Finally doing our first bit of real siteseeing today. We’re waiting in line to see gaudi’s la pedrera.
La pedrera
July 24th, 2007are we not men?
July 22nd, 2007
So we spent the day at the FIB festival. Christine wisely navigated us to the front of the stage on the far side, a place no one else seemed to consider since we were able to spend the whole evening right up at the very front, separated only by the railing in front of the stage. The evening lineup was supposed to be a 1,2,3,4 punch of The Klaxons, Wilco, Dinosaur Jr. and Devo. Unfortunately the Kaxons were rescheduled and replaced by these guys:
Now how many people can say they’ve seen 3 grown men in full body skeleton scuba suits playing disco? Well apparently everyone in Europe besides us, because they all knew every word of every song in “Who Made Who’s” curiously entertaining set. Turns out these guys are from Denmark and are quite popular.
An interesting side note. A few days earlier I was archiving my old emails before we left the U.S. and ran across the very 1st email I ever wrote to Christine. She was in Denmark for work and we were planning a group trip to Coachella and I told her a story about meeting some Danes when I was in Australia and finding them very, very odd. It was my only Danish anecdote at the time. Now I have 2.
Wilco and Dinosaur Jr. played awesome sets and I spent the time between sets trying to convince the young Norwegian next to me that he had to have heard of Devo before if only via the cover of “Whip it” in that Swiffer commercial. He seemed amused by my explanation of the band’s importance to New Wave and even more so to Christine trying to figure out what grade she did a dance routine to “Whip It” in. (Answer: 4th…Youtube video to be posted later.)
Devo were actually great. The crowd was way more into them than Wilco or Dinosaur Jr. We just couldn’t get over their appearance. Ok, I know these guys are 60-ish, but so are these other guys. You tell me who looks in better shape:
Obviously the Devo diet was quite different than Mick and Keef’s over the years.
FIB music festival
July 21st, 2007 
A short drive from Valencia, Benicassim is the home of the annual FIB music festival. We’re here to see Wilco and Dinosaur Jr. Devo is also playing and Mike can’t wait for them to go on. The concert is much like Coachella in the US with music lovers camping out; bands and dj’s playing throughout the night. The only difference is that the weather here is beautiful, not 105 degrees like at Coachella.
A tropical paradise
July 19th, 2007 
Waiting in the train station in costa rica… I mean Madrid
the museum of ham
July 19th, 2007
Spain is the country of ham. It’s everywhere and in everything. The streets are paved with ham.
christopher columbus ate here
July 18th, 2007
Last night we stumbled upon this restaurant called “Botin” which is listed in the Guiness Book of world records as the oldest restaurant in the world. Established in 1725, not quite Columbus’ time, but still pretty old. The specialty of the house is the roast suckling young pig, which of course we had.
Below you’ll find Chrisitne’s video introduction.
the next food network star
July 18th, 2007[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wj0os6Pf8xI[/youtube]
i got my eyes on you…
July 6th, 2007
It’s 90 degrees by mid-morning, but we have to go fishing when its low-tide. Today that means 11:43am. My family and I haven’t been fishing in many years together, and I was looking forward to it. Last night my dad set a crab trap on the pier behind their place, and by 11pm we couldn’t wait any longer to check on our catch… nothing. By the time morning rolled around, the bait was gone and the crab trap was empty.
This morning we drove out to a bridge close to St Pete Beach, and got our fishing nets ready. We were going crabbing! My parents got right into the water and started hunting crabs. You see, it’s better to go when it’s low tide so the water is more shallow and there is better visibility. Basically, you walk very slowly through nasty, murky water until you see something. Using the fishing net (think butterfly catcher) you scoop from the bottom up into the crab, and voile! the crab falls right into the net.
It took all of 5 minutes before I got into the nasty water, thankfully I got new sandals that have very thick soles, so I didn’t have to really touch anything on the bottom. The crabs blend into the grassy, cloudy-bottom water, but when I spotted one, I was thrilled! But in a way, the crab looked like it had been watching me all along. When the grass moved with the tide, and the crab became visible, I felt like it had its eyes on me. Turns out it was mating with another crab, and who knows what was really on its mind… We each caught a few crabs, and my parents got a bunch of sea urchins and conch. Mike was wondering why the sea urchins were moving. Have you ever seen one? They are prickly-looking balls, but the prickly things are the tentacles. Crazy what types of creatures live in the sea. These are all things we eat…well, maybe just some of us eat them…
{photo above is a 8 foot grouper we saw at the Georgia Aquarium earlier this week}
the round the world trip begins…
July 2nd, 2007
… on I95, driving to St. Petersburg FL. We’re dropping christine’s car off at her parent’s condo and figured we’d catch a few games of shuffleboard and see how we blend in with our fellow retirees while we’re at it. -posted from the road on my non-iphone.
this one goes out to you…
June 29th, 2007It’s only been a few weeks since I started volunteering as a line-prep cook at Bar Ferdinand, and already I have lots of respect for those that do the job every day. Personally, I can’t believe how redundant the job is…cutting, chopping, prepping. Today I spent nearly 4 hours working on cutting manchego and stuffing it with quince paste; then adding flour, egg, and bread crumbs.
