Japan Kitchen
Posted in food on 05/13/2010 05:59 am by teratwitterOkay okay okay, I know you have all been wondering where on earth I disappeared to. I JUST submitted my final paper for one of my classes, and I am one oral exam away from being a senior in college! Since I have nearly exactly two weeks before my exam, it’s time for a break – and finally an update!
I’m going to begin way back where I left off, and then we’ll move progressively towards today. Okay – go!
My birthday visit with Micah was really wonderful. I had to get up painfully early on my birthday (Friday) to get dressed and take the metro to the airport. My flight to Barcelona was, perhaps surprisingly in light of the volcano, the least problematic flight I have had in months. I arrived at the airport with plenty of time to spare (an airport I had never been to before), and popped right through security (even with my massive carry on bag). My flight was mostly empty, so I had a whole row of three seats to myself, which I mostly used to doze, as I had only slept a few hours the night before. An intelligent person would have gone to sleep early, knowing that she had set her alarm for 4:15 AM. But, being me, I instead opted to wait until midnight to go to bed, so I could spend a few minutes being gleefully excited that it was my birthday. It didn’t help that I was so excited about the weekend that I could hardly sleep!
Anyway, snoozing on the plane meant that I arrived in Barcelona feeling quite refreshed when we landed half an hour early. I found Micah just outside of security and after getting birthday kisses, we hopped the bus into town and found our hostel. It was really quite nice, and perfect for what we needed, which was a place to sleep. The whole hostel is just private twin and triple rooms, so it’s great for families or pairs traveling together, and we had a nice big room with two twin beds and our own toilet, though unfortunately no private shower! Micah gave me my birthday presents – a cute espresso mug with “España” on the side, a lovely Spanish-style black dress, and a goofy touristy poster advertising a “dance show” personalized with our names! Then, after a nap, we hit the town!
Walking into town, we witnessed something quite interesting. Everywhere we went, we saw tables on the street corners and boulevards, draped with the Catalan flag, with people selling roses! By the fourth or fifth stand, Micah and I began speculating as to what kind of festival or holiday it might be. We knew it had to be something massive when we arrived in the middle of the city to discover an ENORMOUS crowd of people, all eating, walking, chatting, shopping, and carrying roses. As we walked down Las Ramblas, the main thoroughfare from Plaça de Catalunya (an enormous square with many department stores and hot shopping spots all around) and the harbor, we learned that it was “Dia de Sant Jordi”, or “St. George’s Day”. St. George, as it happens, is one of the patron saints of Barcelona, so you can imagine that his holiday would be quite an occasion! It was a bit stressful for us, trying to make our way down Las Ramblas, because the crowd was extremely pushy, and I’d read a lot about pickpockets in Barcelona. After a while, though, we got the hang of it, and began to really enjoy our walk.
Las Ramblas is a really fascinating stretch. It’s only about a mile long, but there are apartment buildings, shops, churches, opera houses, museums, restaurants, and markets all along its length! Some of the really neat things we saw included the bird market (where the apartment dwellers of the city come to pick out their tiny, adorable pets), the flower market (and still more of the red roses wrapped with Catalan colors!), and the book stalls (selling many many old, interesting books!)
We had a specific goal in mind as we made our way towards the harbor: a restaurant by Rick Steves, called “Taverna Basca Irati”. He wrote this about it in his book:
[The restaurant] serves 40 different kinds of hot and cold Basque pintxos for 1,70 euro each. These are open-faced sandwiches – like sushi on bread. Muscle in through the hungry local crowd. Get an empty plate from the waiter, and then help yourself. Every few minutes, a waiter prances proudly by with a platter of new, still-warm munchies. Grab one as they pass by…it’s addictive. You pay on the honor system: you’re charged by the number of toothpicks left on your plate when you’re done. Wash it down with 2 – 3 euro glasses of Rioja (full-bodied red wine), Txakolí (sprightly Basque white wine) or sidra (apple wine) poured from on high to add oxygen and bring out the flavor.
