Havens nearby….

JOVENCITOS CON BOTINES: LUIS G. CHACÓN.HTTP://ELMASLARGOVIAJE.WORDPRESS.COM /@LUISGCHACON

Many remember the years of wine and roses with own nostalgia for times of meager pockets. Are those who have fallen into the blackest melancholy because live in the memory of a time when this country – as most of the West – he was opulent and he thought he would never return the days of effort, sweat and early mornings. And like in the Roaring Twenties, one scrum of new rich lived an apparent endless spree in which he ate, drank, traveled, She loved, He hated and enjoyed as he had never done. party may not reach the magnitude of what I dreamed but was bigger and stronger than the craziest of dreams. Today, the funny thing is see so many people lost in the vague and profound sorrow melancholy and watch as they fell from the heights of euphoria to the depths of anguish.

It would be ridiculous to deny the beauty of a sunset in Polynesia, the exuberance of Rio's Carnival, decadent image of the Venetian or the delicacy of a dinner on a boulevard in Paris looking at the Eiffel Tower illuminated, but no no greater folly to think that heaven exists only within the confines of the world and renounce find just around the corner. Because there everyday pleasures that are at hand if we try hard to let them slip through your fingers.

They are our nearby paradises…

Think of the pleasure of getting up on a Saturday with the clear day and a snack breakfast knowing that we will retaliate in a while. Leaving home and greet the newsagent raising the blind con un good morning and give good night the young sleepy the first does not seem returning from a grueling morning of study. Approaching the market and listen to the cry of the fishmongers browsing among the stalls. Select one and choose carefully: “a piece of monkfish, that there, which is very whitey ". And then, observe and ask: "A few of these prawns, some mussels and a little squid… but medium, ¿eh? ¡What is a rice for two!” And also… “a little shark, of the fund, por favor” to make a juicy broth. Take the package cartridges and clean fish approaching a nearby cafe where he still hear the clink of knives, the murmur of buyers and bustle of loading and unloading the boxes prietas ice and fresh fish. Order a chocolate with churros and now I, quiet breakfast perusing the newspaper. Press the hot bowl between frost and hands feel a chill runs down your body. Scan the street through the window and see how it creates between people that Saturday's environment there is so different from the other days. Y walking back home, no hurry, enjoying the morning light, with purchase, newspaper and a loaf of warm bread under his arm, while the city will coloreándose weekend.

Getting to the kitchen, placed an apron and cut the onion, pepper and tomato very menudito sofreírlo then while in a saucepan cook the fish slowly, wet with a good white wine and flavored with bay leaves and thyme. And while the sauce is locked very slowly and stock bubbles, serve drinks a good fine Montilla, with its cap of ham or cheese… ¡or both! And who want to taste it, across glances and smiles sharing.

Put in clay pot a good dash of oil – ¡made of olives, por supuesto! – and brown some very finely sliced ​​garlic. And when you take color, while we taste the wine to be flooded the air with intense aromas, we pour the rice into the pot until the move, sounds as if sand and mix with the sauce. Después, with great care, ordered fish between rice and we pour the boiling broth. Y ahora… smell, look at, hear and feel, enjoying that lunch that is being made… with time, defaulting, no rush or fuss. Open the oven, feel the blast of heat that we face blushes, casserole sit neatly on the tray and leave it, for slowly browned, reveling in luck.

And as, spread on the table one of those fancy tablecloths sleeping the sleep of the just buried in the bottom of a drawer because we survive through the haste instead of enjoying every minute of life. Prepare the table as if it came to lunch who never will and who is always thinking, yes that attention and deserves this time. Y al fin, uncork a good bottle of fruity white, serving two generous glasses, let the fragrance of wine intoxicate us, smiling with his eyes and share rice, finishing it with a laugh in the same pot. And eye contact and smile who enjoy savoring what trivialities while chatting with you, the rhythm of the music that sounds mellow and smooth in the distance, the rice melts in your mouth, the wine loosens our tongue and… ¿who needs polynesia?