ay, que tiempo sin verles!
since my last post, i have been busy showing my friends and family around madrid! our first visitors arrived 2 weeks ago today. friends traveled from london, paris, venice, and los estados unidos to come see us and our beautiful city. lauren and i did our best to show everyone a good time (ie lots of sangria from lateral and chocolate napolitanas from la mallorquina), and we were so excited to finally share madrid with everyone else so that they could start to understand why we enjoy living here so much.
then on the following saturday, my family arrived (along with a 10 pound challah from mema)! i could not have been happier to see them (this sharply contrasts with my previous feelings about my family, particularly a time during my teenage years while my phone played beethoven's 5th whenever one of them called). although my cab driver got lost trying to go to arrivals when i went to fetch them from the airport (apparently he was only a seasoned traveler when it comes to departures at madrid barajas), i was finally reunited with bill, lisa, and little hannah. immediately after seeing them, it became clear that this was going to be no different than any other family vacation, as they were accompanied by a giant bag of american snacks (probably enough cheez-its and thin mints to feed a small african country) and were yelling at each other. nevertheless, i was still excited they were there. the three of them spent their first four days in madrid touring all the usual suspects and feeding their newfound love for jamón while i was in class and then on wednesday night the four of us left for barcelona.
while in madrid, my parents were all but subtle about telling me how terrible the hotel was that i put them up in (meanwhile, i've been staying in hostels and sharing people's beds, so it seemed like the effing palacio real to me), and were immediately relieved when we arrived at our posh hotel in barcelona. i told my parents that if madrid is new york, then barcelona is miami, and this analogy was very clear once we began to take in our beachy, modern surroundings. that first night, my parents went to bed at an early 1 am while hannah and i went out and explored our neighborhood (ate at a great tapas bar). from our short excursion, we knew it was going to be a great weekend in barcelona. the next day was bill's 35th birthday, so we celebrated with cod croquetas at the boqueria, this unreal open-air market. the amount of fresh produce, meat, and cheese put central market to shame and would be any foodie's dream (personally i was into the willy-wonka-esque candy stand, but hey, it was bill's bday). after breakfast/snacktime, we went to see park güell, one of the many works in the city designed by the famous architect, gaudí. lucky for us, the weather was beautiful and we were able to get a great view of the entire city from the top of what is now my 2nd favorite park (nothing beats retiro). then we went to a celebratory lunch at a place called the champagnería, a tiny, unmarked, hole-in-the wall bocadillo bar that only serves delicious sandwiches with bottles of cava, spanish champagne. needless to say, it was one of the favorite stops of the weekend. then we walked along the port before taking a siesta to prepare for the big bday dinner, which consisted of the most incredible paella i have ever eaten (if you haven't figured it out by now, us kleinmans love to eat).
although it was difficult to top our first day in barcelona, we did our best the next day with a tour of the sagrada familia. this cathedral has been under construction since the 1800s, and part of the appeal is that while touring the cathedral, you get to literally see them building it. they say that it is going to be finished in about 20 years (mañana, mañana, as they say in spain). for dinner that night, julie g. met us (she was traveling in barcelona as well) and we took a recommendation from my uncle max, my dad's youngest brother and food enthusiast. knowing only that it was recommended by max and that the name of it was "hisop", i had a feeling that this was about to be some sort of crazy dining experience of food and art. my instincts were correct, and we were served things like smoked tuna over aubergine compote and chocolate covered in truffle. bill's personal favorite was the tonic gelatin with gin spritzer (aka fancy jello shots). lisa managed to complain throughout the whole dinner about how she would rather have last night's paella again than have this "culinary experience" for dinner (she is not exactly epicurious) but personally i enjoyed our foodie meal (my friend tex, who never ceases to tell me how often he dines at the french room (once a year for christmas, if you were wondering) would have truly appreciated this experience. tex, i had scallops with truffles over some sort of bacon in a watercress soup and it was exquisite!).
the moral of the story is that i had a great time in spain with my family and i miss them already. this week in madrid, the healthcare bill passed and no one here cared, and lauren and i somehow magically convinced maruja to put us on a dieta ligera in preparation for our semana santa (spring break) trip to italy and paris where we will literally be eating our way through europe. highlights from our meals have included cut-up fruit drenched in orange juice and vegetable soup (hey, beggars can't be choosers) and we are feeling a little bit lighter so that we can proceed to stuff ourselves with pasta, crepes, and gelato. mmmm. more updates after our eurotrip!
besos!
