Foodblog: bergerka

[mizducky]

You can, in fact, hear me (and see me, in a little black dress) sing on the web - the sound quality isn't great, but it's a food - or at least booze - related song, so it fits here.  The date was July 14, 2007, in Cervera de Pisuerga, the second of the series of concerts I'm doing this summer.  This was before Eric arrived, so the pianist was a Colombian named David Barón.

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Brava diva! You play a most adorable drunk.

And the eagerness of all those market stallers to have their photo taken is also sweet -- and refreshing!

Love the photos of dinners on checked tablecloths. That last one looked like it came right out of an Old Master's still life.

[bergerka]

Good morning! Afternoon! It's 1:30. I'm not going to tell you how late we were up. We had to finish the bottle of wine.

Time for coffee and a few more of the butter cookies from Riaño, accompanied by the soundtrack of Cars!

on today's agenda are lunch at C's house and dinner at probably my favorite restaurant in Madrid, which has a LARGE number of really good associations for me, including one big one that some of you who have pm'd me already know about.

Funny Spanish faux pas, that I was just reminded about today. Brussels sprouts, which I love, are "coles de Bruselas" in Spanish.

I was sitting around eating dinner with my friends Paco and Cristina one night, and we were, in fact, having Brussels sprouts. Paco mentioned that he liked them, but that if eaten at night, they should be considered a chemical weapon (Paco is hilarious, especially when it comes to bodily function jokes). I said, I thought, in Spanish, "Not for me, I like eating Brussesls sprouts at night," which is basically "para mi no, a mi me gusta comer coles de Bruselas por la noche."

Except I didn't say "coles de Bruselas." I said "colas de Bruselas," at which point Paco fell off his chair onto the floor and laughed like a madman (seriously, he did, I'd kill to have a picture). j

You see, "colas" are something else entirely. Actually, the word is slang for the male sexual organ.

I had in fact said that I liked eating penises from Brussels at night.

[Genny]

Learning a language can be hazardous to one's reputation, but a wonderful jolt to one's sense of humor if you let it! In college I studied American Sign Language and had taught my friend a very rudimentary sentence: "Nice to meet you." The verb "meet" was the important one, it is the "#1" (We're #1!") on each hand coming towards each other. Instead he used the "#2" (Peace) on each hand instead. He told her, "Nice to f*ck you" and never lived it down.

Hey, you mentioned that those pretty cookies were from the mayor. Um, the mayor stands around giving food gifts to visitors at the airport? How'd that happen?

[bergerka]

Learning a language can be hazardous to one's reputation, but a wonderful jolt to one's sense of humor if you let it!  In college I studied American Sign Language and had taught my friend a very rudimentary sentence: "Nice to meet you."  The verb "meet" was the important one, it is the "#1" (We're #1!") on each hand coming towards each other.  Instead he used the "#2" (Peace) on each hand instead.  He told her, "Nice to f*ck you" and never lived it down. 

Hey, you mentioned that those pretty cookies were from the mayor.  Um, the mayor stands around giving food gifts to visitors at the airport?   How'd that happen?

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no no. There is no airport in Riaño. We've been driving all these places, as most of 'em don't even have BUS service, they're so out of the way. The mayor showed up at the concert and took us out to dinner afterward, then gave each of us a bag of local products, one of which was the cookies.

Lunch!

C and I realized we were both sporting pretty good-sized hangovers (since losing the weight and dropping hard alcohol, my tolerance has gone down the tubes. Plus, I find white wine hangover to be the WORST). According to me, the best solution for that is doner kebap, but I just had it last night. According to him, the best solution is paella. However, we had neither paella nor time to make it.

So this was a quickie faux-paella ish rice dish he made up out of his head!

First, he heated caldo de pescado (fish broth) to a boil, with a bay leaf.

Then he added rice, calamares (squid) and langostinos (big, big shrimp)

Then we ate it! With, of course, bread, and water. Lots of water. Very cold water.

It was quite delicious. We followed it with more of that lovely watermelon, but by the time I remembered about a photo, we'd eaten it.

He's off to fly to Barcelona and back, and I'm now home for the afternoon. Just had a coffee. I think I'm going to drink a lovely cold 1.5 liter bottle of more...water.

K

[lovebenton0]

delightful blog. great way to start the day. thoroughly enjoying madrid vicariously.

[bergerka]

I forgot to mention that the reason today is so quiet is...it's a holiday. Yes, in the middle of the week.

It's the festival of basically every Virgin of Spain.

So nothing's open (except the restaurant I'm going to later, I checked), and most of Madrid has fled (which happens in August anyway) to the beaches or mountains.

