FORUM

I saw my first Chinese holidaymakers here today (apart from a friend who passes through with her Australian husband). Or at least they looked as though they came from that part of the world, and spoke a tonal language that I don’t understand (which narrows it down to a few billion). They were quite tall (but what do I know?), and looked very smart. But above all seemed to be enjoying themselves. Bring them on, and some of their grub too if God is good.

As long as they don’t turn Port-Vendres into a giant container port on the “Belt and Roadâ€￾.

It would be good to have an authentic Chinese restaurant here.

Russell

The Hong Kong restaurant in Empuria is excellent, carrer de Sant Mori, near the sea front. Lunch menu €9 with a drink. Chinese, not Asian like they do in France.

Yes, there are lots of good Chinese restaurants in Spain. The French seem to be prejudiced against them, thinking it is likely to contain cat or dog. I've never seen cat served in China but I did see one street in Canton where every restaurant specialised in dog. I declined!

Russell

My sister used to live in the 15e arrondissement in Paris, just down from the horse abattoir. It had recently shut down, but there were lots of restaurants around who made no secret of their speciality: “Au Pur-Sangâ€￾, Aux Trotteursâ€￾ etc. You don’t have to go to Canton to find grub you might not necessarily want.

There is a stall in the covered market in Girona which sells stuff made from horse and donkey. Including “botiffara dolceâ€￾: very much like mince-meat for mince pies, but with real meat (as of course it used to be in the UK, back in the day). Seriously weird, but delicious, about once a year.