While in Spain earlier this month, I realized that while they do love their pig they primarily focus on cured hams, such as jamon iberico or jamon serrano. However, in the Mercado de San Miguel in Madrid Mrs. Monk and I stumbled upon a stand called “BBBQ Market” – with the three B’s standing for for butifarras (a type of Catalan sausage), bellotas (the finest type of jamon iberico), and barbacoa (the term from which “barbecue” originates, standing for cooking meat over an open flame). I can’t exactly recall which three sausages or sauces we picked, although I assure you we stayed away from the green mustard sauce (even in Spain, no mustard sauce!). However, I can tell you that the sausages were split and grilled alongside a bun (except for a particularly juicy type that wasn’t cut open while grilling) and we enjoyed them with some sangria in the market. Not the typical type of barbecue we blog about here, but just thought I’d share what Spaniards consider “barbecue” and how we escaped the heat for a short bit in Madrid.

–Monk