But this cheese has undergone the rennet process – the standard which makes most cheese taste like cheese, of coagulating the curds - the solid parts of milk. In most cases, this process uses enzymes from the stomach of young mammals. In the case of Queso de la Serena, the thistle plant acts as the coagulant.

The Serena cheese is exquisite; sharp, almost spicy, and melted on bread like a brie. Paired with the lomo and beer, it is a perfect meal.

We listen to a family sitting next to us in this dim tavern, celebrating Columbus. This Spanish - the original Spanish, is so different from the Spanish we know in Los Angeles, that it sounds...well, foreign.

I tell Jane about our token Mexican friend, Alvin, and his stories about Spain. He once showed me a painting on his wall; that of a Moorish pirate ship attacking a Spanish merchant ship, probably in the Strait of Gibraltar between Tarifa and Tangier. He said, "to me this represents my Mexican-ness, because our Spanish blood is always in conflict with our native blood.' Of the Spaniards he told me a story. "They have a lisp." He said the Spaniards didn't always have such a lisp, but they had a King who was both retarded and homosexual. Out of respect for their King, who had a retarded lisp, all the Spanish Castillians bowed and changed their very tone, in honor of the King.

The story, he says, is true. His wife's professor told her.

The Spanish, returning the favor, champ their teeth and spit out their words when they play Mexican.