A Museum Just for Ham? Must be MADRID!: Week 4 (1/26/09 - 2/1/09)

Yes, I know, I'm a horrible person and my recent lack of posts has put a thick, foggy raincloud over your life. But fear not, I'm back with a vengeance. After reading some other food blogs, I feel inspired to share with you what I have been experiencing. So here goes, from the top, the past 4 weeks. Starting with... Week 4.

En casa: Tomatoes. I've been keeping an outline of everything I've been eating each week so I don't forget what to write, and for this week en casa, all I have written is "tomatoes". This week I had a quartered tomato with basically every meal. No condiments, no oil and balsamic on the table, just the tomato. Its official: la comida en la casa is sub par. But at least I'm getting vegetables. One friend recently expressed her frustration with her señora's belief in boiled potato as a vegetable. Served as a side dish with noodles and rice. Carb city. Yick.

En Barcelona: Els "Pollos" de Llull


My friends and I came across this AMAZING restaurant right near our university that specializes in rotisserie chicken. Although this sounds incredibly boring, the recent lack of a typical American meal of protein, starch, and veggie has left us craving conventionality. The giant menu board on the wall written in Catalán wasn't much help to us, so the waiter kindly explained everything in more understandable Castillian. We started off with a pitcher of sangria de cava, as shown above. As you can see, its not the typical blood red color you would expect from a sangria made with a sweet Spanish rioja. Instead, it is made with cava, or Spanish champagne, and what tasted like peach juice. Delish.


Our main meal consisted of 1/2 of chicken (for each of us), a salad, and an order of croquettas. The chicken was maybe the best chicken I've ever had. And trust me, I'm not the kind to order chicken at a restaurant, because I usually find it to be the blandest thing on the menu. But this, THIS, was chicken. The croquettas also seemed to have some magic potion in them. Rather then the normal, chewy, overly mushy croquettas I find at home, these had the consistency of fluffy mashed potatoes and tasted like really rich chicken broth. Overall, Els "Pollos" de Llull is a great, cheap restaurant if you're craving some American tastes in your Spanish-overloaded palette.

En MADRID:

This weekend (4 weeks ago) I went to Madrid!!! Sadly, we were only there for a very short time, and our only full day was filled with LARGE CHUNKS OF SNOW and just general gray misery. It doesn't snow in Madrid. But I guess I had forgotten to empty the Ithaca from my baggage beforehand. Oops.

I did however get the chance to experience some Madrid staples. Featured above: MUSEO DEL JAMON (Museum of Ham). Although kind of touristy, (well obviously, they have 8 million hams hanging on the wall, who wouldn't want to snap a photo?) Museo del Jamon delivered what it promised: a plethora of pork products. My friend Ally ventured lightly into ham territory with her ham croquettas, as seen here. Al otro lado (on the other hand), I ventured into.... cheese territory. ARE YOU SHOCKED??? I had a Manchego salad which was basically a normal salad piled atop 7 ginormous slices of Manchego. Not even I could finish a pile of cheese that monumentous.


After spending the last month eating nothing but traditional spanish tortillas and bocadillos, my friends and I decided we were ready for a change. The next night, we wandered around looking for something, ANYTHING, different. We found a random eclectic restaurant that served stirfry, and decided that was different enough to satisfy us. I had mine peanut sauce style, while my Thai friend Patty ordered the spicy and urged the waiter to make it "muy picante, muy picante". Although her dish wasn't nearly picante enough for her liking, the stirfry did satiate our need for variety.

Most cultural food of the week: Churros con chocolate

Although this dish is supposed to be very popular in Spain, I had a hard time finding a legitimate churrería (store that sells churros) in Barcelona due to Barca's Catalan roots. In Madrid, I visited the famous Chocolatería San Ginés, which is open 24 hours a day so the midday tourists and early morning drunk college students can enjoy whenever they feel the urge. As my freshman year roommate KK demonstrates above, you are supposed to dip the light, cripsy pastry into the thick cup of chocolate. We found our churros to be a little bland, so we piled on the powdered sugar, which made all the difference. Since this experience, I've had even better churros con chocolate, but you'll have to wait on the edge of your seat to hear about that. Until then...

