Spain Week!

This week it was back to Europe to visit Spain. Spain is one of my favorite countries. I've been a few times, and each time I fell in love with the food, the culture, and the smell of oranges that pervade the Valencia region.  

In Spain with my parents and sister (and pregnant with Z); 2013

Culture

Dan hit it out of the park with this one. He found some fantastic videos to watch that taught us fascinating new traditions. Of course we've heard of the running of the bulls, but watching this video was eye-opening. We didn't watch it in advance, so we found ourselves in an interesting position of explaining bull-fighting to the kids. Let's just say they were not fans.

We also already knew about Gaudi, but seeing his creations all together was cool. The kids loved the gingerbread house the most, but were also pretty excited about the stone forest and gorgeous stained glass in La Sagrada Famila. We watched this video to learn more about his work.

Back in the days when we were traveling a ton (man, I really miss those days), we loved learning about new destinations from Rick Steves. We did several of his walking and audio tours (British Museum, Montepulciano, Rhine Valley, Notre Dame) and always found him to provide helpful tidbits and interesting facts. This video provided the same about the Andalucian region in Spain. We learned about their lifestyle, history, and eating habits.

But the piece de resistance was learning about a Catalan tradition called castells. These are incredible human towers can reach several stories high! Each tower involves around 1,000 people, and usually includes a small child (around age 7-9) at the top. It's really hard to describe how incredible this is. Please watch this video and learn more about it. 

Source

We also looked through our travel pictures and showed the kids our favorite parts of Spain. I've been to Spain five times. I traveled with my friend Leah in college and went on a girls' trip to Alicante while living in England. Together, Dan, Zahara and I visited Barcelona and Tenerife, and we traveled with my family to Malaga when I was seven months pregnant. 

Funny story: Dan and I knew what we were naming Zahara, but no one else did. We INSISTED we visit the Spanish town of Zahara to collect some memorabilia and take pictures. Sadly, it was pouring rain, so the only thing we saw there was a cozy restaurant and a cemetery. All the shops were closed, so the only memento we got was a picture of a storm drain. This picture still hangs in her room today. 

Food

Spanish food is such a treat. I love having lots of little things, so tapas are perfect for me (as long as I don't have to share with too many people--ha!). In addition to tapas though, we made several other Spanish dishes. Here was our menu for the week: tortilla de patatas, tinto de verano, sangria, albondigas, various tapas, patatas bravas, rabo de toro, and arroz con leche.

The tortilla was so good we made it twice! The second time we added one more egg and cut the potatoes smaller. It's delicious!

We had a couple of Spanish drinks this week. Sangria is one of my favorite drinks, especially in summer. It's so nice and refreshing. But, apparently, locals don't really drink sangria. Spaniards drink something called tinto de verano ("summer red wine"), which tastes a lot like sangria but is less complicated to make. It's just red wine and sprite! Sounds crazy, but is really tasty.

Albondigas are Spanish meatballs. These were good, but I didn't get a real "Spanish" taste from them. I probably wouldn't make this recipe again. Same with the patatas bravas. They were perfectly crunchy, and I liked the sauce a lot. But the potatoes were a bit salty.

We ordered in from Jaleo to experience a few different Spanish tapas. I love Jose Andres restaurants (as seen here, here, and here). We got gazpacho, ensalada Rusa, marinated olives, cauliflower and dates, manchego flautas, roasted salmon, marinated mushrooms, spinach and raisins, and more manchego cheese. It was a spread!

We made our own tapas plate the next night with leftovers and veggies.

We tried to make a traditional oxtail stew, but had a hard time finding kosher oxtail. Instead, Dan made this recipe with short ribs. It was really tasty--especially with Dan's homemade sourdough to sop up the sauce!

I've never been a huge fan of rice pudding, but this was pretty good. The kids and Dan loved it. I can see how some people consider it a comfort food.

It's easy to see why I love Spain so much. It's such a wonderful country with so much to explore. I hope to visit in person again one day soon with the kids. Meanwhile, next country is a bit of a surprise. Stay tuned for our trip to Tonga!

See our other country weeks here.