Friday, July 03, 2009

 

Pollo al Ajillo

Youtube: The Spanish Grandmother I Never Had

I didn’t have a grandmother around to teach me how to cook. Growing up we were taught in my family to be very self-reliant. Need some washing done? Here’s the machine, here’s the soap, get cracking. Hungry? You know where the kitchen is. I moved into my own apartment when I was 17 and that pretty much sealed my independence. Most of my early culinary education came through the exigencies of my meager budget in college. I ate lots of bean and potatoes. These are still my two favorite food staples. Along the way I have picked up a few recipes here and there, usually a reflection of where I have lived and traveled: South America, Greece, all over the States, a lot of vacations in Mexico, and now Spain. My kitchen is like the food court at the U.N.

Most of what I learned about cooking has been through trial and error—just about the worst educational tool in my opinion. I’ve had few actual teachers. The internet has changed that problem. Now whenever I am attempting a dish for the first time I will find several recipes at different web sites and then I will scour Youtube to actually see the dish being prepared. With this method I have been exposed to some of the best cooking teachers you will ever likely find anywhere. The best cooking videos out there will walk you through a dish so well that even on your first attempt you will be able to proceed with utter confidence. Adiós trial and error. Don’t let the kitchen door hit you on the ass on your way out.

Just the other day a friend of mine returned from an extended trip to Andalucía. He was raving about a dish he found there called Pollo al Ajillo (garlic chicken). Perhaps it was his mouth-watering description or maybe I was just hungry at the time but I vowed then and there that this would be the very next thing I cooked at home. We had other topics to discuss that evening besides Pollo al Ajillo so I never got the specifics of how to prepare the dish. No problem, I have my Youtube grandmother at home to walk me through it.

My first attempt at Pollo al Ajillo was very acceptable. My Youtube tutor for this Spanish classic was very thorough and clear on every step in the process. I actually started to make one of my crappy videos to document it but my battery died in my camera. I have at least a half a dozen rechargeable batteries and it turned out that they were all dead. I guess I didn’t learn that whole “Be Prepared” thing from my years as a Boy Scout. I learned a lot of other cool things in Boy Scouts so I’m not going to beat myself up over not having any charged batteries lying around the house.

I talked to my friend later about my cooking venture and he suggested another way to make it by flouring the chicken before you fry it in the oil with garlic. Fortunately, I had the good sense not to cook all of the chicken yesterday in my first go at this dish—not because I was showing restraint but because my skillet isn’t big enough to hold an entire chicken. I will try it again today but this time with breaded chicken pieces.

I suppose it takes a certain amount of skill in the kitchen to be able to judge whether or not the instructional cooking video you are watching is worth its salt. If I am making a classic Spanish dish the first thing I seek out is authenticity. I don’t think that I am being a food snob when I say that keeping to the Spanish traditional way of making a dish is important to me—at least it is important when first learning something new. After you have mastered the original recipe then you can feel free to improvise but you need to build the foundation first. So don’t serve me scrambled eggs with potatoes and tell me it’s a tortilla de patatas.

I suppose that Youtube isn’t as good as having a Spanish grandmother to walk me through all of these great recipes, but it’s probably the next best thing. Unfortunately, Youtube doesn’t have a little dog to play with as do most Spanish grannies.

Labels: Spain Food, Valencia Spain

11:18 AM

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Thursday, July 02, 2009

 

How to Make a Frappé (Greek Ice Coffee)



This is better than Starbucks, I guarantee it. I have talked about frappés for a long time. I can’t believe that nobody makes them here in this part of Spain. If I had a café I would make them and the place would be mobbed. Here they just pour a coffee over ice which isn’t nearly as good. If you order one of these in Greece make to ask for very little sugar. If you don’t you will get about an inch of sugar in the bottom of the glass and it will feel like a biker has kicked you in the pancreas when you finish drinking it.

As I have mentioned before, I don't know how this French word made its way into modern Greek or why the Greeks don't have their own word for it. Enjoy.

