Porras

I'm in a venta (a roadside tavern) near Antequera. I've just had a dish I've never seen or heard of before - it's called 'porras' and I want to share it with you. Take red pepper, tomato, breadcrumbs, garlic, olive oil, and salt. Whizz in a processor until it all forms an orange paste a bit thinner than houmous. Stick it on a plate and throw some tuna, jamon serrano, hard-boiled egg and tomato on top in a tasteful arrangement. Serve, to the delight of your friends and contemporaries.
The real genius of Spain (to be a bit pompous for a moment) is in this sort of cooking. They use simple ingredients to produce food that's not haute cuisine, but is tasty and wholesome. Whenever I've been to a posh restaurant in Spain, I've always thought that I'd sooner be in somewhere where ordinary people go, not just from inverted snobbery (although that plays an important part, of course) but because the food is better as well as a lot cheaper.
It also helped a lot today that the waitress was very nice and even asked what I was doing, which is a first.
One bottle of beer, porras, pork kebab, orange, glass of wine and bread €9. Not bad value for a meal I would have paid £20 for in England.

I felt quite ill this morning, so I had some co-codamol with my cafe con leche. I think this was a bad mistake, as I felt very odd until I stopped here for the meal.
The route from Abdalajis to Antequera is not very interesting, after the initial climb out of the village it joins a road, and then the main road with cars whizzing by like porras in a processor.
A few km after the venta, the road became steeper and narrower, and I was forced into the ditch with the rubbish on several occasions. I am thinking of writing a stiff letter to the Most Excellent Committee for Footpaths of the Junta of Andalucia.
Some speculation: is it possible that I am going through a strange and miraculous change, and will I return stronger, leaner and fitter for life? I think not, but it must be odd for a body used to sitting down for most of the time to realise that this unusual physical effort has to be repeated every day for the forseeable future. Does it decide to shut down inessential services (my brain?) and redirect effort where it's needed? I hope so. I expect, some time in the next week, to have made the transition from worker to walker. If that happens, perhaps the University will have to redeploy me to a job which will make best use of my new talents.
The hotel receptionist expressed interest in my walk today. She said English people are very strong. She must have been talking about someone else.
The picture is of Antequera from the castle. It was taken on my mobile phone, transferred to the Palm by bluetooth, copied to the SD card from my camera which I inserted into the Palm's card socket in order to turn it into a standard jpeg file. I've only just thought of doing this.

Expect some comments about bird life tomorrow.
Distance today:Valle de Abdalajis-Antequera 19.2km, exactly as estimated.
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A wayfarer in Spain