marlena spieler

marmite is a thick dense gooey translucent paste that you are likely to either love or hate. it is intensely umami, in the same way that soy sauce is. you can only use a teeny tiny bit or you'll not be able to eat it again for awhile. they have a website, just go to goggle; and if you go to www.sfgate.com , click food and dining, then click onto my name, and chronicle food archives, you'll find a column i wrote about it, oh, say 4 or 5 months ago. as for me: I LOVE IT!!!!!

what is the title of your own book?

ps: from sunday chronicle: Graceann Walden has lunch with Paula Wolfert in Sonoma, for her column: Cooks Night Out. sounds like tons of fun, wish i were there..... http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?...1.DTL&type=food

Wow, Mabelline, if thats for saturday night dinner, who are you having for sunday or midweek? and you'll have to feed moses lots of wine, as i have heard he stutters a bit and perhaps the wine will relax him enough............. ps what are you serving?

I"m late late late this week, too busy doing a long tapas crawl through barcelona; for full details on exactly what i ate, visit my food blog in the general food topics category. but i can tell you this: i ate a lot of fried artichokes, and drank a lot of wine, both usually for breakfast. A Feast of mushrooms; Tara Duggan interviews jardiniere executive chef, robbie lewis, as they explore the world of funghi. What to choose--descriptions, qualities, etc and where to buy them, as well as a warm chicory salad with wild mushrooms and pancetta vinaigrette from Jardiniere. http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?...FDGOV53E6B1.DTL GraceAnn Walden lets us know whats going on in the constantly changing world of bay area restaurants: this week, George Morrone is baaaaack, and he's opening a new restaurant sooooooon. details to follow, and with graceann, we're sure that it will be before the ink on the lease has even dried! more comings and goings on of restaurants: openings and closing, and movings around. keep up to date with whats going on in bay area with graceann: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?...FDGOV53E651.DTL Bill Daley inspects chef Mitch Rosenthal's tatoos, including the one that runs down his thigh! also details about the "curse" said to be on new yorks time warner building which caught on fire recently.........but as Thomas Keller says of his new and now charred restaurant Per Se, paraphrased, "a fire is a good luck omen" and that is what i call being positive! my kinda guy. http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?...FDGOV53E671.DTL What makes the best take away roast chicken, and where do you find it? Carol Ness finds out for us. my mouth was watering by the time i finished reading this, and since i'll be in bay area later this week, i'm planning my chicken eating right this minute. http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?...FDGOV53E691.DTL Whats New? Michael Bauer, Tara Duggan, Rene Caparros, Carol Ness, Karola Saekel, report: lots of foodie goodies for oscar night, and though i'm a little late with this update.....they're delicious at any time. i can vouch for the truffle popcorn with champagne at san franciscos restaurant aqua, which i nibble regularly when given the opportunity. there are ice creams, cookies, too, plus a book about movies and menus, "Movie Menus" by Francine Segan, (Villard, 222 pages paperback, $16.95). and an update on what is freshest and arriving in the markets, even as we speak. http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi? f=/chronicle/archive/2004/02/25/FDGR656JBL1.DTL Carl Foronda provides us with an essay on food in the movies: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?...FDGSF57AAR1.DTL Soup contest: a soup company sponsors it. enter now while there is time! http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?...FDGU9560R81.DTL Now we have loads of chickeny stories: The Best of the Birds, by Carol Ness, a virtual chicken-crawl, including chinatown and i know that the bird crawl will focus on duck, then. http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?...FDG5Q55A6M1.DTL Amanda Berne reports on the best way to reheat a storebought chicken. so i hear the m word (micorwave.....). http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?...FDGQT55BUC1.DTL Carol Ness revisits The Best Way to Roast a Chicken and which type to choose for the roasting. http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?...FDGQT55BUE1.DTL And finally, Tara Duggan writing as The Working Cook offers several things to do with take away chickens, including two recipes from chronicle intern Carl Foronda, a chicken with shiitake and bok choy, and another with andouille......eat up! http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?...FDGU9560J41.DTL

just back from barcelona where at my favourite tapas bar, i ate fried artichokes for breakfast every day, along with a glass of wine. (isn't barcelona fab!). the arthchokes must have been the baby size, tough outer leaves trimmed, only hearts plus tender inner leaves, cut into sort of little wedges or chips, and fried in olive oil then salty. i think they might possibly have been tossed with a tiny bit of flour and salt before frying but only a little tiny bit. crisp and golden, divine.

