Spain - Best Food List

Somehow our Barcelona trip moth into a food centric trip...

OK what were you expecting? I am there with fatty Ken so regardless of how culturally driven I plan for us to dive into the Gaudi and Miro arti farti world, the mightier forces of the husband and our stomachs prevail!!! We no longer plan our METRO routes based on must-sees, but a focused  reservations of key MUST-EAT venues. In between breakfast and lunch, lunch and dinner, we will, well... see how much time we have to check out what's nearby.

BEST LITE BITES

Winner - A Spoon of Tomato, NU
First thing first - Ken insisted to take over the whole food section as a guest blogger.... Raved about how he will introduced the Best Food List the entire trip until I handed over the laptop and say "OK, start typing".... Then comes all kinds of reasonable reasons to conceal the fact that he chickened out. Swear to give me quotable quotes instead. Ha Ha. Hence I quote him on his number one winner of the Best Lite Bites - (in this case, its more of a slurp than a bite) Introducing a Spoon of Tomato!!!!

Yes indeed this is a spoon of tomato and its not a cherry tomato... I dunno what it is but the waitress introduced this as tomato and it certainly tasted like one. I don't know if this is delicious as it disappeared into my throat a bit too fast and I sort of missed it (totally). I toast Ken with white wine after slurp and he say he had to keep this taste in this mouth for as long as possible, so no thank you!! "So nice meh?", I asked. He replied, quote "It's better than sex", unquote.

1st Runner Up - Olives, Can Majo
A saucer of olives is served before every meal, like how they serve peanuts in Chinese restaurants. I don't usually eat olives, I thought they are deco for Martinis but this certainly looking pretty appetising so I tried one, the two, then three. OMG, nice, better than chinese peanuts.

2nd Runner Up - Mushroom Soup with Fresh Clams, Occi
This cuppa soup amounts to approx two spoonfuls and has three clams inside. Honestly I dunno how it taste because I don't eat clams so I passed over all the clams to Ken who ended up orgasing at the other end of the table...

Special Mention - Gourmet Salt, Gi and F
Guest Food Blogger demanded me to give special mention to this selection of 5 organic salts provided on the table of Gi and F. Supposed to sprinkler some of them to the olive oil and eat with warm bread. Gi and F also gave us with a very robust olive oil which is apparently the winner of the 2012 international olive oil award and according to guest blogger- is of an intensity and purity that is very hard to achieve. Wah....

BEST STARTER

Winner - Anchovy with Fish Roe, Raspberries and Avocado + at least 4 other chopped up food, topped with Coconut Mousse, Nu
A delightful explosion of flavors... I mean a very very very delightful explosion.

First Runner Up - Hand Carved Tuna Sashimi, Gi and F
Heavenly but portion is way to big, almost a main.

Second Runner Up - Grilled Asparagus on Molten Egg and Bamboo Clam, Occi
Ken's starter (why did he always order the better starter?). To me, this is my 2nd best starter, asparagus grilled perfectly and the combination of the half boiled egg york and bamboo clam is divine. Just to eat this dish, I will consider buying a ticket back to Spain.

Second Runner Up (2) - Iberian Ham on Melon, somewhere
The ham salty enough. The melon sweet enough... enough said.

Special Mention - Fresh Oysters, Can Majo
Basically the taste of the sea, so fresh that you can find a piece of fresh seaweed in the shell. Ken finished all six.

BEST MAIN

Winner (YY) - Black Sausage Ravioli in Pumpkin Soup , Nu
I hate ravioli but this is no ordinary ravioli. The skin is so thin and soft, like wanton skin and the meat inside taste like reconstructed 粽子(Chinese rice dumpling). A bit savory, a bit sweet, a bit too little...

Winner (Ken) - Sashimi Tuna on Curried Rice with a dash of Wasabi and light soy sauce, Nu
Best Best Best tuna we have eaten, this is Ken's all time winner and my number 2 choice. I am salivating as I recall and blog. Ken actually shed a single tear when he ate this.

Second Runner Up - Lobster Paella in Valencia Rice, Can Majo
Have never eaten nice lobsters in Asia. Either Asians do not know how to cook lobsters or we simply do not have tasty lobsters. First time in our lives, we tasted lobster so sweet and I swear, we did not let any bit of meat go to waste... We left behind shells so clean they make the chef proud. Pair the paella with a bottle of 11 euro Vina Sol and you are in heaven.

Third Runner Up - Spare Ribs with Cheese Polenta, Nu
Melts in your mouth, melts in your mouth, melts in your mouth!!! Definition of perfection.

Special Mention (1) - Prawns and Clams on Turbot Fish, Gi and F
Ken's main, TAMADE why he always order all the nice dishes?

