Segovia

When I was in about grade eight, we had a social studies text book and  on the cover was a picture of the aqueduct in Segovia. For some reason,  I always imagined it to be out in the country somewhere but the reality  is that it sits right inside and is part of the fabric of the city

It's fitting that we started our journey with Gehry and Gaudi and we are now here in Segovia with the Romans. Surely if these guys hadn't figured out that arch thing, it's unlikely that the others would have been able to achieve what they've done.  And both are equally spectacular.

We left Galicia at about 4 o'clock and had a lovely drive to Segovia out of the main heat of the day.  We arrived to our hotel about 5 minutes before the Spain / Germany Semi-Final of the World Cup so we headed straight to the bar for the first half.  Spirits were high and compared to the other places where we had watched previous matches (Galicia, Basque Country, Catalunya, who have their own national identities) there was considerably more favour for Spain.

We left at half time to go into town as we hadn't even seen the aqueduct at this point and we wanted to be in heart of the action.  We landed at a small bar which had a relatively tiny 36 inch flatscreen outside on the terrazza.  But the atmosphere was great and of course when Spain scored the crowd went mad.

Later, there were lots of celebrations in the streets and a dance festival, presumabably planned earlier and independently of the World Cup was going on at the foot of the aqueduct.

This was truly one of our most memorable days in Spain and sitting there in the moonlight watching this amazing performance in front of this incredible structure, it was hard not to think we were in a dream.

The next day we got up early and explored the town a bit and visited the 16th Century Gothic Cathedral. All the flying buttresses you could want!

Grandma's House - Eating & More Eating

Grandma's house is in the Ancares region of Galicia. This is a  relatively unspoiled area of the earth where the people genuinely live  off the land. Everyone has their plot of land with cabbages, potatoes,  beans and maybe a cow, or some pigs and chickens.  Life is pretty simple  here. From the village, it seems like you are in the middle of nowhere  and it's quiet and lovely. You can hear birds sing and see the stars at  night.  But when you look over the hill, there's the motorway running  through the valley, bringing you out of your dream world and truth be  told it's an engineering marvel.

Grandma is an excellent cook and so we besides visiting we do lots of  eating. Simple things like home grown lettuce for salad, locally made  chorizo sausage and cured ham and local veal steaks.  She even made us a  cake - well truth be told - she had it made.  She gave her chicken's  eggs to the local bread man (he comes every day to deliver fresh bread  to the door - how's that for service!) and he made the cake for her.

These are truly free range chickens. They are closed in at night but other than that, they pretty much run the place.

There are lots of childhood memories of when this place was a busier, more bustling one.  My grandparents ran a store which was below the main house and I always remember it as being full of people and energy. The motorway has changed the atmosphere of the place.  The trucks used to run right past the front door on the old highway, so while it's now safer and less noisy its taken some of the life from the place.

It's always nice to be here.

Getting Behind…

So clearly I've been getting behind in my blogging. Somewhere after San Sebastián I lost the plot and got consumed by driving and getting to the  next place. Here are some highlights:

Biarritz

After San Seb. we headed to Biarritz to drop our friends to the airport and we stayed the night.

Stunning location on the Basque Coast. Check. Beautiful young people sunning themselves. Check. Snotty French waiters and mediocre food. Check. Check. All the makings of the perfect holiday resort. It is beautiful, no doubt but I'd be hard pressed to spend a week here I think.  We did have some amazing mussels in blue cheese sauce that were to die for. They were really small and tender but overall the food here was nothing like we'd been eating in Spain and was quite a bit more expensive.

Further down the coast toward Spain, the town of Saint Jean de Luz is  a much nicer town with a more homey feeling. The beach front isn't as  impressive but I enjoyed the town itself more with its little shops and  bakeries.  I have always wanted to go here because when I was a child my  family stayed in the next town on the Spanish side - Hondarribia and we  could see Saint Jean from there. As a young child I always found it amazing that you could look across the water and see another country.

