La Morisma... Ainsa... The Reconquest... Street Theatre

The reconquest is dated at 724. According to the legend of San Juan de la Peña, García Jiménez was appointed as the first king of Sobrarbe, and he decided to attack the Muslims in L'Ainsa. García and his 300 warriors took by surprise La Aínsa, taking advantage of the night and telling his warriors that the Divine Providence was on their side, since he had seen a cross on a holy oak. Finally, Ainsa was declared capital of the Kingdom of Sobrarbe, and its coat of arms shows a red cross on a holy oak, later being this symbol also included in the coat of arms of Aragón.

This was the icing on the cake so to speak, after my fabulous birthday treat on Saturday, we watched this street theatre from our balcony on the Sunday afternoon.  This is to commemorate the Reconquest of Ainsa, a street play with the theme of Moors & Christians was staged and called "La Morisma" (the moorish). 

Food and Art Experience at Callizo Restaurant Ainsa

This was my birthday treat weekend and the following words are from their menu. The English is not perfect but tell you what everything else was! What a fantastic meal.

"The team of Callizo give you the welcome, filled with enthusiasm of being ambassadors of our homeland, of its traditions and its larder. Along this menu we will do winks to crossbreeding, (when we approach the cuisines of de world), to new culinary technologies... But, the principal aim of our work, it’s: have a good time, that you feel at home, we want to make you happy...  look at the Montanesa  Rock, the water of the Cinca River, the Perdido Mountain... the burners are ignition, the nature is in the dish, enjoy the flavours and scents from this land, this has not done except to begin....."

 Spherical olives hung on a bonsai olive tree

 Gildas (popular savoury appetizer)

 Cava (Spanish sparkling wine) - orange

 100% organic: char grilled spelt bread with olive oil

 A present for me, really! did they know it was my birthday?

Ah! Silkworm of blue cheese and strawberries

 Ecostean Cebiche from Cinca river with tigers milk and yellow chilli peppers

 A fresh plug of lettuce, loved the scissors

Cream of Aragonese cheeses- Pyrenean herbs-textures of tomato

 Cod salad "Kokotxa" pil-pil with lodized sauce of cockles and Reisling

 Foie gras, roast apple, corn caramel, fresh leaves

 Zucchini flower from Bilboa to L'Ainsa by the "Yebra de Basa - Fiscal"

 Lamb ribs in two versions

 A moulded melted record to hold the following course

 Dust, fog wind and sun (Title of song of an Aragonese songwriter) apple pie- strawberries-yogurt- roast apple - ice cream

Now this one they called "Thousand Surprises for Discovering" and wow and wow again, our table was cleared and then after a white plastic cover was placed on the table, a large chocolate egg was placed in the centre, the chef who had 3 bowls off caramel, apricot and blackcurrant proceeded to paint the table. At this point I was flabbergasted, yip that's the word and I completely forgot to take a picture of the egg. He then poured liquid nitrogen into the egg and before I could blink raised it to shoulder height and dropped it smack in the middle of the art work! a white fog crept over the table and you felt the chill but were left with the most amazing desert ever!

The whole meal which took us 3 hours to savour and devour was an absolute delight and made my birthday one to remember.

Catching a Little Sun in Ainsa

Just under 4 hours drive from here in the Tarn took us to glorious sunshine and a fabulous  romanesque village in Spain called Ainsa, walk up to the  ancient Plaza Mayor where the medival streets will engulf you straight into that historic period of the 16th Century.

A superb restaurant in the square called Callizo and we were really looking forward to eating there again, we had called to reserve a table but had not understood the recorded message telling us it was closed till March :( oh well another great excuse to go back again and perhaps learn some Spainsh!

By sheer chance the following day happened to be the 1st Sunday in Feb and  a fiesta was in preparation,  a full day ahead lay in store from watching all the cattle, goats, dogs,chickens to name a few  being  paraded and judged very seriously as to which was the best of breeds.

Lots of wonderful cakes, cheese, hams and oh the breads, the aromas were abundant and  I  found myself constantly hungry. 
Gorgeous little elf shoes for sale and if you happened to be a biker looking for a break then this looked like a good place to THAKE it.

Truffles galore and at prices that were sending some people into some sort of heaven. I saw them priced from €22 to €83. I have never eaten truffles so no idea what is so exciting about them, do tell !!!

Fires were lit and mountains of sausages were being grilled, the wine started to flow and in my case all down my neck, the Spanish make this drinking from the long necked jugs easy ha well practice makes perfect! All I can say is that I am glad this picture of me attempting to drink is blurry.

Did manage to go for a few good walks just so you know it's not all about drinking! Salud