Gastronomía española :-P

Ok, here's an interesting post for all you foodies out there. I've gotten into the habit of taking pictures of my meals with the intention of doing just this...blogging about it! One of the most interesting things about a culture is the way they eat. I'll describe to you the best I can what all these dishes were like. And they'll probably be another post just like this later on with the second half of the semester's food.

Now, this isn't even Spanish food. I don't know why I posted this picture first but here it is. Anyway, this is  "arroz con verduras" from a Thai restaurant that I visited with my friend Angel. It was very delicious but the waitress was actually kind of rude! 

This is one of my favorite meals that Amelia (my host mom) makes. This is called "cocido". Basically there's cabbage, chickpeas, potatoes, all just boiled I think. Then there's also a piece of chorizo sausage (not my favorite), usually a piece of ham, and a piece of some kind of beef. And Amelia usually gives me bread with it. Very tasty. When I first saw it I really thought I wasn't going to like it. By the way, this photo was taken at my desk in my room. Whenever Amelia is not at home she just leaves my dinner in the kitchen for me to eat when I want. 

One day, Angel, Marilyn, and I stopped at this restaurant called Peggy Sue's. It's an "American" restaurant. Haha. Kind of has the atmosphere of a Stake and Shake, maybe a bit nicer. Anyway, this is a cookies and cream milkshake I had there. It was, however, not very good. It was the funkiest milkshake I ever had. 

Mmmmmm, the timeless café con leche. I love this photo. This was one day when Marilyn, Angel, and I were trying to make our travel plans for the semester, hence all the calendars and notebooks. 

Yum-o. I was delighted to find this dinner waiting for me one night in the kitchen. It's simply grilled chicken, steamed broccoli, and boiled potatoes. Not the most flavorful meal (they really don't use salt and pepper at the dinner table here) but it was good! 

Ahh, the soup. The soup, the soup... How do I begin? This is one of the first things I had at my new home. Just to give you an idea, it has the consistency of baby food, a little less thick maybe. Basically...it is baby food. Just a lot more of it and very hot. I think all it is, if I understood Amelia right, is blended up vegetable warmed up on the stove. Now, I'm a good veggie eater...but if you know me you know that I have a hard time with mushy vegetables. And this is about as mushy as they get.....so, needless to say, not my favorite. 

I'm not sure if this really has a name in Spanish (or English?) but basically it's just potatoes, eggs, and chorizo fried up in a skillet. Hash, maybe? But with really big chunks of potato. Not bad. :-) 

This is a dessert that Amelia loves! The purplish-red stuff is called quince jelly, basically a sweet thick jelly made of fruit. Amelia always has it with a soft cheese, that's the white stuff underneath. She gave me a little bit one night to try. I gave it a good two bites...not my thing. Lol. Kind of makes me think of cranberry sauce out of a can, but definitely much much thicker.

Oh. My. Goodness. This was so good. I know it doesn't look that great, especially because I shot the photo with a huge shadow, but trust me. This is basically beef stew: beef, potatoes, carrots, peas. And, to my surprise, it had this wonderful flavor, just the least bit spicy. Spanish cuisine tends to have as little spice as possible, but this dish has something going on, I'm not sure what, but yummmmmm-o. 

This is a picture I took in a market near the Plaza Mayor. I think it was called Mercado de San Miguel? I'll have to check up on that. 

Another view of the fruit. Fruit isn't the only thing at this market. It has everything from fruit, to fish, to tapas, to chocolate. It's a very touristy place to go. Haha. You can usually count on running into a few other Americans there. 

Some delicious pre-sliced fruit I bought at that market one day. 

Hmm...how do I describe this. I got this plate at a restaurant called "Demontaditos". It's basically like a platter of all the ingredients that you would have in a kebab, or gyro. The bowl that you see at the edge of the picture was full of little pieces of warm toasty bread that you could eat it with. Very yummy. 

Finally, we have one of the weirder meals. On the right is a plate of cold roasted red peppers along with some kind of cold, processed fish. Nooo thank you. I do like roasted red peppers but with the fish....meh. On the right is basically scrambled eggs with spinach. Pretty good. :-) 

There you have it. I still have other photos of food but I'll save those for another post. You've probably "had your fill" by now. Ha...haha....hahaha! Ok, so I'm not that funny. Lol. :-P Seee you later!! 

