Tortilla evolution

It's not always easy being a gourmet. Especially not when, tired after a hard-day's work, you're home late due to rain and traffic jams. While slowly moving forward in first gear, there's plenty of time to contemplate dinner, but all you can think of is 'pizza' or 'no pizza', the yearning for a quick and tasty take-away immediately suppressed by reality: take-aways are no good. So you just manage a visit to the grocer's, knowing that though cooking is a comforting and relaxing thing to do most of the time, today it's not.
For days like these, you need recipes for easy-to-make, ready-in-no-time comfort food. One of my old-time-classics is Spanish tortilla: a robust omelet with potatoes, onions and cheese (!). I used to make it (shame on me) with precut and precooked potatoes which I added to sauteed onions and an optional garlic on which I poored beaten eggs and ready-grated gouda. Green salad. Easy, quick, comforting.
But I learn, thank heaven. Precut, precooked and ready-grated were replaced by their untampered-with originals. Takes a bit longer, but gives a better result. And I know better still since I read Janneke Vreugdenhil's tortilla tricks, both to my delight (a real tortilla is so much better) and my sorrow (goodbye to ready-in-no-time). Making a good tortilla is a time consuming process with patience as the main ingredient. Apart from that, I learned to use lots of oil (the potatoes are more or less boiled in it) and to leave out the cheese.

This is how you do it:

Tortilla
Softly fry onions for about half an hour in a generous amount of olive oil. Put the onions aside, add some more oil and fry the thinly sliced potatoes (with some salt) softly until just ready (another half hour at least). They should be well covered in oil and not turn brown. Take out and let cool. When cooled, stir them together with the onions into a bowl with beaten eggs. Add grated pepper. Reheat pan (there should be enough olive oil left), add potatoe mixture. Turn tortilla after 5 minutes and fry other side (for this you might need the trics listed by Vreugdenhil).
Can be eaten hot or cold.

This tortilla will taste like a confit of potatoe: soft, sweet, fatty. It may take time, but requires next to no effort - the ideal comfort food at the end of a long day.

Authentic Caffs - introduction

'... unpretentious in the extreme, not to say unequivocally basic (...) Only the boldest, the poorest or the most ignorant would seek shelter and sustenance here. (...) Forget pubs, he reasoned, this was where the country's true and ancient culinary heritage resided; only in these uncompromising estaminets would you find the quintessence of a unique way of English life, fast disappearing.'
(Quoted from Armadillo by William Boyd, p. 70-71)

If there is one thing in Boyd’s novel I'll never forget, it’s these thoughts of Lorimer Black, the novel’s protagonist, on a café across Old Kent Road, and his log called Classic British Caffs, in which he lists sorry places like this. But memory is a queer thing. I've been imitating Lorimer for several years now, but leafing through Armadillo, I realise imitating is hardly the word. In my list of Authentic Caffs I describe in a few short sentences various international ‘caffs’, in alphabetical order by country, town etc. They can be anything from simple diners to Michelin star rated restaurants, from beer gardens to wine growers. If they have one thing in common, it is a certain quality that appeals to me, something that makes them special, call it the X-factor.
I intend to publish these Authentic Caffs (by country or region) on this blog and keep them up to date for you. As this blog has no access to a database or content management system, I’ll link the postings to each other to improve their accessibility.
Some descriptions may seem curious, or difficult to understand if you’ve not visited the place yourself, but they should be telling enough in a way (after all, I only list those that seem commendable). Please be so kind as to correct me if you think I’m wrong.

Can’t wait to see what I mean? All right, the Belgian entries as an example, then.

Antwerp
Snack a-Amir (restaurant)
Last visit: lunch in 2004. Address: Appelmentstr. 18, T 00(3)232329655
Outstanding Lebanese in Jewish quarter featuring feasting Pakistani, Belgians and (partly fasting) Arabs. They serve wine too.

Sippenaeken
Le Barbeau (pub)
Last visit: 2003. Address: Near the church
Coffee and cake, in the evening good stews and a decent choice of Belgian beers. Almost perfect service. Often closed on weekdays.