yobosayo – Around the World Travel Blog – Follow us around the world

Our time in Spain has come to an end. Tomorrow we head to Morocco.

Today we spent the day exploring Granada, a small city at the foot of the Sierra Nevada mountains and famous for the Alhambra. According to the guidebook, the Alhambra is the best preserved Moorish fortress in the world. It’s located at the top of a extremely steep hill and like most forts, was obviously built to keep people out. Well, hundreds of years later, I’m unhappy to say it’s still doing a fine job of it. After a long hot hike up to the top, we were informed that in order to protect the monument, there were “No Moor” tickets left for today. (There’s no way of knowing for sure since it was a recorded anouncement, but I like to think they would spell it that way, making all the workers chuckle amongst themselves saying how that joke never gets old.) It seems that the very same fortress that held thousands of enemies at bay for centuries, supported an entire army of men and instilled fear in the hearts of villagers below, can only withstand the onslaught of 2000 camera wielding tourists a day. Dejected, we hiked back down and enjoyed the views from below.

This was quite an exciting end to our week in Nerja. First there were the flaming chorizo dogs at a place called the “Barrel Bar” where the power had gone out and the only lights in the place were the eerie illuminated porcelain pigs slowly roasting everyone’s pork on a stick.

This was followed by Tutti Frutti Plaza, which loosely translated into English means “Old City on a Friday Night”

All this was topped off by an excellent Flamenco performance, which I’m fairly certain featured a member of 38 Special on guitar.

Even with the exchange rate, thats still close to a dollar a bottle!

On Saturday we left Barcelona and headed south to a little beach town called Nerja. It’s lovely.

1. Feliz Navidad
2. Donde esta la biblioteca?
3. El Pussy Gato! Andale, Andale! Arriba, Arriba!
4. Rico Suave
5. Oye Como Va
6. Hello, my name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father … prepare to die
7. Ricky Martin
8. Nina, Pinta and Santa Maria
9. Nachos Supreme, a Gordita Crunch and a large Sprite please
10. Columbus Boulevard (Even they still call it Deleware Avenue)

1.La Sagrada Familia

2. Art by Joan Miro

3. La Boqueria

***the 80/20 just missed the cut…I wish I had a photo of the many mullets we saw in Barcelona.

Today I can barely wait until we can go eat tapas. Yesterday Hedda and I stumbled across my best tapas experience, yet. Those tasty little bites called tapas or pinchos are served all day, even though traditionally they are supposed to be enjoyed between 7-9PM. The dishes are pre-made and sit along the bar and are meant to be a snack before dinner.

So far among my favorite tapas is the cured ham, especially if it is Iberico ham. I have also enjoyed the meatballs with a zesty tomato sauce, and salted cod with onions, green and red peppers in vinegar & olive oil. Of course the fried potatoes are also good, especially when served with garlic mayonaise.

Just so long as they promise to be tasty, I will go to another tapas bar tonight.

So, we have our first visitor…Hedda, who has tracked us down again. Back in December, she and her husband Michael showed up in Krabi, Thailand and followed us to Bangkok to take a cooking class. Now, she’s here in Barcelona. We’ve shared tapas with her, many bottles of wine and cheese, gone to La Sagrada Familia, Fundacio Joan Miro, and there’s even more to do in the next few days with her. She’s our first visitor and we’re excited to have her here to share in our travels. I wonder where we’ll meet up with next!
And, the question also remains which one of you will we see next??

The month of July has been filled with amazing foods, not only because we are in Spain experiencing different foods but that we have had the chance of a lifetime– twice this month. Earlier this month Mike and I went to Per Se restaurant in NYC. We indulged in an amazing 9 course tasting menu by Chef Thomas Keller. We had a 10pm reservation, and didn’t finish eating until after 1am. We also had the opportunity to go to Sant Celoni to Santi Santamaria’s (pictured above on the right) restaurant El Raco Can de Fabes, to try the 12 course tasting menu. Both of these restaurants are rated as one of the top restaurants in the world.

If you’ve ever ordered a tasting menu, you know that you will be completely stuffed by the time all of the courses are served. The trick to a tasting menu is to pace yourself, only finishing the plates that are completely amazing, and tasting a few bites of those courses that are good, but do not blow you away. Otherwise, by the last course you will feel uncomfortably full. Unfortunately willpower and eating for me do not go hand in hand…it doesn’t have to be amazing for me to finish my plate. So what happens when I order a 9 course tasting menu or 12 course tasting menu, for that matter??

My top picks from Per Se; Berkshire pork belly, beets and leeks butter poached lobster, peach melba foie gras, and the brownie desert. My top picks from Can Fabes; langostino grilled in herbs, fresh cheese with anchovies, the cheese selection was delicious, and the melon and strawberry sorbet.

I thoroughly enjoyed myself at both of these restaurants, and feel very fortunate I was able to try the best that the culinary world has to offer. If given another chance to go back, I’ll take it. In the future though, I might have to order a la carte, rather than the tasting menu so I can walk out of the restaurant, and not be rolled out!

Stopping for the day in this sleepy little town who’s claim to fame is “el raco can de fabes” which we’re hoping is Spanish for “next best thing to ‘el bulli’, the #1 restaurant in the world located right here in Spain and which is only open a few months of the year and impossible to get into. ” We’re ready for some good eats tonight. I’m suspecting we will become familiar with many parts of the pig that we never knew existed before.