I think until quite recently supermarkets like Sainsbury's were considered to be forces for good in the sense of introducing a variety of new and exciting treats to the mainstream English consumer -- for example, olive oil Certainly if you read Elizabeth David and she explains how there is a shop or two in Soho where you can find this exotic ingredient, you realise how far we have come. You are right that it is the attitude to food that is the key factor -- the liberal consensus that it is all the fault of the big bad supermarkets seems to me to have it backwards. since the bad old days when elizabeth david had to scurry around soho searching for this or that special ingredients, british eating habits have gone in the supermarket direction. they could have gone in a more specialist direction, but you're right that supermarkets did offer a force for the good. i remember when the first safeway opened on edgeware road in london, a long long time ago, it was really the best place for good quality. (that, and selfridges which sold excellent bacon). supermarkets were a step up from what was on offer. and as life changed and everyone got so busy, supermarkets became very alluring. interestingly, i did once meet elizabeth. she was quite elderly, and it was in an italian restaurant in san francisco. she and i ended up somehow drawing pictures of cats and olives while a lot of pretentious people swanned around.......but that is by the by.

i've had really fabulous food at north beach restaurant,very authentic tuscan food. if you speak with the owner and or waiter about having special dishes, i think you'll be happiest. they have a room downstairs that you can book for events, but small events, such as dinner for about 10....its a ham room, ie a room that they hang and age their homemade prosciutto! its wonderful! also, sgroppino, a whipped up mixture of sorbetto, proscecco and i think a bit of grappa is divine, they make it deliciously, but you might have to ask ahead, i don't know if its on the menu. and if you tell the owner, lorenzo, that i said hello, i'm sure he'll take good care of you, and you know......its been too long since i've been there (about a year or so). its very nice.

oh, i think its wonderful to have your market day posting in general, because the france section always seems more about whats going on, and where to go what to do, whereas i just saw your thread and clicked on, and loved it! merci beaucoup for taking us along! ps: what are the panais used for? i was so surprised to see them because i have seldom seen parsnips (their english name) in france or french recipes...... perhaps egullet should have a market shop along day, every week, with a different person tagged for it, and put it up in the general section. i think it would be terrific to see markets all over the country, and world, and to hear commentary about whats in season, etc. anyone interested out there?

buenas dias, Marlena here. I meant to sign off last night saying: tomorrow we'll read about what Marlene eats, but i guess i was subconsiously not wanting to go away, for I wrote Marlena instead. confusing? yes. But from here on in, Marlene will be driving this tasty eating machine, the foodblog. old habits die hard, though; i --and husband--find ourselves telling everyone we meet what we're eating, and telling everyone esp at the food conference, about the blog and egullet. husband also wants it known he forgot to tell you all about an apple he had last wednesday, and about the fact that he found the free morning coffee room at the hotel in spain, where there was coffee and bunuellos for free and in true british fashion, he was not shy! Adios mes amigos, and happy eating. sunday 29th february 2004 Marlena, Alan (the husband) , and Madeleine

this is a little bit of a rant, and i apologize. however, i agree with andy completely. its an interesting phenomenom that yes, there is much good food available in london (at scarey prices) but its very much a fashion-liftstyle-national pride statement. the trickle-down effect remains to be seen--oh it exists, but how deep it goes will or will not unveil itself in decades to come. where i live, in the bucolic countryside of hampshire, unless one gets in the car and drives quite far to find a farm shop, the only decent place to find food is the waitrose or asda, the first a posh supermarket, the second a decidedly budget minded one. both are supermarkets. and there is no restaurant worth eating at. a nice pub a ten minute drive, with great views, ambiance, etc, but the food is passable, unless you get a ploughmans which is lovely: cheese, pickle, bread, and an apple. (ploughmans, by the way, was invented a while back as a marketing compaign by i forget who, possibly the cheese people? or the pub people?). anyhow, i do love a good ploughmans. having been in barcelona the past week, wandering into any old bar and hoisting myself up onto a stool to eat tapas , looking at menus del dias galore then walking in for lunch when one struck my fancy, nibbling on bacados and more bocadillos to go with a drink or as a small meal, it is once again in my face, the difference of food in britain and food in other countries that i frequent: the attitude in the shopping (quality held high, and knowledge of what makes something good not just the presige of one or two names), the delight in eating, sharing, the sociability of it all, the daily sociability of it all. in the places that people have an enviable food culture, its all about attitude. its all about the good attitude towards food, its enjoyment, its knowledge, and its roll in the culture. and the way people eat, i feel this is most important of all. my parisian friend who spent the weekend with me a few weeks back says: you can find good food in london if you look hard enough, but you must work hard at it and spend a lot of money. there is a hospitality and generousity that is often missing (even now) in the hospitality industry here and that affects our experiences. and chain restaurants, or shall i say, restaurant groups, of even the biggest names, is a very popular phenomenom. i view chain restaurants as simply a way of pickpocketing the punters, and similarly try to avoid supermarkets too. but there needs to be an alternative, and you know if most people want this big chain thing, and don't support small individual shops except occasional special ones, and we know that marco polo must live in the most perfect spot in the world. but most of britain does not. most of britain does not eat very well. in an effort to encourage children and their familes to enjoy eating (eating good food of course) i am working (volunteer) with The Great Ormand Street Hospital website childrens magazine. it is satisfying to feel i am making a contribution but difficult to realize what most people, esp children, eat. and yet, in barcelona all the parents i spoke with say: ' why do the british children not eat vegetables? all of our children love vegetables!' i think kids just need the opportunity to taste good ones and a better attitude towards good (rather than embracing fast) food on behalf of the adults would go a long way towards this. and i'd love to ban the huge long aisles of prepared meals which is pretty much what most people who can afford them live on. they view them as proper food. and yet, these things are expensive, not very tasty with a few exceptions, and made from the cheapest ingredients (so what kind of oils? meats? what provenance?) and also a very separating experience in eating together as a family (on the rare occasions when people actually do). its microwave this and that separate thing. i think they are a terrible influence. to end my rant, these are some of the british foods i LOVE: marmite ( mmmmmm), branstens pickle ( a chutney-like tamarind and swede based relish in a jar), worchestershire sauce, picalilly, CHEESES!, British bacon, the range of butters we can get here from the excellent french local ones to a few british regional ones which are terrific; passion fruit (imported here, not so easily available in the usa and i always miss it so). elderflower cordial (this stuff is fantastic and makes the most divinely refreshing summer gelee dessert), treacle sponge (ooozy and richly sweet), trifle ( a once a year blow out, very over the top food wise and totally irrisistible). also the way that ducks are sold cut into pieces of breast and legs and sold separately. also greek yogurt. and: INDIAN/PAKISTANI FOODS, TURKISH FOODS, again, i emphasize its mostly the attitude towards food which has allowed big capitalistic supermarkets and hospitality companies to impact the way the british eat. we haven't mentioned the fact that most british traditionally do not like to spend much on food, as is borne by the percentage figures and statistics. and yet a segment of the population wants to spend spend spend regardless of the quality, they want the safety of the name brand, or the prestige. it all comes down to a lack of knowledge and appreciation, and this makes people vulnerable and less able to feed themselves well and happily.

