Prague

One nice thing about living in Spain is its proximity to the rest of Europe. For example, the thought of hopping on over to Prague for the weekend is one that never occurred to me when I lived in the western U.S. However, the fact that Prague is just a 2.5-hour flight from Barcelona has turned this dream into a reality. Hence, I spent this past weekend in Prague with a friend of mine (plus her husband, baby, and two of their friends) who lives in Germany. I didn't know much about Prague before going there, except that there are a lot of old buildings and pilsner-style beers. I found plenty of both.

That last beer there is the Czech version of Budweiser, brewed in a town called Budweis. It is 100 years older than the American version of Budweiser, and approximately 100 times better.

In addition to all the old buildings, there were some other interesting places to see, including the famous Dancing House and a few very specific museums.

I agree; I should be an exhibit in the Sex Machines Museum.

All in all it was a good time. Funnily enough, my now-living-in-Germany friend was my neighbor and a high school classmate, and we used to walk to school every morning. Sixteen years later, we were able to recapture some of the old walking days.

Jamón of the week

This week I went with another 5-Euro pack of thinly-sliced jamón.  This one was called Jamón Curado Bodega.  It was also pretty tasty, but about the same as the one last week.  So far there seems to be a distinct correlation between flavor and price.  Is it time to start getting more extravagant?

Caja

Note: this post has a lot of complaining about a situation that probably falls under the category of First World Problems.

Spain can be a funny place.  On the one hand, they have a reputation for taking their time when it comes to service.  My first experience with this was at the Spanish consulate in San Francisco, where some people seemed pretty annoyed at being forced to do their job.  On the other hand, Spain also seems to have an obsession with doing things just by the book -- this must be stamped here, and that must be signed there, and you need an official seal for this, and a notarized photocopy for that.

I ran across this most recently when dealing with Spanish customs concerning a box of my clothes that had been sent from the US.  For some reason all my other boxes went through, but this one was singled out for inspection.  I received a notice in the mail stating that I had to submit a list of the items in the box, as well as their approximate value.  I also had to submit a form with my signature and ID number, plus the signature and ID number of a Spanish citizen.  I tried the first time to submit all this information online.  Two weeks later I got another notice telling me to do the same thing.  So, I had to do it all over again.  This time, however, I was unable to submit the forms online because I had already done it once.  Fortunately, I found a fax machine and sent everything in that way.  Finally, two months after it was sent (and after paying 40 Euros in taxes), my box arrived.

When I was filling out the form detailing the contents of the box, I couldn't remember everything that I had put in there.  I remembered there were some shirts and some jackets and some snow gear, so I put all that down.  When the box finally arrived I opened it and found this inside:

I'm sure the Spanish authorities were surprised when they opened up the box and found that staring them in the face!  Maybe next time they'll think twice about messing with my shit.

Jamón of the week

For the previous jamón of the week, I tried the 2-Euro smorgasbord of sausage.  It wasn't too bad, but I felt I could do better.  So, this week I upgraded to a 5-Euro pack of thinly sliced Pernil Serrano Reserva.  It was definitely tastier than the Lunchables-like snack pack from before.  What will next week bring?

Bilbao

During the week of April 22-26, I was at a conference in Bilbao.  The conference, titled Graphene 2013, was about graphene.  There were a bunch of interesting scientific talks, including a couple talks that were a little more pessimistic and seemed to piss some people off.  That was funny.  But anyway, I'm not here to talk about science, I'm here to talk about food!

But first, some pictures of the local scenery.  My hotel was on this street:

Here's a shot of Bilbao from up high:

Finally, here's a picture of the crazy-looking building where the conference was held:

Bilbao is in the middle of Basque country, where a ridiculous amount regional pride exists (even more than Catalonia, if that is possible).  Lately, they seem to have made a big push towards modernity in science and technology, the result being a lot of newfangled constructions like the one above.  However, they also remain strongly traditional in a lot of ways, especially concerning their language and their food.  Yes, the food.  Let's talk about that.  For me, the high point of the Bilbao culinary experience was the pinchos.  Pinchos are the ultimate Spanish bar food -- they are all laid out on the bar and you just point out which ones you want.  They are called pinchos because they are made from bread and meat and are held together with a wooden stick called a pincho.  Basically, they're just creamy, greasy, fatty goodness on a stick.

It is also customary to have an apple cider, which is poured from a large height.  Five pinchos + one cider + one coffee = 11 Euros.  Not bad!

I also tried a pig's foot at the conference dinner.  That one wasn't so great.

Tarragona

Warning: the purpose of this post is to make all of you extremely jealous!

On April 21 I took the train from Barcelona to Tarragona to spend a day visiting my office mate and his wife.  Tarragona is an old Roman outpost on the Mediterranean, and a lot of of the Roman architecture still exists among the newer buildings.  Here's an achingly beautiful picture that shows part of the coliseum where they fed the Christians to the lions:

After walking around a bit, we stopped to hang out on the beach, conversar en español, and drink various bebidas -- the ultimate in Spanish life.  I tried a cerveza con limón, which is beer mixed with Fanta Limón.  It sounds blasphemous, but it's actually fairly refreshing on a hot, sunny day.  ¡Refrescante!  I can also say that I have now set foot in the Mediterranean.  It was fairly chilly, but light years better than San Francisco.

In addition to being a former Roman outpost, Tarragona is also well-known for the quality of their rice.  Being right on the sea, their seafood is also excellent.  Therefore our seafood+rice lunch at a restaurant called Cassoleta d'Arros was fantastic.  Check out the feast:

¡Delicioso!  Amazingly, the menu was translated into English, French, German, and maybe one other language.  I wasn't sure how the restaurant owner managed to learn all those languages, but then I saw something that made me realize he just used Google Translate:

If you haven't figured it out already, Google Translate sucks.  For dessert we were given a complimentary bottle of a rice-based creamy liquor.  It was so delicious that I bought my own bottle for 10 Euros:

Now I need some of you folks to visit so I don't have to drink this alone!

Ok, that's enough for now.  I'll close this post with one more amazing picture just to make you all feel bad:

UPDATE: Too late, I drank all the rice liquor by myself.

Jamón of the week

The Spaniards really love their ham, and with good reason - it's delicious.  One of my favorites is the thinly sliced jamón ibérico.  I'm impressed at how much flavor can be packed into such a thin package.  The chorizo is also pretty good, but the extra spices tend to mask the ham flavor a bit too much.  Here's a photo of a jamón snack pack I bought at the grocery store.

 
This was cheap, only 2 Euros, so it wasn't the best I've had here.  Anyway, I'll keep you updated as I continue to explore the Spanish hamscape.  Ham on!