C/ Miguel Cid, 31

babel

2009-07-01T03:13:00.000-07:00

en la biblioteca de babel, podemos pasar toda la vida leyendo y sin embargo morir unos cuantos metros del lugar en que nacimos

?

2009-06-13T15:10:00.001-07:00

how many people do you know over the age of 25 that are still actively pursuing their dreams? do you think that most of us just lost ourselves somewhere along the way?

athlete or athletic supporter?

2009-01-13T06:39:00.000-08:00

here, if you go into a bar and ask for water, they ask you ¿fría o natural? cold or natural?

isn't that beautiful?

novedades

2008-12-03T13:15:00.000-08:00

hello hello hello hello!

if you were wondering, those were echoes because i never update and exactly two people read this blog.

onward and upward, then, shall we?

okay, so i know that i have been MIA for many a moon, but i am BACK!! despite the problems involving internet access.

here is a brief bulleted update of what has been happening:

i am finally and officially a MASTER!!!!!!! i turned my thesis in to the graduate school and pushed it out of my life for good. for those of you who are interested, my thesis is about the subversion of the cinematic eye in Sabina Berman'sasdthugfañlskdjfw...yawn... this groening cartoon basically sums up my master's experience...which will, by the way, be repeated at a higher intensity for a longer period of time starting august 2009. my personal favorites are the "meet the bitterest person in the world" and the checklist that says "i like my imagination crushed into dust." http://www.futurama-area.de/LiH/OComics/16.gif

i have finally bought a carrito de vieja (crazy old lady shopping cart) and have therefore become fully integrated into the spanish lifestyle!!!! for me, this is honestly almost as exciting as having finished my thesis. for those of you who don't know, a carrito is a lovely suitcase-like contraption for hauling groceries from the supermarket to your home. normally, you're not supposed to have one of these unless you are female and at least 50 years old (the same rule applies to making tortillas) so i get a lot of looks when i drag my carrito out of the house, so i guess that makes me a rebel. on another note, it is just amazing how much money people put into these things! for example, mine is just a basic model (two wheels, drawstring top, no internal frame) and it looks like this:

but there are carritos that go up to 60 euro and have four wheels, a structured frame, a clip top (buckleable), and INSULATED pockets for your dairy and your frozen food products! i swear, the next thing they'll be doing is selling carritos with flat screen plasma TVs and 8-inch spinners. made out of chrome. but OH, the variety!!

baby, you will always be dominican with an upside-down question mark

2008-11-25T01:49:00.000-08:00

i know i have been missing in action for the last couple of weeks, but that is because the dude that was unknowingly providing us with free internet cut us off (the nerve!) and CHANGED his network name and DEN password protected his junk!

arughf.

anyways, after intense discussion, jason and i have decided that we are not going to get wireless at home because we LOVE the internet. a lot and unnaturally so. instead, we are trying to dedicate that time to activities such as "talking" and "spending time together."

the sun also rises

2008-11-11T00:11:00.000-08:00

exactly once a week, i teach across town at an unearthly eight AM, which means that on tuesday mornings circa 730, i am already on the bus.

when i first got here and the time hadn't changed, getting to school was rather unpleasant, because i would have to walk in the dark. it's a really disagreeable feeling when you are already showered and dressed with a hot breakfast forced down your gullet--not because you're hungry, but just because you need to eat--and you are on your way to work when the damn sun hasn't even gotten out of its bed, much less rolled over and hit the snooze button.

now, though, with the onset of daylight savings time, whenever i get on the bus, the sun is just beginning to creep over the horizon and it's so nice watching everything and everybody slowly come to life.

the blood of the martyrs will water the meadows of FRANCE~!

2008-11-02T12:26:00.000-08:00

hi friends!

for the sake of popularity, i will stop blogging about churros for awhile.

but since everybody knows that deep inside, i am just a hungry, hungry man, here are some photos about the tastes and smells of iberia!

for example.

this is the lasagna de verduras that i inhaled like a caveman yesterday. my fork slid through the alternating layers of vegetables and cheese like a silky dream.

jason's pizza de verduras. it had eggplant, zucchini, red peppers, shroomage, and fresh mozzarella.

in a age of obsessions spawning little baby obessions by the hot hot minute, this is my newest. this delightful bollo de leche (milk bun) is made out of milk and angel sighs and sprinkled with crystallized sugar. there's actually a panadería/confitería (bakery and confection shop) at the end of our street which sells the best bollos de leche: fresh AND cheap AND delicious, what a bargain!

last week, we met rosario's sister, constanza, for tapas at this fancy fusion restaurant near our house. although their portions are somewhat weak, you have to love the place because the dishes are presented with such imagination. this is asparagus and pesto on a bed of eggplant sprinkled with a balsamic vinegar reduction. personally, i've never met an eggplant or asparagus that i didn't like, so this was like BAM BAM BAM!!! an extra-winning combination.

this thing was uber-delicious as well. grilled zucchini topped with rocket, bean sprouts, a mysterious orange sauce, and then the balsamic reduction. amazing.

this is constanza's shish kebab. it is made out of shrimp and jamón (spanish cured ham). she let me eat that tomato on top. hehe

okay, now here's the good part. this picture is from the local supermarket and those legs you see in the picture are WHOLE PIG LEGS!!!! they're called jamón.

