Tag Archives: tapas

11 Little Things that Make Me Smile, Madrid Edition

It’s the little things, isn’t it? The big things are great, wonderful—but they’re often few and far between. Of course, the fact that they are indeed scarce makes them all the easier to appreciate.

Photo by Emilio García

But the small things? They’re the type of occurrences that could and do happen every day. We just have to learn to notice them.

All the crosswalks are green when you get to them, even those pesky ones with two distinct lights, meaning you usually have to stop in the middle of the street to wait for the second.
Arriving at the metro station and hop right on the train, both at the first station and your transfer station. Bliss.
There are available seats on the metro. In fact, there are more than enough so you don’t have to squeeze in like a sausage!
Remembering an errand you forgot to do, only to walk right by the store you need, whether it be the supermarket, the hardware store, or the bank.
When there’s no line at the bank.
When the cashiers at the supermarket smile and treat you kindly.
When there’s a long line at the supermarket and they actually open a new line—and you get to go first.
When your Spanish comes out perfectly the first time.
Seeing the weather forecast app predicts sun, sun, sun for the foreseeable future. Not only during the weekend, but the weekend too!
The tapas bar is full, but not too full. If you get what I’m sayin’.
The wine you order is a) delicious and b) costs less than €2 per copa.

What little things make you smile in your city?

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The Rain in Sevilla

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Our trip to Sevilla got off to a rainy start. After checking into our hotel after an unsuccessful attempt to visit the dentist (another story altogether!), night had already fallen. Another thing falling? The rain, of course.

My first view of La Giralda

Luckily, Sevilla is still pretty, even amidst the drizzle. The Christmas lights were lit, and it was hard to feel discontent with the whole city wishing us Felices Fiestas (Happy Holidays).

Everything in Sevilla seemed so cozy

One of my favorite parts was seeing the juxtaposition of an orange tree with Christmas lights. Thus is Sevilla.

Luminous

Our friend from a town near Sevilla had recommended La Carbonería to us. La Carbonería, according to Tertulia Andaluza, was “the meeting point for the vanguard of Seville, a space for independent and alternative thought.” In the past, the site was a coal warehouse, thus the name, which in English would be “The Coalyard.” In 1975, Paco Lira converted it into the place it is today, a venue to hear and see flamenco, for ideas, for art of all kinds.

We saw a flamenco show and ate food off paper towels. It was an intriguing show. What’s more, it was packed. Good thing we got there early.

I found the female dancer especially intriguing. There was something there in her face, impossible to articulate but powerful nonetheless. She may not have been famous, but her whole self radiated the spirit of flamenco.

The next day we got up, and after a quick visit to the dentist who confused me with his sevillano pronunciation, we had some breakfast. Mario took his Cola Cao with extra sugar.

I had a tostada con jamón along with a café con leche.

Mario chose to go with a recommendation from our waitress, the pringá. Pringá comes from the verb pringar, meaning to dip or to dunk in this case, is made up of the ingredients from the traditional Spanish cocido, known as puchero in many places. The meat portion, which consists of things like morcilla (blood sausage), chorizo, and tocino (fat), is cooked along with the rest of the stew, and then made into a spread to eat with bread. Yum! Actually, it was quite good, we both agreed, although perhaps a bit more fuerte than the typical Spanish breakfast.

Next on the docket was a bit of sightseeing. Of course, you can’t go to Sevilla without seeing the cathedral and la Giralda.

La Giralda is a former minaret that the Christians made into a bell tower for Sevilla’s cathedral. It stands high above the Patio de los Naranjos (Orange Tree Courtyard). The area of the courtyard is supposedly the area the old mosque occupied, as two of the courtyard’s exterior walls belonged to. During the time of the Muslim occupation of Spain, the area served as the space for the Muslims’ activities, including cemetery and cultural events.

Seen from above, as we climbed the Giralda

Besides seeing the sites, we also wandered around a bit. Getting “lost” (is it possible to get lost with a smart phone nowadays?) is one of my favorite ways to see a city.

We had lunch at Bar Alfalfa, another recommendation from our Sevillana friend. A real winner! We really enjoyed the food we had, and with the prices in Sevilla, you can’t go wrong.

