This was a great email from Her Salamanca 10 years ago! Please enjoy!!
Chocolate for breakfast
This is the long awaited "One with all the food". Thats a Friend´s joke, but
i dont know that anyone got it. Lets start with breakfast. While over there,
we prefer a generaly lighter breakfast- pancakes, toast and eggs, cereal,
over here they like chocolate for breakfast. A typical spanish breakfast
consists of strong chocolate to drink (sometimes mixed with coffee) and
churros (a fryed bread with cinnomon). The eat crossonts filled with
chocolate or fruit filling, and they even have "breakfast cookies". I havent
aquired the taste for all that chocolate in the morning (did i really just
say that?!?) and so I eat pairs and another type of cookie. This cookie is
more like a slightly sweet cracker. and its very crumbly. The pairs here are
amazing! Juicy, sweet, firm, not too grainy. Everything you might want in a
pair, with a flavor thats stronger than in the US. I think I´m in love!
(dont worry jon, they´re not a threat :) They eat breakfast whenever they
wake up from 730am to 11 if its a weekend. Eggs are rarely eaten for
breakfast but adorn almost every other meal.
If you are out shopping or walking or doing anything in the city or outside
your house, and you find that its one pm and you are with one of your
friends or sisters or coworkers, its the perfect time for a coke and a
"pincha". Another name for a tapa, they are a tiny bite of something. Each
resturaunt has their own selection and they vary greatly. A tortilla
Española is what we would call an omlette, but with potatoes and sometimes
onions. Never eaten for breakfast, it adorns the table at almost every lunch
or dinner as a kind of side dish. The "pincha" could be a tortilla española
(here just called a tortilla) on slices of thick toast made from what we
would call french bread but what they just call bread here. All of the tapas
and pinchas are generaly on toasted bread. I have so far eaten dozens of
these, most like a kind of potato salad with salmon or shreaded shrimp. They
dont make their potato salad with mayonaise, but with oil. The oil they use
here is all olive oil, to fry, to cook and to eat with veggies. When you eat
"patatas" or thick friench fries, you can really taste the difference. Spain
has more land for growing olives than both France and Italy and it is so
reflected in the food.
We eat lunch here around 3pm, and its generaly the largest meal of the day.
Eaten out mainly, the resteraunts are packed from 2 to 430 or 5 but empty
before and after. Cokes, like I said, are a special treat and never get
refilled for free. They drink them slowly, like a beer or glass of wine and
my friends were suprized at how quickly i downed mine. They always order an
apatizer, salad, main meal and dessert. Sometimes they prefer to have
dessert and coffee at a seperate café. They eat alot of patatas here (big
french fries) and they have these things callesd croquettas wich are little
fried bits of pasta that are doughy in the middle (i dont like them very
much). Sandwiches are common and are served at "Cafeterías". They are
already prepared and you can choose from anykind of meat paste that you
might like, from squid (calamaris) to pork or chicken. They serve like a
turkey paste with apple pieces on wheat bread that is very popular. SUnday,
I went with the family to a resteraunt that is identical to a Lubys but
serves beer and tiny bottles of wine along with water, juice and cokes. They
drink a beer or glass of wine with lunch (even if they´re working!) or have
a coke. Diet coke here is called Coca Cola Light. All the cokes come in
glass bottles (like we drank when we were kids) and are poured into a tall
galss with a slice of limon. They have somehting here that is a Spanish
version of a Chili´s and we´ve eaten there twice. They fry eggs and add them
to almost everything!
La cena (pronounced la thena) is eaten at home and served around 10pm.