Showing posts with label jamón. Show all posts
Showing posts with label jamón. Show all posts
Wednesday, March 24, 2010
Monday, February 8, 2010
veeps
today in my spanish lengua class we learned about 15 different ways to greet someone, but i'm going to use my personal favorite:
hombre!
this does not mean man! but rather, why hello there!
i have a feeling i am the only person who thought that was funny. anyway, it is now our one month anniversary of arriving in spain and we are beginning our fourth week in madrid. we have finally been here for enough time that i feel like i can give you an accurate portrayal of our daily life:
monday through thursday we take class at our school, uc3m. i am taking lengua (spanish language), teatro (theatre - works, not acting), periodismo (journalism), and fundamentos del sistema juridico (fundamentals of the judicial system). the first three classes are all in spanish, but have only american students. these classes are fairly easy and are similar to spanish classes i have taken in high school and college. The latter of the four is my class with spaniards. there is one other person from the wash u program in the class with me, and we have to do group projects with the other people in our class. there is one main lecture class and one discussion class. the most bizarre part of all is during the lecture, students talk while the professor is talking, leave during the middle of class, and do not take notes - that is, if they even attend class. it is certainly going to be an experience. in addition, on wednesday nights, we have our 2-3 hour cultura y civilización class taught by the wash u faculty and attended by wash u students only. so far, work seems fairly light, but because it is all in spanish, we definitely feel like we are learning.
when we are not in class, we are either eating dinner with the rodriguez family or out exploring madrid. this weekend, our friends from another program were out of town, so lauren and i dubbed it our "cultural weekend" and did our best to explore madrid like real madrileñas. friday, we went to two museums: the thyssen, and the museo de jamón. the thyssen was the perfect amount of art - it is a private collection owned by the Thyssen-Bornemisza family that takes up three floors of a relatively small building. we were able to see paintings from caravaggio to to lichtenstein in just a few hours. the more famous works are housed at the prado and the reina sofía, but we found the thyssen to be much less overwhelming and still an incredible collection of art. later, we went to the aforementioned museo de jamón, which ended up being all lauren and i could have imagined and more. the museo de jamón is not literally a museum, but it is a three story store, bar, and restaurant. the walls are covered from floor to ceiling with whole jamones and there was one jamón iberico de bellota extra (refer to previous post for more info) that cost 90 euros per kilo. must be quite the jamón. lauren and i sat at the bar and each had a tomaca de jamón iberico (toasted bread covered with tomato-garlic puree and jamón) for 2 euro. needless to say, the museo de jamón did not disappoint and we will definitely be going back.
saturday, we took a 30 minute train to the bordering town of toledo, a beautiful little town up on a hill with famous cathedrals, mosques, and synagogues. first, we took a ride around the border of the city in a tiny antique train that showed us all of the main sights. then lauren and i wandered around for the rest of the day through the various cathedrals and jewish neighborhood. in the church of santa tome, we got to view the famous el greco painting, the burial of count orgaz, which i hadn't seen since art history in high school. the painting was massive, and below it was the actual tomb of the man depicted in the painting. slightly morbid, but at the same time, really amazing to see such a famous piece.
each night this weekend, we tried out different bars and clubs recommended to us by our host sister, gloria. as mentioned before, gloria is a former model and beauty queen, and thus, knows the coolest places to go out in madrid. she is what we would refer to in america as a "v.i.p." but in spain she is called a "vip" (pronounced veep). because gloria is a vip, she never pays to get into clubs here and knows the doorman basically everywhere. she told us that "necesitáis tener la actitud que no váis a pagar" (you need to have the attitude that you're not going to pay). ooook gloria. for the rest of us who aren't vips, we generally have the attitude that we will probably have to pay and by some stroke of luck, maybe we won't. but FEAR NOT. gloria has our back and each night we tried out a new place and got in for free! the best part of all was that every night we were probably the only americans at each place and got to see how the madrileños salen de la noche. at our favorite place of the weekend, a discoteca called vanila, the man was waiting at the door for us, let us in, and said, "two free drinks for the amigas americanas de gloria!" obviously, it was a great night. we can't wait to share all of our new places with our friends who were out of town.
to conclude, our cultural weekend was a success, and we are loving la vida española. next weekend we begin our travels out of madrid! in the next few weeks, we are going to cadíz, berlin, and london.
pues, nada. hasta luego!
hombre!
this does not mean man! but rather, why hello there!
