Not the best of anniversaries

The two shot
Originally uploaded by R&W.

Last weekend was our fifth wedding anniversary, which is the 'wooden' one. W came all the way to Spain to celebrate. Naturally, we spent all day working, but went out for a special meal in the evening. I was a bit worried because this is a lot simpler than our usual anniversary and W tends to like something special. In hindsight, we should probably have gone away somewhere even for a day, and now, of course, I wish we did.
Anyway, in the end, we set out at the standard 9pm to a restaurant that MC had kindly booked for us at our request, getting over the language barrier in one fell swoop. We arrived at an unassuming entrance with the restaurants name in wrought iron letters just 2-inches high above the door. If you didn't know that was the restaurant, you'd never find it. The name is El Roca en Friexa, and came recommended.
At first it didn't disappoint. The waiters and waiter-esses were ingratiating, the prices were high, and the decor highly, highly pretentious. Arriving a few minutes late at about 9.20pm, we were only the second people in there, Spain being Spain. Not knowing or understanding the menu, and not being bothered to ask the English speaking waiter-ess (rather than waitress as she was dressed in a man's suit), we chose the short course. This standard nibbles, two starters (or one starter and one tapas if you prefer), a fish course, a meat course, a dessert, and chocolates and nibbles to go with the coffee. All was good, but highly, experimental. The fish course was very rich and buttery, but the meat course, a circular tower of grated veal in a very, very rich wine sauce, was a little difficult to get down. W took one bite and decided it was too much, even suggesting the meat was bitter and may be even off. I wolfed mine down as I'm prone to do. The dessert was rosemary flavoured ice cream--rather strange if you're used to having rosemary on your meat. This was served with a glass of cocoa on dry ice. That was the best part of the meal because the cocoa bubbles and spits until it covers the plate, and then they take it away.
Around 11pm we finished an got our taxi home. The bill was high, but no worries as it was our anniversary. At the same time, unless you really want to pay for the decor and posh service, I wouldn't price the food anywhere near what we were charged. We saw other tables send their orders back as well, undoubtedly because the cooking was just too experimental. It's unthinkable that we'll go back, but even if we did, we wouldn't sit in the same place as it was right near the door and totally freezing.

Anyway, all well and good. A big meal. Off to bed.

3am comes around and I do not feel well.

As I hate throwing up on principle, I resist for an hour or so, but eventually have to give in. 4am, I've had a new, detailed, close-up look at our meat course. Very clever of W not to touch hers. I now wish I hadn't. I managed to sleep for a while before the next bout of vomiting, but basically Sunday, usually our second day of anniversary as our marriage took two days, was spent throwing up, sleeping, and feeling utterly horrible. W was wonderfully supportive and looked after me very well. It wasn't until about 5pm next afternoon that I could even keep down water.
So, all in all, not the best of anniversaries at all. I felt ill after the last time we went to the 7 Portes paella restaurant as well, so you need to be careful in Spain. I may have a weak stomach, but, as Mike Harding said, you have to try to chuck it as far as possible. What really gets me though is how much I paid for the honour of spending a whole day bent over a loo. That is one restaurant we will never ever go back to. Too experimental by far!