missed breakfast and headed over to a cooking demonstration which was given as part of the mediterranean conference. there were 5 or 6 chefs, from tunisia, israel, greece, cyprus, and morocco. it was a tiny kitchen and the chefs tempers were fraying a bit. the moroccan chef decided that there was neither room nor time, so she backed out of the presentation. vefa andreaoiu (sp?) greece's answer to nigella for mature audiences made: stewed lamb wrapped in eggplant, giant white beans stewed with tomatoes, a country salad, and.......tzadziki. i was so hungry by then i was nearly crying, though you all know what i've been eating this week and a half, so i really had no good reason to be hungry. the israeli chef did an interesting dish of lamb wrapped in chickpea puree then encased in warka dough, and served with fava beans and sumak. of course as we didn't have a chance to taste, i couldn't tell you if it tasted good. sadly. (it looked lovely). the tunisian couscous smelled really enticing, the spices, the tomatoes, the fish and the vegetables were all arranged like a still life on top of the very light grains which i have now learned how to steam properly. wonderful to see some of the guests from last night again, and fun to see who was a delight and who was a b***h. always a fun game. anyhow, when i left the love vefa and i kissed, and vefa invited me to be on her television show in greece, and i had to hold myself back from grabbing the bowl of tzadziki and running out of the building. stopped and got a bocadillo of jamon, a serrano ham sandwich, oh don't they just do them so well, with the tomato rubbed on the bread and the drizzle of olive oil, what a wonderful way to make a sandwich. then grabbed an ensaimada, a light sort of croissanty roll but not so buttery, with a last cup of cafe con leche. and hopped onto easy jet. east jet really was easy, so much easy than getting the train back home which was hard, very hard. it took much longer to get home from gatwick than it did to get from barcelona to london. and when we got back it was snowing. and i was too tired to make something to eat, and so despite the fact we were hungry, and despite the fact that i wanted to go out with a bang, and cook a whole bunch of wonderful catalonian goodies, (i brought home jamon, chorizo, and an interesting cheese, back of lemons, coffee) i just ran out of energy. we ate a tuna salad--lots of onion, green onion, celery, and capers in an olive oil mayonnaise--with tomato wedges, lettuce and sliced cucumber, almost a barcelona meal......and it was sooooooo good. and now we're ready for bed. tomorrow i'll see if my photos have turned out and if they do, i'll post them either on this thread or on to a new one. and now, sleep well all, tomorrow we find out what marlena eats. Its been wonderful fun you all.

can a girl eat too much jamon, and one tortilla too many? maybe. but not yet. last night big festive event in llotja de mar, a 1385 building which was the first stock exchange, then an art school where both picasso and miro started their painting careers, and now you can rent it out for parties. it is magnificent, with high archways throughout, and a deep Spanish elegance. dinner was okay: i´ll wax lyrical later as i´m running out the door to try to find a cooking demonstration by vefa alexanoiu of greece, she´s making eggplant, both of our favourites and i´ve heard that a moroccan chef is there, so off i head. we ate: tapas-y nibbles: bread with tomatoes, jamon, croquettes, coca--the pissadeliere-like pastry of catalyunya, with tomatoes and onions. and then creme of black truffle soup, lobster souffle in a zucchini, lamb with zucchini and a roasted pepper stuck into it, two chocky desserts, and the best thing: exquisite pine nut croqantes and thin dark chocs, both of which were so divine that i wrapped them up in a napkin and stuck them into my bag. if anyone is so lucky to find themselves sitting next to me on the plane this afternoon, remember: i share. i was accepting the award by the way for rose levy barenbaum, for her bread bible. rose is the most excellent of bakers and most excellent of friends. she can turn even a wild child in the kitchen into a person who can bake happily (this is me, she gave me the courage to face the yeast....). gotta go, the eggplants away. x marlena

