Did anybody watched that..?
I couldn't help but notice the tree cabbage that was used in one of the villages..so immediately I had to start googling if they are something that I'm missing of.. ::) ;D
And Real Seeds are selling them..Asturian tree cabbage ;D..anybody grown it? Any reports?
Love Rick Stein and Spain. After visiting Spain regularly for over 45 years and having a mother who half grew up there. I can say that MOST Spanish cuisine can be hard to get into. I grew up with olives, cured fish etc. I adore them and other things Spanish but not all. In fact it was years before I could enjoy a Spanish coffee and even now I do not like a lot of their wines.
A friend who married a Spaniard told me she would try to take things over there from the UK for her inlaws when they spent their hard earned holidays with his family each year. They would refuse to even taste them and she ended up being banned from the kitchen until it was time to wash up. In the end she just grinned and bared it and took with her a pair of marigolds. Got used to being called Enlaise instead of her given name too. (She must have loved her husband a lot).
However unpalatable as a lot of their traditional food is to others, they are fiercely traditional. Much like the Italians.
I recall the time we were in a tourist restaurant in Italy and the waiter came over to the table next to ours where there sat an English couple who had just arrived. (you could tell that they were both deathly white)
Thinking about it now. I suppose that they had enjoyed a certain Italian dish in the UK but had hoped to have the 'real thing' in Italy and expected it to be so much better.
Without looking at the offered menu Himself said .
'Two Spaghetti Bolognaise please'
The waiter took on a haughty pose and replied.
'Senor, Our chef will not insult our pasta by serving it with a bolognaise sauce'. (wrong area of Italy).
True to form, our Brits apologised. Inspected the menu and ordered a Pizza each.
Aside.
Spanish food is regional and with the exception of tourist cafes and restaurants (they have learned how to make money). Local bars/cafes are endorsed by the locals and it is they who want to keep it and their traditions to themselves.
To even get served in some truly Spanish bars/cafes off the beaten track you have to be introduced by a local. The locals do not want foreigners there and even if you can speak Spanish they will tell you that they have only got the food ready for the people who have pre ordered it the day before.
By the body language it is not hard to spot that the bar owner get's anxious when there are non Spaniards on the premises, the locals will go to the bar and say very loudly in Spanish. If you are becoming a tourist place we will go elsewhere.
The food and booze is exceptionally cheaper in a local taverna, the standard of cooking can be good too but the fact is, they do not want us to wander out of the tourist areas set aside for us.
I do not blame them for that either. When I think about it. I much prefer to be with my own too and we Brits are not exactly known to be totally welcoming to others from other cultures in our private little spaces.
Racist? No I do not think so. It is not like we are all putting up notices which say No dogs or foreigners. ( I use the word foreigners deliberately because we all know what I mean)
It is a matter of having a special place for ourselves and having a different place where every one who wants to can mix together.
I know of some English people who have had a problem when they moved to Scotland with their work. Some Scots who were ignored when they wanted to mix with in a bar in England.
I know I have gone totally off track here but there is, in most local communities a place where locals want to go to and mix with other locals. People they have grown up with, gone to school with, worked with and each knows the family of every one else.
In the UK we had WMC and Social Clubs for a lot of businesses. The businesses which employed the community closed and members of that community had no money to socialise so the clubs went too. Pubs slowly died the death too. We have few places where we can socialise with our own or others any more.
The Spanish have different laws so that there can be a social place in a village for just locals and they do not pay taxes like a pub or club in the UK, they do not have to conform with health and safety either to the same degree.
There is little or no under age drinking because every one knows every one else and the kids wont try to push their luck. Some one will tell their Mother, Father Grandmother Grandfather Aunt or Uncle. But they don't need to. Seeing the neighbour in the bar means they know they can not get what they should not be doing but they are welcome to come in and have a soft drink.
Somehow, we in the UK seem to have gone astray by concentratin on the rest of the world and their problems. Our own have no place to interact. So dating agencies on the internet are getting a lot of hits. Our elderly sit at home waiting for WVS or some other social service to call whilst they watch soaps on the TV.
A lot of villages do not have a pub a club or a post office.
People shop on line once a month or fortnight and keep a stock in the fridge and freezer
The Spanish are much keener than we are to keep their local communities together
I respect that, in fact I agree with it.
I agree that every one everywhere should have a social space for those who have to migrate or are displaced and need to mix in with their new community. There should be a place to do so. That is a space which the local government should give to the new
It is totally wrong to expect these two to be in the exact same space.
What we do, as we have always done is to set up a competition.
Best at dominoes, best at darts for example I am sure there are other things we could interact at
That is the way to get communities to get together and get to know one another. Enjoy one anothers company and become friends and enemies (in the nicest possible way).
My view. The only view I can express.
Detracting totally from the origional post I know apologies for that but no apologies for the opinion experessed
:o You've got keyboard in fire!.. ;)
Spanish flavours do suit my taste buds..and I've been lucky to be taken into small local places to eat those so called 'pheasant foods' with spanish friend of mine..as I was in 'company' I was always treated with respect and not as turist..once they get to know you (like anywhere else) there is not been problems.
