So on our 23rd evening of taking our evening pilgrims menu we didn't expect anything much different. That is until Max and Jim noticed that the menu card had advertised a three course meal special featuring local, traditional delicacies. And at only 10 euros it seemed like a nice change of pace. Given that Max and Jim didn't speak Spanish, it fell to Emily to translate the waitress's description of the menu. It went exactly like this: First course is a meat dish of mostly pork, the second course is of vegetables, the third course is soup and the fourth is a dessert of your choice. Max and Jim were excited, four whole courses for only two euros more! They quickly opted for the special menu. Emily, Dan and I opted to stick to the traditional pilgrim menu. A fortuitous decision in hindsight.
As Emily, Dan and I dug into our first course of pasta noodles drenched in red sauce and cheese, the waitress arrived with Max and Jim's first platter. She placed before them a large white bowl, filled with animal parts. A look of horror crossed Max and Dan's faces, followed shortly by a look of confusion. Max was the first to speak. "
"What is that?", he exclaimed while pointing towards the bowl of animal parts.
"More over are we supposed to eat that?", Jim wondered aloud.
Emily quickly grabbed the waitress and asked her what type of meat was in the bowl. The waitress cheerily explained that it was boiled pig parts. She kept smiling at Max and Jim and indicated that they should dig in.
"Boiled pig parts! Boiled pig parts! What does she mean parts? What parts?", Max loudly whispered.
"Well for starters, here are some pig ears", Jim said, while spearing a boiled ear with his fork and waving it in the air for all of us to see.
"Ok, I'm eating here. You got to put that down", Dan stated. "Really, that is just gross."
"Come on, eat an ear! Or wait, look, there's a hoof. Is that a fingernail on that hoof?", Jim speculated as he prodded a hoof in the bowl.
"Holy shit! I can't eat that. That is seriously a bowl of pig trotters", Max yelped.
"Ok, we have to eat something from the bowl", Jim conjectured.
"This ain't fear factor and I'm not eating shit from that bowl!," Max declared.
"Look, this is a perfectly good piece of bacon right here. So it's gray, it's still bacon. Why don't you eat that?", Jim said as he placed a piece of boiled pig on Max's plate.
"No way! I can't do it."
"Max, it's just bacon."
"That's not like any bacon I ever ate. Besides what are you going to eat?"
"I'm going to dig into that trodder."
"Oh, that's just wrong dude. There are still nails on that shit."
This went on for about five minutes. Jim happily tucking into a pig trotter, Max picking at his bacon, while the rest of us dined on steak and french fries. As Max and Jim finished their first selection they began to ponder the feasibility of finishing the bowl of pig parts. On one hand they didn't want to feel rude by not eating the bowl of pig, on the other hand, Max was becoming certain that he was being secretly taped for an episode of Fear Factor - Spain. So, it came down to this.
Fifty euros paid in cash to the person who would eat at least two larger parts out of the bowl.
Jim laid down this offer, probably not thinking anyone would do it. But Dan, my fellow American hailing from the "We eat road kill" state of Alaska, quickly accepted the challenge.
Because a good sum of money was being thrown down, the following rules were agreed upon after heated negotiation.
1) Dan had to eat one hoof (or trotter as the English call it), one ear, and one unknown bacon like substance.
2) Dan would be able to wash down the food with beer, wine or any beverage of his choice.
3) He was not allowed to regurgitate the food for at least 5 minutes.
Dan anxiously agreed and began to eat. And after the longest and most tedious 7 minutes of his 26 years of life he finished his three items. He pocked the money Jim placed on the table, checked his watch, indicated 5 minutes had elapsed and politely excused himself from the table. The rest of us finished up our ice cream and paid the bill.
We met Dan outside the bar and began our walk back to the alburgue in silence, each contemplating all that had transpired in the course of one evening out to dinner. The special menu never held the same allure for Max and for the remainder of the trip he stuck exclusively to the pilgrims menu. Jim continued to explore the Spanish daily specials but none were as interesting as that first night. Dan recovered from his fear factor meal but he could never look at a pig the same again. As for Emily and me, we spent the last 15 days on the Camino reminding the boys that the Cambridge Dictionary defines "special" as "that which is better, greater or otherwise different from what is usual."
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