A Spanish Sojourn

by Sarah Grimball, intern

Over the summer I had the pleasure to travel to Madrid and Barcelona for a study abroad program with LSU. We spent a week in Madrid and a week in Barcelona. Before taking this trip I was unfamiliar with the different types of Spanish delicacies, but this trip opened my eyes to a whole new world of culinary delights: paella, tapas, jamon iberco -- and who could forget the Sangria.

Trying Fideuà for my first bite in Spain.

The first dish that I ate in Madrid was called Fideuà. My friend and I stumbled upon this place as we were exploring the streets of Barcelona. We couldn’t speak any Spanish, so we went with the first restaurant that had a picture on the menu.

I can’t speak to how authentic this first dish I enjoyed was, but I can say that it was delicious and a wonderful welcome into the great country of Spain. Fideuà is a type of paella that uses noodles instead of rice as the base ingredient and is served with mussels, fish and prawns. The flavors all blended together to create a beautiful, garlicky pasta that probably has the ability to change lives.

In a country where the wine is cheaper than the water, it’s not hard to find good sangria. The best sangria that I had in Spain was at this little restaurant that my friend and I stumbled upon randomly. They served each pitcher of sangria with some kind of small dish of food called a tapa. This is traditionally done because the idea in Spain is to drink to have a good time – not to get drunk. We had a tapa of olives, but these weren’t just plain old olives. These olives were flavored with smoked paprika and garlic. The salty, savory flavors of the olives combined with the sweet, bubbly burst of sangria is the stuff dreams are made of.

Sangria and marinated olives.

Another beautiful, uncommon occurrence is seeing ham legs in the windows of restaurants waiting to be shaved into Spain’s famous jamón ibérico. This delicious ham comes from the black Iberian pig, and up until 2007 it was illegal in the United States.

Jamón Ibérico

Leave it to the American to find a delicious burger in Barcelona! Though there were many delicious foods to choose from in Barcelona, sometimes you just have to have a burger...with sangria...on the beach--it’s Spain. This burger was served with thick cut fries and a sauce similar to a patatas bravas sauce (a robust tomato sauce). It was the best of both worlds.

Burgers on Barcelona's coast #organic #barcelona #beachlife

A post shared by @sgrimball on May 23, 2016 at 1:49pm PDT

Finally, you can take the girl out of Louisiana, but you can’t take the Louisiana out of the girl. Even in Barcelona I sought out a delicious Strawberry Daiquiri and enjoyed it overlooking the sunset of the beach. It really doesn’t get much better than this.

Life's good with a drink and a view #barcelona #beachlife #strawberrydaiquiri #fun

A post shared by @sgrimball on May 25, 2016 at 1:26pm PDT

Spain: Street Food Bite and Booze of the World Cup

It's time for another delicious bite and booze along the street food guide to the FIFA World Cup 2014. The winners of the last World Cup are known for plates with bold flavors and colors. Spain is a country full of life, great food, and a plethora of libations. For this edition of the street food guide, we're going to take a look at the Bocadillo and the world renown sangria!

Photo Credit: thelatinkitchen.com

Bocadillo translated is sandwich. In America, we dress our sandwiches with lettuce, tomato, and various condiments; the Spanish have a more simplified approach and take delicious cured meats and fine cheese and sandwich them between fresh, artisan rolls. You can find these in delis all over Spain with endless combinations of flavors. I found a recipe for Bocadillo de Jamon Serrano y Manchego that would be perfect for watching a great match! Jamon Serrano is an air dried ham packed with flavor and Manchego cheese is a hard, white cheese that is slightly sharp and makes for a killer sandwich. I can't wait to have one of these!

Photo Credit: spanishviaskype.com

Sangria is a big hit all over the world. Typically served in pitchers as a table wine, Sangria is made by taking white or red wine and macerating fruit in the wine. The natural sweetness of the fruit enhances the favors of the wine. Typically citrus is used, but try using some Louisiana strawberries or peaches!

Chile: Street Food Bite and Booze of the 2014 World Cup

It's time for another stop along the street food guide to the FIFA World Cup 2014! Like most South American countries, Chile (playing the Netherlands at 11am CDT) has a culinary culture that feeds off of the land. Both coastal and agricultural, their foods typically consist of shellfish, beef, and exotic game like llama. They are also big on empanadas and sopaipillas. Let's take a look at the special Chilean sopaipilla and their version of the sangria, the Borgoña!