Bilbao once more

I have some family friends/relatives in Bilbao so we met them for  lunch. Despite their best efforts to direct us to their home via an exit  name that did not exist, we inevitably ended up lost in Bilbao. After  several attempts to locate each other via telephone they eventually  ended up coming to find us so that we could follow them to their  apartment where we could eat lunch. Bilbao sits in kind of a hole in the  landscape and they live at the top so the view from there was quite  something. We could see all of Bilbao and even the Guggenheim from their  balcony.  The 'small' lunch as they called it consisted of ham,  chorizo, ensaladilla de Rusia - a kind of potato salad and asparagus.  Then for the second course, yes, I did say second course, they provided  some delicious meatballs called albondigas in a very rich tasty sauce.   This was followed by cheese of the Idiazabal variety which is typical of  the Basque country. To paraphrase Van Morrison….now the eating has  begun.

Gijon We said our goodbyes and headed to Gijón - a beach town on the  Cantabrian Coast in Asturias. It was lovely to have some fresh air after  all that driving so we walked up and down the beach front and had a  small dish of clams before taking a pretty early night.

Galicia I am a 'gallega' by birth so we were returning to my homeland. Galicia is a very green and very beautiful, not very industrialized. Much of it lies on the sea and the reputation for quality products from both land and sea is known throughout Spain.

We were ultimately heading to Grandma's house in Noceda a small village near Lugo but with a stop in Santiago de Compostela.

We stopped about noon at a beach called Praia os Catedreis or Cathedral Beach which is known for its spectacular formations. Sadly the tide was in and we didn't get the full effect but beautiful it was just the same.

Lost Once More…Santiago

Our plan was to have lunch with some cousins of mine in Santiago and then head to Grandmas. But once again, a combination of lack of local knowledge, confused instructions and communication issues resulted in us being lost at our destination and spending about an hour trying to find where we were going to go. Super G was quite frightened at one point as we navigated the small streets of Santiago with me driving, speaking in Spanish to my cousin on the speaker phone both of us shouting at each other which is more the Spanish way of discussion.

Eventually I gave up with trying to find our destination and we simply abandoned our car in the nearest public car park and took a taxi to the restaurant we were to meet them at.  This meal was so simple, but so enjoyable.

Grilled Octopus (Pulpo) Salad Red Peppers stuffed with Cod Pimientos del Padrón, a local specialty - small green peppers that are fried. It is somewhat of a lottery as some are extremely hot, others are not. But both are delicious. Tortilla Española - until this point I had been very disappointed with the tortillas we'd had in other places. This is a dish that my mother makes all the time and sorry but the others had not been up to scratch. But this one was more like the one I remember and was delicious. The flavour of the eggs was incredible and the colour was really rich and yellow, almost orange.

At this point, my cousins were ordering dessert, which was really quite unbelievable, but despite our protests out came a dessert plate with various things to try including delicious strawberries covered in chocolate as well as chestnuts in chocolate and creme caramel.

Paseo Por Santiago

Some of you may have heard of the Camino de Santiago which is a religious pilgrimage to the tomb of St. James the Apostle who is believed to be buried at Santiago. It is said that the remains of the saint revealed themselves in a field of stars or Campo do Stella from which comes the name Compostela. This has been a route for pilgrims since at least the 13th Century.  This year is a Jacobean Year or Año Santo which occurs in every year that St. James Day, the 25th of July falls on a Sunday. The next one will be in 2021.  So many more pilgrims will come this year than in others.

My youngest cousin Faia was an excellent tour guide deftly walking straight past any signs that said 'prohibido' or 'guests only' to show us lots of secret corners of Santiago - a truly magical city. She also showed us the 'insider tricks' like lying on the ground in front of the Cathedral and looking it upside down, which is what locals do.

Arzak

The lovely Mexican man at the next table said it best when I asked him what he had eaten, "That is the problem, I'm not sure that I can describe it - It's like nothing I can remember - I think that Arzak must be the Dali of food" There is no reference point for Arzak - and I will suffer the same problem as my Mexican Friend here. So below is a somewhat futile attempt to describe our meal. If nothing else, the pictures convey the beauty of the plates which really were works of art.

