Restaurante Los Bocoyes is a slightly rustic and cozy place with wood ceilings, brick walls, and terra cotta floors. It was 10:00 PM and the place had only one occupied table. A British couple who were also staying at the hotel. They were just finishing their dessert and said they had been there since 7:00 PM. After they left, we had the restaurant to ourselves for our entire meal.

The waiter was a friendly guy who spoke not one word of English.
He was patient with our attempts to communicate, but much was lost in the translation.
Add in our lack of understanding about the local traditions and you have the formula for our comedic evening.
More about that in a minute, but first here is my picture of the traditional bread of Toro. I intended to find out the story behind its shape, but forgot to ask. So, if anyone out there knows, please post.

As we decided what to order, we saw broad beans on the menu and jumped at the chance to have a vegetable that WASN’T potatoes or yucky, brine soaked white asparagus. (WHAT is it with this Spanish love affair with white asparagus, anyway?). I ordered a bowl of soup as a starter. Dan didn’t.
We tried to explain that we both wanted the beans and were ordering them as a side dish to our entrees.
Obviously we were not successful. He brought us my consumme and two HUGE plates of beans as the first course. Realizing the error of our ways, I ate my soup and resigned myself to enjoying the beans before my entree arrived.

But Dan really wanted to have his beans WITH his main course. So, he just picked at them while we waited for its arrival.
The waiter kept strolling past our table, but he didn’t approach. 15 minutes passed. Then 30 minutes. Finally, he came and cleared my plates, and we thought — Yeah, now we get our main course. But, no…he just kept peeking at Dan with confusion on his face.
It finally dawned on me that he was waiting for Dan to finish his beans before he brought our entrees. Dan comment that the poor waiter probably wondered how the two crazy Americans could possibly take so long to eat a simple plate of beans.
Our new inside joke for hurrying each other up from then on was: “JUST EAT YOUR BEANS, ALREADY!”
As soon as Dan gobbled down the beans, two beautiful plates arrived in a flash! Dan had a steak and I had a lovely fish dish. It tasted like monk fish, but I forgot to make a note of the name. As you can see from the picture…more of that stupid asparagus.


We were finishing our dessert and coffee as the clock struck midnight, and magically three different groups arrived and the restaurant came to life.