Today we’d like to tell you about one of our very favorite beverages, which is in fact so much more than that, as its name has extended to the time of day its served, along with the small bites that go alongside it.
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This week our intern Kyle went on an edible excursion to discover the essence of Catalan cuisine. Get ready for some scrumptiously tempting narrative, which might just make you want to go ahead and buy that ticket over here!
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Congratulations to my family! Today marks our one year anniversary of moving back to Barcelona. Pardon the cliché, but it has certainly flown by.
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I recently got back from a 5-week trip to Spain. It was an intense time, spent teaching (mostly here but also here), doing research (for this and this) and, in between, squeezing in as much time as possible with my dear friends in Spain.
As soon as I landed in Barcelona, it felt like home. And yet when I returned to the Bay area a few weeks ago, I was so happy to be home! It's funny how that works; once you have lived a long time in different places, home is a moveable feast, and yet you can never truly go home again. These thoughts were on my mind all the time as I walked the streets of Barcelona, streets I know so well and yet, there have been changes (both external and internal ones) in the 3 years I've been gone.
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I am about to leave for Barcelona, to teach the second yearly round of the Mediterranean Food & Culture program for University of California EAP.
The upcoming weeks will be quite busy; the followers of Desayuno con guisantes, the company I ran when I lived in Spain, want to hear from me as well -and learn about some of my California cuisine tricks. I have been invited, while in Barcelona, to teach a series of hands-on cooking classes and nutrition talks for Obbio and Still Cooking. It's a good thing I absolutely love what I do!
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A few days ago I was fortunate enough to attend a session of Edible Education 101 at UC Berkeley guest starring Alice Waters and The Kitchen Sisters. No matter how long I live in the Bay Area, I hope I always live it as a newcomer, and take advantage of the many exciting events this place has to offer, without just settling into the fact that famous people I am interested in happen to be local, around and about.
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Everyone around here knows gazpacho, the (originally tomato-based) cold soup with has infinite variations. Is it fair to even call them gazpacho, though? I've heard of many sweet versions: melon gazpacho, strawberry gazpacho, peach gazpacho, etc. It's as if the term were being used to describe almost any fruit-based (or watery vegetable: there's also a cucumber gazpacho out there) cold soup.
Read MoreThe word tapas comes from the verb tapar, to cover, and the noun tapa, cover or lid. There are many legends that attempt to explain the roots of tapas, although their true origin is unknown. One of these legends claims that tapas were conceived out of a need to cover one's glass to keep the flies out. But were there really more flies in Spain than in other countries? Others state that tapas "cover" one's stomach, i.e. line it with some food, to protect it from the alcohol. (One of the most valuable pieces of advice an old tavernero gave me when I first arrived in Spain in 1998 was "always eat more than you drink and you'll never get drunk".) Yet another legend says that tapas were meant to "cover" the appetites of field workers; they would nibble on something in order to regain their strength to keep working.
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