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| So far so... |
I made my second attempt at cooking tortilla, or Spanish omlete, this week after a bit of a disaster last time. I decided to loosely follow 2 recipes off the internet (the top two when you search 'tortilla recipe') which are slightly different but I opted to put a bit of chopped red pepper in with my potatoes and onion. You always seem to need less potato than you think, which was my main downfall last time (result: potato and scrambled egg). Without going into too much detail, you fry the onions and taters, whisk some eggs, add them together and then pour the mixture into a frying pan, and let it cook before flipping it over, which is where things get interesting. I find it inconceivable that this dish was invented before the advent of non-stick pans. I was doing fairly well with our battered old definately non non-stick pan, shaking it as the mixture solidifies so it didn't stick (good tip), when the handle promptly came off.
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| ...oh. |
The instructions on the recipes are invariably a bit vague on the flipping bit, but your supposed to do it by putting a plate on the pan and quickly turning it over. This is no simple feat when your pan doesn't have a handle but I just about managed it using a tea towel only to find the bloody thing stuck to the bottom in the middle. Luckily, it was still unset enough to sort of mould together in the end to make something resembling the traditional cake-like shape, and after a couple more flips I was getting the hang of it. Everything fell apart a bit upon serving but by that point I was just glad to get it on the plate! Everyone agreed it tasted great though, especially with a bit of chili sauce.
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| Win! |
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| What does it mean? |
Also this week, we went to do another challenge: one close to my heart - find the most 'ducks and ghosts' (around Plaza de Espa
ña). I've been wanting to know what these are all about since I first spotted them when I got here. All over Madrid, you'll spot these big stickers of a duck with a big bill and a ghost shaped like a 't'. I still don't know what its about (neither the internet nor Spanish friends have been any use) but between the two teams we managed to find at least 15 in an hour, including two massive ones right on the front of the Edifico de Espa
ña.
I also took the opportunity to take some pics of some other street art in and around
Malasaña. Street art and grafitti is a big deal in Madrid, and you'll see it everywhere you go, from quickly sprayed tags to huge detailed pieces (see right). You can find some of the best pieces on shop shutters because apparently shutters used to get covered in tags until at some point shops started paying the best grafitti artists to take time doing proper work on them, instead of a quick tag and run, which no-one else sprays over. It's become very mainstream and you'll see them on everything from off-licenses (bottles) to dentists (workmen removing teeth), often with the artists name and number at the bottom. I read recently that they're cracking down on this in Barcelona and fining the shop keepers, which is a shame because they aren't just crap tags, a lot of them are really good pieces of art and brighten up the streets enormously.
I also managed to get a picture of a typical Madrid dog this week as well, I spotted this guy tied up in the entrance to a supermarket and he's a classic: small, well dressed and probably about to shit everywhere. Some of the dog-fashion on display on the street is really quite hilarious, everything from coats, to sweaters, anoraks and neckercheifs, all on tiny little dogs being walked by otherwise normal-looking people. Very strange.
I'm a bit in awe of the Edifico España, the colossal monolith of a building on the north side of the square. I've never thought the word 'edifice' suited a building better. It looks like it might have just landed from space or thrust up from the earth, blazing yellow and red in the evening sun after the rest of the square is in shadow, contrasting sharply with the brilliant blue sky. I was so busy staring at the thing the first time I was there that I didn't notice that the whole front is actually boarded up. It used to be offices and a hotel but after being bought in 2005 is now being completely refurbished, according to Wikipedia, but who knows where the project now stands with Spain's bubble-burst construction sector. By the way, if the pictures below give you the impression that its warm over here, forget it - it's bloody freezing! Not been above 10 for over a week and regularly plus or minus a couple of degrees in the morning.
I finally got myself an Abono Metro today, a monthly pass for the metro that is very good value for money at €40 a month. Oddly, the only places you can get the card you need to buy the monthly ticket (never simple in Spain is it?) are tobacconists. I have no idea why. Speaking of the metro, which I have to catch up to five times a day for my job(s) teaching English around the city, along with a couple of buses, it really is very good. A student was telling me he thought it was the best in Europe today, and he might just be right. It's very regular and you can pretty much rely on it to get you where you want to go on time. Teaching around town gives you the opportunity to be late several times a day and I only have been once in three and half months, which anyone who knows me will confirm is a bloody miracle! They're often quite fun too, with musicians of wildly varying quality hopping on for a quick performance (I saw a 6 piece jazz band today), and only occasionally being kicked off by the security with a polite tap on the shoulder. Don't be freaked by the staring either, people love to stare on the metro, and won't break off when you stare back either, which can be a bit unnerving at first but I had to stop myself doing it by the time I got back to the UK over Christmas. I'm told it gets lethally hot down there come springtime though, which might reduce its charm a little...
