vinegar, garlic, and cucumbers. All these are beaten into a pulp,
then diluted, and bread broken into the mixture. The better classes
drink this as we should afternoon tea. _Bacalas_, or dried cod, is one
of the staple dishes of the poor in the north, and the English in Spain
also often eat it. The favourite mode of preparation is to first soak
out the salt, then let the cod simmer, but not boil, adding afterwards
_pimientas dulces_ and chopped onion fried and pounded. The selection of
a cod-fish is the first necessity in preparing this dish, for some of
the cheaper kinds from Norway are so odoriferous as to make them
impossible to most white men.

Spain is a country which is no happy hunting ground for a gourmet. The
restaurants in Barcelona one can rely on, Madrid comes next in honour,
and the rest, to use a sporting term, are "nowhere," the customary
_table-d'hote_ dinner at the restaurants of a small town consisting of
_Caldo_, then the universal stew, then _Arroz a la Valencia_, rice,
chicken, and tomatoes, and finally quince marmalade.

Lisbon is the one city in Portugal where the cooking is worthy of any
serious consideration.

The wines of Spain are the Valdepenas, which is very strong and really
requires eight or ten years in bottle to mature, a Rioja claret, which
is a good wine when four years in bottle, and of course sherry in the
south, of which all the leading brands are obtainable. In the north I
have found Diamante a pleasant wine to drink. The Spanish brandy is, if
a good brand is chosen, excellent.

Barcelona

The busy bustling capital of Catalonia is better off in the matter of
restaurants than any town in Spain, the capital included. First in order
comes Justin's, the longer title of which is the Restaurant de Francia,
in the Plaza Real. It is an old-established house with a good cook, and
excellent wines in its cellars. It is a restaurant that the French would
describe as _non chiffre_, for it does not mark the prices on its card
of the day, though they are not higher than at most of the other
restaurants of Barcelona. There are some very pleasant private rooms at
the restaurant, and a large room for banquets. The cuisine is almost
entirely French. You can get a very fair dinner, wine and all, at
Justin's for about 6s.; but if you are giving a dinner party, and are
prepared to pay 30 pesetas or 18s. a head, Justin's will give you such a
dinner as the menu I give below, wine and all:--