vegetarian food - Juan de la Cruz - Ryan Air

[Rosina Lila]

Hi Sofia,
I've been a vegetarian for more than twenty years.
During my three Camino pilgrimages (One from SJPP, one from O Cebreiro and
one from Tricastela) I never had any difficulty finding meatless and fishless
food; nor have I had any trouble in all my travels to other countries.
-This subject was discussed here once before so you can probably find much
information in the list's archives-.
At any rate, the bread, the cheese, the salads and the eggs (I do eat eggs)
in Northern Spain are simply delicious, particularly to vegetarian  palates
grown used to distinguish the differences between breads, vegetables, eggs,
etc.
In the Camino, when eating at restaurants, or "bars"  I merely mentioned that
I was a vegetarian and, after the usual well-natured ribbing, I was always
served something without meat or fish and vegetable dishes deliciously
seasoned and memorable soups.
At a drugstore in Pamplona, a pharmacists urged me to be sure to eat a banana
a day (I don't know why, but I surmised that the pharmacist would be
knowledgeable about pilgrims' needs); now and then I would have difficulty
finding bananas and those I found were not terribly palatable. That was my
only difficulty.
After a breakfast of orange juice, buttered and grill-pressed Spanish bread
and coffee I'd walk five or six hours  and stop for lunch and a rest. If the
restaurant or bar in wherever I stopped didn't have a meatless or fishless
soup or dish of the day, I would get a green salad, (deliciously fresh),
scrambled eggs, bread, cheese and coffee.  I would take the banana, and an
orange or two, to eat in my afternoon walk, that would be for another four or
five hours; where I'd stop for the night I'd have dinner which most of the
time consisted of a pasta dish or another; salad; stewed, roosted, grilled or
sauteed vegetables, deliciously seasoned; fruit, and wine.
Amazingly, I gained weight (seven pounds) in the  walk all the way from SJPP
to Santiago and, according to my doctor, I came back in an amazingly good
health.
If you like to munch, you can get in the grocery stores all sorts of cookies
and crackers and dry fruits. In the cheese shops, and the grocery stores as
well, you can  find little bottles of drinkable yogurt loaded with vitamins;
they are easy to carry or you can drink them right in the store.
I did meet many vegetarians in the Camino from many countries, including a
few from Spain itself who knew the names of vegetarian dishes in the
different regions and of edible and tasteful vegetables new to me. For a
snack, they would often slice a raw potato thinly, salt the slices and eat
them, much as you would prepare and eat a Jicama in Mexico. We can't find
jicamas in New York easily, so I've continued to eat raw potatoes in that
manner.
Well, if you'd like more detailed information in this respect, please  send
me an e-mail directly.
Regards,
Rosina