Special Mention 2 - Meat Kebab
We woke up late, skipped breakfast and head directly to La Rambas... by the time we got there I was starving so I didn't really care where we eat, I just need food! So we popped into a restaurant just outside the metro exit and ordered meat kebab... What a wonderful surprise to find such succulent kebab! If I knew mutton tasted this good, I would have give up chicken...

Special Mention 3 - Seafood Paella, Can Majo
Can Majo... Please go and eat their Paella if you visit Barcelona!!!

BEST DESSERT

Vanilla Ice-Cream on Red Wine Cherries, Occi

Light and Refreshing. Best dessert I have ever eaten.

White Chocolate Mousse with Molten Egg, topped with honey coated Pistachio Nuts and Raspberry Sauce, Occi

OK, very strange combi... We swear that stuff below the white chocolate mousse is a molten egg but hey who can be sure on such experimental food? But gosh, so much distinct flavors in one mouthful, yet they blend into each other so well. 

Barcelona - A Wonderful Holiday

Barcelona is a perfect place for a 10 day trip. The city has vibrant art and architecture scene blending the old and new(my kinda thing), great shopping (his kinda thing), beyond delicious food and wine (our kinda thing). 

I cried. Yes, I cried in the presence of Sagrada de Familia. The last time I saw this church was at least fifteen years ago. The roof was incomplete, or maybe there wasn't even a roof yet, only one big lobang. But now, fifteen years later, I was staring at a near completed church interior- a roof and columns supporting the roof!!! For a layman these must be the prettiest columns!!! For any person who bother to dig deeper, these are ingenious structures. What spectacular and powerful architecture. Then I cried. 

I was elated that Ken was properly introduced to Gaudi. I hoped he liked it. I think he liked it. Come on, how can anyone not like Gaudi!!!??? Gaudi makes me laugh. He has a good sense of humor and he dared to express himself from big gesture roofs to the tiniest door detail. This is architecture of passion, anyone can appreciate his architecture without going into the analytics. Ken loves Casa Batllo because it is a building without any right angles - very good for feng shui he says...

Ok, enough of architecture. Let's move to Ken's world of oh lay oh lay - Camp Nou, home to the legendary FC Barcelona. It is a known fact that I know nothing about the sport of a dozen people trying hard to pass a ball to one another but when they finally get the ball, they immediately kick it away. Weird. But well, Ken's passion. 

Wah Wah Wah, I also dunno what he was wah-ing about at every turn but it sounded all very exciting and got me all hyped up. Then Ken went into the technical aspects, explaining to me about the stadium lights, cameras, commentators, the trophies, the club values etc... now we are talking. WAH!!! 

There was a whole wall of projection screens where they looped all the famous winning goals by FCB throughout the years. GOAL! GOAL! GOAL! Then close up shoots of the players crying, covering their faces in their hands, dramatically kissing the air, panoramic views of whole stadium exploding in cheers. Then I cried... Aiyoh, so touching. If only soccer games only screen the GOAL!!! shots instead of making me stare for 90 minutes of running around. 

One of the happiest moments in Barcelona was actually spent in a sweet shop. From the outside, I thought we passed by a clinic, then the pink signage against the sterile white shopfront caught our attention. HAPPY PILLS it says. Turned out, this is a concept shop selling nothing but sweets! 

You choose the containers, fill them up with sweets of your choice, struggle between stickers that say "HAPPY PILLS makes you prettier than your friends" and "HAPPY PILLS instant solution to back stabbing colleagues". Pack them in boxes titled "Anti Inflammatory for Balls - Instant relief from work stress pains accumulated in the lower regions". This clinic is damn cool, stocking such happy pills already made us extremely happy.

Girona

An hour from Barcelona is Girona, a quint romantic old town with colorful houses on both sides of the river. Architecture is varied and atmospheric with myriad of occupations and invasions of many narrow streets, a castle, impressive walls and fairytale gardens.

There is something more intangible than beauty that gave Girona a special place in our hearts. "I don't mind getting a house here", said Ken. Yah I agree, as we strolled the streets in the warm sunlight. For some magical reasons, time moves at a very comfortable pace in Girona. This is not an ancient town where time halts because it died in some alleyway one hundred years ago. 

Ken concluded that everything is at peace because there are hardly any cars in this place hence no noise of traffic. One can only hear the music of life with locals gathering on the streets at night to sing and dance. The smell of dawn with the warm rays bringing out the scent of grass and dew.  Time took on another meaning. Time here is not for rushing pass life, it is used for appreciation of life. 

