Madrid, Me Gustas Mucho

I haven´t posted in a while because I´ve been busy soaking in this incredible city. When I arrived here about a week and half ago, I had only planned on staying a few days. But I keep staying.

First of all, my Spanish is infinitely better than my Italian, in that I could never actually speak Italian, I just got along with little phrases. Here in Spain, I´m kind of like an Advanced Beginner. At first it was tricky because I would say per favore (Italiano), rather than por favor, or permiso instead of perdon, things like that. And I would kick myself for forgetting so many basics, like right and left  (derecha y izquierda) or the verb for  return (volver). But I´m slowly allowing the Italian palabras to fade into the background so I can practice en Espanol.

The people here are encouraging and tell me I have a decent accent. So initially I was feeling pretty good. But when I´m in a group of people all talking at once, or I want to talk about something a little more contemplative, it turns out I´m not so amazing afterall. I find myself remembering all the years I sat in the back of my classroom, listening in while my ten year old students had their Spanish class. I understood everything and would sometimes laugh along with the Professora who would make comments in Spanish that the kids didn´t always understand. I thought I was awesome. But here, I´ve realized that this means that I have the same level of vocabulary and competency as a ten year old. Pero me gusta hablar español y si quiero mejorar, todo lo que tengo que hacer es practicar, practicar, practicar : ) 

Coke Addict

I haven't drank coffee regularly for the past two, maybe three years. Now I have at least one macchiato a day. Also, for some reason, I'm obsessed with Coke. I never drink soda at home. Ok, maybe if I'm having a slice of pizza, I'll get a Dr. Pepper for nostalgic purposes. Here, I can't get enough of it. Coke with a panini, whiskey & coke, rum & coke. It's weird. I wonder if it's some subliminal pop-culture connection that links my brain to the good 'ole USA?

 
When I'm "home" and have some sort of normal existence, I like to think I'm pretty healthy. Cereal with almond milk and a banana for breakfast. Tea. Lunch: Huge salad with nuts and fruit with olive

Miss you : (

oil-lemon  dressing. Dinner varies between some version of veggie tofu-stir fry, shrimp tacos, more big salads (maybe with grilled chicken), and Trader Joe's frozen burritos. Every so often I'll be dying for a bacon cheeseburger or order and overindulge in too much Chinese take-out. I drink water all day long and if I'm feeling fancy, lime seltzer. I've never had a major sweet tooth, so my big indulgence is a Green's and Black's Hazelnut & Currant chocolate bar that I'll keep in the fridge and take like a week to eat, much to the disgust of my friends. Sometimes I get the Maya Gold one to mix it up a little.

Day 1 in Brussels: Start of my demise

From the moment I set foot in Europe almost 2 months ago, that all went to shit. First of all, my Belgian friend eats little packaged waffles for breakfast everyday. Talk about perpetuating a cliche. You might think, That doesn't sound too bad. We have waffles for breakfast here in the U.S... Yeah, but not all the time, and you know that even your mom switched to multigrain Eggos sometime in the late-nineties ("They say they're bettah for you").

Seriously?

 After only a week, I was missing veggies and exhausted from too much meat and bread consumption. One morning in Amsterdam, tired and hungover, I amazingly found a bagel place. I was skeptical, but when I sat down and saw that I could order hummus, avocado, and tomato, and that they had Yogi tea, I seriously almost cried. The bagel was total crap (it was multigrain though), but it didn't matter. Here was my particular American cuisine, and I was so damn grateful for the small comfort of home. I pocketed a couple of tea bags so that I'd have more than just Earl Grey as an option, and left content.

 So I was in Sicily for over a month and things spiraled out of control. Why do Europeans think Nutella is an acceptable breakfast food? But the Nutella is really just the icing on the cake, or the ricotta in the cannoli, or the Nutella on the coronetti, or something like that.

Pane Panelle, hold the croquette please

Jesus, Italians love bread (and Jesus). Anyway, they find the most amazing ways to make things more fattening. First, if you try to order only one flavor of gelato, people look at you like you're insane. A favorite treat here is a brioche roll cut open and smushed with a bunch of gelato, topped with whipped cream and a little biscuit. They also put french fries on pizza. Then there's pane panelle.  Panelle are little fried rectangles of chick pea flower. Ok, not so bad. But then they take a bunch of the pannelle and layer them on a sub roll with a squirt of lemon juice and some salt. Then, some people add little potato croquettes and french fries on top of that. Bread sandwich? Yikes. (Not that that stopped me from trying one)

Semi-normal veggie dinner

For the past few weeks, I've succumbed, and  now think nothing of having a chocolate filled croissant with my morning cappuccino or eating pasta for both lunch and dinner. The couple of times I've been in a place long enough to cook for myself, I revert to an old stand-by, garlic sauteed veggies (I wouldn't even try to find tofu here). Always zucchini, sometimes mushrooms or eggplant. Red pepper. I don't even bother to put it over pasta, but I do add lots of pecorino or parmigiano.  Again, it's a small reminder of some distant existence where I'm lighter around the middle and don't feel alarmingly sluggish due to over-consumption of carbohydrates.

Lazy dinner. Thank god for arugula.

I bought one of these hunks of fresh ricotta from this guy.

He drizzled it with olive oil, and added garlic & oregano. He also gave me a couple of slice of parmigiano to take home.

I just got to Madrid yesterday and only have an inkling of what to expect with regard to the cuisine (other than tapas, lots of ham, and churros). But I've given up the fight to regain any normalcy in my diet. If I get home in time for Thanksgiving, it will be a kind of perfect way to be reintroduced to my (admittedly) beloved country. With more feasting. Then I'm going to fast like a mofo.

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PS- I had a million AMAZING meals in Sicily... I was going to give some highlights here, but there's just too much... stay tuned.