Pilar, the mom, makes dinner from scratch and its mostly meat. They call
everything meat- lamb, chicken, pork, everything but fish. Ham is
everywhere. When you walk down the street, you see Museos de Jamon "ham
museums" that deplay the bigest variety of dried and cured hams you´ve ever
seen, all at room temperature. The dried ham comes in many flavors and is
really really stong. Most of the ham is cured or dried with slat, and rarely
cooked. Cerdo, or pork is also very common. I´ve had lamb chops that were
sauted and seasoned, but without a sauce. They explained to me that the
lambs here roam like the sheep, and aren´t treated like the lambs in the US,
that is they´re not tortured to give a better taste. All the animals here
graze freely and you can really really tell the difference in the meat. The
natural food that we pay out the wazoo for in teh US is more common than the
hormone enhanced food. Tonight we´re eating little pizzas with tuna, onions,
pepers, tomatoes, green apple and a tiny bit of parmesian. The other pizzas
have ham and onions on them. Of course we´re having a tortilla (an omlette,
remember?) and probably another kind of meat. Hamburgers here mean anthing
you put on a bun, even griled chicken. Mayonase is used for Fries, or to dip
anything fried. We had churiscos which are really really strong sausages.
They´re tiny but potent (mom, tell jac "tiny powerful fists!") Back to the
subject.... and now, onto TAPAS!
The best part of spain is a tie between Siestas and Tappas. The weather´s
not bad either and the people and culture are incredibly kind and amazing.
(In fact the only bad thing is the smoking). But tappas are up there. If you
are out walking before dinner or if you haven´t eaten dinner and its late
(common here becuase lunch is the main meal and eaten later) tapas await you
in one of the thousands of Tapas Bars that adorn Madrid and I imagine all of
Spain. Meaning literally "lids" they have a long history which i will
explain. No, there is no time. Let me sum up. To keep the soldiers from
getting drunk durring the Conquistas (when the Christians ran all the moors
out of Spain, this took a couple hundred years) taverns began to put plates
of bread and snacks ontop of the jugs of beer). Anywho, becuase every tapas
bar is different, its hard to find any two tapas alike. They are all
specialties of the chef and the change daily within the resteraunt. Its
basicly whatever the chef feels like preparing that day. Of all the ones
i´ve eaten, my two favorite so far have been as follows:
1) Thick slices of bread with a kind of holondase sauce with fresh herbs
adorned with a HUGE broiled shrimp. Mom and Dad, I can see you´re reaction.
Did mom gasp and then start laughing?
2) The current winner was another on thick toast, this time buttered
slightly with a thin layer of smpicy tomato sauce. Then add some fresh basil
sliced thinly, and not too over poweing, with a seasoned porkchop. Ontop of
all this were caramalized onions. There are no words for how wonderful it
tastes.
Deserts and coffees go with every meal. A common coffee is called a
"cortada" and means cut in half roughly. Very strong coffee is mixed with
cream and served in a tiny cup. with sugar on the side. Tea is not served in
every café, and i was laughed at when i asked for decaf tea. Deserts can be
everything from a piece of very dark chocolate (which by the way comes along
what ever coffee you order at a café) to cakes, a kind of pie called a tarta
(not quite a tart), or icecream. Gelatto or italian ice cream is very
common, considering the proxemity.
Well, its now time for dinner. I made chocolate covered strawberries for the
family to try (can you believe they´ve never even thought to put the two
together?!?). I hope you´ve enjoyed this excessive discription. More details
as they come. Looks like I´ll just have to go on eating the best food of my
life inorder to report back to my drooling fans, ¿no?
We arrived in Salamanca yesterday after having a brilliant ride for 867 miles from Barcelona to Salamanca! But soon after our arrival we became nervous. Gary made the decision to disregard the GPS instructions. He had researched his path into the city and was determined to go the way he knew. We drove up and down alleyways -sometimes going the wrong way. We ran through red lights and almost ran over a few people until he finally, very reluctantly agreed to listen to the GPS...even after we got close he quit listening to the British lady telling him where to go -thinking he could get closer without help. If anyone has ever used GPS you know how they argue with you if you make a wrong turn. He finally asked me to switch her off so he didn't have to listen to her. I unplugged her and left him to his own demise. He kept explaining that we had to be on a certain side of the square. I couldn't have done this so I chose silence instead of suggestions. Salamanca looks a lot like New Orleans - old streets and alleys with no parking anywhere and certainly a city where you'd have to park your car off premises anyway so I was thinking the British lady knew what she was talking about! Sure enough, after numerous twists and turns Bubba drove down an alley crowded with pedestrians that was eventually dotted with tables, chairs and umbrellas- a restaurant blocking his way. We had to back out of the alley. In reverse. With a stick shift. I would've lost it but he was cool. And he made it without incident!