A bit of housekeeping: I'll be posting dinner very late tonight, my time. Tomorrow is a travel day - I'll post breakfast before we go, but the rest will probably be posted fairly late. Thereafter, until Sunday afternoon, I will only have access online once or twice a day!!! I will try my best to get to any questions or pm's, but if there's a bit of a delay in answering, forgive me.

K

[Abra]

I will never look at a Brussels sprout the same way again!

[bergerka]

Good morning! Yes, it's 8 am here. No, it's not normal for me to be up. In fact I am only up for a few minutes - my phone rang (don't ask) and I realized I forgot to post dinner before falling into bed last night.

Pictures are coming later. I, as usual, forgot the $%&@ camera. Fortunately, Rogelio from this here eGullet did not. Therefore, all pix are by him and are hence significantly better quality than anything I might take.

We went to Asturianos, which Rogelio and Eric introduced me to more than a year ago.

Asturianos is a great, quirky place run by a great, quirky family. It has been my default first date place for some time (yes, including C), because the food is terrific and if a guy doesn't like the atmosphere there, he most likely eventually won't like me.

This is Asturianos, and this is Alberto, one of the sons of the family that owns it.

I love Alberto. He's completely insane. I would probably marry him if his girlfriend wouldn't kill me.

Tonight's group was Rogelio, Eric, Pedro (also from this very site), his lovely wife Mar, C and me.

We put ourselves in the hands of Julia, chef extraordinaire, and she gave us (pix coming shortly):

lovely fresh tomatoes from Rogelio's parents' garden, sweet and full of flavor.

gambas al ajillo - shrimp cooked in olive oil and garlic, always extraordinary.

berberechos - cockles, cooked with garlic, parsley, possibly white wine? This is one of my favorite dishes here, and I order it every time they make it.

cecina - cured beef, like jamón ibérico, but beef (or horse, sometimes), a specialty of León. Like bresaola, but, you know, better.

Here's some very good olive oil that we used on the tomatoes and the cecina. A note: I knew NOTHING about Spanish olive oil before I got here, because I never saw much of it in the US. It's absolutely fantastic.

patatas con cabrales - french fries covered with melted cabrales cheese, which has a very strong, very individual taste. I find it absolutely addictive. Some people hate it. Be aware: never in the US have I had a cabrales that tasted like the real thing. When I finally ate it here, it was a revelation.

favas con morcilla de matachana - fava beans with morcilla (blood sausage) that has been broken apart, cooked in butter and white wine and served (it's another of my favorite things. I love morcilla, and I like this style even better than the style commonly served in Burgos, which is cooked with rice and cumin).

estofado de pollo - free-range chicken stewed in, I think (I don't dare ask Julia for her recipes!), broth, wine, onion, green pepper and carrots. This was fantastic, for me, with the tomatoes and the favas, easily the best of the evening (although patatas con cabrales always win, as far as I'm concerned).

beef cheeks, braised, with french fries. Deliciously beefy, strong and hearty.

For dessert we had three of their best:

natillas (crème anglaise) with cinnamon

flan de queso - I have no idea how they make this, but it is like crack. It's far less sweet than a regular flan, with a strong cheesecake flavor, but is the silky texture of flan.

and for me, the most outstanding dessert on the planet - chocolate mousse with olive oil, salt and pepper. The first time I ever tried this, I was with my friend Re'ut who was visiting from the States and we had stopped in for a light dinner. Honestly, we sat there and MOANED. We told Alberto that he could make commercials for this dessert as follows: "no date Friday night? No problem! Just come to Asturianos and try the chocolate mousse!!!" It's so unbelievably delicious that Willow once talked them into making her an order to go. Everyone at the house could tell when she was eating it by the sounds of "oh my GOD" coming from her room.

we drank a white burgundy from Maison Leroy to start, then a red made by Alberto`s brother Belarmino that was called Fresh, then a red dedicated after Clint Eastwood's "Pale Rider," only in Spanish, "Predicador," made by the famous Contador.

Here's the Predicador bottle

Here we all are! From left, front to back then back to front, César, Mar, Pedro, Eric, Rogelio and me.

Breakfast pix coming...whenever I wake up!

Edited August 16, 2007 by bergerka (log)

[SuzySushi]

You can, in fact, hear me (and see me, in a little black dress) sing on the web - the sound quality isn't great, but it's a food - or at least booze - related song, so it fits here.

 

The link is here  Vodka

If you think it sucks...just don't tell me. 

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Loved your performance of a Gershwin song I'd never heard before (hmm... I'd've thunk the lyrics were more Cole Porter-ish). What fun!