another day, another visit to la boqueria market. i mean, i know there are other things to do, and husband points out that he went to st catherine market yesterday, but i mean, la boqueria moves to its own beat, as if it has its own momentum. all of life is there. i was dying to take my friend, food writer josephine bacon, to the market for breakfast at el quim. also, she is the one with the camera, so if we actually get our photos up on sunday she will be the one to thank. josephine and husband (mine) ate: fried eggs topped with the tiniest little baby squid, garlic and parsley. i am allergic to seafood, alas so could only watch them. husband was thrilled to be eating baby squid for breakfast, with eggs, a different sort of English breakfast. i mean, squid instead of bacon. we also had a big plate of fried artichokes, more eggplant tortilla because i wanted them to taste it, and more bread with tomato and olive oil because its wonderful. then we stopped for coffee after much more walking around, to warm up our fingers, and also to share an ensaimada, a light pastry covered in powdered sugar, a catalonian speciality (we used to eat them in ibiza which is also catalonian). josephine bought a big bag of preserved fruit, on my advice: melon, orange, citron, and a wonderful whole preserved carrot! I´m going to make her bring it to the gala dinner tonight for dessert. husband bought the biggest bag of strawberries i´ve ever seen, costs 1 and a half euro, so sweet and fragrant and fresh! we ate them with our next coffee and when a beggar asked for money to feed her child i dished up huge handfuls of strawberries and the baby was really happy! have i mentioned the little ducklings and chicks in the bird market in the ramblas. i fell in love with these baby ducks, little ducklets, and at 1 euro each, i wanted to buy one and keep it in our hotel sink. but we´d have to stay here until it was grown up enough to make it on its own out there in the cruel world. then we walked down the passeig de gracia where the gaudi houses are, an elegant wide avenue. and ate lunch: bocados of ham, (little sandwiches) with tomato rubbed on the bread before the ham is added. i drank mint tea, josephine drank lemon-ade, and husband the caffeine maniac had cafe con leche. will tell all about the event this evening, what we eat, what its like--it will be very glam, quite formal, about 30 ambassadors are coming, more than the number of countries i can name. prince wilhelm of prussia was, as usual one of the judges. and if are any morsels of gossip, i´ll just try to fit it in between the morsels of food i report on. gotta get ready, and try to squeeze into my little black number, after all the jamon and chorizo, i might need two little black dresses to make it around me. and mabelline, tell smokey and sneaker thank you for keeping little madeline busy. i´m bringing her a can of "yellow cat tuna" para los gatos.

actually tolliver, i think i didn´t answer you completely. calcots--the green onions--usually are barbecued, not fried. so i feel hopeful i´ll come upon them again. but i have heard that asparagus is battered and fried sometimes. but then i also see them in tapas bars, piled up roasted, or scrambled with eggs, etc. lots of other things on menus, though, lots of beans and rustic home things and stews and the sort of local traditional cooking that one doesn´t always see on restaurant menus. its very touching and exciting to eat here for this reason. also, not a lot of other things on plates, quite simple presentations. portions that are reasonable so that you don´t feel stupified. x m

HI Tolliver: fried food in barcelona: there is a lot of fried food, but in fact there is less than i expected from having been in other places in spain. one of the things they do in frying here is use olive oil (not extra virgin, but non virgin, ie trollop) which is, not exactly lighter but just sort of tastier and more digestible. tonight in fact, as we were rambling along the ramblas and through a few alleyways in search of dinner, we passed on one of the tapas places as i didn´t like the way the oil smelled, and there was a whole counter full of batter-fried things to choose from. the one thing i do like thats fried is croquettas, and i think i waxed lyrical about that yesterday. again though--the oil really needs to be good, and in my book, for frying that means olive oil. a friend of mine arrived this afternoon so she and i did a mini tapas trawl, me being the native after two days here, i knew the ropes. i took her to a place i wanted to try the other night......full of people, students, families, old guys, young guys, and a lovely boy dog named: Lola whose owner was very friendly, wanting to talk about london, about san francisco, and also speak in italian as lola the dog is from italy. i was relieved that at least the dog was italian as i´m much more comfortable with italian than i am with spanish (or catalunyan).....i throw out about five different pronounciations and hope that one will make sense and not get me into trouble. we ate: morcilla (spicy blood sausage) with a few shreds of onion (I don´t like blood sausage anything and lola became a special under-the-table friend at this point); a wedge of zucchini tortilla; salt cod salad with tomatoes--the cod was hand pulled and the dressing light and lemony; tomatoes and white cheese which we didn´t know if it was greek or catalan but it was fresh and tangy and who cares if we are in barcelona eating feta, it was darned good feta and i´m a big feta fan; we also had hot sizzling little tiny chorizos; bread and i think that was it. and a beer. tomorrow the conference begins, but we´re planning on getting up early and going back to the market; my friend has a digital camera and we´re going to take photos of everything we eat and as much as we can of everything else, to download onto this blog (might have to wait until sunday to download it though). ah, early night, i know i shall sleep well in the knowledge that I am full of my daily allowance of chorizo.