Finally, reluctantly he asked that the British lady be plugged back in. We drove straight to the hotel, checked in and I let him find the way to the parking garage without me or the British lady. No accidents, no real trouble and no one was run over. I felt GREAT!!!! It's not easy driving anywhere in Europe but these little Spanish alleys that don't look like a bicycle can fit through are actual streets!! The British lady kept telling Gary to veer right and take the next right turn and when Gary refused to go down a narrow road flanked with towering brick building on either side the lady would reroute him again and again. This is a story that will be funnier after we get to the airport in Madrid....and even funnier when we get back home to share some vino and tapas with good friends and family!
Now this was a crazy day! We picked up the rent car at the airport in Barcelona...which was a bit tedious getting the taxi driver to understand exactly where we needed to go. He took several wrong turns and an especially bad illegal u-turn in the middle of an airport blvd. to get us there but we made it safely. I had my coffee while Gary checked the car out then we headed for Salamanca.
The roads were beautiful! Filled with grape vines- it looked like California wine region. We got to the Rioja Region and it became even more beautiful! By this time it was ~1:00 and we were beginning to get hungry. We began looking for restaurants-traveling past some great-looking small towns but not finding exactly what we were looking for.
Finally we arrived at a town called Hora. It was very quaint but when we arrived we found all the stores and restaurants closed. There was policia directing traffic also. He wouldn't let us drive down the main boulevard so we circled .back to see why. We began seeing men and women, boys and girls, everyone dressed in white clothes with red scarves around their necks. Most people were stained purple and were soaking wet. It didn't take long to realize that Hora was having a wine festival!! And we just stumbled upon it!! We parked and followed the crowd. Who cared about eating!! This looked like fun!!
We arrived just in time to see the last of the parade with tractors pulling carts of wine-vine decorated arts and people laughing, stumbling around with even more red wine!! It was great!! Kids were running around wildly. And people held glasses and bottles of red wine everywhere! Mardi Gras in Spain!!
We noticed that everyone was stumbling into what looked to be a small sports arena. We followed and couldn't believe what we saw: in the middle of the stadium was a bull and several "matadors". They were actually semi -drunk young men who were teasing the bull. The bull had pads on its horns so as not to gouge the young men. Apparently the matadors made points for getting close to the bull and making it mad!! They got even more points for placing clothing or hats on the bulls horns!! It was amazing to watch!! There were a couple of men who I know will be hurting in the morning because the bulls actually got them. One matador was so good that he actually did a flip over the bull. The crowd roared, spilling wine everywhere!
Notice in one of they pics I was able to capture one of the guys actually getting gauged with the bull's horns. No blood- thank goodness!! He was between the ring and the wooden barrier. The crowd tried to help but couldn't get him up in time. He will be feeling that one tomorrow I'm sure!!
We stayed for an hour or so, enthralled. At the end of each session the bulls would be exhausted, salivating and the matadors became more brave. They would taunt the bull further and just when you thought he wasn't going to charge any more away he'd go after another matador!
After ~15 minutes a whistle would sound indicating the end of the round. At that time two very large bulls (twice to 3x's the size of the charging bull) would come out of a wooden gate opened onto the arena. They were guided by a huge burly man walking, following close behind them, using a whip to prompt them and large leather reins to guide them. I had no idea why they came out at first...then i got it. The big burly man and the huge bulls were there to "gather" the black bull who had been "playing" and charging the matadors. The 3 would easily trot into the back of the stadium!! It was amazing. The larger bulls were there to "lead" the smaller black bulls out. The black bulls were extremely agitated when they would first burst out into the arena but those incredibly large bulls were there to passively lead them back to the holding cell. Brilliant really!!
We sat on the stone benches along with thousands of locals anonymously witnessing their incredible annual wine festival and bullfight in the north of Spain. Talk about luck! What are the odds, eh? We ate at a small convenience store two hours outside of Salamanca. Who cared about food now?? We got to see a bull fight in Spain!! Crazy, eh?!?!