[pedro]

Kathleen, great foodblogging! Your Spanish is terrific, sounds like you've been in Spain much longer.

Asturianos is a one of its kind place, you'll either love it or don't get it. Food can be inconsistent from time to time but we keep coming back to it. The berberechos a recent addition to their menu, are among the best in Madrid, along with Sacha's in that pack. Thanks god, it seems they removed a dish made in hell, Belarmino's creation --the other brother: some sort of duck magret carpaccio with orange juice. But we had some good laughs thanks to it!

PS: The white wine was a Leroy 1997, from Maison Leroy. They have a quite good wine list at Asturianos.

Edited August 16, 2007 by pedro (log)

[bergerka]

Pedro, thank you very much. It was great to see you and Mar and get to spend some time with you last night! You and Julia obviously have a very special relationship...

Breakfast is coffee, coffee, coffee and a li'l piece of banana bread, which if I do say so myself, turned out rather well.

aaaand we're back to my crap pix as well. Sorry about that.

Ok, I need to get moving - have to get stuff done to get on the road to Salamanca and, as usual, I am already running late!

K

[Rogelio]

This is the first time that someone praises my pictures

It was just another great night at Asturianos, our favourite haunt with all it's particular idiosyncratic personality, kind of you love it or hate it.

Don't ask why but we keep wondering why do we come here every single week. We just can't help it!

[Kent Wang]

cecina - cured beef, like jamón ibérico, but beef (or horse, sometimes), a specialty of León.  Like bresaola, but, you know, better.

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After Italy, Spain produces the best charcuterie -- by my reckoning, anyway.

I looked at the Wikipedia articles for cecina and bresaola and couldn't figure out the difference between the two. Would you happen to know? I understand it's a pretty technical question.

[MarketStEl]

First courses.  I had the gazpacho (I LURVE gazpacho in summer), J-A had the paella (which is very good), and Eric the judías blancas (white beans) con chorizo (also very good, just very, very heavy for about a 90-degree day):

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I loves me some gazpacho in the summer too! In fact, I made a ton of it to take to a friend's birthday party up in Northeast Philly this past Saturday. (I seem to be making so many treks up to Philadelphia's vast post-war suburb-in-the-city, maybe I should move there. Not. )

It was the first gazpacho I ever made (I couldn't have done it without the co-worker with the prodigious garden in South Jersey), and people loved it.

But I notice that the gazpacho in the picture above is decidedly non-chunky -- in fact, it looks just like tomato soup. This is the first time I've seen gazpacho that didn't have little chunks of tomatoes, cucumbers and whatnot in it. What goes into this gazpacho? Is it pureed to a fare-thee-well?

[Rogelio]

I looked at the Wikipedia articles for cecina and bresaola and couldn't figure out the difference between the two. Would you happen to know? I understand it's a pretty technical question.

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Cecina is done with the whole leg and As far as I know bressaola is done with the Round part.

[bergerka]

After Italy, Spain produces the best charcuterie -- by my reckoning, anyway.

I looked at the Wikipedia articles for cecina and bresaola and couldn't figure out the difference between the two. Would you happen to know? I understand it's a pretty technical question.

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Having now been to both countries and eaten charcuterie in both, I'd reverse the two. I much prefer Spain's cured meats...but it could be just me.

Um

I don't know the difference. Pedro? Rogelio?

Re the gazpacho, it is supposed to come with guarnicion, the chunks of tomatoes, onions, peppers, bread crumbs that you spoon into the soup. One of the less charming aspects of the waiter we had that day at El Gran Jamonal is his tendency to forget the little extra items...and then forget that you have asked for them. Oops.

K

[docsconz]

Arguing over which countries charcuterie products are better is almost like arguing over which child one loves more. Both countries have incredible products with jamón Iberico de Joselito perhaps being the pinnacle from either country. Until I got to know Spanish charcuterie better in Spain I pooh poohed it compared to Italian. Unless one has it there, one really hasn't had it. The ability to eat those products is enough of a justification in my book for a trip over there.

Keep up the great work, Kathleen. The meal at Asturianos looked scrumptious and reminded me a little of the meal my wife and I shared with Rogelio and his wife last spring at Valencia's Bodegas Casa Montaña. The dishes were relatively simple, but emphasized the purity and freshness of the ingredients.

I have enjoyed oil from Koroneiki olives in various blends including that from Dauro, but I have never previously seen it commercially as the principle or sole variety in a bottle of olive oil. As the name implies the olive comes originally from Greece. Could you discern any particular differences now between the different varietals available? In this topic, Chrisamirault is looking to score some olive oil from the arbequina varietal.

[Dave Hatfield]

Not to be awkward or anything as I too love the charcuterie from both Spain and Italy, but....