hoisted myself up onto a stool for a marketplace tapas breakfast at el quim de la boqueria: fried artichoke pieces, eggplant tortilla (fritatta), bread rubbed with tomato, and a plate of olives. and a beer. if you eat nothing else in barcelona, i think you have to eat here. its such a happy little marketplace bar, quite sophisticated, with food that is exquisite. really exciting dynamic food, and yet quite traditional. a wonderful combination. when the waiter and chef realized i was a food writer they brought out business cards from others who have trod this way: paula wolfert, fred plotkin, narsai david, and jesse cool. i knew them all, and imagined them happily perched on a stool eating these wonderful things, as delighted as i was. also, the waiter pointed out to me different specialities they make as people ordered them, let me look at the plates etc. one of the most compelling: fried eggs topped with tiny teeny baby squid sauteed with garlic and parsley. i walked and walked and went to the museum of contemporary art, the picasso museum and the dali museum, the last two of which are in the gothic quarter of town. around two i roused my appetite and went for lunch. there is a special menu del dio, and menu del noche, special fixed price menus and they are very reasonably priced and marketplace based. i ate batter fried wild spring onions, caÇots, with romescu sauce. the sauce was delish, but to be honest, i don´t like fried things too much and would have preferred the calcots barbecued. i should have just pulled the batter off, silly me. then i had a veal and mushroom braise, with was quite strongly flavoured with orange, and a meaty jus, really nice. and diced apple with watermelon for dessert. IN the market i bought a bag of different fruits and sampled them when i got home. a whole mandarin, a whole pear, a big piece of orange, slices of lemon, and a chunk of melon. and a ring of pineapple. the mandarin was the best, with the outside sugary but the inside still fruity. the others were too sugary, though the orange chunk was pretty wonderful. the lemon one was very hard and hard to eat but tasty. price for a whole jamon varies depending on the type of ham, but i was please to see hams for as little as E45.......spanish hams, by and large, are sliced thicker than italian prosciutto, and also it is sliced with the grain rather than against it. there are special ham holders that you put the ham in and it holds it at the right angle while you slice away. gotta go, some of the other members of the conference have started to arrive. tomorrow i´ll try to scribble some notes about the classes they hold at la boqueria market--three times a year i think, for a week each--but also they said there are weekly classes for children. today there was also a group of children parading through the market, different children, same scene: adults parting and letting them through, tutting and tutting, and saying aren´t they sweet in spanish, the kids agog at the whole of everything around them. í don´t think i can face another meal today. but i´m sure that when i get back tonight, i´ll have nibbled something you´ll all just have to know about. and of course, i´ll tell you every little morsel. adios, M

Dear Bleudauvergne, you´re beautiful too, for saying such a nice thing! Its a real privilige to be the blogger, as well as a lot of fun. Dear Toliver, you´re with me every step through that market! i´m going back tomorrow, too.........did i mention that every morning there is a sort of cooking presentation of the foods of the marketplace with one of spains chefs, often a star-chef.......... meanwhile, back in barcelona: after perusing the menu, and since we had had a large sit down multicourse lunch, we decided we wanted something a little wilder. so we walked along the sea, and wilder you couldn´t get, the med in its fiesty grey and icy wintery way....i have real affection for the mediterranean sea in winter. so by ten we popped into a tapas bar and said: surprise us! (foodwise). a big plate arrived with a selection of tortillas: a classic plump potato tortilla, a fragrant tortillas of wild garlic, and a little round omelet of greens that they called spinach but i think was more like chard--it was wild and springlike and rangy, stems but delicious stems, leaves but delicate leaves. and garlic of course. with it, a big pile of sliced chorizo, a smokey salami-type one this time, that you eat simply sliced and not browned. this one was not too spicy but had just a little kick. and a plate of padrone peppers, little green sizzlers, as described a couple of entries back in my market description. ah, here is what our neighbours at the table next to us ate tonight: a group of young trendies in the media bizz: wait, its better than that! they are cast of a television programme, which will air tomorrow night on espana tv5, 7:45. sid, one of the stars, who is very charming, and handsome, and very interesting, and speaks enlish very well, ate: a salad of tomatoes and cheese with a mustard sauce, beef with nut-cream, fresh fruit for dessert. sid tells me he lives in melia, which is part of north africa, and he is so charming. he has to leave us now to have his cafe con leche....... adios, sid.........ooops, he tells me he spells it siad. night night, marlena´s joining the party...........