We stumbled upon a luxury watch shop in Girona. I was deeply impressed by a men's watch with a light leather strap in the show window. Very understated for the brand's style, totally down my alley but just quite quite pricey even with an 18% tax rebate. Unlike retailers in Singapore who has little knowledge of their watches and are preoccupied with earning their commissions, we were served by the owner's son who ended up chatting with us on the difference between Patek Philippe, Rolex and IWC.

We also stumbled upon an old world toy shop, stocked from floor to ceiling of toys from our era - aka tin mobiles, wooden puzzles, spin tops, kaleidoscope, slip comics etc... We returned to the shop at least four times to buy and buy.

I always have this romantic notion that nth years later (when Megan is much older and me no longer around) that she opens her precious tin container and retrieve some faded wooden top or paper wind mill that holds fond memories of her childhood - aka mummy and daddy bought this for me. I mean the scene looks so wrong if she opens the box to retrieve an old plastic barbie doll with disarrayed hair right? No no no... I better buy some proper toys that have lasting power. And lucky for us, this shop has plenty.

Food in Girona ranked high - very surprised that this little town play host to quite a number of Michelin star restaurants and food in their hands is a form of art... See next blog for more details.

Montserrat

Took the easy way out and booked a one day tour. Like all organised tour groups, they are overpriced, short on time and convenient. For Montserrat, it is not a bad choice of travel. Strange, wind contorted mountain peaks made great hiking environments. Guess where I am in the picture?

Yes, you can pretty much gather that Ken was the one hiking and me 'resting' at mid ridge. Certainly not as fit as before, fat tights are quite heavy to lift you know.

Sitges

Not damn excited about Sitges, a beach town. Felt that Sitges is a tourist trap. Arrived around 5pm and the sun was frying my skin crispy. Hate Hate Hate!!! Reached the lowest point in the trip. Black face!! Cannot absorb anything because my whole brain became focused on the conviction that a worst possible death is to dehydrate and bake in the sun. Hate Hate Hate.

Felt more alive the next morning and for Ken, I braved the sun, sea and sand with no swim wear and a pair of sport shoes... Wah very nice leh... The combination of cold waters, chilly wind, extremely hot sun, two beach daybeds and a huge umbrella was a great way to chill. You dozed off, you waked, you watched girls with balls playing balls, you admired multicolor sunga. You dozed, you waked, you were  treated to toned bodies doing fashion shows, you saw more colorful bikinis... what a visual feast! Thank you Ken for bringing me to this spot under the umbrella. Like. I could lie there doing nothing the entire day... 

... if not for the fact that I became hungry. I think if I set up a mobile BBQ stall there... will sell...

Shall I talk about food? Hmm, see next blog for all food related text... life is wonderful.

Bye Bye Everyone (for a while)

On my way to meet my client and am using the hot towel to clean my screen – my client has a pet peeve about dirty screens. Patchy screens will immediately be hijacked and suddenly you will see her scrubbing away in the middle of the meeting. If its beyond her repair, she will hand the whole laptop over to her admin for total sterilization… I better start polishing my screen now and shine it on her face later, hope to gain three stars at the start of the meeting.

Anyway I have am blogging in flight because finally I have personal time. “Blog about me, blog about me..” I hear that from Ken and recently Chris!!! Haha yes but in terms of hierarchy of importance, I need to first blog about – Recyclable Enzymes!

Whoever thought of this brilliant idea is a true contributor to the world. Let me explain for those who now look confused.

Industries use enzymes to speed up chemical reactions, in the case of washing powder, such enzymes attach themselves to surfaces and run chemicals past them, hence cleaning dirt and stains. Enzymes are expensive and currently after each wash, they get drained away. The new big idea is to soak clothes in small quantity of enzyme infused detergents then wash the load in cheaper non enzyme infused detergent. Clothes actually become cleaner and the detergents used for soaking can be recycled up to 200 times!!! BANG!! Wah!! I can testify to that because my mum always practice this method claiming white clothes will be whiter! She never knew the science behind why but now I know!!! Gonna get off this freaking plane and tell my mum the breaking if not frivolous news of the month.

Back to loved ones - Ken had a theory. In life we have a choice. A choice to be happy, a choice to be sad. A choice to be slim, a choice to be fat. A choice to be fat and happy (I think that is what he is trying to say). A choice to go to the airport at midnight from home, a choice to go to airport from old airport road… SUPPER!!! This husband of mine, sure knows how to make me happy!! Sugar cane juice and satay here I come!

Anyway he makes logical sense. Life can be a mad rush that one forget about simple important things like being fat and happy at the same time. Walked past the mirror one day and saw a gigantic slab of cellulite, if not for the fact that I was so intrigued by how extensive it can spread, I would have fainted on the spot. Its ok, Megan can easily revived me with her loud “mummy mummy” while jumping up and down on my body.