It was pretty much exactly as he described it – and it was SO MUCH FUN. Maybe the most fun I’ve ever had in a restaurant. The sandwiches were beautiful in their presentation, and the bustling, cheerful atmosphere was perfect. I’d read the description in the book and decided that was where I wanted my birthday lunch and my first drink as a 21 year old, and it was the perfect choice! Micah and I munched our way through an extremely filling and delicious sampling of sandwiches, even if some of them had fish in them (yuck – I let Micah finish those). It was fun not knowing exactly what we were biting into! We tried goat cheese with a tasty sauce, tortilla (a thick Spanish omelette with potatoes!), a chicken sandwich, chorizo cooked in cider, croquettes (deep fried balls of ham and cheese) and many, many more. As for the drinks, I had decided that I wanted to have my first drink at 2:48 PM. For those of you who are not intimately acquainted with the circumstances of my birth, I was born on a Sunday morning at exactly 7:48 AM. I have since been informed that it’s not actually that common to know the exact time you were born, but I’ve always celebrated it! When I was younger my parents used to sing “Happy Birthday” to me right at 7:48 (we were usually on our way to school!) and I even remember one time in elementary school when we were at a Pancake Breakfast and everyone sang! Hence, I wanted to celebrate my EXACT 21st birthday – and since I was born at 7:48 AM, tack on seven hours, and you have 2:48 PM! So Micah and I ordered our drinks at about 2:40 and waited until 2:48 to toast and drink. For my first drink, I had a glass of the aforementioned sidra, and it was delicious! Micah stuck with cervezas for the afternoon, but I later had a glass of the rioja (see above), which was also quite nice. And the sandwiches were SO much fun! We were both just absolutely thrilled to be there, and really enjoyed the atmosphere. Look how happy I was!
We wandered out of the Taverna and explored the Barri Gòtic, the Gothic-style area near Las Ramblas. We ran into a neat tiny market where they were selling sausages, cheese, honey, and beeswax, walked past a neat church, and made our way down narrow alleys filled with adorable little shops. We took a break in Plaça Reial, a large open space with lots of restaurants, with some cerveza and sangria. I really think that last sums up our visit to Barcelona very well – beautiful weather, tasty drinks, romance, fun, and Rick Steves to help us on our way! The rose, of course, came from one of the many stands selling them – my super-awesome boyfriend got one for me, and it was really lovely!
After our break we wandered up to the old Gothic cathedral, built in honor of Eulalie, the other patron saint of Barcelona. Eulalie was a 13 year old girl who refused to give up her Christian faith when the Romans demanded it; because of this, she was subjected to 13 different tortures before finally being martyred. Now the cathedral keeps 13 white geese in the courtyard at all times – in the old days they acted as a built-in alarm system, but now they are just symbolic for Eulalie’s suffering. The cathedral was, of course, lovely, but I really enjoyed the cloisters – they were serene and green and calm, and even included a fountain for St. George, much adorned with roses that day.
We made our way back towards Las Ramblas from the cathedral and stumbled into a massive public celebration and dance for the holiday – it was so enchanting! There was a large crowd of older folks dancing and a band playing and it was simply adorable. We were thrilled to have stumbled up on it…such a neat cultural event!
Back on Las Ramblas, we finally made it down to the harbor and spent a bit of time sitting on a bench, just chatting and resting. It got pretty chilly as the sun went down, though, and since I wasn’t wearing a jacket, we had to leave! We stopped in at a restaurant with an interesting-looking menu, and this ended up being a great choice as well – it was a very fun birthday dinner!