Labels: cooking video, Valencia Spain

8:31 AM

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Wednesday, July 01, 2009

 

Finding Solutions for Problems We Have Already Solved

This is a rather meandering reflection on a number of issues which—I’ll be the first to admit—doesn’t do justice to any of them. I do think that it is useful, from time to time, to lay out exactly where you stand. Exactly where I stand is pretty much the exact same spot I’ve been standing over the course of my entire adult life. I think a lot of Americans didn’t really think about politics—one way or another—until after 9/11 and then a lot jumped on the neo-con band wagon because it made them feel good about not having given a shit about politics of about never having expressed their so-called patriotism in anything other than symbolic terms. There is nothing wrong with that except when they are worng wrong on so many issues you need to come to their senses and change.

If there is one thing that bothers me more than anything else in our daily lives it is when we look for solutions for problems we have already solved. Here’s an example. Our cars burned too much gasoline so we built engines that use much less fuel and we have developed tremendous mass transportation options, at least in many parts of the world. Then why are we still agonizing over what to do about our profligate energy usage in America? Why do we still drive cars which get atrocious gas mileage? Why are we still seeking solutions for this problem we basically solved a generation ago? That question is strictly rhetorical; we continue to seek solutions because we don’t have the moral wherewithal to implement the answers we came up with decades ago.

Why do we still use plastic bags when we have already decided that they are an ecological nightmare and we have dozens of satisfying alternatives? Just outlaw the damn things already. Today. When you go to the supermarket tomorrow you’ll either have to bring you own recyclable bag, buy one there, or carry your shit home in your arms. That was an easy fix so why I the hell are we still using plastic bags?

Global warming, climate change, or whatever you care to call it, is irrefutable at this point. There are few scientists outside the employ of the petroleum industry who don’t see this as one of mankind’s biggest problems. A big part of the problem is being caused by automobile emissions which is why the powerful oil industry is so violently opposed to any change to the status quo and has hired a stable of scientists to valiantly stand up against the vast consensus of the world’s climatologists. That really isn’t the way science works, I’m afraid.

You can’t seek an alternative theory just because you don’t like the conclusion reached by the rest of scientific community. You are certainly free to try this tack but you can’t simply ignore the facts while you seek out an alternative that is more supportive of your world view and completely devoid of evidence. I’m certainly not a climate scientist but I do read. Everything that I have been reading in all of my source material leads me to believe that climate change is a serious problem we should be addressing on many fronts. Not to think this way either makes you ignorant or irrational. Period. The deniers of global warming are always quick to hold up a single, flimsy study that supports their claims yet they ignore the other 99.99% which refute them. Which leads me to the next issue.

Why are we still—at least in America—squabbling over the teaching of evolution in schools as if this concept is at all controversial? It’s like the religious nuts want to find a better solution than the one science has provided. Their rallying cry is, “I didn’t come from no monkey.” Well sleep well tonight because you didn’t come from a monkey. However, human beings, like every other life form on the planet (and the universe if Einstein was correct) did evolve from some other form. If this conflicts with your religious beliefs then you should modify your stupid beliefs to reflect what science has proven.

Why do we continue to prosecute the “War on Drugs” when we realized decades ago that we lost and that the way to help alleviate the drug problem is with education and treatment? By imprisoning drug offenders the only thing we achieve is to further criminalize these people by warehousing them in our horrifically violent prisons. I don’t think that any non-violent offenders should be put in prisons, especially American prisons. Of course we don’t jail drug offenders if they are people like Rush Limbaugh and others of the elite. They usually receive treatment. Why? Because treatment works and prison doesn’t. Now we are working to amp up the war on the U.S.-Mexico border which is costing thousands of lives every year and is working to completely destabilize huge swaths of the Mexican government. Our failed anti-drug policies have already destroyed Colombia and now we are pursuing the same insane policy in Mexico.

Why do we still think that we can win guerilla wars in hostile areas when history has dealt us defeat after defeat? Just listening to the U.S. generals prosecuting out war in Iraq and Afghanistan you just have to wonder if any of them have even heard of Viet Nam. They are mouthing the same platitudes about warfare as the American generals in our failed war in Indochina. It’s not like that is ancient history.

