We arrived in Jerez, the home of Spanish sherry, early afternoon by train from Sevilla. The converted convent we had reserved a room with was amazing in its elegance. We immediately headed for the town plaza to soak up the atmosphere.
It was getting too late for lunch, but the plaza displayed various cafes and restaurants set up for the tourists, with the array of tables and umbrellas outside in the sun. Often as a rule, tourists insist on eating outside, locals preferring to sit indoors in the shade. The meals here looked a little expensive but my wife had read that the locals ate in bar in the shade in a side lane off the plaza. We went looking and found the San Francisco closing up. I asked if it was too late, and was told that a waiter would stay behind to serve us.
We had never done a menu del dia before and were unsure how to proceed. Noticing my hesitation and lack of spanish the waiter said "meat or fish". We knew Jerez is known for its fish market so I said Fish! And ordered both beer and wine as our complementary drinks.
What then happened will never leave me, as two huge plates of fresh shellfish arrived, at that time the biggest gambas I had ever seen and spider crab.
Excellent meal we both agreed and starting to worry that we would never be able to eat it all. What we didn't realise was two things. Firstly, this was only our starters! We both had beautifully grilled fish to follow.
And secondly, the waiter who was itching to go home for his siesta could not go, as his restaurant gave two drinks with each lunch, and we had not had our second drink yet. This we put right and he disappeared. We were left to finish and enjoy our desserts and look for someone to pay the bill. I wish he had stayed a little longer, as I really respected the service I was given and wanted to tip this guy. The whole meal came to as little as seven euro each including drinks and introduced us to authentic menu del dia, the inspiration behind our blog site.
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