The restaurant was called Amaya, and appeared to serve traditional Catalan cuisine. Micah and I were able to have a really lovely dinner there at a really reasonable price. We started with the pa amb tomaquet, which came highly suggested by Rick Steves – it’s a traditional Catalan starter that consists of toasted bread, crushed tomatoes, oil, and salt. It was actually really good! For my main dish, I ordered the Catalan chicken, which was very tasty but a bit dry for me. Micah, on the other hand, had a fantastic veal entrecote, perfectly cooked and served with two lovely kinds of mustard. As we were eating, the older man sitting at the table across from us struck up a conversation. It turned out that he was from Chicago, but had visited Barcelona many times before, and was in town for the wedding of his friend’s son. He started to us because he had ordered the smallest portion possible (half-racione) of the Iberican ham, but it was still too much for him to eat, and he wanted to share it with us! If you’ve never heard of Iberican ham, this was an extremely generous offer. Iberican ham is made from pigs that are raised in valleys were they eat only acorns, and the meat can sell for up to 200 euro a kilo. He gave us each a piece of the ham (I even got two!) and it was DELICIOUS. Ham in Spain is not like ham in the USA. No pink, moist, processed slices here. It’s the texture and consistency of really good prosciutto, with a darkly nutty taste and a faintly greasy texture. Wonderful! We completed our meal with a traditional dessert – no cake for me this year! I guess that will just have to wait until I’m home. Instead we had puff pastries filled with Catalan creme. It sounded good on the menu, but it wasn’t until the dish was served that we realized how spectacular it was. The waiter put the plate down on the table and emptied a small pitcher of melted chocolate over it. It was incredible! We had a really lovely dinner – Micah got a few of me on his camera, but I got a really nice shot of the two of us. Our waiter was so funny – he adjusted all of the settings on my camera before taking the picture, and even posed us (making Micah hold my hand!)
After such a long and busy day, we were both feeling pretty tired, so we made our way back to the hostel. I called my mom and my grandparents to talk to them before bed, and then we hit the hay for a nice restful night. You know, except for the 20 minutes around 4 AM where an enormous garbage truck sat outside our window, apparently emptying every glass bottle in a 15 mile radius into itself. Such is life.
The next morning we had a leisurely start and found the FNAC at Plaça de Catalunya so that we could pick up the tickets for the FCBarcelona game Micah had ordered for that evening. We had breakfast there (such wonderful, thick hot chocolate!) and caught the city bus to take us up to Parc Guell. Originally conceived as a gated community for the wealthy, the design of Parc Guell was years ahead of its time. The entire thing was designed by the world-famous architect Gaudi, who used the patterns he saw in nature (helices, Fibonacci’s sequence, triads, hexagons, etc) to revolutionize the way that humans perceived space. Considering the fact that he was creating designs in the late 1800s that I didn’t even think were possible without a computer, this guy was pretty amazing. The park was to see – Gaudi used the natural architecture of the land as well as simple, aesthetically appealing designs to create a harmonious space that’s now a popular place for tourists and street musicians alike. There was a lovely open section with ergonomically correct benches that overlooked the whole city, too!
We didn’t stay for too long, as we wanted to see the beach before we had to leave for the soccer game (or, futbol, if you prefer), and we got there with about an hour to lounge around and enjoy it. I would have liked more time, but I was just happy to have seen the Mediterranean sea! We wondered at the peculiarities of the beach – there were many women lying around topless, and even a man walking down the beach naked (don’t worry, the pic isn’t too graphic). We found out that in Barcelona, it’s legal to be naked whenever and wherever you want, as long as you’re not causing a disturbance. We chose not to follow this rule, however – all bathing suits stayed firmly on, thank you very much. Even though the water was FREEZING, we also had to go for a dip in the sea, just to say we had! I could barely get myself to stay in up to my waist, but Micah needed to prove he was manly and dove right in. After a bit of a thaw in the sun on our towels, we packed up to go to the game!
Micah was extremely excited about this. He recommended it to me, and even though it was rather expensive, it was pretty clear he really wanted to go. It was a good choice! FCBarcelona (Barça, for short) is one of the teams in the league (or, as Micah just corrected me, best teams in the world), and their star player Messi is world famous for his “magic touch”. The game we had tickets for was Barça vs. Xerez – a team that had just barely scraped into the division this season. At game time, Barça’s record was something like 26 wins – 1 loss, while Xerez was at 6 wins and 21 losses. As you can imagine, the game was not very balanced. But it was still enormously entertaining! The stadium was absolutely packed with fans, and they were all devoted to the game. Barcelona pulled ahead quite quickly, ending up at 2 – 1 during the half-time. Minutes after half-time ended, Barcelona decided to put Messi into the game. It was obvious that they were doing it just for fun, and to mess with Xerez. In response, the Xerez players got exceedingly aggressive – in the last five minutes of the game, two of their players were thrown out for misconduct! It was quite intense and very fun – Micah had a great time cheering, and it even left me wanting some Barça gear myself!
