Since I’ve started, I guess I might as well not give it up.

I had amazing green pea soup today, at the cafe closest to my apartment, which is called Pinot and is in Plaza Guemes (on Charcas x Salguero). It was the soup of the day. I asked what it was, and the waitress told me, “Crema de Arvejas,” and I asked her if she knew the word in English. She did not. She started telling me they were tiny and green, and I still had to think a moment, even though I had them in my freezer. And then I realized and asked her how it was, and it was, indeed, “Muy rico,” which is pretty much all any waiter or waitress here ever says when you ask them how something is. It was bloody delicious, although of course it had ham. Good ham, though, for once. Not that shitty ham they put on every sandwhich that makes it taste like you’re eating air.

And then I got home, blathered about for a while, and bought some things for dinner. I essentially went with the plan of “make things that people have made you think of,” and so I bought stuff for spicy peanut sauce (by which I mean, I bought a carrott; I already have the rest), and bought champagne. I also bought some brie, and this time I wasn’t cheap about it, since the cheap brie was fucking lame, and tasted like mozarella. (Honestly, they make good food here sometimes, but the breads and cheeses are pha.) So I got home and ate President Brie with crackers, and then at 21:00 I made peanut sauce with carrots and green peppers and pasta. And it was pretty good.

I have a real Spicy Peanut Sauce recipe I use back home, and I approximated that, from memory (although now I think of it, I emailed it to Aitor at one point), as best as I could. I would guess my recipe, made entirely without measuring, went something like this:

• Quarter of an onion, chopped finely
• Three garlic cloves, minced
• Third cup of soy sauce
• Quarter cup of olive oil (should be sesame, but we work with what we’ve got)
• Too much water (but should’ve been about a quarter cup)
• Red pepper flakes, around 2 tbsp
• Sugar, pref. brown, around 1.5 tbsp*
• Peanut butter, two large spoonsful
• black pepper, to taste
• Sesame Seeds, 2 tsp* (although of course you should use salted peanuts)

(*Borrowed from land-lady.) Heat a bit of the oil, cook the onions for three minutes. Add the garlic. Cook for just a few moments, then add the soy sauce, and everything but the sesame seeds and water. When it comes to a boil, add those. Meanwhile, cook pasta and chop up veggies to put in it. Once hot for a second time, it’s done. Taste and adjust quantities wildly based on what it tastes like. (Hint: it shouldn’t taste like peanut butter if you did it right. Not too much. It should taste like spicy peanuts.)

Anyway, it turned out to be really watery, but quite good with the whole-wheat pasta. I bought a bag nearly a month ago, and I’m still going through it. This is actually the best sauce I’ve made with it — I like whole wheat pasta, but it’s got a strong flavour, and basic tomato sauces or pestos tend to be dominated by it so that their own flavors are sort of lost. A spicy sauce like this one, though, really manages to make the whole what flavor taste good. Besides, they’re the same color, and the red pepper flakes are fetching with them. (HAH.)