Macarrones, yum yum! (late 1990s/2000)

Pedro and I once took a trip to the Basque Country, we were round about Guernica way when we decided to stop for lunch. We were passing through this wittle town, so we parked and found a place. Just a normal, garden-variety, this'll-do-fine type of place. They had a set menu of the day, and macarrones (which is what the Spanish insist upon calling macaroni, along the same lines as espaguetis), which we both ordered. The woman brought out an absolutely enormous PLATTER of macaroni cooked with tomato sauce and spicy chorizo sausage. Large became our eyes at the sight of all that pasta. What did she think we were, construction workers? It was Saturday, for crying out loud!

Seeing our faces, she hastily assured us that should we desire any more, there was plenty to be had! Just as hastily, we assured her that this ABSOLUTELY ENORMOUS PLATTER would do the TWO of us just fine, but thanking you very much.

Well ...

They were SO DAMN GOOD, we ate the whole thing and probably would've asked for more if a second course hadn't been coming. She obviously knew the talents of her chef. To this day, I wonder what they did to them to make them so good, but good they were, indeed.