As I said in my previous post, the Spaniards have a much more relaxed approach to life. Admittedly, this has much to do with the climate, I know that I am always struck by a sense of inertia during Spains hotter months, it's a lovely languid feeling, somewhere between having a hot bath and feeling slightly tipsy.
I spoke at great length to a neighbour and good friend about this surreal feeling, Hermes is Italian and understands instinctively about feeling 'tranquillo' but as he explained, it is part climate, part nature. Italians, like Spaniards, treat life like an opera, they love to relax around family and friends, conversation, good food and drink are the most important things in their lives. Hermes went on to say that Italians have even coined a phrase: 'Non far nulla' loosely translated this means that they enjoy the act of doing nothing. We British don't have these instincts and feel we always have to be on the move, doing something.
I've always been surprised, when returning to favourite restaurants or bars, year on year, to find the ageing waiters still working there. Bert returned recently to a restaurant we frequented in Fenals when he was a child, and sure enough the staff were mostly the same. Yet it is not uncommon for Spanish men and women to work in what we might consider menial jobs. More important to them is family and social time, highly paid, stressful jobs that might encroach on their leisure time is of no interest and as I have said before, Spanish people are far less materialistic, they value time over possessions.
In spite of struggling with financial disaster, the Spanish have the highest healthy life expectancy in Europe - and beat Australia, Canada, Norway and not surprisingly the USA. Much of this is attributed to their Mediterranean diet, rich in fruit, fish and olive oil. But one wonders if their joie de vivre and lack of stress hugely contributes to their low death rate from heart disease and general healthy life expectancy.
Spain has an excellent health care system, ranked 7th in 2000 by The World Health Organisation. (The UK ranked 18th.) This is due to not only the structures and skills of the doctors, it is also down to the state of health of the people who arrive in the clinics. Also, families care for ailing relatives in hospital by taking in daily home cooked meals to aid their recovery, yet again the Spanish understand the importance of good, nutritious food. Comparatively, we serve our patients with tired tuna sandwiches encased in a plastic container or worse, a ready meal that looks like an unidentifiable plate of grey mush, hardly conducive to recovery. Sadly, despite doctors recognising the links between health and diet, because we Brits don't cook hearty nutritious meals as regularly as the Spaniards, we tend to buy our ailing relatives junk from the hospital shop.
My next door neighbour Tony, who has lived in Spain for several years, summed up the difference in mentality between the Spanish and we Brits, he said: 'Here in Spain you can buy some fresh sardines and a good bottle of wine for a few euros, you can sit on your terrace in the sun and watch the world go buy, so long as you are satiated you have no worries, that the next man has grander furniture or a bigger car is irrelevant, as he says: 'Don't postpone the hour of living.'
Tony and Sue and Hermes and his partner Hilde are always excellent hosts when we are in Spain, on our recent visit we enjoyed delicious meals but more importantly, excellent company with both couples.
Tony scored the pork belly using a sharp knife
He layed the pork skin side up on a layer of vegetables in a roasting tin
Transfer to heated oven 180c/gas 4 for 2 hours
Turn oven up 200c/gas 6 for a further 35 minutes to crisp the crackling
Remove crackling and serve in a separate bowl
I shall be posting the recipe for Hilde's fish dish next week, it really was superb and I gather easy to make, I'm certainly going to give it a go!
'No man with a complex life can be happy! The simple secret of happiness is a simple life.'
- Mehmet Murat Ildan
Love Donna xxxxxxxxx
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