i have a feeling i am the only person who thought that was funny. anyway, it is now our one month anniversary of arriving in spain and we are beginning our fourth week in madrid. we have finally been here for enough time that i feel like i can give you an accurate portrayal of our daily life:
monday through thursday we take class at our school, uc3m. i am taking lengua (spanish language), teatro (theatre - works, not acting), periodismo (journalism), and fundamentos del sistema juridico (fundamentals of the judicial system). the first three classes are all in spanish, but have only american students. these classes are fairly easy and are similar to spanish classes i have taken in high school and college. The latter of the four is my class with spaniards. there is one other person from the wash u program in the class with me, and we have to do group projects with the other people in our class. there is one main lecture class and one discussion class. the most bizarre part of all is during the lecture, students talk while the professor is talking, leave during the middle of class, and do not take notes - that is, if they even attend class. it is certainly going to be an experience. in addition, on wednesday nights, we have our 2-3 hour cultura y civilización class taught by the wash u faculty and attended by wash u students only. so far, work seems fairly light, but because it is all in spanish, we definitely feel like we are learning.
when we are not in class, we are either eating dinner with the rodriguez family or out exploring madrid. this weekend, our friends from another program were out of town, so lauren and i dubbed it our "cultural weekend" and did our best to explore madrid like real madrileñas. friday, we went to two museums: the thyssen, and the museo de jamón. the thyssen was the perfect amount of art - it is a private collection owned by the Thyssen-Bornemisza family that takes up three floors of a relatively small building. we were able to see paintings from caravaggio to to lichtenstein in just a few hours. the more famous works are housed at the prado and the reina sofía, but we found the thyssen to be much less overwhelming and still an incredible collection of art. later, we went to the aforementioned museo de jamón, which ended up being all lauren and i could have imagined and more. the museo de jamón is not literally a museum, but it is a three story store, bar, and restaurant. the walls are covered from floor to ceiling with whole jamones and there was one jamón iberico de bellota extra (refer to previous post for more info) that cost 90 euros per kilo. must be quite the jamón. lauren and i sat at the bar and each had a tomaca de jamón iberico (toasted bread covered with tomato-garlic puree and jamón) for 2 euro. needless to say, the museo de jamón did not disappoint and we will definitely be going back.
saturday, we took a 30 minute train to the bordering town of toledo, a beautiful little town up on a hill with famous cathedrals, mosques, and synagogues. first, we took a ride around the border of the city in a tiny antique train that showed us all of the main sights. then lauren and i wandered around for the rest of the day through the various cathedrals and jewish neighborhood. in the church of santa tome, we got to view the famous el greco painting, the burial of count orgaz, which i hadn't seen since art history in high school. the painting was massive, and below it was the actual tomb of the man depicted in the painting. slightly morbid, but at the same time, really amazing to see such a famous piece.
each night this weekend, we tried out different bars and clubs recommended to us by our host sister, gloria. as mentioned before, gloria is a former model and beauty queen, and thus, knows the coolest places to go out in madrid. she is what we would refer to in america as a "v.i.p." but in spain she is called a "vip" (pronounced veep). because gloria is a vip, she never pays to get into clubs here and knows the doorman basically everywhere. she told us that "necesitáis tener la actitud que no váis a pagar" (you need to have the attitude that you're not going to pay). ooook gloria. for the rest of us who aren't vips, we generally have the attitude that we will probably have to pay and by some stroke of luck, maybe we won't. but FEAR NOT. gloria has our back and each night we tried out a new place and got in for free! the best part of all was that every night we were probably the only americans at each place and got to see how the madrileños salen de la noche. at our favorite place of the weekend, a discoteca called vanila, the man was waiting at the door for us, let us in, and said, "two free drinks for the amigas americanas de gloria!" obviously, it was a great night. we can't wait to share all of our new places with our friends who were out of town.
to conclude, our cultural weekend was a success, and we are loving la vida española. next weekend we begin our travels out of madrid! in the next few weeks, we are going to cadíz, berlin, and london.
pues, nada. hasta luego!
Monday, February 1, 2010
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?
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?
Monday, January 11, 2010
travel, trials, tribulations, and tapas
hola!
i am currently in granada, spain where we are taking a language intensive course to prepare us for our life here in madrid. i am writing from a spanish computer without english spell check so please excuse any errors. i can already tell there are going to be a few. i arrived in europe on the 7th, madrid the 8th, and granada the 9th, so it has been quite a hectic transition.