Amusements

A fish pudding on a stick wrapped in a fried noodle wrapper. - Satisfyingly tasty. White bean soup with apple. - Simply gorgeous, light, fragrant. Chorizo in tempura - which was really tempura with a chorizo flavour. No part of the texture of the chorizo remained. Crispy rice cracker with mushrooms of the area, called Hongos. - Surprising and yummy. Sardine with Strawberry - who would ever dream of putting these together? But I can tell you, this was the most memorable and divine taste of the plate.

First Course Foie gras and some roasted pepper pieces (I think?) served in a tapioca pocket. We were told to stuff the pocket which was light as air, and eat it  like an ice cream cone. Sorry - no picture - at this stage, I was completely overwhelmed. Super rich but light and airy.

Second Course

Lobster with a Potato Crunchie - the potato was  blown into a crisp - almost like a rice chip. Very interesting texture  combination. Lobster was succulent.

Egg Course Arazak always does an 'egg of the season'. Ours was called an egg earthquake. The egg was orange in colour and perfectly poached with most of the white removed. Then there were little bits of crunchy sweetness mixed in with the dish. We were told to break the egg yolk and mix in the crunchy bits.  The only thing I can describe this to is when you are eating eggs, toast and maybe you have some maple syrup or other sweet thing on your breakfast plate and by accident the sweetness combines with the egg. Pure yumminess!

Fish Course Sole with Spinach and Walnuts. The walnuts were soft and were impregnated with smoked paprika. Smoked paprika is quite traditional in Spanish cooking so this gave it  a comfort feeling but the combination of flavours was so subtle it made it very elegant. The sole was divine. This was my favourite course up until this point.

There was also a choice of Monkfish, which J one my companions opted for. This was delightfully playful - a veritable beach scene.

Meat Course Choice of pigeon or lamb were recommended but the Maitre D also offered choice of Foie Gras or Beef. We all opted for the lamb save for J who took the pigeon.  The lamb was perfectly cooked, medium. More smoked paprika in a light oil and for the real surprise of the plate, a potato made to look like a marrow bone, complete with a lucious sauce in the centre to simulate marrow. The potato itself was coated with a white rind (like you'd see on a camembert) which completed the effect. (Quickly supplanted the sole as my new favourite of the night).

First Dessert Course It feels like we had as many dessert courses as savoury ones. The Maitre D simply asked us if we all liked chocolate, pineapple, lemon etc at the beginning of the meal and said he would bring us several things to share.  For the first dessert course, I received some chocolate balls arranged in the shape of a grape vine in a strawberry soup with a basil ice.  This was the truly incredible part of the meal. The chocolate ball was like a delicate pudding ball that you had to handle delicately, like an egg yolk so it would not break. On popping it into your mouth, it was like having a malteser explode and liquefy. No crunchy malteser texture but the flavour of one.

Super G had an opera cake made whose flavours included spinach and was incredible. We were also given Rosemary ice-cream and a raspberry. As with all the ice creams we received they had the most incredible texture somewhere between a sorbet and ice cream.

Second Dessert Course At this point, I couldn't believe that food was still coming at us and it seemed each course was getting more surprising as we went on. A deconstructed lemon cake which appeared to be morsels of lemon curd covered in a waxy substance that was served with a  honey water and cochineal fractal.  At this point, you may be wondering, what is that exactly so I will explain.  The 'honey water' was placed in a small bowl. It had the consistency colour and texture of an egg white. Into that was placed a drop of cochineal (red liquid). Immediately a fractal occurred in the honey water and we watched it grow bigger. We all gazed in awe as the waiter then stirred it up and poured it over the cake.

