With the clouds wanting to break, but not breaking. With the sun wanting to regain the limelight but not succeeding. With the grey sky where the trunks and branches of these slender palm trees climb. With our footsteps quiet and orphaned of adventures. With our quiet and, at the same time, restless walk. In this medium hour, neither in the morning nor in the afternoon, a little too late to eat, when our stomach still asks us for meat or fish, beer or wine, cream or chocolate. Hungry. Eager to have a full plate to enjoy good food. Among friends.
It is the Palmeral de Elche that has given us shelter. Where we walk, talking about our things. About life, about business opportunities in times of crisis, about the headaches that our children give us and that, sometimes, they also take away from us.
We are in the Municipal Park of El Palmeral. It groups together various orchards that Nicolás Caro, its owner, donated in 1661 to the Virgin of the Assumption, Patron Saint of the city: Colomer, Real, Mare de Déu and Baix. They were declared Public Parks in 1946. Nowadays, Elche City Council is in charge of their conservation and maintenance. These and other orchards form a large urban extension of palm trees, declared a World Heritage Site by Unesco on 30th November 2000. It is the largest palm grove in Europe, a great green oasis in an urban environment.
And under these natural domes, under these green and flexible ogival arches, a restaurant for the enjoyment of the palate and our consciences, the Dátil de Oro restaurant. On this cool day we are offered rice with crust, a typical local dish. We let them advise us. It is served in an earthenware casserole. It is worth mentioning the reason for its name. It is so called because it has a layer of egg on top of the rice. When the rice is half cooked, the casserole is put in the oven and then the beaten egg is poured over the rice and the ingredients such as chicken, rabbit, sausage, etc. In the oven, the egg cooks, swells and toasts. In some places it is cooked in an earthenware casserole with a wood fire and what is called a costrera is added, which is like a metal lid with which the rice is covered when it is almost done and on top of it some embers are placed with the intention of toasting the egg.
A great delicacy that invites us to extend the gathering to digest it and that is what we do while a few drops of water, of that much-needed rain that never comes, compete through the window pane to fall to the ground first. Drops of water, scarce and mischievous, which, just as they leave, carry away the hours of the afternoon while we digest this rice and the things we have told each other.
Written by Pascual Rosser Limiñana.
http://sosegaos.blogspot.com.es/
http://www.hotelhuertodelcura.com/restaurante-els-capellans/
http://www.hotelmilenio.com/restaurante-la-taula/