Christmas, New Years, Reyes
Catalunya, Spain, 2012
The Catalan food is a staring attraction of every visit we take home to Spain. The Osso Bucco that Roger & I cooked for New Year’s eve, the mato cheese with honey & walnuts that we have for dessert, the cava, the torro, the jamon, the grilled lamp-chops with aioli. Merce’s bacalo with raisins & red-peppers stewed in a clay pot (though I have to admit that I much prefer the monkfish/rape to bacalo). Bacalo, I can only eat with copious amounts of white wine & salt. Maybe it is because I ate too many fish-sticks as a kid (bacalo = cod).
The food market shopping experience itself is so unique. These markets purvey fresh & flavorful produce, seafood, cheese, & meat, but with none of the fan-fare and fancy prices that come with say, a similar shopping experience at Whole Foods.
Our last Saturday in Spain, Merce & I went to do her Saturday morning shopping at the market where she has shopped for twenty years. From the outside, the market looks quite humble – an enclosed concrete commercial building like you would see in downtown Barcelona. Inside, are multi-generational kiosks that specialize in either produce, meat, cheese or fish. All the important produce that you can possibly need. Of course, the Spanish must have their bread but it is sold separately at the many Forn de Pas around the city. Merce ordered monkfish, and the fish monger pulled the fresh monkfish right off the ice in front of us, scaled it, and cut it down to size. At the deli kiosk, the man had a stack of black truffles – just out there, accessible, not under lock & key. No big deal.
I am mesmerized by these fresh markets because they are common, they're no big deal, and yet they provide some of the freshest, delicious, & inexpensive ingredients that I have ever seen. I think this is in a way a metaphor for much of Spain & potentially some of the Catalan people. It's a country full of beautiful culture & interesting people, but no one brags about it. Definitely the most understated of the Latin-language countries.
I didn’t have much time to write while in Barcelona, so I thought I would hit the high points of our trip home over the holidays. As usual, we split our time between the city of Barcelona & the Pyrenees.
1. For a Christmas present from Josep & Merce, Roger & I spent the night in the haunted medieval castle of Cardona. No ghosts – they are fearful of loud Americans. It was so cozy & COLD! The castle was designed for defense, not modern amenities.
2. We got to spend some good quality time with Blanca, Quico, & the girls. This is the first year that Quico’ is making wine from his own vineyard. We spent a day up at Casaponca and walked down the road to the vineyard to see how it is coming along. Over the past 7 years, as my Spanish as gotten better, I can understand Quico more & more, so it was wonderful to be able to understand him as he explained the technique for maximizing grape produce from the vines. And of course, the girls are growing up so fast. They are tall, smart, & guapa.
3. We spent a few days in the Costa Brava, which is just as beautiful & inspiring as it was 6 years ago. The parts of Costa Brava that we saw this time around were:
- Of course, the tranquil town of Cadaques – a place that you wish you never had to leave. No trip to Costa Brava is complete without a leisurely lunch at one of the restaurants right on the beach. I still remember the rabbit dish that I ate with Roger there in 2004. And the same restaurant is there – hasn’t changed a bit.
- The Parque Nacional de Cap de Creus – it’s a gorgeous rocky outpost very near to Salvador Dali’s home of Port Liguat. I am sure it would be good for strolling & relaxing on the beach, but the wind was blowing so damn hard that we could barely keep our coats on.
4. New Years in Villiella which I always look forward to. The last time we were in Villiella, it was Summer and we were up with Josep, Merce, Dad, & Barb. Merce foraged for mushrooms & the rest of us hiked up through the footfills behind the town. This time around it was winter of course, where the days are slower paced, all we do is discuss what to cook, what to listen to on the stereo, or where to hike.
5. And of course Barcelona, with stops off to see:
- the finished interior of La Sagrada Familia
- to finally see the life-sized Blue Paintings at the Joan Miro musuem in Montjuic
- and finally, to spend a couple of hours, people watching in Parc Guell (Roger’s old playground). So not FAIR! All I got was a jungle gym as a childhood playground. He got a masterpiece park designed by Gaudi.