This was accompanied with a second dessert named 'Lunatic's Dessert' which I can only describe as orange pudding explosions. They looked innocuous enough on the plate - almost like fava beans. We were told to scoop up the contents of the plate, sugar, salt and a black syrup and eat the 'bean' all at once. The result was this intense explosion in the mouth that liquefied in an instant and gave the most intense orange flavour.

Coffee & Petits Fours At this point, I could't really eat anymore but the sheer beauty of the plate was so compelling we had to sample them. A truffle covered in smoked paprika wrapped with a bow of lemon peel like a beautiful present, a white bean and chocolate ball with crunchy rice. Incredible. I think Arzak has mastered something very fundamental about how animals are attracted to the brightest flower and has designed his plates accordingly.

This is simply the meal of a lifetime. The flavours were incredible but it's as much about the experience, the creative plating, the artistry and the surprise. With all of the showmanship, I still felt like this cuisine was rooted in something more basic, and elemental. You could feel the love in this food.  The other thing I will say is that the chef himself was very present in the dining room, coming in and appearing to truly connect with his guests. We had been met by him at the door and he invited us in, calling me by my first name in a way that made this fairly formal experience a warmer and more natural one.  I will never forget it!

Welcome to the land of Pintxos

We have landed in San Sebastian - a food lover's paradise and one of the most beautiful places on earth with its gorgeous beaches on the Bay of Biscay. San Seb. is home of the pintxo - a basque word  for a small literally two bite meal.

And there are tons of them!

Every bar we go into has them lined up and piled high on the counter.  Jamon Iberico mini-sandwiches, foie gras on toast, scallops in béchamel sauce served in a scallop shell, goats cheese and eggplant tower, crab mayonnaise, leeks and sundried tomato on toast.

We move from place to place like roving marauders, tasting just a bite here and a bite there washed down with little half glasses of wine or Xacoli, a basque specialty, a light white wine with gas poured from a height.

Just when I think I have found my favourite taste, my favourite place, we go somewhere else and it is supplanted. If this isn't living in the moment, then I do not know what is.

I am in heaven!

Guggenheim & Ysios – Architour

I've wanted to come to the Guggenheim for about 10 years now. Although I've been in Spain quite a few times in that period, for whatever reason, it has not worked out so I'm thrilled that we are finally going.We had a pretty incredible morning already, setting off from Marqués de Riscal and visiting the nearby Ysios winery at La Guardia, which was designed by Calatrava. This place was designed to be photographed. With the incredible pyrenees as the backdrop, the undulating roof echoes their curves. There was not a single person there when we visited and we had a lovely few minutes on our own snapping pics and admiring. A bus tour arrived 5 minutes later so we moved on but I will really remember this special moment in La Rioja.

The drive from Marques de Riscal to Bilbao is about 1.5 hours. We went as far as Vittoria-Gasteiz on lesser national routes which I'm so glad of - we really got to see some of the beautiful Rioja countryside and I'm inspired to visit here again with more time.

Now we focussed on the point of our journey - 'the Gugg'.  Arriving in Bilbao was pretty easy, the museum is well sign-posted. Tip - if you can, park across the river from the Guggenheim. You get a beautiful view from here and can photograph it before walking over the bridge to get a closer look.  The sunlight on the fish scales dances and changes as you move and as the sun moves.

Again, what can I really say on this one? It's as incredible as I remember from photos but I'm pinching myself because I can't believe I'm actually here. Every way you look at the building you get a different view or angle. I think you could see it forever and see something new every time.

We walk around to look at 'El Perrito', Jeff Koon's dog sculpture which is hilarious and cute.

Inside, I wonder if anyone looks at the art, the building is so incredible. It's covered in glass on one side so you get a beautiful view of the river from inside.  The audio guide tells me that the central atrium is the heart of the building and that the adjacent galleries are the veins. All lead back to the heart so you visit here several times during your visit.

Outside the public art installations are wonderful and seem to  complement this already imposing building perfectly.  I love the spider  and the bullrushes which look like Koons as well.

The day is really hot and it's just lovely to walk around and look at this thing, this shining tower in the sun.

