Familiar food, please

I'm going to jump ahead in time here and tell you a story about Spain.

We had been in Europe almost three weeks by this time and had had a wide variety of gastronomic experiences. In Spain, this was mostly a search for the perfect paella, which is a dish mostly comprised of rice, saffron, and various meats: shellfish, chicken, and/or rabbit. The resort at which we stayed had a cooking demonstration at the beginning of our stay and served it. My mouth waters now as I remember it. It takes at least forty-five minutes to prepare properly and is well worth the wait.

We visited three other restaurants in the area and it just didn't compare to the paella served at the resort. I don't really remember what else we ate during our stay in Spain, except this one other day....

So one day we traveled up to Granada to see La Alhambra. It was a hot day and we were exhausted by the end of it. We decided to go for something familiar for dinner: Burger King! I can read Spanish pretty well and figured it would be a breeze to order. Besides, there are pictures on the menu board!

So we sauntered up to the counter, made our choices - in Spanish - and honestly, were quite pleased with ourselves.

While we waited for our order, I went in search of the condiment stand to find ketchup. No stand to be found anywhere!

Fast food in Spain is not as fast as fast food in the United States, so I sat down and perused my Spanish phrase book, looking for the Spanish word for ketchup. Not in the shopping section. Not in the restaurant section. Not in the miniature dictionary in the back, either.

So we started brainstorming. Daniel and I had read the Ralph Moody series of books and had often recalled the story of the wrangler who was trampled by a horse. A boy had found him and reported back to the ranch, "Completamente aplastada!" Completely squashed.

Okay. Tomato aplastada might do it.

Satisfied that we could communicate our need to the order taker, we went up to the counter to retrieve our food. The clerk slid the tray across the counter and said, "Ketchup?"