Tarragona

On July 21, Wife Vagabond and I took a trip to Tarragona to hang with my office mate and his wife. Our first stop was the beach, where we wisely combined the consumption of beer with swimming.

Afterwards, we walked around the city a bit, taking in the various Roman ruins. Then we sat down to a nice lunch of arroz tinto, which is rice with squid ink. It was fantastic.

Wine, third time's the charm?

After striking out on Vega Roja's joven and crianza vintages of wine, we decided to pony up a whole 5(!) Euros and try their reserva vintage. Reserva means the wine has been aged at least for at least 3 years with at least 1 year in oak.

This wine did not need any soda-based enhancements -- barely.  I think the lesson in this whole experiment is that Vega Roja is a shitty brand of wine.

Wine tasting, attempt #2

If you recall the post from June 23, we bought some 2-Euro chuck that turned out to have a flavor equal to its price. This time, we decided to take a step up in the world and try a 3-Euro bottle of the same brand of wine. The previous wine was "joven" (young), which means it hadn't undergone any aging before being bottled. Today's wine, however is "crianza", meaning it has been aged at least 2 years with at least 6 months in oak.

The verdict? This wine was slightly less terrible than the previous one, but still required mixing with various sodas. In better-tasting news, I turned some of my Spanish jamón into bacon. I would like to thank Sir Francis Bacon for his invention. So smart.

4th of July

On July 6, Señorita Vagabond and I decided to celebrate America's 237th birthday in true Spanish style --- two days late -- by eating a hot dog for lunch. Fortunately, in the Gracia district there is a store called The Dog is Hot.

Unfortunately, we showed up right at the beginning of their scheduled siesta hours.

Damn you, Spain, and your reasonable treatment of the labor force! Undaunted, we found another option, a store that was sure to be open a mere two days after the 4th of July. That store is called Taste of America, and it is glorious.

Inside, we found exactly what we were looking for: hot dogs in a jar and marshmallow fluff. Crisis averted.