Comida!

Spain is frustrating. Although I can understand the language (un poco) I can’t speak a lick! It is getting better, though. For example, today I was able to communicate quite a bit with my seniora. Her name is Reyes and she now knows that I love cheese and Iberico jamon. I feel that these are great facts to communicate to her.

Besides my love affair with jamon, the food my familia cooks for me is awesome. There are lots of similarities to American food—meat, potatoes, fried things—but the flavors are very different. I will post some pictures of the homemade grub soon, but first I want to be able to explain to my foreign family exactly why I am photographing their food. It’s bad enough I stare at them blankly half the time, I’m sure me doing a photo shoot at the dinner table would make things even stranger.

~ ~ ~

So the big meal today consisted of jamon, chorizo, ensalade, some brie and these little things filled with pork and covered with cheese—way to go my family! After the meal some very important events went down:

1) I found out today that after a bullfight, they take the bull out back, chop him up and to tiny pieces and sell the once mighty beast to restaurants. While that may seem horrible to some, it’s great news for me. As an added plus, Reyes (my host mother, and a darling at that) told me that I could find torro carne at many establishments in the area. Just to top off the situation, I hear the tastiest part are the pelotas, you know, bull balls.

2) Horchata and Fartons. Miguel, my Valencia travel guide introduced me to Spanish style Horchata. He was appalled when I told him the version I had in America was made with rice, almonds and cream. In Spain, it is made with these ground up berry/grain things I must look into, sugar and water. The horchata here was served in a Horchataria with two sugar-coated fartons. I’d have a picture of the fartons, but I ate them before I realized I needed to photograph them. Dip those suckers into the horchata and revel in the flavor.


3) I found a euro store—think dollar store—that had all these great pastries and wine. Finally, I could try some real Spanish delights! I bought home a box of Huesos de Santa because they had a great picture of a bearded man cracking almonds on the box and came home to learn about my new purchase. I also translate the names of these little goods I find in Spain so I can learn about them and it turns out that these are the Bones of the Saint. My family assured me it was only a name and told me that these goodies were popular at Christmas time. Although, it’s no longer Christmas and little Christmas has recently passed, I shall take my first bite into this treat…



excuse me one moment…

…

Tasty, tasty, tasty! They are like the marzipan I sampled in Toledo. Apparently Toledo is famous for it’s Marzipan (see the church they made out of it) and after trying it I was afraid never to sample its delightful flavor again.


4. I ate my first Valencia orange.



Another point for Spain.