After a bit more wandering, we headed over to the Plaza de España, where it was already starting to get dark. Unlike most Spanish plazas, this one is not centuries old. It was built in 1928 for the Ibero-American Exposition (often referred to simply “la expo” by Spaniards), which was held in 1929. Along its walls there are tiled alcoves, each of which represents a Spanish province, from Álava to Zaragoza.

It has also been used as a film set: in Lawrence of Arabia, Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace,and Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones.

Our day in Sevilla ended with—you guessed it!—more tapas at a popular local bar, Los Coloniales, located in the town center. These tapas included, of course, the typical Sevillan picos, a type of small crunchy breadsticks. They usually accompany ham/chorizo/cheese, but we found them to come with almost anything! Yum!

Have you ever been to Sevilla?

Tapeando in the US—Possible?

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Last night, I had the pleasure of going to eat at BARcelona Tapas in Indianapolis with my mother, my father, and a family friend. Obviously, it is a “tapas restaurant.” I was excited to return to the restaurant. I had been there once before, back in 2007, before I ever went to Spain. I wanted to evaluate it now that I knew what the real experience is like.

[Source]

I wrote a post on tapeando already. Tapeando is, basically, the art of going for tapas. As I said in the earlier post, the point of tapeando is not to stay in one bar. It’s not a sit-down dinner at all. Ideally, you can hit up anywhere from three to six bars in one night, depending on your hunger and stamina. When I go out with Mario and his friends, we all put a set amount of money in the bote and put someone in charge of it. Then, we go from place to place, not worrying about it, as the person in charge will take care of paying. At each place, everyone orders a drink: beer, wine, or water (usually). With this order, we get a free tapa to eat. There are all sorts of tapas, and I don’t have the time to get into all of them, but they can be very, very good and, of course, not so good. You have to know where to go!

In the US, the craze for tapas is just starting. Tapas restaurants are popping up everywhere. Spanish cooking is beginning to get the recognition it deserves, thanks in part to chefs like José Andrés, who as this Wall Street Journal article states, arrived in the US in 1991 with little money, back at a time when basically no one knew what Spanish cuisine even consisted of.

My favorite tapas are usually cheese-related. (Surprise, surprise!) To me, nothing is quite as good as a slice of queso manchego with dulce de membrillo (a type of quince jam, which my mother-in-law makes at home). I also love patatas alioli, smoked salmon with cream cheese and bread, croquettes, and olives. Se me hace agua la boca.

Tapas are great, no doubt about it. What’s so great about them? It’s not just the food. It’s the atmosphere, the fun you have standing up in a noisy bar with your friends, drinking and eating great food. It’s walking from place to place after a few cañas. It’s the shared experience.

With that said, I wonder whether the tapas experience can ever truly triumph in the States. Most of all, it’s because we just don’t have the walkability of Spain—except in big cities of course. But I’ve always had the most fun in a small town, Zamora, because Mario grew up there, and he knew all the best places. We love going to El Chillón, a bar known for its tortilla con salsa de callos (a Spanish potato omlette with tripe sauce. Yep, you read that right. It’s delicious!) I know that in Crawfordsville, my home town, there is really no such thing as walkability. We have to drive everywhere, unless we want to walk an hour and a half to the grocery store. The real tapeando experience would not work here, nor would it in the majority of US cities.

[Image from Notes from Madrid.]

Nonetheless, the idea of introducing good-quality Spanish food is a good one. Many people believe (falsely) that Spanish food is similar to Mexican. It is not. Spanish food is not spicy. Many people go to Spain and leave believing that all Spaniards eat is pork. While they do love their pork and other pig-based products, Spanish food is extremely varied and usually delicious. I’m glad that BARcelona Tapas is doing good work. That said, some of my favorites from last night:

Alcachofas fritas—Crispy artichokes with Romesco sauce and shaved Manchego cheese.
Empanadas de espinaca y champiñón—Spinach and mushroom pastries with cumin garlic alioli.
Trigueros con Romesco—Grilled asparagus with Romesco sauce and Manchego.
Tres quesos—Manchego, Cabrales and goat cheese with Spanish picos.

What do you think? Will the art of tapeando ever really triumph in the US? Or maybe just the tapas?

BARcelona Tapas

201 N. Delaware
Indianapolis, IN 46204
317.638.8272

How I Know I Wasn’t Raised Spanish

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Surprisingly enough, I am not Spanish. I’ve written a few posts on such topics: How to Dress Like a Spaniard, Tapeando, Hittin’ the Bars, Saying Hello at the Gym. You see, I’ve had to learn it all as an adult. Gradually. I’m still learning everyday, as my conversations with Mario can bring up things I wasn’t aware of before or had heard but just hadn’t put together the puzzle pieces.

