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Tuesday 29 November 2005
Travel in the Basque country: Wednesday's food quotation
'Is the wine included?' 'Oh, yes.' ...
I went out and told the woman
what a rum punch was and how to make it. In a few minutes a girl brought
a stone pitcher, steaming, into the room. Bill came over from the piano
and we drank the hot punch and listened to the wind.
'There isn't too
much rum in that.'
I went over to the cupboard and brought the rum
bottle and poured a half-tumblerful into the pitcher.
'Direct
action,' said Bill. 'It beats legislation.'
The girl came in and laid
the table for supper ... [she] brought in a big bowl of hot vegetable
soup and the wine. We had fried trout afterward and some sort of a stew
and a big bowl full of wild strawberries. We did not lose money on the
wine, and the girl was shy but nice about bringing it. The old woman
looked in once and counted the empty bottles.
1927 Ernest Hemingway, Fiesta chapter 11