A Birthday Celebration

I just had to post some of these pictures.  It was too much fun not to share with you guys!

Last night we went to a seafood restaurant in Madrid (El Timon del Terraza) with some friends here in Illescas.  It was her birthday and we were honored to be invited to celebrate with her (it is a big deal to be included in such personal celebrations).  They chose the restaurant, a quaint little marisqueria (shell fish restaurant) that was owned by friends of theirs.  We left our house at 9:15 PM, drove into Madrid (about 30 minutes), and were the only people in the restaurant for the first hour.  Later another family came in.  They say there is no room to sit on the weekends.

Maria (the birthday girl) and Enrique ordered for us.  We ate family style.  Two big plates in the center of the table to share!

Alex didn't think he liked shell fish, so they ordered him a steak.
It was at least a pound!  It tasted great!

Two plates of all kinds of mariscos.  Some I had never
tasted before.  And halfway through the meal,
the waiter took the platters and our plates back to the
kitchen.  They reheated the seafood (cold mariscos are not
good) and brought us clean plates since the first ones
were covered with shells.

It was a party just to eat the food.  We laughed as
they taught us not only how to eat, but how to
enjoy eating!

Maria was excited that Hannah would be home to help
celebrate her birthday.  She has never met Hannah,
but they became friends quite quickly.

I don't know the name of these little things, kind of
a clam, but not quite.

Razorback Clams - different texture for sure!

Alex finally decided to give it a try.  Maria had a tremendous
amount of patience (and fun) in teaching him how
to find the meat.

And of course they insisted on sucking
the juice out of the heads.  Alex liked this, not sure
if it was because it was fun or because he liked
the taste.

I wasn't so much into the head sucking activity -
they coerced me until I gave it a try, but
you should see my face after trying it.

Meet Pablo the marisco - yes, Alex and Maria were
having so much fun he named his food.

Homemade desserts with sparklers.  No candles
to blow out here.  Chocolate brown with ice cream
and a thick chocolate glaze, cheesecake, and
a rice and milk cake.

We gave Maria a bowl from Talevera (a pottery town nearby),
but it was much more fun to pretend it was a helmet.