Most European countries have solved their health care problems; at least they have solved the major issues. If you look at the list of the world’s top health care providers they are all state-run systems. So why do we in America think that we can somehow do things differently and cling to our privatized insurance system which has proved to be costly and largely ineffective? Once again we are trying to find a solution to a problem that has already been solved in many parts of the industrialized world. Why don’t we look at the country that provides the best healthcare for its citizens (France) and try to copy it in America instead of continuing with an utterly failed policy of private insurance providers?

Before building our cities in America we should also look to successful models of cities and duplicate them. Instead we build cities that best serve the needs of the retail industry without any regard to the needs of actual human beings. Most new residential and commercial development in America caters to the automobile, not pedestrians. To a lot of people there doesn’t seem to be any difference between the needs of humans and the needs of the automobile: people drive cars therefore we need to do everything in our power to facilitate the flow and parking of cars. Of course, this goes contrary to the factors that make up a good living environment for humans. In fact, it is almost diametrically opposed to what makes a place livable. For much of suburban America it is urban design by Target® and Pizza Hut® which aren’t exactly the most trusted names in city planning.

Wouldn’t it make more sense to design a city around another highly successful ideal of what a city should be? Many European cities made the mistake of making too many accommodations towards the automobile a half a century ago. Many are working furiously to undo those mistakes. My own neighborhood of Ruzafa here in Valencia is trying to roll back the mistake of allowing cars to dominate the manmade landscape of the area. A new project here is removing a lot of street parking while making sidewalks wider and putting in bike paths. I can’t wait to see the result. In this case, we’ve had the solution for centuries. The car was simply a mistake, a dead end, a wrong way we followed for too long and now it’s time to find our way out of the mess.

Labels: politics

10:40 AM

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Tuesday, June 30, 2009

 

Forgotten Accomplishments

I wish that I had a nickel for everything that I have diligently studied over the course of my life only to let it atrophy later through lack of use and abandonment. I wouldn’t care to calculate how much money and time I spent learning those things. After all of the years I spent practically getting killed learning jiu-jitsu I only hope that I have retained enough skill to at least be able to defend myself if I am ever in need. I don’t think that any would-be attacker will be impressed by the fact that I used to be some sort of a badass. At least I didn’t have to spend money learning jiu-jitsu but that is the subject for another essay. All the years I spent trying to learn piano are mostly just a faded memory at this point. I don’t think that you can chalk up as one of your accomplishments in life something that you learn and then promptly forget. It’s like getting old and fat but telling people that you used to be in fine physical shape.

I have been working to restore what I once knew of the Arabic language. After years and years of total neglect I have been dedicating at least two hours a day recently to cut back the overgrowth that has covered my knowledge of this Semitic language, a language that I worked so hard to learn over 25 years ago. It is coming back quickly after only about ten days of study and I plan to be back in a matter of a couple months to the place where I left my studies in Arabic all those years ago. What I bring now to the table is a better grasp of just how to go about learning another language. One of my new tools is technology: my MP3 player is a powerful learning aid. I listen to Arabic language lessons while on my daily bike rides.

The problem is that my new gains in Arabic seem to be coming at the expense of my Spanish. Lately I have felt clumsy speaking Spanish and I certainly miss listening to audio books in Spanish during my bike rides. The good thing is that I need Spanish to survive so it won’t get too far out of the corral. I also think that my French has improved simply because my Spanish is so much better; my French gets better by default for its vast similarity to Spanish. I was never very fluent in Greek but I could get by pretty well. I haven’t uttered more than a few words of that language since leaving Greece over 20 years ago. Oh well, if I ever go there again I’m sure that I will bone up on it.

