2nd breakfast

A blog post entirely dedicated to food.

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Aragorn: Gentlemen! We do not stop 'til nightfall.

Pippin: But what about breakfast?

Aragorn: You've already had it.

Pippin: We've had one, yes. But what about second breakfast?

[Aragorn stares at him, then walks off.]

Merry: Don't think he knows about second breakfast, Pip.

Pippin: What about elevensies? Luncheon? Afternoon tea? Dinner? Supper? He knows about them, doesn't he?

Merry: I wouldn't count on it.

At last, I have found a country where I can enjoy second breakfast. Spanish students apparently all get up early enough to work their hair into bed-head-yet-styled curls, squeeze into jeggings and complicated, lace-up boots, and then swig down a coffee before dashing off to school. Students eat their “real” breakfast (usually a sandwich) around 11am, and wait to eat lunch until they get home from school, usually between 2 and 3pm. Dinners are late, starting anywhere from 9pm for a family sit-down dinner to 11pm for eating out at a restaurant. Names for these meals in Castellano (Spanish): desayuno, almuerzo, comida, cena. In Catalán: esmorzar, berenar, dinar, sopar. On Mallorca, however, they speak Mallorquín, not traditional Catalán, and both the 1^st and 2^nd meals are called “berenar”…hence "second breakfast"!

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Because I don’t live with a Spaniard, I only have a hazy idea of what real Spanish/Mallorcan people do in their homes, but I have very good understanding of what they eat. Mallorca is full of excellent, traditional dishes, and as the fresh-faced foreigner, my coworkers keep presenting me with various food items, telling me they’re “typical” and that my experience on the island wouldn’t be complete without sampling all of their plats típics (typical dishes). Mallorcans are very proud of their culture, and they have divers plats típics. My previous post had one glaring omission: the food. I waited for a special occasion (my family’s arrival) to explore the various restaurants around the area, and we ate pretty high on the hog. I made sure they tried every “typical” Mallorcan dish I could think of:

<- caragols (snails, eaten dipped in alioli)

coca (sauce-less veggie pizza) ->

<- pa amb oli (“bread with oil”: bread rubbed with fresh tomatoes and sprinkled with olive oil)

fuet (a salami-type sausage) ->

<- sobrassada (a delicious sausagy meat spread)

frito mallorquín ->

<- sopa mallorquina

vi mallorquí. ¡Salud!->

And then came dessert:

<- ensaïmada (a cream-filled pastry)

turró (candy made from almond butter + powdered sugar) ->

<- gató d’ametlla (flour-less almond cake)

and crema catalana (like crème brûlée, only without the fun sugar-glaze cap). ->

When we got to Madrid, we dug into other typical Spanish specialties:

<- pulpo a la gallega (Galician-style octopus)

jamón serrano (cured ham) ->

<- tortilla española (Spanish omelet)

and churros con chocolate (chocolate with churros). ->

<- About the only typical dish we didn't have time for was breakfasting on bocadillos de calamares (squid sandwiches).

It was wonderful. I can’t wait for more visitors, so we can check out more restaurants!

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My friend Linnaea was visiting this weekend (detailed post forthcoming) and because she’s somewhat vegetarian, it gave me a GREAT excuse to look around for non-meaty restaurants around town. Spain is big on their meat: I have tried about six different kinds of sausage since arriving here (and I’ve been informed that they’re all “typical”). About a week before Linnaea arrived, someone suggested that we try the “restaurante hindú” because they might have something as exotic as tofu. The “restaurante hindú” turned out to be an Indian restaurant that’s just around the corner from my apartment, and although they sadly have no tofu, they have just about anything else my over-sausaged palate has been craving. We ate at the Indian restaurant on Friday night, and on Saturday, we got take-out. (Yes, there is take-out in Spain—I know what I’ll be doing on lazy Saturday nights from now on!) Linnaea and I brought the food back to our apartment and it was great fun to share it with my roommate Sofia, and see her reaction to her first experience with Indian food.

Sofia, my Bulgarian roommate, has some peculiar ideas about food. Raw meat=can sit out all day, raw mushrooms=death wish. Lard=good, olive oil=too heavy. You cannot eat heavy food at night, because you will get fat, but a nice lardy lunch is just fine. Especially if said lardy lunch is made by Sofia, then given directly to Jennifer with the explanation, “I’m on a diet, so you have to eat ALL of this.” Oh, joy. Sofia is actually an excellent cook, and when we coordinate well on which food we are going to cook TOGETHER and eat TOGETHER, it all works out well. After I saw Linnaea off to the bus stop yesterday, Sofia and I cooked up a storm.

February 14^th is a day to celebrate wine in Bulgaria, and usually people go out, have a barbecue, and get rip-roaring drunk in the vineyards. Unfortunately, the Spanish, having no particular mid-February tradition of their own, have gone for American pink commercialism instead of Bulgarian Bacchanals, which I think is really a shame. Also, February 14^th falls on a Monday this year, and Sofia has to work—so we just celebrated our own not-Valentines Day a day early. We made tarator–a cold yogurt, cucumber, and dill weed Bulgarian soup—juicy mushroom caps, pork chops, little ham-and-cheese empanadas, and crema catalana (see photo above). We celebrated this with lots of wine, of course!

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We also have been working our way through about 15 kilos of lemons, because Sofia’s old roommate takes care of people’s gardens. Explanation: There are bajillions of second homes on Mallorca, and most second-home owners have lemon trees, orange trees, almond trees, etc., to brighten the view during the owners’ 2-week sojourns on the island. The rest of the year, those trees drop fruit all over the place, and the gardeners get to pick it up, and then bring bagfulls to his friends and ex-roommates. In November, this saintly man showered us with oranges. February is lemon season. Who loves lemonade? Jennifer loves lemonade! Homemade limonada for breakfast, second breakfast, lunch, and dinner = ¡deliciosa!

When life gives you lemons…

…give them to the kitty.

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