Vicki Bray: A belated birthday lunch.

Although my birthday was a few days ago, Sunday in Spain - or at least, our part of Spain - is not a good day to do anything. Firstly the shops are shut and I have my eye on a new pair of boots, and although we were going to have lunch out after I'd (hopefully) bought the boots, we thought we'd do both on the same day.

So we planned on Tuesday, as the forecast for Monday was a little iffy to say the least! 10pm on Sunday night - thunder, lightning, and torrential rain. At the coast, Motril and Salobreña were badly hit by flood water although the rain fell as snow on the Sierra Nevada, 2cms of snow with a snow line down to 2,800 metres. Still 2000 metres to go before the snows reach us then!! We had a muddy walk early on Monday morning, armed with an umbrella but it was surprisingly warm still.

Tuesday morning though bought more rain, heavy to start with while we were on our morning walk but showery most of the morning. We thought we'd give the weather time to settle down again and so went out this morning. Shopping first, then to the shoe shop. Unfortunately the boots I'd admired were not in my size but they obviously didn't want me to leave empty handed and bought out probably every boot in my size that they had! Bear in mind that I was looking for black leather ankle boots, with a medium heel.....how about these? as the lid of the box was opened with a flourish....completely flat, brown suede, with a tassel....Pocahontas springs to mind. How about these then? If I was into motorbikes then maybe...as you can imagine I left without any. Fortunately there are other shops and the weather is still warm enough that I don't need them immediately.

Off for lunch to Mesón Vidaña in Ugijar.

A glass of rioja and a beer while we thought about what to eat plus these tapas

We decided to choose from the main menu rather than this one or the menu del dia. John decided on ensalada mixta while I chose palitos de calabazin a la miel (courgette sticks with honey) A very light and very crispy batter, then drizzled with honey, delicious!

If you're curious, 6 euros

and 4,50 for this enormous salad.

Something we don't buy very often is monkfish or rape in Spanish ( a as in apple) so when it's on a menu we order it, today we had a choice of fried or on the plancha - one of each please! Served as so much is, with chips - at least they were home made not frozen - and pepper and tomato cooked on the plancha too.

One plate had 2 monkfish tails done on the griddle, the other plate the fish was chopped and battered. Each plate, 10 euros. I put the prices because I do get asked about the cost of things here. One more drink each with our main meal, 2 euros a beer and 2.50 a glass of rioja from Ribera. Sadly no room for postre or even coffee, and still no room for a meal this evening but maybe some cheese and crackers later to fill a small gap.

The view across the road from our table - we ate outside on the terrace.