Tuesday, October 6, 2009

The Foods of Spain

I don't have anything particularly significant to say today, so I think I will take this time to comment on Spanish cuisine...

  1. Olive oil: a very essential element in the Spanish diet; it's in nearly all the dishes, except for perhaps the bread...but they take care of that by dipping the bread in the oil that goozes out of their salads or fried eggs or fried potatoes or fried chicken or fried fish...or that they pour over their tomatoes. Back in the day, I used to think olive oil was like cool and special...I have now consumed more olive oil in a few short weeks than I probably had in the 21 years leading up to this point...it's quite a different perspective...
  2. Seafood: also a big part of the diet here; much easier to get quality seafood when you're by the Atlantic AND the Mediterranean than when you're stuck in the middle of cornfields. I am enjoying this treat, even though it is usually saturated with olive oil and sometimes fried. However, tentacles are a little bit awkward to eat...I've been able to manage it...my roommate has a much harder time...Squid is pretty delicious and has a good texture, so I just flip the tentacle-y pieces over and pretend they aren't there; my roommate has to do a lot to keep herself from getting sick every time she spots tentacles floating in her soup; eating them is considerably beyond what she can stomach...oh well...what can you do? Also, I have eaten more things that come in the shells that they once lived in during these weeks than I have ever before; it's an awkward experience, especially when you're supposed to slurp them out of their shells...it's just kind of weird...and shrimp, contrary to what I've ever seen in the grocery store or in a restaurant, have heads with eyes and lots of little legs...I knew that they sometimes had tails, but removing those was about the most work I'd ever had to do to eat shrimp before...it's quite different here...BUT it's all high-quality stuff, so I'll manage through the awkward messiness.
  3. Bread: essential. In fact, that is what our breakfast consists of...Every single day...I thought I would enjoy that...it turns out that I really miss my cereal and my oatmeal and my nice little yogurt cups...and whole grain bread...I think if that could be changed, if we could get whole-grain bread, perhaps the monotony could be a bit more bearable, but it's not really my place to say anything...Besides breakfast, bread is also served with lunch and dinner, but I try to avoid eating too much of it, since simple starches are kind of bad for you in large quantities...my señora has been worried about me since I don't eat bread, so she has gotten trickier and found crunchy little bread-like things that I simply can't resist...not fair...
  4. The Spain equivalent of macaroni and cheese: fried egg and french fries...evidently this is like the little-kid favorite, comfort-food type thing here....A plate full of fried potatoes (olive oil dripping out from underneath them) topped with a fried egg (also dripping olive oil)...my señora's preference is a runny yoke so that she can sop it up with bread (and getting some olive oil in there too), but that just doesn't seem safe to me...which reminds me...
  5. Eggs: eggs here do not come in the refrigerated section of supermercados. Oh no. They sit on a shelf, next to the boxes of milk. And, they are HUGE. Like, extra large eggs in the US? Oh no--like turkey eggs or something...they are absolutely massive...and not refrigerated...so between those two things, I'm just rather confused about the eggs here...and why they don't cook the yokes if the gargantuan eggs have never even been refrigerated!?!?
  6. Legumes: a huge staple in all Mediterranean countries, Spain included. This is bad for me, since I am allergic to legumes. Thank goodness that Salud is like the most amazing señora ever and able to cook me things that don't contain legumes, sometimes even cooking me a separate meal if she's made a classic legume dish for herself and Karla...She really is like the best señora for sure...
So, class time is approaching...
Until tomorrow...
¡Que Dios les bendiga!

2 comments:

  1. :) sounds like you're getting spoiled! Enjoy the fresh seafood while you can! I've heard that the sushi restaurant in galena has good seafood, maybe we'll have to go there sometime after you're back.

    I just got on my computer and discovered this nice comment I wrote yesterday never got posted. Lets try again...

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  2. 1. Olive Oil = yum.
    2. Yuckyuckyuck. I can't handle the eyes or the tentacles either.
    3. Bread... Mmm. Those little crunchy things are called picos and they are the most useful food I have ever eaten. So helpful for eating salads.
    4. I was unaware of the equivalent to mac and cheese... sounds good.
    5. We refrigerate our eggs, but maybe they are so fresh that you don't need to? No idea but it weirds me out a little too.
    6. I like legumes lots. I feel sorry for you that you can't eat them. I recently learned that the stews they make with legumes are called potajes.

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