Spanish Secrets: Name Dropping
Craig Briggs and his wife Melanie go hunting for chicken Madras in rural Galicia.
When anyone asks, “what do you miss most about England” what immediately springs to mind is Indian cuisine. We were very lucky living in West Yorkshire which is internationally famed for its excellent Indian cuisine, indeed some people say that Indian food in Bradford is better than on the sub-continent itself.
So whenever we visit England we gorge ourselves on Indian meals and stock up for our return journey with spices, cooking sauces and ready meals, and whenever we have family and friends visit us here we ask them to do the same.
A particular favourite of ours is Knorr chicken Madras, so much so that I decided to write to Knorr and ask if they could supply our local supermarket. First step Google, type in Knorr, parent company Unilever, then contact us, the subsequent email went something like this:
Dear Sirs
My wife and I adore your delicious chicken Madras but are unable to buy it as we live in Galicia in Northern Spain. With a growing ex-pat community we feel sure that you would easily sell this delicious product here. If you would like to send a representative out to assess the market we would be more than happy to accommodate them on a bed and breakfast basis, in exchange for your delicious chicken Madras.
Yours sincerely
Craig Briggs
About a week passed before we received a reply informing us that the Carrefour supermarket in Ourense should stock the item, filled with excitement we set off on the 80km round trip.
You can imagine our disappointment when after checking every item on every aisle we discovered that they didn’t stock it. Oh well, on the bright side my dad was due out at the end of the week to look after our dog whilst we visited friends in Lanzarote, and he was under strict instructions that clothes could only occupy space in his case left over after the chicken Madras had been packed.
They arrived safe and sound after only a short delay in Heathrow, and my dad and Claire were fine too.
A few days later we set off for Lanzarote, and what should we find in the Spar supermarket in the Islands capital Arrecife, you guessed it, Knorr chicken Madras. Now most people pack there cases for the return home with bottles of cheap alcohol or cigarettes, not us, we filled our case with chicken Madras, so much so that we had to put some of our clothes in another bag.
Once back home in Galicia and with my dad and Claire safely back home in England, we decided to have our first meal, everything needed is in the packet except the chicken so off we went to supermarket, and like supermarkets the world over having only been away for a week they had decided to change everything round, not only that but they are also stocking some new products.
Need I say more?
I don’t know if contacting Unilever had anything to do with it but staring us straight in the face was Knorr chicken Madras.
So, not only do we have a house full to the rafters with chicken Madras from around the world but we can now buy it in our local supermarket, great!
Arriving home and beginning the preparation we noticed that the instructions required an apple Not to worry the local village shop would have one, so off we went. Just as we were entering a 4x4 pulled up and a couple of men from the village got out. One of them spoke saying it was cold today to which I agreed.
He then went on to say something else. I couldn’t work out whether he was speaking Spanish or the local language of Gallego. Whatever it was I hadn’t a clue so I just said, “I don’t know.”
Melanie had overheard the conversation and told me he had said it was windy. Can’t you just imagine the conversation in the bar that night. “You know that Englishman in the village? I said it was windy today and he said he didn’t know. Is he mad or perhaps he lives in a cave under the house.”
We did though get the apple, and as it was her last one she gave it us, and the chicken Madras was delicious.
