Paella - A love story

Mike and I recently celebrated our anniversary. Typically we mark
the occasion with small gifts and dinner out. This year was different. On my constant quest to “shake things up”, I enrolled us in a day-long Spanish cooking class. Mike was game and even seem pleased by the idea.

The class was targeted at English speaking tourists, which felt shameful since it was back tracking my quest for an “authentic” Spanish experience but the TripAdvisor reviews were good enough for me to get over it.

Barnacles

The class started with a tour of the main marketplace in Barcelona and included a review by the chef of the best stalls to buy particular products. Some of the products were familiar, like nuts, spices, fish or fruit. Some were things I had heard about but not seen, like bull penis or goat heads. And some were things that had never

Turkey Eggs

occurred to me to be food, like barnacles or turkey eggs.   I am not sure why it never occurred to me to eat turkey eggs, it just hadn’t. Also, it had never occurred to me that bull meat was different from cattle or cow meat but at the market in Barcelona it gets its own stall. Who knew?

Our class of about 10 people wandered through the market acquiring the food we would use to cook our meal. We bought monkfish carcasses to make broth, razor clams for an appetizer, eggs for crème Catalan (like flan), shrimp and mussels for paella and melon for soup. Each ingredient was rather humble on its own and nothing was terribly special but we were assured it would come together. The class returned to the kitchen and together we made a feast.

Mike and torch

We learned to crisp Serrano ham between baking sheets, the difference between a Spanish and French omelet, how to make fish stock and most importantly for Mike, how to caramelize sugar on top of a dessert using a blow torch.

The pièce de résistance of our cooking was a large paella. We chopped, cleaned, trimmed, stirred and with lots of attention built our lovely, fragrant paella. From rather humble ingredients we created something special. The chef told us that. “yes, he makes paella for every class” but even knowing that it was delicious and felt special because we had made it.

During the whole class we were constantly plied with wine, which contributed to the merriment, but I like to think that the meal was like our marriage: with some attention and work something marvelous is within reach.

Nudists on Rosh Hashana

School started last week. Despite the long days (leaving home before 8am and coming home around 5pm, Lily and Jacob did well and have quickly made friends. Although everything went smoothly, it was busy and intense. To add layers of complexity, Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year holiday, started on Wednesday.

We had aspirations to do a good job marking the New Year. We would have a nice dinner the first night and practice tashlikh the second by throwing bread crumbs into the sea.

The afternoon of erev Rosh Hashana, Mike went to the market and bought a chicken. In the US buying chicken means picking out a package...here it means asking for it to be de-headed and gutted. Mike also found a recipe on-line for honeycake which required converting to Fahrenheit to Celsius and teaspoons to milliliters - it was a little dry but very tasty. Dinner was lovely and we were all quite happy with ourselves  even though we did a bharucha with Fanta-lite (I forgot to get juice) and our candles were votives (forgot Shabbat candles too!).

The second night was more ambitious: our plan was to take a taxi to the beach with a loaf of bread (Spanish baguette for 45 euro-cents) and throw bits into the water to symbolize casting off the sins of the past year. Before casting our sins away we would have a nice dinner beach-side

We had previously had bad experiences eating at the beach. The restaurants are generally tourist focused, and either very expensive or very mediocre. This time we did our research ahead of time and found a place online called Base Nautica (a sailing club) that was known for low-price simple but tasty food.

Usually getting to the beach takes only 15 minutes in a cab. Unfortunately since we left at rush hour it took us more than 45 minutes and over $20 to get there. Ok, so we start a little late. We were dropped off about half a kilometer from the restaurant, so we enjoyed a leisurely evening stroll down the beach. Along the way we found some public exercise equipment (think Spanish Muscle Beach) that the kids had to be pried away from. The beach was beautiful and we marveled at how lucky we were to be there and to be together.

We finally got to Base Nautica  around 7:30. Unfortunately they closed at 7!! This is HIGHLY unusual in Barcelona since most places don't OPEN until 8pm!! Our only choice was to walk around and find another place.

What we found first however was that Club Nautica fronted onto Barcelona’s nude beach. What kind of million-person city has a nude beach? Barcelona. Who goes to such as nude beach? Mostly men. How does one respond upon finding one at a nude beach on Rosh Hashana with one’s family? You walk around and check out the scenery of course. What do you do when you realize that it is probably inappropriate with your children. You leave feeling a little embarrassed for yourself.

We finally found a place for dinner (worse than mediocre) and threw our bread into the water just as it was getting dark. 

This was not our most religious or reverent or observant New Year, but probably one that we will never forget. 

Who Shoppe OMG

By Jacob...

Finally there!!

When we were in London my dad and I decided to go to the Who Shop (a Doctor Who themed store). I am a big fan of Doctor Who and thought it would be an enlightening experience. On the tram from Gatwick Airport I met a kid who said that the Who Shop was great yet he had never been there.

Our route seemed easy… we would take the Hammersmith & City tube line to Upton Park and then walk ten minutes. Unfortunately many of the tube lines were closed for maintenance and we ended up taking four trains instead of one! I was so excited when we finally got to Upton Park I speed walked to and even ran the last few hundred feet to the Who Shop.

In the Tardis

I am sorry to inform you that the Who Shop was a bust. I had watched the 10th and 11th doctors (like James Bonds) but the Who Shop was focused on the first nine. Posters, pens, key chains, and action figures all irrelevant time interests. That huge journey seemed pointless.

There was a Doctor Who museum with a TARDIS for an entrance (pretty cool!!) but even the museum was focused on doctors 1-9. I did like the cool space blasters and awesome guns.  Even though the shop a bust the museum helped made the journey marginally worth it.

After the Who Shop we walked dejectedly to a Tesco Express (English equivalent of 7/11) and got wraps and sodas. That was probably the best part of the morning

It was quite an adventure and I am glad that I got to spend the time with my dad but I would not recommend it to any one who has not seen the first 9 doctors!

Cheers from Jacob