Galician delicacy percebes

(Santiago de Compostela, Spain)

Revelation 22
v. 1-3 Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, as clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb…. On each side of the river stood the tree of life, bearing twelve crops of fruit…. No longer will there be any curse….

Revelation 22, the last chapter in the Bible, gives us a final glimpse of the end of time and the eternal kingdom of God. After the tribulations of life, the delights of heaven will be exquisite. We experienced a foretaste of those celestial delectations today. At the completion of our pilgrimage, this Sunday was the icing on the cake, the cherry on the sundae, the gilt on the lily. After the stress and adventure, the physical strain and all the ups and downs of our pilgrimage, we were treated to a magnificent lunch and served as though we were the pope (because they did serve the pope at this classy establishment and they knew how to do it).

John, the organist at San Agostino in Santiago with whom I had connected on the forum, had invited me, sight unseen and note unheard, to play a prelude and postlude at the Sunday services. He was gracious and welcoming and it turned out to be fun. During the mass, the beautiful liturgy played by John’s expert touch and sung by the cantor Stephen allowed me to dip worshipfully into the “river of the water of life…flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb.”

After church let me take you to lunch, John had said, and he walked us through the chilly streets to the Restaurant San Clemente where he knew all the staff and a special table was reserved just for us, with white wine already chilling. We did not quite taste the “twelve crops of fruit” of the tree of life but almost, for we relaxed into a three-hour lunch of seven delicious courses. With the olives and jamon we talked about music and the faith; by the time we finished the salad we had breezed through controversies of the liberal church and the US presidential election; with the scallops and into the T-bone we discussed various caminos.

Then conversation stopped as the special course John ordered appeared. It looked like something alien from a horror movie. Animal? Vegetable? A joke? A Galician delicacy, John assured us. Percebes. They grow on the cliffs where the waves hit the hardest, and are expensive because they are difficult and dangerous to harvest. The English translation is goose barnacles. John showed us how to eat them, and we did, but probably only because by now we were well through the bottle of fine red wine. The percebes tasted like the sea; a hefty dose of Old Bay might have been welcome, or garlic butter. “When I saw your face I didn’t think you’d try them,” said Stephen; I noticed he had not indulged.

Dessert was next, a sweetly filled crepe accompanied by ice cream, all dreamily doused with an intense orange coulis. In our conversation we learned about the Camino chaplaincy ministry to English-speaking pilgrims that John had started some years ago; Stephen works with the ministry in the summer when he’s not in London tending to his charity. Now would we like coffee? Tea? Why not?

But that wasn’t all. The final course was a selection of several orujos, grappa-like distillations of winemaking’s leftovers. Maurice had the coffee-flavored and I had the cream, smoother and sweeter than Bailey’s; I did not refuse when John refilled my glass. By now Maurice had invited the musicians to come visit us and make a guest appearance at Redeemer–yes, that would be fun too!–then go for pizza at J&P. When we finally rose to leave, John led us over to a framed paper on the wall written in bold red and gold Japanese characters. A couple years ago he and Stephen walked a 1200-kilometer camino to 88 temples around the island of Shikoku, and the restaurant wanted to display his certificate of completion.

What fascinating people these Scotsmen were, kind and gracious men, committed Catholic Christians, excellent musicians, talented and hardworking. How generous John was to bring us bedraggled pilgrims to his banqueting table. How blessed we were to meet both John and Stephen, believers from another country with whom we will enjoy the Kingdom forever.

“The Spirit and the bride say, ‘Come!’ And let him who hears say, ‘Come!’ Whoever is thirsty let him come; and whoever wishes, let him take the free gift of the water of life” (Revelation 22:17).

Stephen, Jan and John