I still remember fondly my first time eating rabbit...YUM..it just falled apart in my mouth and I was told to tuck in with fingers and eat like locals do.. ;D
Ok..I've now ordered the cabbage seeds..now I only need to grow and harvest them and get hold of the pig to make the dish that was done in that program.. :P
I defy anyone,even the Spaniards & Rick Stein included to beat my wife's Paella :) :) :)
Rick Stein is usually good value and his recipes are generally easy to follow and full of flavour ( a bit like Jamie Oliver) unlike someone like Gary Rhodes where you need a degree in engineering to assemble.
The story of the british couple asking for bolognese reminded me of the awful american "lady" who came into the restaurant in Tuscany my wife were enjoying last year. She decided she didn't want anything on the menu but wanted the "porceeeeeni if they were in season" but not with any "heavy" pasta. The owner informed her they were in season and that they eat them with a certain type of pasta (i can't remember which) but she wasn't having that and asked for "some angel hair". He was the epitome of restraint - i'd have thrown her out - whilst she made a song and dance about everything, To such an extent one of her companions pointedly remarked she was "happy to eat from the menu". The woman was awful, she was "hypperventilating goddamit" cos her mobile (sorry cell) wasn't working.
Even my wife on leaving, who is the very model of patience (being married to me), was heard to utter
"God wasn't she awful"
OH and I went on a company jolly to Majorca 17 years ago and added a few days to explore on our own. We had the devil of a time finding authentic local food but we persisted and had a couple of delightful meals. We love Spanish food and flavours and had a fine time in the food market. More recently I visited Barcelona with a Spanish friend who's gone back to live there and ate fabulous tapas and local food.
Spain is on my list for a leisurely gastronomic tour when OH retires.
For many years we went to Tuscany for beach holidays with Possum but stayed in the Italian end, not Chiantishire. We discovered they give different menus to Brits, Germans and Italians so when we went to our favourite beach front restaurant with Italian/Swiss friends we found they only offer spaghetti carbonara to stupid Brits and Americans who don't realise it's a winter dish. Possum always preferred fritto misto and spaghetti with clams or sea food even from the age of 3 and we love their antipasti and fish dishes with jugs of prosecco.
Americans were to be found in numbers further south in Lucca, Pisa, Sienna. Never did find a good restaurant in Pisa. All the ones with terraces were invaded by Yanks eating the wrong pasta.
Never did find a good restaurant in Pisa. I've been there once..and we were on look out where locals was heading..and found lovely very basic place where lot of local student types was eating...so we have HUGE pizza and cheaply..but then we did the turist thing.. :-X ..and we ask to have some garlic on our pizza....OMG.. :o..there was some 'rattle' going on in the background in kitchen.. ;D What we could understand from their " ::)"...we were typical scandinavians..wanted to 'stink to garlic'.. ::) ;D ;D
But bit of friendly banter and lot of waiving hands we got through to them that we just love raw garlic...and Italians grow the best tasting garlic in the world.. ;)...I think we were forgiven... ;D
QuoteI defy anyone,even the Spaniards & Rick Stein included to beat my wife's Paella Smiley Smiley Smiley
Is that an invitation ;) ;) ;)
Can I go off topic again with what happenend in France :-[
An english man was asking for more water in his coffee, in english, followed by "MORE AQUA" very loudly and repeatedly. He then said -honestly!! to his companion- that he always found that if he repeated his request loudly enough in english the waiters always understood him. ??? ??? ???
My friend and I cringed :-[ :-[ :-[
Hubby and I took my parents to Euro Disney for my mums 70th birthday. My dad is a very finnicky eater and a nightmare to feed unless its meat and two veg with no onions,garlic or herbs. The second week we were in Honfleur which is famous for its food.Hubby and i love the experiment and mum too but dad actually sulked most of the time and was acting like a spoilt kid. The poor waiter in one restaurant was trying so hard to please. It came to the cheese course and there must have been 50 cheeses on the huge cheese board. Dad turned his nose up and made rude comments the poor waiter said in desperation "pleeeeeeeeese sir what cheese do you like? Dads reply "cheddar"!
I adore Spain and Spanish food but Zig Zag is right about the local v tourists thing. I spent ages in Valencia trying to find something that looked like a local place only to get treated like a piece of crap when we got there. We weren't allowed to sit inside as they were "reserved" (although no one sat there) and everyoone got served before us even though we ordered paella..
However by the end of the evening we had drunk some wine (quite a lot as we did wait for ages) and started to enjoy ourselves, local kids were letting off fireworks, everyone laughing and talking and even the hostess mellowed.
I dont blame them at all - they must have seen what the tourist industry has done to a lot of other places and I don't think we (The British) really understand the way they eat. We were at this place for a couple of hours and most people were there when we got there and there when we left. Also the whole family is out on the town - from babes in arms to great grandmothers and everyone inbetween - and they eat and eat and eat..
But give it some time and be mellow and join in a bit and I find the Spanish are very welcoming..
I came to Spain in 1987 for a year and never looked back. It is a fantastic but frustrating place to live.
I've seen the first two episodes of Rick Stein's series and was disappointed initially - the opening sequence is full of clichés and olés and the first episode was a tad misleading. You got the idea that everyone gets their bread from the local artesan bakery and the cold meats are all prepared in the back kitchen. You have to go out of your way to get either and to be honest the bread here is pretty poor and mostly freshly baked from frozen. Felt it was all a bit "twee".
Tonight's episode was a lot better I thought although I still fail to see the appeal of salted cod. Nice ending in the Costa Brava, by far my favourite location, just a couple of hours drive north from here but I don't get there enough. Definitely my ideal retirement location.