I have been struggling with how exactly to explain what I am about to write so excuse me if the is a bit cloudy. What I spent time learning and then forgetting is like losing inventory in your warehouse. That is a regretful occurrence but what is even more alarming is losing the list of what you have in storage. It’s not only that I have forgotten so much of what I once knew, I have lost track of the inventory sheet—if that makes any sense. I am coming upon Arabic grammar patterns that I never remember having ever learned, although I’m sure that I must have known them at one time. Most of the vocabulary at least seems familiar in a very distant way. Had I let another few years go by I may have completely lost track that I ever knew any Arabic to begin with.

I suppose that is why they built the pyramids. Constructing a huge monolith out of heavy blocks of limestone is certainly an easier way to mark your achievements in life than trying to keep up with your piano lessons.

Labels: language, Valencia Spain

8:34 AM

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Monday, June 29, 2009

 

USA 2, Brazil 3


I’m the only American in my circle of football hooligan friends so they all came out to support the USA against Brazil. This picture is of my Belgian friend Ludo who got the t-shirt from another Belgian friend who bought it off a homeless guy while traveling in the US. Cost of super funky t-shirt: priceless. Could you imagine anyone in their right mind wearing a Bush t-shirt? America is back in style, folks!

Just when you thought that the nine month European football season is finally over they throw a sort of not-shit tournament at you, this one was called the Confederation Cup of whatever. The USA was soundly trounced in the group play by Italy and then by Brazil. They made it into the finals by the most bizarre set of eventualities in the history of football tournaments only to be paired up against Spain who are ranked number one in the world. Two unanswered goals later the USA team finds themselves in the final game against Brazil. I arrived a ten minutes late for the game and the USA was up 1-0 already only to score again at 27 minutes by a brilliant breakaway goal by Donovan.

There were already too many miracles this week for that score to stand and Sevilla star striker Fabiano scored in the first minute of the second half. Brazil hacked away at the US squad like someone chopping down a tree with a very sharp ax. I said before the match that I really just wanted to see a good game and I didn’t expect the USA to win. I got my wish and then some although seeing that 2-0 lead change into defeat was a bit of a heartbreaker. The bottom line is that Brazil is just a better squad. Spain is a better team than Brazil, in my opinion but the USA just played way over their heads. Hopefully the brilliant play by the USA will work to get them a little better placement in the group play next summer in South Africa for the World Cup.

Labels: Football, Valencia Spain

10:19 PM

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Friday, June 26, 2009

 

Michael Jackson (1958-2009)*



I have to admit that my first reaction upon learning of Jackson’s death simply begged the question, “Does his early demise surprise anyone?” What a cold and cynical response on my part, but bad behavior by our most successful citizens seems to be almost the rule in our society. After the child molestation accusations (and please don’t tell me he was innocent—there’s a court of law and then there is the truth which often don’t jibe), the plastic surgery, and all of the other just plain weirdness, it is difficult to harbor any feelings for the man than other than pity…at best. I say this with total respect for the man and his great musical legacy that we should all bow our heads, grab our groins, and let out an ear-splitting, "Eee Yeee Heeew" (sp?).

It truly is sad to think that this artist, instead of exploring the limits of his immense talent well into his 70’s, 80’s, and 90’s allowed himself to wallow in his grotesque excesses. Imagine a Michael Jackson maturing like a fine wine, which is a terrible analogy because he started out fairly perfect and then got better and better. One of my favorite writers, the Peruvian Mario Vargas Llosa, just wrote one of his most brilliant novels at the age of 72. How many more times could Michael Jackson have reinvented himself and cranked out another brilliant album? I know that it is a stupid question but it’s one I will ask over and over as I continue to hear his music being played and enjoyed all over the world.

I can’t say that I was ever a huge fan of Michael Jackson, at least not when I was an adult because I loved The Jackson Five as a kid. With that said it is impossible to deny that a lot of his music was just so damn good no matter what your own personal music tastes may be. I was in a dance club not too long ago when right in the middle of dancing with my date and another couple I stopped and remarked that the song we were dancing to at the moment, Don’t Stop ‘Til You Get Enough, was absolutely brilliant and probably MJ’s best. We all stopped dancing and just listened to the song. Everyone agreed with me. How could anyone disagree?