I don’t innately love a soccer team. (But yes, I do support Real Madrid now. Get over it.)
I am unable to de-shell sunflower seeds in my mouth. This caused Mario’s family to spend several minutes instructing me in the fine art of de-shelling sunflower seeds. These efforts failed.
I have never eaten cookies and ColaCao for breakfast.
I never had a pincho until I was 21 years old.
I don’t “do sport;” I exercise.
I don’t innately assign gender to animals. For me, a snake isn’t necessarily a female just because it’s la serpiente.
I still don’t get the 11 o’clock break for coffee. Why is no one in their office at this time?!
Chorizo and Nutella does not sound like a good combination.
Going to buy “the bread” was never a daily outing.
I would consider living in yoga pants/sweatpants.
I would only get my hair done/buy a new dress for my own wedding and not every single one of my friends’.
I just recently discovered the greatness that are “aros de maíz.”
I find myself annoyed when things are closed on Sundays. And a little indignant.
I apologize way too much. Oh, I slightly touched you as I walked by in the supermarket? I’m sorry! It’s overkill.
I never had a house “in the village.”
My grandpa does not do the hands clasped behind the back amble through town. And I’m sad about it.

My 7 Links

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I’ve gotten better at understanding the secret of getting comments and/or viewers. But still, sometimes I wish people would appreciate some of my more undervalued work (as I see it, anyway). Thus, when Gillian nominated me for TripBase’s Seven Links Project, I was rather excited to re-post a few of my more interesting posts.

As Katie says on her post, “The idea is simple: bloggers publish 7 links from their blog to share lessons learned and create a bank of long but not forgotten blog posts that deserve to see the light of day again.”

So without further ado, here are my seven:

My most beautiful post – Lucky. I don’t think I have a post with great pictures. I was without a camera for a long while and I just don’t have the patience to take good pictures with my trusty old point and shoot. Thus, I selected my most beautiful post because it was about the most beautiful person I know. (I know. Sappy.) I also don’t think this post about my mother is half bad either.
My most popular post – How to Dress Like a Spaniard.According to my site statistics, this post has gotten the most views. Not surprisingly, I get many hits from search terms such as “how to dress like a spaniard” and “dress like a spaniard.” I hope I helped. Personally, I prefer my Lululemon yoga shorts.
My most controversial post – 15 Rules to Thrive in Spain. I think I probably wrote this right after one of my rather OCD roommates chastised me for using her spoon. No, that is not a typo, she was mad at me for using a spoon I found in the cutlery drawer. So, Spaniards, if I admit I wrote this post partly of out frustration, will you forgive me? And perhaps admit a few of these things are true. If I were a more popular blogger, this post probably would have elicited more than a few disdainful remarks. I imagine most of my offended readers kept their cutting comments to themselves. I think Mario even politely disagreed with a few of them.
My most helpful post – Tapeando.
Americans just do not understand or appreciate the art of tapas. People say to me, “But aren’t you hungry after a dinner of just snacks?” I want to a) scream, b) roll my eyes, and c) direct them to this post ASAP. Luckily for you, you can read it before you say anything annoying. Also, I miss going for tapas like nobody’s business.
A post whose success surprised me – Piropos.I wrote this on a whim, and partly out of frustration. I also thought it might make me sound a bit stuck up. Like, here’s this girl complaining about men complimenting her. White Girl Problems, anyone? But it turns out that a lot of women who visit Spain and, hey, those who live there experience this on a weekly, if not daily, basis. I like how many of us also recognize that someday that flow of piropos is gonna stop, and we might be a bit sad.
A post I feel didn’t get the attention it deserved – About Study Abroad.I wrote this because I feel like study abroad could be a really, really good thing. Learning a new language, learning about a new culture, branching out, living in an unknown place? All good things, things that stretch us and make us grow. However, I see so many American students in Spain just partying and/or traveling to another country every weekend. Don’t get me wrong, traveling is good, but I think true cultural immersion is a much loftier (albeit more difficult) goal.
The post I am most proud of – Champions – And It’s Not a Dream. I really enjoyed writing this post, and I still find its language beautiful. I hope you don’t think that makes me stuck up.