For a moment, I thought of Chris introducing Carb Blockers to me. You see, Chris is tall and hatefully slim. Even female masseurs try to seduce him. “ you have such good body…. Are you a model? Your shoulders are so straight and broad… oh you better take off your clothes, your muscles are ripping them apart…” Imagine me trying to suppress my laughter by swallowing it and pretending to sleep and not hear a thing in the neighboring bed. Almost died. Back to the future, now that I see that cellulite in the mirror, I think back on why my masseur remain silent throughout my massage, while Chris’s masseur praised and seduced. Pushing slabs of fat from left to right is hmmm nothing to rave about. DAMN. I do need Carb Blockers after all.

Happier news – Ken and me are going to leave for Barcelona for much needed personal time this weekend. We chose Spain because my air miles are expiring in a big way and because Euro is weak. Just yesterday, heard news of Spanish banks going down and dragging the economy and currency further downhill. Yeah but no Yeah… Got to be sensitive to others...

Alex tried hard to get us a friends and family rate for MO Barcelona but it was all booked out!!!! Peter Kelly called and told me all the exciting stories and swear to email me maps and contacts before vaporizing into thin air… Thank you so much Peter! V helpful indeed. Ken was suppose to take care of the Pyrenees then gave up and say why dun he just take care of the tapas, paella part... Oh well. Desperate in packing because can't fit into any pair of jeans -oh curse the jeans. So many things to do and nothing done. 

Anyway tentatively, bye bye Singapore and everyone!!!!! Do not contact us!!! If I am bored enough to actually blog in Spain, I will (try)…. Cheers... Oh? why this blog no photos? Of coz lah, who got time to upload photos before a big trip!!!!

Family Update

Naughty Pie just reached one and a half years old... What a milestone! What huge changes!

The most noticeable change in her is speech.
"Daddy, Mummy, Ah Ma, Gong, Po Po, Jie Jie, Gor Gor, Ah Bek, Sim, Kak Kak..." Ok she knows all the important names.

She is a talker, a screamer, and a persistent negotiator: Two most important words in her life which she fully exploits to her utmost advantage are "More more more MORE!!!!" and the infamous "No No NO NO NO NO!!!"

 

Book, Water, Nose, Milk, Apple, Eye, Hair, Mouth, Ear, Cheek, Shoe, Socks (which she loves to pronounce as Sucks), Press, Hello,谢谢, eat, soup, sleep, brush teeth, bath, hot hot, Bye Bye, Pain Pain, Night, Kiss, Bear Bear, Ball Ball, Scared Scared, Wet Wet, ,  etc.... Oh then she sings a funny version of twinkle twinkle little stars. It goes like this ".... star...are....high...sky...star...are". 

She is starting to be very selective in her choice of playmates. Not everyone is welcomed and her favorite strategy in every game got to be divide and conquer. On that note, she usually wins. Between Kenneth and me, Ken is certainly the one who disciplines and puts his foot down. One glare from Daddy and Megan usually backs off. With me trying to remove something from her? It will generally end up in a tug of war and "no no no NO NO NO!!!!"

She thinks Daddy is more intelligent than me. She listens to daddy's stories calmly n falls into sweet slumber but when I tell the exact same tale, Megan laughs uncontrollably. Damn, am I an animated clown or what?

She eats. Ken feeds her everything to my disapproval. He is trying to make Megan a potato chip addict. I was told that potato chip is the Andy Warhol of the food world - it is about the surface, the texture, the instant overwhelming gratification. Yah Yah I understand that but Megan is still too young for that!!! Yes she eats cheese cake, chocolate, ice-cream, french fries and almost has no regards for the legal owner of whatever we place on the dining table during meal times but hey... NO potato chips...

She climbs. Discovery of chairs, movable ones that is light enough for her to drag or push around must feel like Columbus discovering America for the very first time (fine, he did not discover America, he found it)... In truth, the world is a badly designed place for the little ones, everything is of a wrong height. Chairs to Megan is certainly not for sitting but for standing on. Everything that was denied to her suddenly become available... and boy does she milk that chance. We suspect chairs give her stature - her "no no No NO NO" always sounds louder when she is 45cm taller...

Vain, Megan is pretty vain. Loves to do "make up" like her Ken's sister. Any string can be a necklace, any rubberband can be a bracelet. And she loves bags. Not to carry anything but to lug around the house. Easy peasy, Mimi custom made a pink haversack with adjustable straps and a blue sling bag with a ladybird button. NICE!!!!! I also want....

All in all, family time is fine and often hilarious.