Photo Credit: southamericanfood.about.com

Sopaipillas are both a sweet treat and an everyday grab and go street food in most South American countries. You may be used to fluffy cinnamon pastries drizzled with honey, but in Chile they put pumpkin in their dough and are more like fritters. The pumpkin gives the dough a natural sweetness and brings a thickness to the texture. Try them out and let me know what you think!

Photo Credit: thelatinkitchen.com

Sangria is a crowd pleaser, no matter where you're from! In Chile, Borgoña is served in massive pitchers for everyone around the table to enjoy. Simple and delicious, Borgoña is usually prepared with sliced strawberries or peaches macerated in sugar and mid-low level white wine (usually a sauvignon blanc). This is an extremely refreshing cocktail to be consumed during any gathering. Grab some local fresh fruit and get after it!

Spain - The 2010 FIFA World Cup Bites and Boozes

Spain

Spain faces The Netherlands today in the World Cup final, so it is today that we'll look at some Bites and Boozes from España. A fitting finale to the world tour, Spanish cuisine is an honest and non-pretentious cuisine that is loyal to its regions with their specialties and has remained rather uninfluenced by its culinary neighbors. It is not known for its elegance nor for fine cheeses or baked goods, but rather for its rustic approach to the Spanish passion of food. The national dish - the cocido - and well known favorites such as Iberian ham, paella, and tapas are mostly where the Spanish cuisine excels.  Of course, you can always make sure to drink plenty of sherry and sangria and then worry about food after your siesta!

Spanish stews or cocidos, as they are called in Spanish, are typical main dishes in Spain, particularly in the central and northern regions of Spain, typically consisting of meats, sausages, vegetables and garbanzo beans or chickpeas. The most famous is the Cocido Madrileño or Madrid Stew. In this version beef, ham, salt pork, chorizo, morcilla, a stewing chicken, garbanzos, potatoes, cabbage and carrots are the ingredients besides onion and garlic. Often a pig's trotter and a marrow bone and variations of other seasonal vegetables are included. One variation involves the broth of the cocido served as soup before, often with Spanish pasta in it.

Paella is a Spanish dish from the region of Valencia.  The rice dish that originated in its modern form in the mid-19th century near lake Albufera, a lagoon in Valencia, on the east coast of Spain. Many non-Spaniards view paella as Spain's national dish, but most Spaniards consider it to be a regional Valencian dish. Valencians, in turn, regard paella as one of their identifying symbols. There are three widely known types of paella: Valencian paella (Spanish: paella valenciana), seafood paella (Spanish: paella de marisco) and mixed paella (Spanish: paella mixta), but there are many others as well. Valencian paella consists of white rice, green vegetables, meat (rabbit, chicken, duck), land snails, beans and seasoning. Seafood paella replaces meat and snails with seafood and omits beans and green vegetables. Mixed paella is a free-style combination of meat, seafood, vegetables and sometimes beans. Most paella chefs use calasparra or bomba rices for this dish. Other key ingredients include saffron and olive oil.

Sherry is a fortified wine made from white grapes that are grown near the town of Jerez, Spain. In Spanish, it is called vino de Jerez. After fermentation is complete, sherry is fortified with brandy. Because the fortification takes place after fermentation, most sherries are initially dry, with any sweetness being added later. In contrast,port wine (for example) is fortified halfway through its fermentation, which stops the process so that not all of the sugar is turned into alcohol. Sherry is produced in a variety of styles, ranging from dry, light versions such as finos to darker and heavier versions known as olorosos, all made from the Palomino grape. Sweet dessert wines are also made, from Pedro Ximenez or Moscatel grapes. Sherry is regarded by many wine writers as "under-appreciated" and a "neglected wine treasure".

Sangria (Spanish: sangría; meaning "bloodletting") is a wine punch typical of Spain. It normally consists of
a light, dry, young, acidic, unoaked, fruit forward red wine, usually from the province of Rioja in Spain and of the Tempranillo or Grenache varieties; other reds that work well include French wines such as Gamay or Beaujolais, and Italian wines such as Grignolino, Bardolino, Dolcetto, Freisa, or Lambrusco.  Added to teh wine is chopped or sliced fruit (often orange, lemon, apple, peach, berries, pineapple; occasionally melon, grape, or mango), a sweetener such as honey, sugar, simple syrup, orange juice, and/or fruit nectar, a small amount of added brandy, triple sec, or other spirits, and ice.  Some recipes call for carbonated soda to be added to the punch as well.