Come on over to my friend Frank’s…

On the Road Again It's Tuesday.  We left Barcelona yesterday and now find ourselves in Marqués de Riscal, near the small town of El Ciego. For those of you who have not heard, Frank Gehry designed a small hotel here. Even if you aren't an architecture fan, you may have seen it if you followed On the Road Again, on PBS. So this is somewhat of a 'station of the cross' on our way to the Guggeheim in Bilbao. For me it's a definite Pilgrimage having been a Frank Gehry fan for some time.

The initial part of the drive out of Barcelona on AP2 - is fairly boring. You hit the A68 and then head for Zaragoza, Logrono.  Lunch time happened in a roadside cafe service station. Delicious. We kept it simple, bocadillos of chorizo and spanish potato omelette, tortilla. Mmh, mmh good! In Spain, even fast food, is good food.

The countryside changes as you come into Navarra and La Rioja and becomes very lush and green, rolling wine country. El Ciego is just inside the border of Pais Vasco aka Euskadi to the Basques.

Marques de Riscal

There is no point in me describing the marvel that awaits you when you arrive at Marques de Riscal.

Actually - I do want to talk more about this...but I need to get organized with pictures etc to do it justice so expect a follow up but suffice it to say...I LOVE!

Wine Tour There was  tour of the winery starting right away so we jumped on board. The hotel was described as having been designed by the 'Canadian Architect Frank Gehry' which of course he is, but it isn't always mentioned so we puffed up our chests a little bit with pride! We toured both the modern winery and the two older ones which are used only for storage and some aging. The older wineries were really impressive, beautiful buildings. It was really what you expect an old world winery to be. They only make Reds in El Ciego - no Crianza - just Reserva and Gran Reserva. This is of course, Rioja appellation. Marques de Riscal do have another winery in Rueda where they make a Verdejo and some other lighter whites.  Of course we tasted both.

Tapear Having had our palates whet with a lovely Rioja 2005 Reserva (a very good year apparently), we headed up to the terrace to gaze out on the view and try to assimilate the information hitting us via every sense and of course sample some more wine. We settled on a beautiful rose which was just perfect in the heat of the day.   The view from the terraza is stunning, overlooking the town of El Ciego, with its sandstone Church set on a backdrop of the Pyrenees. This is a situation where you literally do not know where to look. Architectural marvel on one side, picturesque village and vines on the other.  Getting a bit peckish I think…so more tapas….these were 'posh' ones…Sardine terrine  & fried idiazabal cheese stuffed with quince paste. The sardine was tasty although not my favourite…as for the cheese. Divine. Words cannot explain. Sorry.

Regroup Having barely spent anytime in the room, we headed up to refresh and just enjoy the space.  It feels less like a hotel room and more like you are staying in your very cool friend Frank's house. He just happens to have left you a bottle of wine and some complimentary water. We are staying in the Gehry wing and our room looks out over the vines and the winery as opposed to the town of El Ciego. (view mentioned earlier). Super G says it's the kind of place you could write a novel in.

The Futbol Spain and Portugal fought it out with Spain emerging victorious after a goal in the second half. We watched this from the comfort of the hotel bar which again, is much more like your cool friend Frank's living room than a hotel bar.  There were only a handful of fans, but everyone was fully committed which is what matters most. So Spain hang on and we can continue our journey as well.

Dinner By this time it is 10:30 so we go light and opt for the traditional restaurant (as opposed to the Nueva Cocina version). For the first course we share a gorgeous salad with tuna and red peppers - always a delicious combination - and the house croquettes, creamy béchamel chicken and ham. These may be the best I've ever tasted.  For second course, we all have fish - merluza - aka hake except for Super G who opts for patitas de cordero. Lamb's feet which were explained to us as lamb shank with some feet as well. Here's the thing. No shank. Just feet, mostly knuckle grisly bits. But the sauce was delicious.  Bad ordering not bad food.  Dessert - I have Flan, described on the English language menu as 'egg yolk pudding' which I suppose technically, it is.  As a Spanish speaker, I insist on getting the Spanish language menu whenever I am in Spain, because I find the English translations often either confuse me or do nothing to whet my appetite.  Case in point - 'Clean pig's foot', 'lukewarm shrimp'….they just don't fly in English. The highlight of the dinner was definitely the wine - 150 Anniversary Edition of Marques De Riscal Rioja. Super velvety and yummy. The crowning glory on a magnificent day.