jamón is its own food group here in spain. according to my friend vicente, who has a PhD in pig products, there are two different kinds of jamón. there's jamón serrano, which is a normal pink pig, and then there's jamón ibérico, which is a black pig. in general, black pigs are better than pink pigs, but even within the black pigs, there is a hierarchy. the best black pig you can eat is the pata negra de cinco jotas (black hooved something something), which is the king of it all, because those pigs come from huelva, the capital of pig country, and they are fed a delectable diet of acorns, which obviously make them very tasty. apparently this jamón is so awesome that its name has trickled down into the common vernacular so that if you say something is pata negra, it means that it is awesome. fun, huh?

here are some close ups of some hammies waiting to get taken home. if you look close, you can see some of them have black hooves instead of white ones. those are the really delicious ones.

when you buy a jamón, they attendant puts it in a special breathable sock for you to carry home. i think it's so you don't get jamón juice on any of your stuff. because although everyone loves jamón, nobody wants it on their ropa =)

here is a close up of what a jamón would look like in a bar or a restaurant. there are even special accessories that you can buy to facilitate the process! pictured is a carving stand, but i'm told that there are also special jamón carving knives as well.

okay guys, that's it! i hope you liked the culinary journey.

un besito.

when you are engulfed in flames

2008-11-01T08:35:00.000-07:00

hi friends!

today is a saturday AND a holiday and despite all the threatening weather forecasts googled on the world wide web this morning, it is a beautiful day outside. and you know what good weather means.

CHURROS!

before, i said that the patatas (potatoes) kind of churro are shaped like breast cancer awareness ribbons--which they are--but the reason i thought that they were called patatas is because one time at disneyland, i saw this dude selling churros and they were straight, like french fries. but as it happens, ALL the patatas here are shaped in a loop and the reason why they are called patatas is because they are made out of potato flour! good times!

anyways, one of jason's students, manuel, says that while anyone can make a churro, the secret to a truly delicious churro is in the chocolate dip-sauce. manuel also recommended a churro place, saying that it was undoubtedly one of the best, if not the best, churrería in town.

so when jason told me this, i obviously put on my stretchy pants and ran to the bus.

and. it. was. MAGNIFICENT. the chocolate was warm and smooth, not too grainy or sweet, and the churros (at least the first two i ate) were spongy on the inside with a crispity crust, not unlike a delicious deep-fried cloud. i even dipped the churro into the chocolate a couple of times and DEN used the moisture from the chocolate to pick up all the granules of sugar on the churro plate! yeah, i know.

this is jason waiting for his churros y chocolate. he is medium-excited.

this is me getting ready to burn my tongue. twice. i am a 10 on the excited scale.

here is the sexy deep-fried goodness

accompanied by the chocolate. rawr!

i could go on and on about churros, but fortunately there is also the matter of the recycling bins!!!

in sevilla, there are tons of glass-recycling containers placed in strategic locations all around the city; you throw your glass bottles in the little hole, and at night, public service minions magically cart them away to be recycled. the recycling bins are about as tall as me and very fat; maybe big enough to fit 8 or 10 people inside, all standing up and smooshed together like crayons. they are always green.

i don't think that the container is particularly ugly; in fact, i kind of like it. i like the cylindrical shape and how it domes at the top--it reminds me of an elongated cake-protector. or snow globes!! anyhoo, a week ago, all of these glass-recycle containers in the city got painted... in secret! when i went to bed, all the containers were green, but when i woke up, dah-DAH!

it's like having dozens of "snowflakes" placed around the city for your personal viewing pleasure. aren't they beautiful?

dress your family in corduroy and denim

2008-10-24T03:31:00.000-07:00

hi friends!

it is a beautiful friday morning here in sevilla and i have a million things to do, but instead of doing any of those things (like working on my THESIS), jason and i went inject our veins with some deep-fried goodness!

if you do not know the delicious animal that is the churro, it is basically a deep fried doughnut without any sugar on top. according to my wise professor-colleague nacho, there are two different types of churros: patatas (potatoes) and ruedas (wheels). patatas are long and look like corn rows, and ruedas look like little wheels, except that they aren't perfect circles and the ends cross over a little bit (kind of like breast cancer awareness ribbons).

anyways, the churros, although delicious, are not sugary at all, which puts me in a dilemma, because without sugar, it makes feel like i'm just eating oily bread, which is gross. the last time i ate them, i got a cup of hot chocolate to dip them in (which is what the spaniards do), but i found the chocolate to be a little bit too sweet and really heavy. like chocolate-flavored maple syrup.

i've also tried sprinkling the churros with sugar, but the sugar won't stick to them, even if they're hot. the last time we had churros, jason and i discussed this problem and he suggested that next time we bring powdered sugar, which is a fine suggestion, except that powdered sugar doesn't come in small portable packets and who wants to carry a box of powdered sugar in their purse?

anyways, today, we went to a different bar and following the sage advice of yoni, who always tries everything twice, i got another cup of chocolate. and. it. was. DELICIOUS. not too sweet, not too thick, but just right. like goldilocks when she ate baby bear's porridge and fell asleep in his bed.

THE END.