If you were wondering what meals are like here on the Camino, we will try to explain. We both have lost weight but its not from lack of food.
Breakfast is fresh baguette, jam, coffee, tea, and weak juice...every single damn day. We never have butter or margarine on the table which is surprising since the Spanish fry almost everything on the menu for lunch & dinner. If we have a refrigerator in the community rooms or hotels then we buy yogurt and fresh juice. We buy fresh fruit everyday from the markets.
Lunch: we eat picnic style on the trail. Usually we pack croissants, cheese and fresh fruit. Snacks on the trail are granola bars (difficult to find in the stores), M&Ms, KitKat bars or Oreos if we can find them in the markets. We needed to add the kcal and fast energy to our diet because we were losing to much weight. Now don't you wish you were here with us!
Dinner: Usually by 7:00 PM we are starving. The Spanish eat dinner later than Americans--usually 9-10 pm. But Pilgrim dinners are available after 6pm. When we are on the Camino we usually go out with a group of our roommates pilgrims to a "Pilgrim's Dinner". This is a special menu only for pilgrims offered by the local restaurants and bars. Dinner is served with wine, beer or water. They usually give you a pitcher of wine. You get a large amount of good food for only 9-13€ or $13-$18. It's a 3 course dinner with a choice of 3-5 selections for each course. Starters area choice of a huge salad, or pasta, or soup or bean/lentil dish. The main course offers a beef, pork, chicken and fish dish. Desert offerings are flan, ice cream, rice pudding or fruit.
Some of the hostels have full kitchens and we have seen pilgrims making their dinner to save dinero. Last night we decided to make our own pasta dinner at "home". We walked to the grocery store, met up with Terry (Canada) and invited him to share our dinner. He bought the wine, dessert and sauce. We bought the baguette (warm from the oven), pasta, tomatoes, etc to make a vegetable rigatoni.
As we were cooking we met a nice couple from Australia. We shared fresh vegetables and all ate together in the community room. Aside from the struggle to politely share one 4 burner stove with other pilgrims from China & England, it was really fun! Shopping & cooking only works if you are not exhausted from a long trek that day and the hostel has a big fully equipped kitchen. We think we will take advantage of this shared dinner preparation when the situation is right.
Dinner last night
So let me see if I have this right? Go to a foreign country, trek 10 miles or so daily, cut out the butter in the morning, and I could be svelte even while having M&Ms for lunch?
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