I have probably listened to more of his music in the last couple of days than I ever have before. I don’t ever remember actually listening to his music at home or even buying any of his records. I didn’t need to because he provided the sound track for huge swaths of my life. It’s impossible to spend a night in a dance club without hearing at least one of his songs. After hearing Billy Jean a few hundred times I still have to admit that it kicks ass as a dance beat.

*Never have a pair of parentheses seemed more like bookend tombstones to me, as if your whole life will somehow be relegated to two dates and everything in between is somehow forgotten, as if a hyphen is all that represents a person’s life. If history is written by the victors it is remembered only by the survivors. I think the sobering thing for me when I typed in those barest essentials of Michael Jackson’s vital statistics is that one of those dates will be the same when the time comes for my life to be reduced to two numbers separated by a hyphen. I am still working furiously on everything that comes in between. I freely apologize for never having recorded a song like Don’t Stop ‘Til You Get Enough but I suppose that the world really does need ditch diggers like me.

Labels: music, Valencia Spain

10:27 AM

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Thursday, June 25, 2009

 

Estados Unidos 2, España 0

EEUU Baja a España de la Nube -Levanter (USA brings Spain down from the cloud)
EEUU Acaba con el Sueño de España – El País (US ends Spain’s dream)
La Roja Recibe una Cura de Humildad ante EEUU – Super Deporte (The Red gets a dose of humility from the US)
Los Defensos Unidos de América - Levante (The united defenses of America)

Only that last headline really tells it like it happened. I have never seen Spain so stymied by a defense as they were last night in South Africa against the US national team. One of the guys I was watching the game with said it right when he said that every time Spain takes a shot there is a damn American right in his way. The US scored on two defensive errors, one in each half. Spain had no answer although they pounded the American defense and controlled possession for a big part of the match. Capdevila let Jozy Altidore (teammates at Villarreal up the road from me at Castelló de la Plana) get in front of him with only Casillas between the ball and the goal. Later Sergio Ramos thought he was controlling the ball in front of his goal when Clint Dempsey (Fulham) stole it and scored.

The two goals and superb goalkeeping by Tim Howard gave the US their first FIFA tournament final since starting play in 1916. I would like to see just one more miracle. Brazil would be a nice win and a sure way for the US to get a break on their group in the World Cup draw next summer.

After the game I couldn't resist sending a text message to all my friends here: U-S-A, U-S-A. I had to do a text message; I don't have a car to drive around in while I honk the horn.

For the final on Saturday night it will be Brazil and the USA. This comes after a very uninspired win by Brazil against the host South Africa. Dani Alves (formerly from Sevilla and this year with Barça) came in very late in the game and scored a free kick, much to the disappointment of everyone else in the bar except the one American. The Spanish were hoping to at least salvage something from their loss by playing Brazil for third place. They will have to settle for South Africa. Everyone gave their support for the USA in the final. They also told me that at least they weren’t beat by Italy. One of the patrons accused Obama of fixing the tournament in our favor. I told him that I thought that made sense. Beating Spain outright certainly defies logic.

I hear a lot of conservatives in America talk about how the rest of the world is so anti-American. I have never witnessed this first-hand, quite the opposite, in fact. I have noticed a lot of anti-Italian sentiment, all of it stemming from their national football team that plays a boring brand of soccer. The USA doesn’t play the most exciting game I have ever seen but that is simply because they lack the overall talent of teams like Spain and Brazil. If Brazil plays as rudderless on Saturday as they did against South Africa we may see yet another miracle this week.

Labels: Football

6:43 PM

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Sunday, June 21, 2009

 

Making Tomato Sauce



I have been making tomato sauce the same way my entire adult life. I think I picked this up from The Cooking of Italy by Waverly Root. This is one of those recipes that I would never change. After the dish has cooled it thickens and you may just want to eat the sauce with a spoon. It is easy to make, inexpensive, and perfect. It's un-improvable.

It only takes a few minutes to prepare (although it needs to simmer for an hour or so). What more do you need to know?

Labels: cooking video, Valencia Spain

10:50 AM

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