Spanish Gastronomy

To introduce us to Spanish Gastronomy (art and science of food), the program rented out this place called "La Solera," where the head chef gave us demonstrations and samples of the most typical Spanish foods: el gazpacho, la tortilla espanola, and jamon.

El gazpacho, a cold vegetable soup, was extremely easy to make. He blended together tomatoes, cucumbers, a clove of garlic, half a bottle of olive oil, and a handful of salt. I would've liked it a lot better if he hadn't put so much salt in... I was kind of wary to try this at first because it brought back memories of my aunt's juicer. She would take whole carrots, beets, celeries, apples, whatever vegetable she could find, and put them through the juicer. My cousins, brother, and I got tired of forcing ourselves to chug it every single day for a whole summer. 

Lesson #1: Spaniards love their olive oil.

Tortilla espanola. This is basically a potato omelette. 

Lesson #2: Spaniards love their potatoes. 

un bocadillo de tortilla espanola. it's a potato omelette in baguette. that's it. no vegetables or sauce. it's extremely dry. 

Lesson #3: Spaniards love their jamon. 

They hang these legs of cured ham in bars and stores for up to 6 months. 

Slicing ham is an art form, apparently. It should be thin enough to read a menu if you were to plop it on a menu. The legs of ham can grow mold, but the chef says it's ok, you can just cut it off. 

making some tapas with pulpo (octopus)

we were allowed to just chill after the demonstrations and eat all their food and drink all their non-alcoholic drinks for free!

Usually when you buy a drink, you get a tapa, which is a small snack. It's called a "tapa" because its purpose was once to cover the top of your cup so bugs don't drop in. Some tapas I've eaten are tortilla espanolas, bread with jamon on top, patatas bravas, and chicken wings. 

My roommates and I have been loading up on a lot of carbs. We've been trying to get a decent amount of fruits and veggies into our systems.

our favorite: chocolate con churros! The chocolate is a bit thicker than chocolate milk, which is ok with me because I can just drink it up after the churros are gone!

there's jamon flavored chips, but no hot cheetohs :[

Each region of Spain has their own specialities. I'm excited to travel to Galicia next week to eat. I'm a big fan of seafood!