Hasta luego!

Museums and Marketplaces: Week 3 (1/19/09 - 1/25/09)

And were back! To my loyal readers (all 5 of you), I sincerely apologize for the delay. I tend to write the most when I am unhappy or don't have anything to do, and obviously this hasn't been the case. My first month in Barcelona was one of the best months of my life, and not just because of the food. Living as a Spaniard, la vida es buena. Your days revolve around sangria, siestas, dancing, and just all around merriment. Well, that probably isn't what the typical hard working Spaniard would say, but thats a fairly accurate portrait of my existence in this beautiful country. Now lets get this party started...

Week 3 EN MI CASA: Casa food continues to tumble down from the lofty peak where I had initially placed it. In week 3, I received ALOT of this vegetable featured in the photo. I'm really not sure what it is, but I think they boil it and add ALOT of salt. They throw some chorizo or bacon in for flavor, and serve it hot. Also, horrible/fascinating discovery: all of the bacon that is found in my food comes from a giant pig leg that is situated on a stand on the kitchen counter. Whenever anyone wants a piece, they just chop it off. I didn't notice it at first because it was covered by a cloth, but now that I've seen it, I can't seem to forget it's there. *shudder*

Week 3 EN BARCELONA: Barcelona is home to one of the greatest outdoor markets, La Boquería, situated right off of La Rambla, the main pedestrian pathway in Barcelona. Here, you can find all sorts of goodies like brightly colored candies, fresh fruit drinks, meats from basically every animal (including hanging dead rabbits. thanks, but no thanks), emu/quail/chicken eggs and more.

My friend and I decided to go to the source for the freshest food in town, so we found a restaurant/bar situated directly inside the market, in between a fruit stand and a bakery. I ordered the salmon and was delighted to find that for once, I could actually see the whole preparation process from start to finish. The chef pulled a piece of salmon out of a refrigerated shelf. Clearly this salmon had just come from the fish vendor a few stands down. The salmon was cooked simply with some olive oil and fine herbs on the griddle, and then plated with a drizzle of oil, more herbs, and lots of tiny little clams. It was served to me as soon as it came off the griddle, and it was honestly THE BEST SALMON I'VE EVER HAD, EVER. It melted in my mouth. My friend, who ordered some squid that wasn't nearly as good, was a little jealous. Don't worry, I let her try a piece. A small one. (Sorry Patty.)

A few days later, I ventured to the Chocolate Museum with a few friends to find out about Spanish chocolate traditions. This museum turned out to be more of an homage to chocolate sculptures, but at least our ticket was made of dark chocolate (as shown in opening photo), so we got to taste with our mouths and our eyes. We asked the chocolate connoisseur/salesman in the museum's gift shop to sell us the weirdest chocolate available, and he didn't disappoint. He also has probably been reading this blog, because he gave us CHEESE CHOCOLATE. Yes, cheese chocolate. More specifically, "white chocolate with honey and cheese" (see below).

Shockingly, I wasn't a huge fan of this. It tasted basically like white chocolate with little chewy bits of gummy bears (the honey part), but knowing that there was cheese powder in it made me a little nauseous. I know, I know, I love cheese, but some things just aren't meant to be. But maybe I've found a new career path?

Most cultural food of the week: "Soft Self Portrait with Grilled Bacon" by Salvador Dali

Say what????

So, this isn't really a food. I visited the Salvador Dali Museum in Figueres, a town about 2 hours away from Barcelona by train. Apparently, Dali had a thing for bacon, because he decided it was important enough to include in the artistic interpretation of himself. If I was an artist, my self portrait would probably include goat cheese. or manchego. or cheddar. or... well, you get it.

Hasta luego! (Catch you later.)