jamón y más jamón

while constructing this post, i was trying to decide if i was going to write about my vida diara en madrid or jamón. i have decided to give it another week before i tell you about my day-to-day so that i can make sure that i give you all an accurate portrayal of spanish life (really, i just wanted to write a very detailed post about our favorite food).

although this weekend was mi cumpleaños and we spent it eating all of my favorite american foods (brunch and sushi), lauren and i are getting very accustomed to the spanish diet. staples here seem to be bread, cheese, coffee, eggs, bean soup, and ham (which from this point on will be referred to as jamón). Pretty standard, slightly different from what we are used to eating in the states, but we are open to trying new things and recently have come upon a shocking realization: WE LOVE JAMÓN.

A brief history of the torrid love affair: I grew up as a nice jewish girl in a nice jewish home where we didn't exactly keep kosher, but jamón (or any other pork product, for that matter) was not something we really kept in the house. We had an encounter with a christmas jamón about once a year when our family traveled to el paso to visit my grandparents during the holidays, which always sparked the conversation about how my grandmother, irene (or maybe it was my great grandmother and namesake, rae. mom, please clarify) invited the rabbi over for dinner and served up a beautiful jamón. Recently, we have been keeping jamón de estilo oscar mayer in our house for my dad. he makes jamón and butter sandwiches to eat on his 60+ mile bike rides instead of energy bars, because it is "what the guys on the tour de france do" (ok, dad...). Other than that, my encounters with jamón pre-spain were slim to none.

as i mentioned in one of my first posts, jamón is like a religion here, and it is difficult to walk into any restaurant, bar, or house without coming across it in some way, shape, or form. on just about every menu you can order a giant plate of jamón costing anywhere from 15-25 euros. however, before madrid, my idea of jamón was limited to the kind they sell covered in honey glaze during the holidays or the slimy lunch meat. jamón in spain is completely different, and completely delicious. although there are many, many different kinds to try here, lauren and i have tried (and loved) all of the staples:
1. Jamón York: this is your basic lunch meat jamón in spain, mild tasting, and not slimy like its american counterpart. we eat this daily at school on our favorite sandwich, mixto con huevo (a ham and cheese sandwich, toasted, with a fried egg in the middle)
2: Lomo: one of our more recent discoveries, lomo is basically like canadian bacon but thicker and more flavorful. maruja made it for us the other day for lunch with eggs and french fries. delicious.
3. Jamón Serrano: our first introduction to spanish jamón, this kind is similar to prosciutto and is the lower quality of the jamón that spaniards are famous for. rich in flavor, we eat it on toasted bread with olive oil or even alone
4. Jamón Iberico: the cream of the crop, jamón iberico comes in several types, the nicest being jamón iberico bellota. it comes from black pigs that are fed only acorns and has el sabor más rico que todos los jamones. it is similar in texture to jamón serrano, but is slightly more delicate. we had this the other day on top of a tomato-mozzarella salad and it was incredibly delicious.

our love for jamón will continue this week when we go to visit the museo de jamón (literally: museum of ham), a famous restaurant, bar, and store that sells, you guessed it, pretty much every type of jamón out there. for those of you who are coming to visit us in madrid, we will make sure we take you to taste the best kinds out there so that you can fully understand our newfound love for this spanish staple.

tienes hambre?