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.