Here’s a YouTube video of Patrick talking about food on 16 Nov ’11, which was transcribed earlier on this web site. The audio file was too big to add directly, hence the YouTube video. I added pictures from that time frame, but the audio is the part that’s important.
JP
The pictures are a great addition to the video. My first visit to Mallorca in 1973 was way before the Carrefour and the amazing central market. I remember on of my solo visits Patrick turned me loose in the market to gather things for dinner. One of the items was chives and It took me a half hour to find them with my limited Spanish as an anchor on my tongue. Patrick and I shared many meals together before and after Stephanie’s death. She was a great cook and made the best salads I’ve ever had. We dined with Carl Mansker and his wife, Barry Sargent, a crazy redhead lady whose name escapes me, a Czech/Greek lady (Yoyo) and her hasband in a palatial villa overlooking the sea with their friends (English I think – Patrick called him Dickie) and his wife; Suzy Bradbury, Bill Waldren who I remember had a furrow burned in his beard caused by an ever present cigarette dangling from his mouth, Martin Tallent, a polished English poet I liked very much and others I can’t recall. Patrick loved food and, of course, wine. He always advised me to only buy reserve wine since it is supposedly better. I bought a couple bottles of reserve wine, which at the time cost over 24 euros a bottle and they were terrible! Oh well, he was the expert on wine. (If you get a chance purchase a bottle of Meomi, a California wine which I think is great. We had it at the memorial in 2017).
I also well remember the dinner after Stephanie’s funeral service at a restaurant where a lot of friends gathered. Tomas Graves was there and Sue Seward (I liked her a lot) and her then partner Greg. It was a wonderful dinner and we all chipped in to pay the bill. Alison was with me at that time. The owners of the restaurant did not charge us for the many bottles of wine consumed.
There was/is a great Chinese restaurant in Port de Soller which I frequented many times. The owner also had another restaurant up the alley which served Mallorcan food. I reemember Alison having shrimp with fiant cloves of garlic which she consumed with pleasure. Down the road was a restaurant that Patrick liked ( I think it may be gone now) which served an amazing fish soup.
When Kathy Smith, Stephanie and I toured the island in 1973 we wound up late one night at the Lluc Monastery and they served us bread cheese and squid soup which was tasty.
Kathy and I on our last night back in Barcelona before going back to the states were taken by Stephanie to a restaurant which had all its main courses on display which helped me decide because I couldn’t read the menu. I ordered what I thought were pork chops and mushrooms. I turned out to be hog jowel and snails – delicious but what a surprise.
I am so happy you made and are now sharing these conversations you had with your father. They are priceless and it’s great to hear his voice