Dinner with Juan and Elode

Sue met Juan, a man who has a mutual friend of ours, several years ago, and we arranged to meet him and his fiancee(?) Elode for dinner in the Centro, at a place called La Trucha (the trout). Juan is a native Spaniard who speaks good English, and Elode is French, but she speaks great Spanish and decent English. This was perfect for me, as I was able to carry on in 99% Spanish with Elode (with some failed attempts to resurrect my grade school French), and switching between English and Spanish with Juan (usually he'd speak English and I'd answer in Spanish). Even the kids got into it, as they really understood a lot of the Spanish, and were responding on occasion in Spanish.  I think having them see us using Spanish made them want to try harder, and I was very proud of how well they were able to carry on.

The meal was very good. Juan had been there before, and made some great choices for us.  Surprisingly, the kids were more adventurous than I expected, and in particular loved a dish of fried green peppers coated in Parmesan cheese. This dish had a particular Russian roulette attraction for them, since you never knew if you were getting a sweet pepper, or a hot one. Laurel - who never eats anything green - had six or seven, as did Bryce.  A few times, they encountered the hot peppers, but after a few gulps of water they were ready to go again.  Bryce tried some smoked trout (which I think he liked), and Laurel tried a caviar crostini, which also was a success.



La Trucha

As with our meal with Sarah, it seems like any night out with Madrilleños requires a minimum of two restaurant stops.  After dinner, Juan took us for a walk to the La Latina neighborhood, where we had dessert at a yummy ice cream place.  The kids were especially good, and they were rewarded with massive Sundaes.

Aside:  Madrilleño is what people from Madrid call themselves.  We were told that Madrid has the most restaurants per capita than any other place in the world.  And lleño is the Spanish word for full. So with so many restaurants in Madrid, and going to a minimum of two per night, I can see why they are always full.

Here's a photo of our happy group:

We finally got home just before midnight, after starting at 8 PM.  It's hard to believe we were out so long.

I really feel like my Spanish is finally coming back, as I spent most of the evening using Spanish, and was able to switch into past and future tenses, although I'm still making a lot of mistakes.  But it's becoming more instinctual, and I feel like I'm thinking in Spanish at times, which is a good sign.  I see the kids progressing as well.