Our first week - when do we eat?

It's a beautiful day in the neighborhood
After our arrival at the airport, our first week in Valencia was supposed to begin on Friday around 11 AM. Antonio planned to meet us at the apartment to take us on a walking tour of his neighborhood and the center part of the city. True to his word, he rang the bell at 11 AM. (What happened to Spanish time? Everyone is always so prompt here. I expected that in Germany but here...) Half conscious, I vaguely remember hearing John mumbling to someone at the door, that no one was really awake yet. Then there was something mentioned about 2 PM (14:00) and I returned to my unconscious state. I think we all finally woke up around 1 P.M.; and we ate a bowl of corn flakes before Antonio rang again at 2. And our adventure in Valencia began.

Stepping outside, we were greeted by partly sunny skies and a gloriously warm breeze. We were bundled in our spring/fall outerwear and I felt over-dressed. However, our walk around the city would show me that winter wear is taken seriously in Valencia and being cold is relative. On days I've considered balmy (upper 40s, lower 50s - think San Francisco), people are dressed in parkas, warm scarves and hats. I throw a scarf (I brought two, although they're more decorative than winter-worthy) on myself and put winter hats on the girls when we walk around town so that we don't end up looking like crazy parents, under-dressing our children. The girls obviously have inherited northern, Finnish genes as Analea loves the feeling of cold wind in her face and Miia is always taking off her coat here because she's "Too hot!" As we walked along, Antonio mentioned that heavy winds were headed to Valencia (very unusual for this area). True to form, my mother called us the next day because she heard about damaging winds in Barcelona (even we didn't realize this yet) and wanted to know if our house was still standing. (Ha-ha, Mom.)

So our first day was spent getting acquainted with our neighborhood. Antonio showed us all the important places (bakery, ATMs, grocery stores, the museums, clothes shopping - Chiqui, there are several Zaras within walking distance of our apartment). Already my home away from home - as John calls it - is El Corte Ingles (http://www.elcorteingles.es/informacion/en/ayuda.asp) where Antonio and others have said if you can't find it here, then no one has it. And yes, it's true...just the other day, I had to figure out how to ask if they had embroidery needles for knitting in Spanish. I left my note to myself with the translation at home but luckily brought the knitting book that had a picture of what I needed. Between the picture and my broken Spanish, the needle (aguja) was found and purchased.

We decided to walk along the river to see the interesting and beautiful modern architecture of the museums that make up the Cidudad de las Artes y las Ciencias (City of Arts and Sciences). Check out http://www.cac.es/home. The architecture and the amount of money and labor the city of Valencia has put into this region is quite impressive. I hope that the city is recouping their investment. It's all within walking distance of our apartment which is fantastic - the museums, the river walk with its many playgrounds and green spaces, all the people (runners, families, walkers, kids, etc.) and the dogs (I think every other person in Valencia has one.) are great distractions and sources of entertainment for the girls. Analea has started to point toward the Science Museum on our daily walk - she seems to recognize the building.

We continued along the river on our way into the city, eventually crossing the river to get into the city. The closer you get to the center of the city, the more the architecture of the buildings changes and becomes much older and has what I envisioned as Spanish architecture. There's something very familiar about this style and I realized that it reminds me of photos I've seen of Manila before the war. Of course, this makes sense since the Spanish were in the Philippines for quite some time.

And now...here's what you all have been waiting for - the food!The most difficult thing to adjust to here was the eating schedule. From what I gather, people have a small breakfast, a HUGE lunch later in the day (around 2 PM), some small savory snacks around American dinner time, then a small dinner meal anywhere from 8:30-10 PM. It took some time to get my stomach and mind adjusted to that, but I think we're now all on Spanish eating time, especially the girls.

On our first Sunday in Valencia, we were introduced to the Spanish lunch and did what seems everyone in Valencia does on a Sunday - enjoy a huge lunch (including paella) with friends and family. Antonio's sister and brother-in-law graciously invited us to a paella lunch at a restaurant they say serves the best paella. In this photo, that glorious Valencian paella sits in the middle of the table. That's how it comes to the table - in the same big pan it's cooked in. Since you can't smell or taste the paella, this photo doesn't do it justice. Someone commented on this photo in FB that John's smile and intent gaze says it all! And I have to agree - that was one darn good pan of Valencian paella. I say Valencian because apparently this is where paella originated and it is not a Spanish dish but a Valencian one. And a true Valencian paella does not have seafood but meat (usually rabbit and chicken) and vegetables. Anything else is just paella NOT Valencian paella. And just because you cook it in a paella pan does not make it paella. So, for the record, what I ate at Radio Maria in Urbana was definitely not paella.

I also learned that there is an art to preparing it and eating it. I don't know the details about the paella prepping (I'm sure this info can be found online) but as for the eating (ha-ha), I know about that a bit more and all my Filipino family/friends/readers will appreciate this part as well. The art to eating paella properly involves taking your spoon and scraping the "tutong (sp?)" - you know, that crunchy part of the rice that forms at the bottom of the pan after frying it - and including that with a spoonful of rice, veggies and meat on your way up the side of the pan. I think I did that once and then proceeded to spoon a whole bunch of paella on to my plate. The paella eating must have started a little after hour 2 of our 3 hour lunch. We had several yummy courses before the main one - a green salad with boiled eggs, artichokes, AWESOME olives and tomatoes. Followed by a tomato, mozarella salad topped with anchovies - then croquettas (breaded, fried pork meatballs - delish!), then the paella (w/rabbit, chicken, fava beans, bell peppers and other veggies). For dessert, I shared chocolate cake with Miia and we all had some kind of drink/dessert of champagne with lemon sorbet or lemon ice cream (very good - I have to find out what it's all called. It's a great light way to end a lot of eating). All this was washed down with a beer/limonade-spritish combo drink. The whole meal ended with a cortado (an espresso with a layer of milk at the bottom). We finally fnished our meal three hours later, yes, three hours later. This didn't seem to be unusual since, of the other people eating at the restaurant, we were the first to finish and leave. And it didn't seem that we were there that long - somehow the eating and the chatting made the time fly. We enjoyed a delicious leisurely lunch with great company and somehow managed to rise from the table and walk our way to Antonio's sister's apartment where...we ate some more and had coffee, a nice liqueur and chocolates. There's always room in my stomach for chocolates!

Since that first real introduction to a Valencian meal, we've enjoyed lots of good food. I have to say that I really like the idea of pinchos/tapas tabernas. Pinchos/pintxos are bite-sized portions of food - seems like it's usually a piece of something on a slice of baguette. Examples of pinchos I've had to date: chorizo with a mini-fried egg (maybe quail/), salmon with tomato and cheese, a slice of spinach and cheese tortilla (not like the Mexican tortilla - here tortillas are basically omelettes with potatoes). You walk into a taberna and you're greeted by a bar with a self-serve style area where you can see plates and plates and plates lined up with the pinchos of the day. Once you pick a table, you grab a plate for yourself and take what you want from the bar. Save the toothpicks in the pinchos and that's how the waiter tallies up your bill. The number of toothpicks (plus any drinks or other tapas - bigger sized portions) determines the price of your bill. And yes, we have always been honest about our toothpicks!

Of course, it's not always about eating out..we've cooked at home too which means we've shopped in the grocery stores here. And that's a story for another day.

Tomorrow we head to the Mercado Central - a covered, indoor farmer's market type place. Supposedly, it's one of the largest in Europe and has 959 stalls. This will be our first visit there while it's open. We never seem to make it during it's operating hours. We'll see how tomorrow goes.