more smiliar to Portuguese. Therefore there was a group of bagpipers out at the little Market.
A well-known Galician dish is pulpo, octopus. That's why under the little tent with bar, you could often hear the server shouting "pulpo!" because assumedly most ordered it. Other meat options were some kind of sausage and ribs. Although I didn't buy any, I basked in the warm, barbecue scent for quite a while. They had a fire going with a spinning grill to cook the ribs and sausage. Near that was a barrel of liquid, where a man put in the octopuses to soak. When they came out they were a deep red and given to a man to chop up. Mm, tentacles! They also had the "world's biggest octopus dish", with free samples--many people crowding around. By the time I got to it, there was only potatoes left. But hey, I enjoy potatoes so I'm not complaining. Too bad my camera was broken at that time. :| There was also a stall of pastries and one of cheese. The cheese didn't interest me as much as the bakery, obviously. Man, people get impatient waiting around. Let's all take a deep breath, because the 2 people working the bakery booth are running around all day trying to tend to customers. In my opinion, they are the ones who should lose their temper instead of customers who only had to wait 5 or so minutes. Tranquilo!! I am not one to get in their face, which usually means I have to wait quite some time. However thanks to the woman next to me, I was noticed after a bit of patient waiting. And my reward was the baker guy calling me "la chica joven y hermosa" jojojo! But that's probably because I was in a sea of old folks, like pulpos wrapping themselves around the ship aka the bakery stand.
The offerings were big slabs of cakes--and there was definitely something that could be tuna filled or bacalao filled. I avoided fish cakes and opted for a piece of chocolate and what I assume is a Santiago specialty cake.
