Barcelona: The First 100 Hours

Life indeed moves pretty fast...

In Barcelona for just a few days, and my head is spinning with everything that’s happened. Ironically, as I prepared to move away from classes and classmates, I was afraid I would have too much time on my hands…

So, some quick updates, with more details later. (And I promise, I still have past posts in progress!)

First, I’ve changed the name of this newsletter to Adventures in Cooking. Cooking can indeed be an adventure, but also I hope not to scare anyone, because ultimately it is mostly quite easy. Also, some of my adventures don’t involve cooking. These small conflicts also encompass the larger What Comes Next questions I’m pondering, so stay tuned.

I also changed the “logo” picture, which now displays some fisherman Terrasini, Sicily. In Barcelona, I am interning with El Peix al Plat, where Anna offers guided tours of the fishery docks, seafood cooking classes, and more. Again, not a permanent image, but a perfect fit right now.

Monday was moving day, which involved four trains and hundreds of miles/kilometers over 14 hours, which would have been completely enjoyable and stress-free were it not for the two heavy suitcases and four other bags that needed hefting on and off those four trains. No problems, though, so no complaints, and it was a nice day of transition from small-town Italy to the bustling metropolis of Barcelona.

My floofy Persian flat-mates for the next two months jumped right up to help me unpack and get settled. Pictured above is Carlotta, while Luna, below, in the box, is more shy, except for mornings when she jumps on the bed in full motorboat mode. I brought lots of string and keep them entertained, and found some boxes, so life is good.

Tuesday gave me a day to get just a bit settled and check out the neighborhood. I now live in the center of the Gothic Quarter of Old Town Barcelona, five blocks from La Rambla/Les Rambles, three blocks from Plaça de Sant Jaume, which is city hall plaza. Five blocks to the water, and 20 minutes to the beach.

Left to right: La Rambla on a weekday evening, my walk to work on Friday, and another nearby street.

As I’ve said before, this little boy from northern Minnesota has all the emotions happening here.

Wednesday I did a ride-along with Anna and her assistant Claudio to Tarragona, an hour’s drive south, to a cooking demo/show cooking at the central market.

I was only the assistant-assistant, but while Anna managed the program and Claudio cooked (they both had spent the previous day prepping), I helped plate and serve, and found myself (on purpose) greeting visitors in Spanish, Italian, and French. Upper right shows the breaded sardines, and upper left and bottom center show the calamari baked with tomatoes and olives. I have much to learn from Anna about cooking fish, no?

A bit of time to freshen up at home, and then I met Anna at a book-reading. Anna served as marine consultant for Marina Monsonís on Mare Mar, a passionate book about how to clean, honor, and cook forgotten, local, and seasonal fish, with an emphasis on sustainable fishing and responsible eating.

The event was at the contemporary art museum, so it was far from ordinary. We saw in our art and design classes recordings and photos from many performances and exhibitions, but I’ve never been to such a thing in person.

It had everything (in Catalan, but I did my best): book reading by the author, dramatic pro-immigration anti-tourism messages, improvised duets and guest speakers, the assembly of big pots of many different fish, and Palestinian music and dance. And we were in the front row.

Thursday morning Anna and I met to talk about her goals and for me to better understand her business. Lots of opportunity there, both for me to learn, and to help (I hope!)

Thursday evening I re-joined Claudio at his very non-traditional cooking class. We made quick sauerkraut, chickpea hummus made with olives instead of tahini, raw carrot purée plain and also in couscous, and salted sardines with candied and fresh citrus peel. I didn’t plan my plating very well, but I think it turned out okay, it all tasted great, and I learned some fun new kitchen tricks.

Friday Anna hosted two groups of a dozen 3-4 year olds on their monthly beach lesson. On this last class of the season she talked about plastic pollution, and played games as they removed bits of trash from laminated fish pictures, and then “raced” to remove trash from fishing traps. Adorable as it was to see the kids hug on Anna, I also saw first-hand how challenging it can be to teach anything at all to kids this age.

Then a quick assignment in the afternoon researching manta rays — dozens of these gentle giants have washed up on the Spanish, French, and Italian coasts, and Anna is writing an article about what we know so far.

The last part of Friday was a meeting with Núria, a cooking instructor and food writer who has a temporary gig at an American high school here. Our assignment for next Wednesday: conduct a cooking class (twice) teaching American students (in Spanish) who don’t like fish how to cook fish. Right after that we bumped into Chantal, another friend of Anna (she seems to run into friends everywhere), who used to work for the World Wildlife Fund and currently has a bunch of sustainability projects in the works.

Always in networking mode, I exchanged numbers with both Núria and Chantal to meet later and learn more about their projects, and how I might be able to help.

Of course there has also been some exploring, shopping, a small amount of cooking (so far!), and, without question, doing my best to entertain Luna and Carlotta.

And I hate to cut this short, but I have to meet Anna at the market to purchase and then prep and freeze the fish for next Wednesday.

More soon !

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