Monday, 21 November 2011

Foooood!

Ladies and Gentlemen,

It’s time. Time for my food blog.

If you’re hungry, you might want to navigate away from this page right now. It’s best to read this post on a full stomach.

§ TThe first mention has to be the funfetti cupcakes I made last week. They were so delicious. Rosa girls, this is all you. In the process of making cupcakes, I realized two things. One, that Spain doesn’t have a word for cupcakes, only muffins (magdalenas). This is obviously entirely unacceptable. And secondly, my Spanish roommate didn’t know what sprinkles were. What they were called. Anything. Wow. I introduced someone to sprinkles! Isn’t that lovely?!? When Sara, Ellie and I bit into the warm cupcakes, someone said, “Now that tastes like America. Ummmmmm!” And it was true. The cupcakes were a lovely taste of home. Sandra also shared the cupcakes with several people who had never had them before, so it was a warm, fuzzy triumph overall.

§ I’ve also made a point to buy one fruit I don’t recognize at the frutería everytime I go. The results have been hilarious. My first adventure was the “cherimoya.” I looked up how to eat it on youtube and dug in.It was like eating the fruit glaze that sweetens cheesecake by itself. By the spoonful. That being said, none of us particularly liked it. It was too sweet. And it takes a lot for me to say that. We christened it the “dinosaur egg,” and I don’t know that I’ll buy one again. Good to know.

Doesn't it really look like a dinosaur egg?

It's a very fascinating inside!
§ Next fruit adventure: the mango. Yes, that’s right. I bought this ginormous fruit that I didn’t recognize. I asked the cashier what it was called as I was checking out. “mahhhh-co,” he said. “Mahhhco?” I repeated? “MAHHH-COOOO,” he repeated more emphatically. (My brain whizzed. That sound remotely like “mango!” Could it be?) True story: when I brought that fruit home and sliced into it, it was just a giant mango. Not a new fruit at all. And the poor shopkeeper must have thought I was a really confused person. However, the story ends in triumph: unlike the cherimoya, the mango was delicious. Hooray!

§ TThere are orange trees everywhere in Sevilla. Everywhere. They line many streets, poking out of the sidewalk every five yards so that you have to dart around when another person is headed your direction. And I’ve always wanted to take one of the oranges, bring it home, and slice into the middle. Little did I know, Sandra would provide me with this and more. Sandra brought an orange from her family’s home outside of Sevilla and she ate it. And I ate half. That’s right. I ate half of a “straight from a Spanish tree in sevilla” orange. It was lovely.

§ TToday, I bought two new fruits I had never seen before: a quince fruit (“mebrillo” in español) and a kaki persimmon. A quince fruit, it so happens, is too sour to eat on it’s own. Its portugese name is “marmelo,” and it’s used to make sweet jams and pastes. That’s right: I purchased the fruit from which we make marmalade. I don’t know if I’ll be trying my hand at that, but I now know more about marmalade than I ever have before. And you can too. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quince#Uses ) The kaki can be eaten on its own, and I’ll let you know how that goes once I try it! For the very curious at heart: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asian_persimmon

Wow. So it turns out that this post is already really long. I might just have to make this a two part blog. I would—I don’t have to split my blog about work into two posts, oh no. Just the blog on food. But alas, silliness aside, I hope this has been mildly interesting to read, since it was very exciting to experience in Spain. More to come, friends.

2 comments:

  1. YUM! I'm glad you could educate those spaniards properly. No need for geography knowledge... just cupcakes and sprinkles. I'm proud of you for being so adventurous with your food choices! When in Spain, I guess. Thanks for all your prayers!

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  2. YAYAYAYAYAY!!!! I'm so glad the funfetti cupcakes were a success. We were standing in the cupcake aisle and I asked, should we get strawberry or just vanilla, and Soup said, Um, we should get funfetti. I was like, DUH. Silly me! OF COURSE WE SHOULD GET FUNFETTI.

    This blog makes me happy. You make me happy. Miss you heaps!

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