Its mind numbing work and by the third hour of chopping, a word kept coming into my mind, “chamara”. I don’t even know if this is the right way to say it, but in my mind it’s right. My entire life my mom would always say to me in Korean, “chamara” which essentially means to calm down, relax and get your wits together. It’s an odd word that doesn’t really translate so well in English, but often I think about it when I am doing something that I don’t want to, or when I start to feel impatient or frustrated. When I was young I hated this word, but now the word is comforting in an odd sort of way.
I guess I’m pretty good at prepping the food, though since Michael, one of the chefs half-heartedly offered me a job as a prep cook. I’ll have to pass up the offer. As it is if I never see another wheel of manchego or quince paste again, I wouldn’t be disappointed. I love to dine out and so for all of the line cooks and prep cooks out there, this one goes out to you…thank you so much for preparing and making my food!
wonder-ful!
June 18th, 2007I was asked today if I missed my “velocity” and whether I was wondering how sales were for last week. Although its only been two weeks tomorrow since my last day at work, it already feels longer than that. Oddly enough, I’m still busy. I’m still working– working out and working in a restaurant. Two things I’ve always wanted to do, but never had the time for. Deciding what to do isn’t always so easy; should I take a power yoga class today or a total body conditioning class?? Those are the big decisions I have to make these days…
Bar Ferdinand is a Spanish tapas restaurant Mike and I frequent, spending many late nights there, probably drinking more than eating. But either way, the dishes are great which keeps us coming back for more. I’m not really working, but really just volunteering my time a few hours in the mornings; chopping, peeling and making empanadas. Since my working knowledge of a professional kitchen is nil, I try to squeeze as much out of the executive chef, Blake as he is willing to pass on(hopefully he won’t mind I put his url link in). Today, I actually got to do something more creative– to help work on a sauce for the lamb empanada special. I came back in the evening to try it, and thought the empanada was tasty, and the sauce that accompanied it was pretty good, too!
The last few years, I’ve spent my Sundays evenings getting a jump start on the week by reviewing the velocity and sales reports. I can’t say I miss this Sunday ritual. I now get to stay up late and sleep in on Mondays. These days, the only thing I wonder about is when will I ever start packing?? and how will I get a years’ worth of clothes into one little backpack??
exactly one month and counting…
June 16th, 2007If you can believe it, we are only one month away from leaving on our trip. Mike and I are headed to Spain as our first destination. Most of you are probably saying, “big deal, it’s only Spain”, and I feel a little lame saying were outta here, but that we are going to Spain. It’s not exactly “exotic”, nor is it really difficult to get to…or is it?? I’ve been traveling for the last 18 years either to visit friends or for work related travel… but in all that time, I’d never made it back to Spain. You see, I was there when I was 16. Maybe I was 17. Either way, I loved it!
It was the first time I’d been out of the country, except when I went to Korea with my parents when I was 9– that was fun…using “out-houses” and being served eel sashimi that was still beating in front of me. Growing up in the midwest, I’d never seen anything like it, and I thought it was gross and I cried. Back to Spain…I was 16 (or 17), and Spanish was my foreign language in high school. My brother took French. For his class trip the year before mine, he was fortunate enough to go to France, Italy and England. I was a little jealous of him since his class went to three countries, and I only got to go to Spain.
What I didn’t know before the trip was that I would end up having a great time, getting into lots of trouble that even today I still remember with a little smile on my face! We hit Madrid, Barcelona, Seville, Toledo and this little town in Costa del Sol called Nerja. Ah, Nerja. Our teacher, Mrs. Coulter was foolish enough to believe that good grades meant good girls. Thankfully we had Jeanine, a twenty something dropout who liked to drink and smoke as one of our chaperones, and who aided and abedded us by looking the other way as we snuck out.
Honestly, it was harmless but back then it felt daring, and one of our classmates, Leonardo didn’t like it one bit! We met several Spaniards, I think their names were Paco and Javier, there was a third who’s name I can’t remember except we called him Stephan even though I think his real name was Steve. My friends and I all made a pact that we would not return to the States and that we would live out our lives in Nerja, but the next day we flew home. Back then in Spain, I ate a lot of pan y mantequilla (bread and butter), not understanding all the amazing foods that Spain has to offer.
This time around I plan to eat everything…not like Andrew Zimmerman who really eats everything, but I am interested in a food adventure. Although it’ll be hard to discover something the Travel Channel or Food TV network hasn’t already exposed to the world, my objective is to be adventurous; looking for unique foods and new culinary experiences to challenge my taste buds (and Mike’s!).