Segovia

Ah, the first day trip. What a day. I somehow managed to drag myself out of bed on a Saturday morning to travel  to Segovia with some other USAC students.

Sitting on the train on the way to Segovia equipped with sunglasses to hide my sleepy eyes and my iPod. 

Beautiful view from inside the train.

Just arrived in the Segovia. It was only about 10:30am. 

I don't think I'll ever get my fill of taking photos of beautiful, narrow, little streets. 

First sighting of the aqueducts. 

These aqueducts were left here by the Romans. 

I was attempting to be all "photographer-y". :-P  Pretty interesting photo if I do say it myself.

A couple of the USACers. I think at this point we had already "ooed" and "ahhed" over the aqueducts and we were trying to decide what to do next. 

Hehe. I thought this little chubby chef holding up the restaurant menu was kind of cute. 

Neat looking restaurant. 

View of the town. 

Statue of random guy. I really need to start remember who these people are. Lol. 

Steps right outside the cathedral we visited. 

Really beautiful and unique looking cathedral. 

Me!! 

Once again, street view. 

The Alcazar. This is the castle that inspired the Disney Princess castle. 

Better view of the towers. 

It's hard to tell but this was a really small suit of armor!! Must have been for some little prince or noble! 

Me, Marilyn, and Justin. Randomness. Lol. 

Drainage thingy? I guess... still inside the Alcazar. 

Marilyn, so cute! :-) 

Yes, we climbed the tower. All 152 steps. 

This was about halfway up the tower, you could go outside and have a look...and decide if you still wanted to climb the rest of the way up! Haha. 

And we kept climbing...

And we made it!!! A very, very beautiful view! 

Another view...

And another....

Food!! After our trip to the Alcazar, we decided to get lunch. Segovia is famous for its suckling pig, so of course we had to try some. It was delicious. The meat inside was very tender, but I wasn't so sure what I thought about the crunchy skin on the outside. :-P 

End of the day on the way home.

Segovia is a charming little town. It made for a great day trip, sort of an initiation into our first couple of weeks of the program. I had a great time, but by the bus trip home, I was ready to sleep! :-) 

Museo Reina Sofia

I literally live less than 3 minutes (walking) away from the Reina Sofia Museum, so I figure it would be the first museum to tackle. I went with my lovely friend Marilyn that I met on day 2! We had a lot of fun and spent a total of four hours in this museum!! 

Before we ventured into the museum we stopped at a pizza place right down the street for lunch.  Not exactly like the pizza we know in the US but really tasty! Here I'm holding a pizza pocket with "jamón y queso", the immortal Spanish combination of jam and cheese. Lol.

Ok, huge story to tell with this picture. This sculpture is right inside the huge canopy like structure that is the new addition onto the Reina Sofia. It's a sculpture by Roy Lichtenstein. I was immediately transported back a couple of weeks in time when I saw this because there was a very similar sculpture at the Port Columbus International Airport where I flew out from. Literally, the sculpture was at my terminal where my family and I waited for a while. 

Here's a better view of the canopy, pretty cool right?! 

Yay! Here's Marilyn standing under the sculpture. 

And me! 

The museum is a rectangle shape with a garden in the middle of the building. It was very peaceful and quiet in here. 

Ok, one of the rooms in the Reina Sofia is just a completely white room with 4 large metal rectangular blocks. Marilyn and I were a little weirded out by them but we decided to have a little fun with it. Here's me sticking me head out from behind one of them. 

And now my arms. Haha. 

Haha. I love this picture. This is really a reflection of Marilyn's personality, cute and random. :-) 

Here's a better view of the entire room. I don't really get what the whole point is. I read a little flyer about it and there's supposed to be something cool and sciency about it but I don't really get it...

This is from inside the elevator of the Reina Sofia. 

Here I'm looking in the opposite direction towards the other set of elevators. 

We worked up quite an appetite in the museum so we stopped at La Ochava, a little cafe near my apartment, and got some food. Those are ham, egg, and cheese sandwiches, along with some café con leche (coffee with milk). Soo delicious.

All in all, a great day. I've got to say, I didn't really enjoy the Reina Sofia a whole lot because it's got a lot more modern art. It was a great experience though and I always have fun with Marilyn!!