whole preserved oranges: they looked sweet, as if they had been simmered in syrup which had sort of dried to a glaze........i didn´t buy one, as a whole glaceed orange seemed a bit excessive and i always worry about waste..... but i´d better get you guys a preserved orange tomorrow or next chance i get! meanwhile, its raining in barcelona, and i´m sitting facing the mediterranean sea out of a huge window, in the reception area of our hotel and all around me is the happy sound of people getting ready to eat. there is the clinkling sound of glasses, and liquids being poured, and talking! omigod the talking, the noise level, its almost like being with my family! just sucked on a tiny little fruity candy that the desk has a huge glass fishbowl of; where do hotels get such fruity little teeny candies, that taste huge but are the size of a pea? (I´ve looked for these everywhere). i´m getting up to look at the menu of the restaurant here, mere steps away from computer...... a whole section on little nibbles, comsisting of a million different types of croquettas (has everyone out there eaten a spanish croquetta? It is truly the work of the devil--how on earth do they get this thick yummy cream to stay together long enough to be crumbed and fried to a crisp golden brown is beyond me. my faves are usually jamon, veal, salt cod, chicken, pigeon, and roquefort cheese which is very popular though a french cheese. (i suppose it would be divine, too, with the spanish cabrales blue, the most sumptuous of cheeses imaginable). the other main section of this little nibbley category is different types of jamon: the pig ate acorns, the pig ate something else, the pig lived in the forest, the pig lived in.......well you get the picture. jamon obsessed with ham, i´d say; there are political topics one cannot speak of, but everyone everyone can speak of ham. a unifying force. see the movie jamon jamon to set the mood. next is first courses. its a big menu so i´m just going through the highlights as i remember them from my walk across the room. pureed vegetable soup, gazpacho, then a big salads section: endive and roquefort look particularly good to me, but there is also manchego cheese salad with orange, frisee with xato sauce, and tomatoes and crab....... pastas and rices--i´ve discovered that there is a lotta pasta in barcelona unlike the rest of the country. cannellones are on the menu, pasta with garlic sauce, as is rice with squid ink (the rice is much like risotto rice). main courses: sea bass with cava sauce, fish with romescu sauce, veal with wild mushrooms, meatballs in jabugo sauce (my beloved lunch dish), steak, etc. desserts-(postres) sound enticing, esp the carpaccio of fruit with caramel, fresh cheese with honey, dried fruit steaped in moscatel wine........

ps: the flight. i´ve discovered that raw red peppers, whole and bitten into as if they are a fruit, as a very good thing to eat on a flight. refreshing and juicy and full of good things to combat the dehydrating effects of the whole thing. once i did it on a translatlantic flight and had the good luck to sit next to a row of italian ladies who joined me in my pepper-fest. you just never know how people will react. meanwhile, after a nasty flight back to britain from boston a few months ago, i have sworn off british airlines. v. bad attitudes all around (on their part, not on mine). so this time i took easy jet to barcelona. it was not only an easy flight but it was easier than taking the train to nottingham, the last trip i took a few weeks ago. they work on a tight schedule and many are the horror tales from people who were late for their flights and missed them. so we made a point of being on time. anyhow, i had to laugh at their motto, printed proudly and happily on the tickets: "if you´re late, we won´t wait!"

I´m eating and drinking my way through barcelona until saturday night, so review of san francisco chronicle will have to wait until my return. for exactly WHAT i´m eating, check our my foodblog (in the general foods category). meanwhile, the night is young, there are tapas to be eaten! adios and buenos noches, marlena