We left the game with the enormous crowd and went back into town to celebrate Barcelona’s get with tapas and drinks, and later some paella (not as good as I hoped). Back to our hostel for bed, and then up bright and early to do our museum tour!
First on the list was La Sagrada Familia. The church was conceived and designed by Gaudi, though he was only present for a very small part of its construction before he died under the wheels of a carriage. Begun at the end of the 19th century, the cathedral is still unfinished, as its construction is funded entirely by private donations and admission fees. La Sagrada Familia means “The Sacred Family”, and the church was commissioned by an organization that worshiped Saint Joseph. The church itself is absolutely incredible, in spite of being unfinished. Here was where I really saw the innovation of Gaudi’s technique. Gaudi used hanging models, weights and mirrors to create the perfect parabolas that he used in his church’s design – the parabola being among the strongest forms in nature. The facade is iconic of Barcelona and the architecture of Gaudi, and the church will be a true masterpiece when it’s finished. The estimate is that it will be in 20 – 30 years, and I really hope I can return to Barcelona to see it finished! We climbed the tower to see the view and to get a close-up look at Gaudi’s design. The interior was simply incredible, especially where they had already put in stained glass. The whole thing was wonderful. If you only go one place in Barcelona, let this be it.
After La Sagrada Familia, we visited the Picasso museum. Few people realize that Picasso was actually an incredibly talented “classical” artist before he began experimenting in cubism. As early as 14, he was painting portraits and his works were on display in galleries. The museum itself was pretty neat – it was interesting to see his progression from a young, classically trained artist into the cubist genius we think of him as today. Unfortunately I have no photos, as they are not in the museum. One of the neatest things we saw there was his version of “Las Meninas”. The original painting was done by Velázquez, and is considered one of the greatest works of art in the world. Picasso chose to do a recreation of it with his own vision, and this was the result. Very interesting!
The final stop on our museum day was Casa Mila, a high-class apartment building Gaudi designed. So neat! Even his apartment building was full of innovations, like an arched attic space to insulate the building, and an Alice-In-Wonderland-esque rooftop. The inside was very neat, too!
After that we didn’t really have any plans, so we walked back towards the city center, stopping for tapas on the way (patatas bravas and pa amb tomaquet – yum yum yum!) I also tried horchata, a traditional Spanish drink made with nuts. It reminded me of my grandma’s Christmas wedding ball cookies. Mmm. We rounded out the night with a final stop at Taverna Basca Irati (you remember, this place!) before collapsing into our beds to sleep!
The next morning we were up bright and early and made our way to airport to catch our flight to Madrid, where Micah had enormous amounts of school work and a recital, and where I pretty much spent all my time sitting in the sun reading. Look for another entry on that part of my trip soon!
An advocacy group that tests fish for mercury says it found higher levels of the poisonous metal in L.A.-area sushi than four years ago.
Gotmercury.org, a San Francisco Bay Area organization that has tested seafood in sushi restaurants and at grocery stores throughout the country, said it found mercury in local sushi at 0.814 parts for million, up from 0.721 parts per million in 2006. A piece of swordfish tested at a local grocery store seafood counter had three times the amount of mercury that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration should be in food.
"It's really frightening," said Buffy Martin Tarbox, campaign coordinator for Gotmercury.org. Tarbox is not a scientist and does not represent the survey as scientific. Her staff worked with journalists from KNBC-TV to report and document mercury levels in seafood by purchasing samples from area sushi restaurants, grocery stores and a farmers market and having them tested.
Here are links to the organization's study as well as the KNBC report. I've also included a link to a story that ran in the Wall Street Journal in 2005 about a boy who physicians said lost cognitive function after eating too much tuna and developing mercury poisoning. (A subscription is required to read the full piece on the Wall Street Journal site. It is also available on the sites of several interest groups.)
– Sharon Bernstein