La Pedrera

We are leaving for Barcelona this morning so I'm up early - 7:30. The streets are quiet, so I wander around a bit and take a few pics of the Pedrera, or as it is also known, Casa Millá.  It opens at 9 so I decide to change my initial plan of bocadillo de jamón and slip in early before the people hit. What a treat!  Super G and I were the only ones on the Terrace in the morning sun. Every minute since I've been here, it appeared to be thronged with people.

I don't know a lot about Gaudí, so I'm not going to comment architecturally, other to say that I like what he did and it's clear to me that he brought nature into everything which his organic shapes.  The building is incredible.  5 families actually LIVE here. On the tour, you see the Attic, (my favourite part I think), the terrace and 1 apartment suite (where no-one lives).  It's so much better than seeing a social history exhibit in a museum. You can walk right up to the windows and look at Passeig de Gracia - you really can get the experience of what it might have been to have lived here.

This was something I didn't expect I'd have time for so I'm feeling delighted to have seen it and enjoyed it so much!

Please lower your tray tables

So day one of the holiday and I'm now under serious pressure to produce a post given that I have told scores of people of my intention to write a fabulous, hilarious and utterly compelling food blog. I figured if I told enough people about this blog…then I would have to do it.  I have used this strategy successfully before so I was confident of its successful outcome. It reminds me of my childhood experience at swimming lessons.  Jumping off the diving board becomes necessary to avoid embarrassment once you've walked to the top of that big ole ladder.  So here I am. Just blogging away like nobody's business.

We left Vancouver for Barcelona, via Toronto.  A wonderful highlight of the journey occurred in Toronto Airport where at the end of a particularly long concourse, there appeared as if by magic, a lovely man from Johnny Walker who offered us a shot of whisky wearing some sort of logo wear that said 'Keep Walking'.  This made me feel like the holiday had finally begun and gave me the necessary fortitude to make it to the international terminal, where we soon boarded our flight to Barcelona.

I confess that I secretly enjoy Airplane food…not necessarily for it's deliciousness, but more for the miracle of engineering that allows it to exist. I am one of those people that wonders what people mean when they say they detest it.  I mean really, you are suspended 35,000 ft above the earth in a steel tube - this is no time to start complaining about the food.  Rejoice in this miracle. Besides, as a picnic planner, I admire the organization…the compartmentalized nature of the offering.  Mini plates set out as 4 course dinner with dolly sized cutlery. What I always look forward to is the cheese and cracker. A nod to the cheese course. It's an acknowledgment that cheese is necessary for any complete meal, something I can get on board with quite easily.  So imagine my disappointment when the tray arrived 'sans' the usual 'fromage'. I'm sure someone in accounting figured that the removal of this item from the tray would save many millions from flight operating costs….just another chip away at the full service airlines used to provide.

I've just started Michael Pollan's, The Omnivore's Dilemma which upon reading, if you are not already questioning where your food comes from, you soon will. Tonight on Air Canada, the Omnivore's Dilemma is Chicken or Beef. Normally when I fly, I make my choice based on the carbohydrates…potatoes usually winning out over rice or pasta. But somehow Super G convinces me to have the chicken with rice…which turns out to be pasta.  For a few minutes we amuse ourselves by doing tasting descriptions as if we were judges on Iron Chef.  "The mustard sauce gives this dish a rich unctuousness one would not expect'"  "Interesting and imaginative use of zig zag carrot shapes" This kills about 5 minutes of our 8 hour flight but it makes us happy.  The only thing to do now is to eat the brownie. Why not, I'm on my holidays!