Early morning Marlena: cafe con leche, the Spanish version of cappuccino or cafe creme. (apparently the coffee throughout barcelona is as good as the one we had last night as we´ve been darting into bars throughout the day for a quick one) Slightly later morning: the sweet rolls that some people eat for breakfast don´t attract me. I was with the guys who stand at the bar and drink red wine and eat a bocada, a sandwich on a tender crusty roll (like the one filled with jamon we ate for tapas dinner). this morning mine was filled with tuna, roasted red peppers and olives. Then I went to La Boqueria market. I´ve always been told that La Boqueria is marvellous, wonderful, a delight. But you know, i´ve been to a lotta marvellous markets in my life, i wasn´t prepared to fall over in love, to feel so much tenderness towards the market. la boqueria is food, and its life, and its all a delicious jumble, with tapas bars scattered every couple of food stalls. i made a note of some of the things to love: whole preserved oranges and a stall lined with huge glass vats of preserved fruit; shelled (and peeled) fava beans, how wonderful is that! bags of chicken feet, a cooked vegetable stall where you can buy cooked chickpeas, beans, green beans, potatoes, lentils, pastas, all done simply and very fresh, dished out of big bowls. there were endless catalan (and spanish, and international) cheeses, and so many salamis and chorizos and jamons, hanging and ready for slicing; stalls selling spices and dried mushrooms, fruit stalls selling fruits such as the exotic pthaya (both the red and yellow variety) cut into halves with a plastic spoon for eating on the go. there were the tiny green padrone peppers which have a very green pepper flavour and are usually mild except for every so often you get a renagade scorcher. they are served crisply fried and sprinkled with coarse salt. its baby artichoke season, and calcots, the onion that looks like a big green onion and is served barbecued with a romescu sauce to dip in (red pepper, almonds, breadcrumbs, garlic, olive oil). i left what a trail of drool from olive stall to olive stall and discovered a new pickle (the subtext of my life is searching for new and interesting pickles). A BIG RED ONION. The woman said: its good in sandwiches, or with tapas, or in salad. I ate mine standing at the edge of the market, trying not to drip any of the very very very vinegary juices down the front of my neckscarf. trying unsuccessfully. I think i´ll have to have another onion tomorrow. the woman was very amused when i bought one onion by the way. a very adorable group of school children were being sheparded through the market, and the crowds split, everyone clucking as the little ones went by, feeling proud that they were part of the market too. Lunch: restaurant gorduna (or is it garduna?). right on the edge of the market it was full of tapas eating market people early in the day--when we asked the restaurant owner, antonio, he said yes, that the market traders come as soon as he opens (7 am). the place is quite gaudi-esque in its looks with a staircase that seems to twirl through the room as it makes its way to the second floor. richard sterling who edits the lonely planet food books emailed me to go there. they have a nice huge menu, but i´m telling you: there is a menu del dia, lunch of the day, and it costs anywhere from 7 to 9 euros. guess what we ordered. i started drinking a rioja that made me think more of france than of spain, and reminded me how good riojas are these days and unlike the old riojas. husband ate a plate of charcuterie--chorizo, a couple of jamons, salami, something meaty and unidentifiable, and a big mound of russian salad, but a sort of tuna-infused russian salad. yum yum yum. me: bowl of chickpea soup with shreds of the blessed jamon. we then ate the best meatball i´ve ever eaten, or rather, a whole plate of them. the meatballs were in a broth-like sauce which had seen a little tomato or paprika, and lots and lot and lots of onions, and a handful of peas which scattered here and there. next to them was a pile of stubby little french fries\chips which, as a brit for much of my adulthood, i doused with vinegar. husband had barbecued thin beefsteak with barbecued peppers and tomatoes; i snagged his tomato. big juicy and just touched by the fire enough to warm it through and perfume it with smoke. the guy at the table next to us had the lightly grilled merluza (hake) and it smelled so lovely parsley garlicky he was lucky i didn´t snag a bite of his. (its happened before) dessert was crema catalana, the catalan version of creme brulee. the cinnamon was especially lively in this, and the top crackled when i smacked it with my spoon; then antonio brought over some liqueur that seemed to also be a creme catalana.....egg yolk liqueur so strong and so sweet, i was swerving when we finally managed to make our way out. tiny cup of dark strong coffee didn´t help sober this girl, but who cares. let happiness reign! i could go back to garduna every day it was so cozy and delish, and i also learned when i was there that the market has cooking classes nearly every day, often from star chefs, so tomorrow morning its back to the market for me. meanwhile. there is gaudi. gaudi gaudi wow. i think that gaudi buildings look like barcelona food tastes! on our way home stopped off at market again and went looking for a bar that mary jose sevilla from the spanish trade commission in london had recommended to me; since i couldn´t find it right away, we went to el quim de la boqueria and nibbled artichokes with a sort of vegetables foamy thing and a hunk of tortilla (hot and freshly made). all the bars in the market were tempting, very tempting, but el quim just seemed fabulous, before i tasted their artichoke fiesta. i want to have a stool of my own there at their bar, a permanant stool of my own. is nearly 8 at night. people are starting to get ready for dinner. who knows what the night has in store for me............ but you know that i´ll tell you all.

9:25 p.m. Barcelona after a non-eating day, i mean, after our breakfast butter-fest for pancake day, we didn´t have a bite to eat, except for three little fruity candies in the hotel lobby. and some fruit at the airport: satsumas, strawberries and pears. tonight we walked down las ramblas and down a little leafy alleyway, and into a buzzing little bar--had a tapas dinner: a little bocadillo of the most divine jamon, sweaty and warm and hammy and beyond delicious. worth the whole trip. it was in a little tender roll. and we ate: green olives, briny and rather picante, with a couple of chile bits and carrot slices hanging around the marinade. Patatas bravas, sizzling hot with spicy red sauce and a squeeze of something mayonaissey. and chorizos, pan'browned and charred on the outside but juicy and spicy inside, with more pieces of those tender little rolls, this time toasted. we ate a ham croquetta, and drank a perfect rioja. but it was the coffee that made husband squeal with delight: truly scrumptious. on the way home we ate a helado, well to tell the truth, i had one and my husband had three. i think it might be the sea air. i wonder whats for desayuno, and if the coffee is as brilliant other places as it was in our little tapas bar. oh, and my birthday is coming up in a month or two and if anyone wants to buy me a whole jamon, this is exactly what i want. xx saw lots of queso catalunya, local catalan cheeses, and hopefully will buy a tray full for sampling. the lady was so proud of her catalan cheeses: cow, goat and sheep. buenos noches, M

