Around day two we discovered “Plates of the Day” or “plata du jour”.  We couldn’t believe the great food a person could get at a tavern, bistro or small restaurant during the day.  Often for nine - fifteen euros the meal would include 3 courses plus wine and/or desert.  If wine wasn’t included we would purchase a demi-carafe for around 3 - 4 euros.  This is the equivalent of 4-5 glasses of wine for $4 - 5.00. 

“Plato Du Jours” are so perfect - they compliment our life style marvelously and suit us very well.   We eat it as the main meal of the day...any time between 1:00 - 4:00PM.  It is just deliciously lovely sitting in an outside cafe for a couple of hours, eating great food and drinking lovely wine!  Yes, you heard us correctly, we actually take a couple of hours to eat our mid day meal.

Here are some pictures of the food we have had as Plates du Jour... yum.  Every meal is a complete surprise.  Since we understand neither French or Spanish this makes our choice extremely easy... Oui, or Si, We would like the Plate of the Day Si vous plait or Por forvor;.

In Cambrills we had home made tuna salad, pate fois du grais, salmon tartar and creme brouliaze and a bottle of red wine for 12 Euros.  In a tiny weeny village up in the Spanish mountains we had the most outrageous veal, mushroom and pea stew and on the coast in a Sea fortress/castle a beautiful dish of mussels and prawns. 

Ok, Tom & Jill I said I wasn’t going to eat Elvies - baby eels... I even tried them as they found their way into a Paella dish.  We had gotten lost on the way to Spain from France and the waitress asked if I would like Paella de Mer -  said yes, and out comes this dish with cooked swigglies throughout.  Tasted like tough gummy worms... not my fondest dish, but was still good.  Still have not tried snails!   In fact we specifically didn’t go to Leido - the snail capital of Spain.  They eat more than 12 million tons of snails a year.

Plates du Jour, I think this will become an intricate part of my newest weight loss plan - I call it “The European”. The other part of this weight loss plan will be walking - walking - walking.  I have a pedometer and have been logging our steps each day.  The number of steps a day has ranged from 6500 - 34,500 with an average of around 22,000.  1500 - 2000 paces equal a mile (So I was told)...and in my  brain, as I am eternally optimistic that my plan will be successful and all these steps will neutralize the copious amounts of good food I am eating and wine I am drinking -  Guess the proof of my latest weight loss plan will be if we can get back into our travel pants in a three months :)