lauren and i left the states on the night of january 6th and arrived in london for our connecting flight exactly on time. the little tv screen in front of each of our chairs showed the path from new york to london complete, yet we flew around in circles for another 20 minutes after arrival only to find out from our pilot that all of the london area airports were closed due to weather and that instead we would be landing in edinburgh, scotland! lauren and i talked to the spanish man sitting next to us on the plane and asked him if flights flew out of this airport to madrid; he seemed to think so while our flight attendant thought otherwise. while we tried to extrapolate the rest of our travel plans for the day, the captain came on and said that the edinburgh airport was not able to take us for landing, so instead we would be landing in east midlands, uk (don´t worry - i had no idea where the hell this was, either). when we finally landed in east midlands, the captain told us to sit tight while they figured out what the plan of action was. we did as he asked and sat tight - for four hours - until finally they told us that we were going to be taken in buses to london heathrow. we got our bags, went through customs, and got on the bus, where, being the resourceful american students that we are, called my parents to book us on the next flight out to madrid so that we could avoid the chaos when we arrived in london (thanks dad!). we arrived at heathrow (in the wrong terminal of course) and took a cab with all of our massive luggage to the right terminal, only to find out that our flight to madrid had been cancelled. british airways so kindly put us up in a hotel in central london. we stored our big bags at the airport and took the tube into the city. we rebooked our flights, saw a few friends from wash u studying in london, and went to bed. the next day, all of our travels went smoothly and we finally arrived in MADRID.
from the airport, we were taken to the home of our host family. our señora, maruja, is the sweetest woman and doesn´t understand why we don´t eat more (she is used to hosting boys). we took a walking tour of madrid with our grupo and came home and crashed after our long journey. the next day, we took a train to granada, where we are now. we have seen a lot of the islamic culture that still exists here today, and we ate a big middle-eastern feast (it felt good to eat something besides ham, because that seems to be the only thing people eat here. our teacher, ramiro, told us in spain there are two religions that people practice: 1. catholicism, and 2. ham). there is a really cool street right by our hotel that is lined with tapas restaurants where we have been going to eat dinner, but we still haven´t exactly figured out what everything on the menu is. we have found that it is best to ask a waiter what he recommends and order that instead of relying on our rusty translation skills. and of course, every meal starts with a plate of complementary ham.
in a few hours we are going to the alhambra, the old muslim fortress just outside of granada. we return to madrid next monday, so look for pictures after that!
hasta luego y les echo mucho!
i am currently in granada, spain where we are taking a language intensive course to prepare us for our life here in madrid. i am writing from a spanish computer without english spell check so please excuse any errors. i can already tell there are going to be a few. i arrived in europe on the 7th, madrid the 8th, and granada the 9th, so it has been quite a hectic transition.
lauren and i left the states on the night of january 6th and arrived in london for our connecting flight exactly on time. the little tv screen in front of each of our chairs showed the path from new york to london complete, yet we flew around in circles for another 20 minutes after arrival only to find out from our pilot that all of the london area airports were closed due to weather and that instead we would be landing in edinburgh, scotland! lauren and i talked to the spanish man sitting next to us on the plane and asked him if flights flew out of this airport to madrid; he seemed to think so while our flight attendant thought otherwise. while we tried to extrapolate the rest of our travel plans for the day, the captain came on and said that the edinburgh airport was not able to take us for landing, so instead we would be landing in east midlands, uk (don´t worry - i had no idea where the hell this was, either). when we finally landed in east midlands, the captain told us to sit tight while they figured out what the plan of action was. we did as he asked and sat tight - for four hours - until finally they told us that we were going to be taken in buses to london heathrow. we got our bags, went through customs, and got on the bus, where, being the resourceful american students that we are, called my parents to book us on the next flight out to madrid so that we could avoid the chaos when we arrived in london (thanks dad!). we arrived at heathrow (in the wrong terminal of course) and took a cab with all of our massive luggage to the right terminal, only to find out that our flight to madrid had been cancelled. british airways so kindly put us up in a hotel in central london. we stored our big bags at the airport and took the tube into the city. we rebooked our flights, saw a few friends from wash u studying in london, and went to bed. the next day, all of our travels went smoothly and we finally arrived in MADRID.
from the airport, we were taken to the home of our host family. our señora, maruja, is the sweetest woman and doesn´t understand why we don´t eat more (she is used to hosting boys). we took a walking tour of madrid with our grupo and came home and crashed after our long journey. the next day, we took a train to granada, where we are now. we have seen a lot of the islamic culture that still exists here today, and we ate a big middle-eastern feast (it felt good to eat something besides ham, because that seems to be the only thing people eat here. our teacher, ramiro, told us in spain there are two religions that people practice: 1. catholicism, and 2. ham). there is a really cool street right by our hotel that is lined with tapas restaurants where we have been going to eat dinner, but we still haven´t exactly figured out what everything on the menu is. we have found that it is best to ask a waiter what he recommends and order that instead of relying on our rusty translation skills. and of course, every meal starts with a plate of complementary ham.
in a few hours we are going to the alhambra, the old muslim fortress just outside of granada. we return to madrid next monday, so look for pictures after that!
hasta luego y les echo mucho!
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