Always remember that charcuterie is a French word!

[Pontormo]

Ahem. Switching the topic from chauvanism, Kathleen I just wanted to ask if you ran directly from your concert solo in the church to a road performance of "Company". You do Little Black Dress very well, indeed!

I honestly never thought of putting chocolate in banana bread before. Looks scrumptuous.

Thanks for all the market shots with the obliging vendors . Should the cathedral in your destination factor into any of your adventures, I'd be happy to add something relevant. I am just interested in seeing more of a country I really want to visit!

[Genny]

I, as usual, forgot the $%&@ camera

I'm taking up a collection for Kathy to get her a personalized t-shirt that reads: "Camera? What camera? Oh hell, I forgot the F*!@ing camera again?!?" and to also buy her the camera she wants that she swears she'll remember to bring.

Can you tell us a little more about the aspects of the Spanish olive oil that distinguishes it from the Italian? Is it more spicey, grassy, fruity, etc? It looks like it is so beautifully green on the tomatoes. I love that they put the actual bottle on the table rather than an unmarked cruet that you have to guess at the quality of contents which I see 99% of the time here in the U.S.

What are the chances of you smuggling me some *real* cabrales in the spring??? OMG, it sounds exactly like my kind of cheese! (Oh, and you will take me to Asturianos whenever I can haul my sorry carcas out to visit. Notice that wasn't a question? )

It was fabulous to see some fellow eGers out helping Bergerka with her blog! I love getting real faces to put with the names.

I'm looking forward to Momma's cooking! And cute kids pix too!

edited to fix quote box and add this:

I noted in the Wikipedia bit about the cabrales that it is from the Asturia region. Is this family from there as well and is the food largely representative of that region? Also, you've traveled quite a bit now throught the country, have you found any regional differences in cuisine? What are the classic "our region makes the best _____" boastings that you (or C) can share?

Edited August 16, 2007 by Genny (log)

[Abra]

Asturianos looks fabulous, especially the patatas con Cabrales and the favas with morcilla. I'd go there every week too! Except, is it an absolute requirement that one has to be young and gorgeous to get in?

Edited August 17, 2007 by Abra (log)

[bergerka]

Hola from Salamanca! It's about a 2 hour drive from Madrid, we listened to a best of the 80's cd that C had made, all the way. I have a very weak signal in the apartment, let's see if I can get the pictures of lunch to post.

As usual, I got going late, so we arrived late...right at the END of the lunch time. Fortunately, there was something to eat, as we were both hungry! (we had potato chips and diet coke on the road, but that doesn't count and the camera was all the way in the back of the car anyway.

A word about César's mother. In addition to being a very nice and interesting person (and EXTREMELY patient with my relative lack of Spanish, hence relative lack of anything interesting to say), she is one of the best cooks I have ever met in my life. She's one of those people who just KNOWS what flavors go together, and I always end up eating as much as I CAN eat when I visit, and being way too full. I'm sure she thinks her son is dating an utter glutton.

She had made lentejas (lentils), one of my favorite dishes ANYWAY. Most people will tell you that they have to be made with pork products of some kind, chorizo or something, in order to give them more flavor. C's mother, on the other hand, puts nothing like that in her lentejas. They are just lentils, onion, garlic, carrot, scallion, a little salt and (HUGE surprise to me) a little cinnamon.

They are so delicious that I could eat them six times a day, incredibly rich and MUST be eaten with bread to sop up the sauce at the end. Seriously, the thought almost makes me hungry again.

Lentejas

Lentejas, side view!

And a Magnum essence ice cream bar for dessert. dark chocolate over vanilla ice cream, with a chocolate cookie right in the middle. Just evil.

Back to thinking in Spanish. Ufff.

K

Edited August 17, 2007 by bergerka (log)

[Jake]

Kathleen, this blog keeps getting better and better. I keep finding excuses at the office to check it.

Cesar es muy hermoso!! Soy alegre para usted. (Forgive the probably poor spanish, it has been awhile!)

[racheld]

This is wonderful. I've just jumped in for snips and snaps, and will read and enjoy the whole thing allatonce when I'm up and around again. It will be a lovely thing to look forward to with a big bowl of latte some morning soon.

I was so reminded of a tall, svelte, young Beatrice Lillie singing "Vodka." Just scrumptious.

[JeanneCake]

I am SO enjoying your blog! Thank you!

I feel as if I have been on vacation when I haven't even left the bakeshop. Thank you to everyone who has taken the time to blog this summer. You have no idea how much it means to those of us who can't get the time off!

Living vicariously through all of you, and enjoying every minute of it!