Marlena is gone. This is Madeleine here. You can always tell when she's gone, because being fastidious (territory that goes with cats) I always use capital letters, and use them properly. So the email is mine, mine, all mine now. Dear Smokey and Sneaker. aren't you lucky to live with Mabelline. Marlena used to have a beautiful bunny, called Basil. Her bunny was going to be the next big thing, once, and was even booked onto the Big Breakfast morning television (with Marlena). And then--then--Basil's segment was cut, on account of Ricky Lake making a last minute appearance cooking for Thanksgiving (Basil was to be showing off his salady skills) and then, Marlena's agent got a new client. And voila: Basil was forgotten and Jamie Oliver became the next big thing!! But it was this....close! Still sad though it was, it didn't bother Basil. He was very beautiful, and slept in Marlena's (and husbands) bed at the top of the bed, and I would sleep at the bottom. Happy days. Basil was named Basil after his favourite herb. He also loved: arugula/rocket, lettuce, broccoli, carrots, cabbage, mint, and chewing people expensive leather shoes when they were sitting at our table for a dinner party. Once a guest got up from the table and the top of her shoes were gone. She never returned. I look forward to these next couple of quiet days. I have the IAMS, I have the remote, what more could a kitty want?

Hi Hillvalley: The annual Gourmand World CookBook Awards are the brain child of my buddy, Edouard Cointreau, who runs the International Cookbook Revue based in Madrid. Each year he organizes a huge gathering in which publishers, writers, food personalities, etc from all over the world have a conference of several days some place wonderful--past events have been held in perigiueux and the loire valley in france, locations in australia, plus different activities throughout other times of the year in Sweden, etc. in fact, over 14 ambassadors will be attending the event. The awards include Best Food Book of the Year, Best Drinks Book of the Year, a long list of categories. If some kind soul reading this could put up the URL i'd be grateful....... this year the party's in barcelona, with a mediterranean conference to go with it. dinner is meant to be catered by el bulli but for some reason it appears to be someone else now.....whats a girl to do. in any event, i'm ready to look and sniff and eat and enjoy....... But first, of course: breakfast. today is shrove tuesday, pancake day, and this morning is the only time we're going to have an opportunity to make and eat pancakes. So i've beaten the eggs and milk and flour together and its resting a moment. pancake day is a big deal in britain--i was scarcely aware of it in the usa. last night, whilst i was packing, i listed to the world service give a special programme from brazil on getting ready for mardi gras which starts tomorrow (worldwide, after we get rid of the eggs, butter, and all the rich goodies before lent starts on ash wednesday--not bad for a jewish girl, eh?). the thing that i remember most from the broadcast is: "for ladies and transvestites, remember that if you are wearing a bikini, baby oil rubbed on the skin and then sprinkled with glitter makes a very flattering look". To continue: "of course, to prepare your feet for all the dancing in high heels, soak them in chamomile tea several hours ahead of time, and rub them with ..... oil.". I forget the exact type of oil as i fell asleep at that point. On to the pancakes. Pancakes over here are not the same pancakes as over there, though Scottish pancakes or drop scones seem to be, or "American pancakes" which seem to generally be studded with blueberries and topped with bacon. We're doing the traditional british pancake, the kind that mothers have races with, running and tossing them in frying pans, no doubt one will make it on to the news today, it always does. Olney, in Buckinghamshire hosts the most famous one. Our pancakes here are thin crepe-like things, delicate and eggy. Most people roll them around butter, lemon and sugar, though some fill them with savory ingredients if they're making a dinner of it. For future reference, if anyone ever invites me over for a crepe-fest, i'm partial to crepes filled with shredded gruyrere and diced ham. I eat them on the streets of Paris as often as I can sneak em in. Back to breakfast: pancake batter is resting resting resting to let that gluten mellow out so that the batter is lighter and more delicate. pause: knock on the door. guys, the postman is here on his little red bike. they ride red bicycles out here to deliver the mail. He's here right now and drinking dark strong coffee (my contribution to the royal mail) and telling me that what HE had for breakfast today was a soft boiled egg and marmite soldiers (good man!). (Marmite soldiers are a breakfast icon, toast cut into strips and spread with butter and salty yeasty umamami-mami-ish marmite). Okay, i'm making these pancakes as first pancake: as always: falls into pieces. Its hard to get the batter to be just the right texture: nice and light and eggy, but with enough flour to hold it together. this didn't hold, but oh, so delicious. first pancake for the cook, of course! The rest of the pancakes float out of their pan, light and thin with just an edge of crispness around their perimeter, and inside nice and eggy and delicate. husband is eating his with bonne maman jam (raspberry) and i just slather mine with farmhouse butter. at moments like this i know why i drink my coffee with low fat milk.....oh, to enjoy the butter, dripping out of the pancake and down my chin..... second coffee. i'll need all the caffeine i can get to motor me on to the plane. but once i am there i'll be happy. meanwhile, easyjet here we come. i think i'll take a valium. cab should be pulling up to door within moments to whisk us away to gatwick. bag packed with fruit for journey (easyjet does not give lunch). talk to you from barcelona: I have two important things to do when i first land: 1. find something interesting to eat 2. find a cybercafe to tell you all about it. adios amigos!