My new go-to recipe:  Broccoli soup!

Chinese new year.. in Grenoble

Dinner+party

Bento, the mountaineer

The kids raced around the track, too

Frosty Neron

More nice commute imagery

Squid ink!

Squid ink sauce with shrimp pasta!

An easy bike ride along the path along the Isere river:

Science

The kids and I have been doing science experiments at home:  baking soda, vinegar, pH indicators.  It's all very fun

How's this for a morning commute

Zoe wins a prize!

Every new years (Epiphany, to be exact) in France, the "Galettes des rois" appear:  delicious marzipan (and other types) of cakes in a flakey, buttery crust.  Inside, there are little prizes which you can find, which are called feves.  I'm always impressed by the quality of the feves, which can be well glazed ceramic figurine which will probably last a lifetime.  I guess the custom is pretty ubiquitous in Europe, and even in Louisiana, where it goes by the slightly less mellifluous name of king cake.  So we as a family have eaten a ridiculous amount of these things this year because they are soooo delicious.  Despite their deliciousness, I really hate seeing what it brings out in the kids.  They immediately surround the galette to try to determine where the feve resides, which they infer by subtle ripples in the surface of the cake.  Fights then erupt regarding where the cake should be cut, and who gets the slice:  it's madness.  Anyway, we recently had some friends over, and the parents decided to pre-load the galette with some extra feves to make sure all the kids got them, and handed them out.  Zoe's feve was a red ceramic disc which instructed us to go to the boulangerie to pick up a special prize.  The next day, Chloe brought the feve to the boulangerie to redeem the prize (and buy more galettes of course), and were surprised to find that the prize was a diamond pendant!  There was an immense spectacle as the boulangers checked the serial number on the feve against their records.  

Ski classes!

Climbing

Oil, and the drive back

Chloe, Vero and I went to an amazing Olive Oil specialist called "olisal" just down the road, in Gracia (again -- such great shopping!).   The store was recommended by Alex, and is totally amazing. I was only sorry that mom had left earlier in the morning, because they are also specialists in sea salt, which she loves.


I bought a big can of oil for cooking called "Oli d'Arbeca", with the following description:
"Oil from the Arbeca Cooperative, Lleida. This cooperative brings together 700 members, producing all the oil under the same standards, with three basic clues: artisan collection and production, rigorous quality control test under the supervision of the PDO Regulatory Control Les Garrigues, only made ​​from Arbequina olives, not using any kind of chemicals, preservatives or dyes."

as well as two for salads, dipping in bread etc:  A southern oil with stronger flavor called "Cortijo de Suerte"
"Eological oil, natural blend, from a grove planted in 1924 in which are intermingled the three varieties typical of the DO Baena: picudo, hojiblanca and Picual. Prepared by natural decantation, a procedure that preserves the most polyphenols, beneficial antioxidants that preventcellular aging and cancer cell degeneration. The pest control trappingoccurs encouraging natural predators of insect pests. The packaging is made by order, meanwhile the oil is conserved in stainless steel tanks to ensure their high quality."

The second was a milder oil from the North, called Terrall, without a description.  Finally, I bought a beautiful hand blown glass olive oil cruet (decanter) from the Galo Mercade factory.

Next, clean up the house and find food!  I was hoping to repeat the "buy the seafood, walk a few feet, have it cooked, eat it" experience, but sadly all the fish sellers were closed (maybe on all thursdays?).  Instead, we bought some decent Bellota and Chorizo and bread.  Finally, we hopped in the car and made the six hour drive back home.

This was my first time in Spain, amazingly, and I really loved it.  My neighbor tells me that Easyjet has a lot of flights from Lyon to other places in Spain, so that might be the way to go for more Southern cities.

Paella

We took advantage of our Parclick parking passes and went down to the beach.  Lolo found a place for lunch and I followe his lead and ordered a black paella, which I had never had before.  When it arrived, it looked intimidatingly … black.  It was, however delicious.  I was worried that it would not be, since it was in a touristy area, but it was fantastic, and the first time I have had a black paella.  Intrigued by the almost magical depth of flavor, I looked into what flavor the quid ink imparts, and discovered two interesting things:  First, that most people actually cook with the less bitter cuttlefish ink, and second, that squid ink is loaded with glutamate, possibly acting as natural Ajinomoto/MSG substitute.  Sadly, I did not take a picture.  Later on, chloe and I walked down la Rambla without kids and explored the Barri Gòtic, which was really cool.  La Rambla, however was utterly uninteresting and thronged with people.  By the end of the trip it became obvious that we really lucked out with the location of the rented apartment   Gracia seems like a culinary and shopping mecca of the city.  Next time I'd like to explore it and the Barri Gòtic further.

MORE eating

While we had been stuffing ourselves all morning, Lolo et al. had been buying many delicious things, all of which were eaten in the evening leading up to new years.  The most interesting item was the gooseneck barnacle:

Incredibly expensive, dangerous to harvest and known as Spanish Caviar, these ugly bastards are actually really tasty. Although I did not taste the combination of "crab, shrimp and oyster", the flavor was a lot more subtle than I expected from such a strange looking thing.  Zoe ate three.

