What happens when you have recovered from near death? You go buy some animal fat.
At least it seems that's what I do.
I had a terrible fever for more than 24 hours. Haven't been that sick since I was in China. I'm not totally better, but thought I'd better go check on Sachiko's plants, as she is away in India, and I wanted to get a little sun. I thought I might fall over at one point, and land on some semi-dried dog poo, which seemed to be abundant in that particular area.
I got through it alright and on the way back, took a very short detour to get bread and cheese, both of which I have been trying not to buy. For both money and health.
The Abaceria de San Lorenzo is worth going out of the way for, even if you might faint. Well, okay, I'm not that hard core. I was fine by then, and it was only 1 block out of the way - a short block. I had to wait a while (which I am totally accustomed to by now) while someone noticed I was there (Ramon was talking to some friends/guests with his back to me at first). Then the girl couldn't figure out which was the Payoyo cheese, and had to get Ramon to help her out, which took them both a bit. Finally she opened a new package and cut me a lardy wedge (it's the one covered in lard for preservation or just mere extravagance or whatever would make someone cover cheese in lard). There was a huge bucket of manteca or pringá, and I saw Ramon dish out a heap for a lady. He said something about Iberica, and it sounded really pretty special, and obviously homemade. I asked for a spoon of it as well. He had told the woman something about it being just his own thing he was giving away, I think. Anyways, I don't believe the girl charged me for it, or if she did, it was 50 cents. Manteca is lard and pringa is lard with a bit of meat. But from what I can tell, there is not much difference or there is quite a crossover. Manteca goes on toast for breakfast and pringa is put on sandwiches for lunch. This stuff looked really delish - it has a nice brown colour, whereas it normally is all orange. Iberica is a denominacion de origen for pigs, like the French have for their wine. Basically it means the pig is better quality. I don't know but I believe it may mean less chemicals. Oh yeah, he said bellotas, tambien. Bellotas are acorns, and the pigs fed on these are way more special. So this is some really fine lard.
I put some beans on to boil and poured olive oil over my bread, then added manteca to one side and lardy cheese to the other.