Cheese Plates and Paella: Week 2 (1/12/09 - 1/18/09)

AND WHAT A WEEK IT HAS BEEN! Get excited folks, this week was chock full of all sorts of cultural delicacies. And I've got pictures galore...

Week 2 EN MI CASA: Food at home has started to repeat. And has also become less interesting. I think the novelty factor and the "Oh, we have a guest! Lets impress her!" factor have begun to fade. Still far better than making pasta and ham sandwiches in a dorm room, though. I began the week with an Italian style meat cannelloni (spelling? apologies) and a side of tortilla española. Pretty good, although the pasta part was a little mushy.

The rest of the week was fairly forgettable... strange soups with a random handful of vegetables, unidentifiably filled croquettes, an omelette with nothing in it, and a lot of tomatoes. On the plus side, I've learned I like pre-packaged flan cups (they're good, I swear!) and I think they've noticed too, since I've been slurping the excess syrup out of the cup (classy), so they've been giving me that often. There was one very important dish en la casa this week, but I'm saving that for my "most cultural food of the week" section at the end.

Week 2 EN BARCELONA: So last time, I let you in on my little cheese-seeking secret. This week, I made my dreams a reality by going to CheeseMe!, the restaurant featured in my first photo. My friends and I took full advantage of all the cheesetastic selections. We started with a Spanish cheese plate, which had varieties like Manchego and Cabrales, which is goat cheese. The plate also came with a fruit puree that was a perfect sweet balance to the salty sharpness of the cheese.

Then we all ordered main entrees, except for Ally, my very sadly cheese intolerant friend, who came along for the ride. Patty and I shared an eggplant parmigiana that had sliced eggplant with mozzarella of búfala, brie, and drained tomatoes, and an order of sauteed seasonal artichokes with pesto au gratin, caramelized onions, and a huge disk of goat cheese (pictured below).

The artichokes were UNBELIEVABLE, definitely the best thing I've eaten here so far. The eggplant dish was good, but not quite as cheese-oriented as I would have liked. Meredith ordered cheese croquettes, which I sampled (obviously), and they were fairly standard and not all that interesting. Mickey got the four cheese penne pasta which was a mix of mascarpone, gorgonzola, parmigiano and gruyère. This dish was like pasta alfredo on steroids. Very cheesy steroids. Nicole ordered a beef carpaccio that had shavings of parmigiano reggiano, but this was far too un-cheesy for my tastes. Lastly, Austin and Joe, the MANly men of our crew, ordered a MANchego and Iberian ham dish to share.

All in all, CheeseMe made all of my friends kind of nauseous from the intense cheesification, but I would go back again in a heartbeat. In fact, the next day I purchased half a wheel of goat cheese from a local farmers stand, and finished it in about a day. I think I have a problem. Step one is admitting...

Most cultural food of the week: Paella

I told my señora (on the left) about the sub-par paella experience I had last week at the tourist trap where I lunched. In response, she told the cook (on the right, yes, there is a cook that makes everything here fresh every day) that she needs to make me paella. HOW CULTURAL! So I followed the cook around in the morning with my camera and took pictures of the process. First, she added the shrimp, peppers, oil, and garlic to the pan.

Then she added the peas and the rice. She mentioned that typically, onion is added, but she found that it dries out the rice, so she skips that step.

The whole massive thing simmers for awhile, and is then left covered. Whole shrimp, with the heads and tails and brains and ew, are added to the dish to gain points for presentation. Of course, I looked like an idiot trying to peel open the things, and my host sister had to show me twice. Overall, the dish was authentic and cooked perfectly, not too soupy like the paella you might find in the tourist areas. However, I would have skipped the whole shrimp addition, because pulling shrimp legs out of my mouth was kind of asqueroso (gross).

Thanks for reading and I hope you're enjoying watching me get fat. See you next week!

¡Bienvenidos a mi Blog!: Week 1 (1/5/09 - 1/11/09)

Welcome to ¿Quieres Comer?: Bites in Barcelona! For the next few months, I will be documenting my travels during my semester abroad. More specifically, I'll be bringing you the delicious details on dishes and desserts, cheese and chorizo, tapas and tortilla, and much much more. I have a passion for food; any given day you might find me browsing menus or cookbooks online, searching for satisfying culinary experiences wherever I may be. Although my goals throughout this semester include self discovery and language learning, I am also looking to expand my palette.

I also have an affinity for anything and everything cheese. Manchego, brie, cheddar, goat.... its all heaven in food form. Thus, this blog should really be called ¿Quieres queso? and the answer should be yes. I would like cheese. Always. I'm not really sure why you even bothered to ask.

Living with a Spanish family in Barcelona, I have the best of both worlds. En mi casa, my family cooks up cenas (dinners) that appear to have come out of the encyclopedia under the entry "Traditional Spanish Cooking". In Barcelona, an international city that has been influenced by Spanish, French, and Mediterranean styles, you can find just about anything. So I will be serving up all kinds of interesting food stories, from the bland to the bizarre.

Week 1 EN MI CASA: Thus far I have neglected to take any pictures of the food I have been served in my house, mostly because I think my family might be freaked out if I whipped out a camera and started taking pictures during dinner. But I have had some awesome traditional food! Tortilla española is a Spanish cooked egg and potato mixture, kind of like a quiche without the crust. Albóndigas, meatballs, are served in a tomato based sauce and are flavored with a variety of spices cooked into the meatball mixture. Lentajas are lentils, and they are served in a bowl with chunks of chorizo, Spanish sausage.

And then there was the not so great. Huevos rellenos, blech. Hard boiled eggs are cut in half, have the yolk scooped out of them, get tuna mixed into the yolk, and then put back into the hard boiled egg white. Not very awesome.

Week 1 EN BARCELONA: I went out for tapas with my group and remembered to take some pictures after everything was half-eaten.
Over on the left we have cubes of manchego cheese served with aceitunas negras (black olives) and on the right, calamares (calamari).
We also had tortilla española, 2 types of jamón (ham), bacon wrapped dates, seafood croquettas, and miniature chorizos. All of this was of course accompanied by uber sweet sangria. During another outing with a friend, we ate paella mixta with mariscos (seafood) and pollo, and patatas bravas, which are fried potatoes served with a mayonaise-based spicy sauce. ¡Qué rico!

Most cultural food of the week: Roscón de Reyes
This is a traditional cake served on Los Reyes Magos (Three Kings Day), which is like Christmas, The Sequel, in Spain and was celebrated last week. It was really super sweet and is filled with whipped cream. My family gave me a giant piece and warned me about swallowing the toys that are baked into it. Mmmm... crunchy.


Thats all for now, adios!