Surprise for Foodies

The tourist guides are very damn right! Segovia is a town that popped out a beautiful painting. After a morning of soaking in Segovia on foot, I was starving. Upon asking around, I was advised to try cochinillo at José Maria.

Left from Calle de los Barres and straight on the street leading to the Aqueduct, I followed the fruit seller’s directions to José Maria. My trip to this restaurant was amusing: appearances of pigs hanging out of restaurant windows seemed to be the norm in this town!

While the locals saw a delicious meal in these occasional popups of dead baby pigs, the frightened vegetarian inside me saw a warning sign. Being a traveller as a vegetarian can be interesting: what others would eat in a blink of an eye usually takes vegetarians a lot of courage. To eat baby pigs or to not eat baby pigs was the question! The price tag on this poor animal made it easier to make a decision and off I was.

In my search for food, I came across a restaurant with a semi-wooden door. The entrance revealed only a tabletop full of shishas and glass bottles filled with plants. A tall large-bellied man stood behind the tabletop smoking three shishas simultaneously, blowing shapely rings of scented smoke towards me. He welcomed me to the insides of the restaurant that was empty, rather small, and dimly lit. After seating me, he asked me in surprisingly fluent English, “Would you like your menu in English?”

This was new! My interest spiked and I asked him how he spoke perfect English, only to discover that his fluency trumped in six different languages. He moved to Segovia from the Arab world and settled down in Spain for financial security.

After small talk, I confessed to him that Europe has been burdening my pockets and requested him for inexpensive vegetarian options. He promised to surprise me and came back with shawarma de verduras. As I ate, my newly found polyglot friend and his wife played an Arabic wooden board game to give me company. Together, we spent a memorable afternoon!

Coming to this restaurant was perhaps the best decision I could have taken that afternoon. I discovered another country hidden in a tiny corner above Segovia’s tourism office. There is a man of many linguistic talents who serves delicious Arabic food with sprinkles of passion and dedication. To this day, I look forward to returning to Segovia to meet this man and eat his food- but perhaps this time I’ll order some shisha too and spend more time talking to him!