Next, dancing and NYE

Barcelona food tour

In looking around for things to do in Barcelona, I came across the Aborigens Barcelona site .  They offer culinary tours of Barcelona and environs, and get rave reviews on Tripadvisor.  The cost was quite high, particularly for a private tour -- which I thought would be best for us considering that we would be dragging the kids with us -- but how many times do you get an opportunity to do something like this?  If you're going to drop some serious coin on eating, I actually think I might prefer this to going to a starred restaurant.  Anyway, we met our guide Alex for the next four and a half hours at the Galvany market.  He gave us some background on the impressive building, 

showed us how the fishmongers held central places in the market,

and they we got right into tasting charcuterie

I really liked the chorizo made from Bellota ham, and a pasty red sausage that I have forgotten the name of!  Next it was off to a salted cod specialist, where we tasted Esqueixada. 

 The salted cod guy very delicatly nudged together spoons of re-hydrated cod, olives, peppers and onions and offered them to us to taste.  The consistency was not terribly appetizing, but I think Chloe, mom and I were all surprised by how delicious it was.  I can't think of very many fish dishes that survive the drying and rehydration process tasting good at the end except for this one.  I guess the whole salted-cod thing is a very Catalan dish, and has been for a long time.  While we were waiting in line, the patisserie next door received a huge delivery of croissants, pain au chocolat and muffins, which was met with wide eyes by Zoe and Alex.  This did not go unnoticed by the delivery guy, who very kindly offered a muffin to Zoe, and then to Alex.  Next, on to taste some local fruits and vegetables, including an excellent semi-local pear.  The vendor threw in some absolutely fantastic cepe mushroom filled marinated eggplants.

From here, it was off to a cafe for coffees and hot chocolates, and on to one of the main events:  Ham.  A long time ago, a Spanish friend of ours introduced us to Pata Negra and in the intervening years we have continued to spend too much money on it. The place he took us to was a temple of Jamon and cheese.  They had at least four legs up for carving, and two carvers working non stop.

We tasted pork loin, as well as Iberico Bellota from the shoulder and leg.  It was all good, but the Bellota leg was amazing.  I bought a small pack, but at 200 euros a kilo, could not really afford much.  I didn't realise that there was such difference in taste between leg and shoulder:  like two entirely different kinds of ham.  There was also a cheese tasting, but after la France I found them not terribly exciting.

Loin:

Leg

from Foreground to back: Loin, Shoulder, Leg

Next, another highlight of the tour:  The chocolate place !  Alex asked us if we had heard of el Bulli (yes!) and told us that one of the former pastry chefs had opened a chocolate shop which happened to be just up to the road.  We started with some of the best chocolate truffles I have ever tasted:  They had a crunchy almond crust and vanilla or chocolate filling.  Some looked likes eggs, but the "yolk" was actually passion fruit.  Finally, some small molded chocolates with pop rocks!  Some of the most amazing desserts that I have had, without question.

Next stop, a Bodega for anchovies and Vermouth.  I'm not usually a big fan of either, but both were excellent.  I guess he usually takes people to a Bodega called Quimet, just up the road, which we had coincidentally tried to go to the day before, but it was closed.  

Last stop was back to Mercat de la Llibertat, where we had been to a day earlier to shop for provisions.  Here, Alex told us that you could walk a few feet over to one of the excellent seafood vendors, buy what you like, then take it back over to the mini restaurant and have them cook it for you.  This was a concept that I willa dmit had me almost jum,ping up and down with excitement, as the fishmonger measured out a bag full of fresh cockles.  

From here the plates arrived quickly and with much excitement:  chickpeas with blood sausage.  Cockles

Fried squid

 

Sausage with deep fried artichokes (artichokes are in season)

Tripe

So amazing.  The only thing I didn't really like was the tripe, but that's because I don't like the texture.  The taste was fine.  So, in summary, if you find yourself in Barcelona, do the food tour!  You could possibly piece it together yourself, but it is so much nicer being shown around and being told the history and details from an expert.

A ride, Park Guell and the aquarium

I went for an ill-advised morning ride (still feeling sick) up the hill

And then we all went to the Park Guell.  I guess they have started regulating entrance, so had to wait for a while for tickets as well as for a time slot.  It was worth the not very long wait.

We had lunch waiting for our 13:00 entry slot:  tortilla sammiches!

Next, back to the apartment (found on Homelidays.com, which was HUGE and really cool.  I guess it belongs to a professor of Asian studies, and is in the Gracia neighborhood) for regrouping before heading down to the Harbor on the metro and on to the aquarium.  There, another line awaited us!  They charge admission based on hieght, which is bizarre.  If you're going to scale price to a physical attribute, why not to something less arbitrary like weight or volume?  Anyway, I was not expecting the crowds that we have been experiencing at the end of December -- pretty different form Florence in December.  The kids loved the aquarium, but I have to say that it was not quite as good as the Monterey Bay Aquarium or even the Cal Academy of Sciences.  They did have penguins though, which neither of the other two have!  

Next, a quick snack, and then a walk to the Metro station again (Zoe was really excited about the Metro)