For info on Spanish beer, visit my partner blog, the BR Beer Scene!

Thanks and Credits:

http://www.epicureantable.com/spanish.htm

http://www.notesfrommadrid.com/2008/04/14/when-and-where-to-eat-cocido-madrileno/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cocido

http://inclementtravel.wordpress.com/2009/02/07/travel-in-education/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paella

http://www.answers.com/topic/sherry

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sherry

http://oswaldodiaz.com/tapas/food/?tag=spanish-drink

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sangria

Tapas at La Tasca Near DC

During my recent trip to Washington DC I for a work related conference I encouraged some of my colleagues to join me in downtown Rockville, MD for dinner and drinks.  While I actually had intentions of finding a Peruvian restaurant, our dining destination easily revealed itself when we saw a Spanish Tapas joint with outdoor dining called La Tasca.  While La Tasca has multiple locations, they are all in the greater DC/Baltimore area so it at least is a regional chain.


Joined by Nadine, Dan, and Jane, we began with a pitcher of Cava Sangria.  This delicious and sweet beverage contained sparkling wine, triple sec, brandy, grape juice, and blueberries.  The drink didn't fit with my sweet tooth all that well, but I still enjoyed it and ate the booze soaked blueberries afterwards.  We also ordered a pitcher of Sangria Rosada.  This mixed wine concoction had rose vino, grape juice, blueberries, and strawberries.  Not quite as sugary as the first sangria, I enjoyed several glasses of this one while tasting the tapas.

Spanish Tapas at La Tasca Plate Number One

Upon looking at the menu we realized that we'd really like to try everything.  Fortunately for us La Tasca has several tapas tastings for us to order.  Each tapas tasting menu is supposed to be about right for two people, so we ordered both the meat and seafood tastings for the four of us to share.  The thing I love most about eating tapas is that the variety is meant to be shared.  It designed to work like a series of appetizers at typical American restaurants.  Everybody shares a whole bunch of food, and then there is no need for individual entrees!  The meat tasting menu featured Buey al Jerez (grilled flank steak with sherry and mushroom sauce), Pollo al Ajillo (chicken breast cooked in white wine and garlic), Albondigas (meatballs served in a vegetable marinara), Chorizo a la Parilla (grilled spicy Spanish sausage links), Solomillo de Cerdo (grilled pork tenderloin wrapped in bacon), Tortilla Española (traditional Spanish potato and onion omelet), Espinacas Salteadas (sauteed spinach with pine nuts and raisins), and Meloso de Ajo (creamy rice with roasted garlic, nuts, and raisins).  By far my favorite dish out of these was the Buey al Jerez.  The beef had a tremendous flavor and the sherry/mushroom sauce was spot on.  I also like the Espinacas Salteadas for the simplicity of it while still serving as a fantastic vegetable dish.  Some of the other dishes were decent, others quite forgettable.  Let's move on to the seafood tasting.

Spanish Tapas at La Tasca Plate Number Two

The dishes arrived at our table mixed and matches, so the pictures of the plates are not necessarily in any order.  Still, with a keen eye, I bet you can identify most of the cuisines.  The seafood tasting menu had Vieiras Cava (grilled scallops in a creamy champagne sauce), Calamares Andaluza (fried calamari with garlic mayonnaise), Salmon a la Plancha (grilled salmon, spinach and fried mussels), Gambas al Ajillo (shrimp sautéed in olive oil and garlic), Paella Valenciana (chicken and mixed seafood paella), Aritos de la Huerta (fried onion, green and red pepper rings), Setas al Ajillo (mushrooms sautéed in garlic and olive oil), and Ensalada de Espinacas (spinach and Cabrales cheese salad).  While the food tasted alright at the time, thinking back it really had been masked by extreme hunger, sweet sangria, and good conversation.  All of the seafood tasting dishes were quite edible, but by no means were they admirable or outstanding.  I never once recall thinking "DAMN!" or "I need to learn how to make this!"  Even the paella was disappointing, and I had been looking forward to it!  In the end, I enjoyed the atmosphere, I enjoyed the idea of tapas, and I enjoyed the company.  The food ended up being an afterthought, and I'm glad that it was because otherwise I would have been terrible disappointed and upset that I fell victim to a fairly useless restaurant.  Tapas are great, but I'd prefer a little more authenticity.  Next time I'm in DC (or Rockville to be exact), I'll make sure to try something else.

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