Paella cook-off Festa Major 2017

   This year they included a paella cook-off at the Festa Major. There were four teams and probably close to 80 supporters. Pilar invited us to eat with her and her posse. Isabelita, the owner of the only restaurant in town, was in charge of our paella.
   As you can see from the photos, a lot of effort went into the presentation. I've never seen so much creativity applied to paella. Pepita's was mushroom based and it looked delicious. I'm sorry  I didn't get to try it. The one with the lobster rampant also looked very good. In Catalunya, the paellas are usually seafood based with maybe a little chicken or pork thrown in. Isabelita's paella was judged best. It was really very tasty!
   I only went to one of the dances this year. As usual, it was fun and the band was excellent. They had a saxophone trio that was really laying it down! I finally walked home at 3:30. The diablos were as good as ever but there was a smaller crowd than usual because it was a Monday night.

 

Two for the price of one

   Everybody likes a deal and I've found one. I'm now able to get two haircuts for the price of one. It doesn't bother me that they occur simultaneously. My barber is Francesc Loran of Mora la Nova.
   I probably shouldn't call him a barber because he's an artist. Your head is his canvas. If you sit in his chair, you're going to stand up with the haircut he wants you to have. There is no negotiation.            Some people think Francesc gives everybody the same haircut but that is far from the case. He does a roaring trade and there are always several people ahead of and behind me. We don't all come out with the same haircut. Susan says he makes me look like a German general. I suppose that's better than a German corporal.
   Francesc prides himself on keeping up to date with the latest fashions and equipment. He is especially proud of a pair of American clippers he had imported. I asked to look at them and noticed a label that read "DO NOT USE ON TREES GREATER THAN THREE INCHES IN DIAMETER". Needless to say, they are brutally efficient in the American manner.
   Francesc has a lovely family including a beautiful two year old daughter. The last time I was there, his wife was building a brick and mortar barbeque pit behind the shop. Please check out the photos below while remembering you can only put so much lipstick on an old dog.

Micah and Maisie

   Micah, a friend of Rhea and Joe, came to see me the last weekend I was in Catalunya. She brought her five month old Australian shepherd, Maisie. Micah has a Phd. in Public Health and has done research in Kenya, India and Bangladesh. She is moving to Anchorage in August to take a teaching job at a university there. She has had an amazing life so far and there's no question that many more adventures lie ahead.

   Micah will spend two months touring Spain on her bicycle. She has a light weight trailer for the bike that Maisie rides in. I picked them up at the AVE train station outside Tarragona in Philip's Land Rover. It's only a three hour trip from Madrid to Tarragona on the bullet train.

   We went home to El Masroig and toured the town. Francesc Masdeu came over for dinner and entertained us for a few hours. Micah speaks some Spanish so Francesc enjoyed visiting with her. The next morning went by the vineyards and then on to La Figuera to check on my wine. After that, it was on to Scala Dei for a leisurely lunch. We stopped in Falset on the way home and saw the sights.

   Micah was kind enough to help me work on the irrigation systems in the vineyards on Monday. Things were in pretty good shape and it only took us three hours to fix all the leaks. Unfortunately, there was a lot of mud around some of the leaks and Maisie had the time of her life digging in the mud and running around the vineyards. I've never seen a dirtier dog. I'm not sure how long it took Micah to clean her up.

   When we got back from the vineyard, Micah and Maisie went for a run out to the Ermita and Puig Roig. We went to Mercadona and bought some local sausage for dinner. Micah planned to catch the early train to Barcelona the next morning and started packing her (very small) panniers. We got to the train station in Falset and Micah assembled her bike and trailer. We got her aboard the train with no trouble. She planned to spend two days in Barcelona and then take the train to Pamplona for the Camino de Santiago.

                                                    ¡Buen viaje, Micah y Maisie! 



 

 

 

Volta a Catalunya bicycle race



   Our area is very popular with bicyclists and motorcyclists. The countryside is beautiful. The roads are curvy, steep and not very busy. Every year they hold a world class bicycle race through Catalunya. It's similar to the Tour de France and all the top riders participate. This year the race went very near to where we live.

   It's possible to look at a schedule on the internet to see where the riders will be throughout the race. Philip and I decided to drive over to Falset and position ourselves on a hill where we could watch them go by. We left early to avoid the road closures. On the way, there was a terrific (for around here) hailstorm just 45 minutes before the racers were due to arrive. I'm afraid a number of vineyards around Falset and Marça may have been severely damaged since we just had bud break. Fortunately, the ice melted before the racers arrived but the pavement was still wet and slick.

   As usual with these events, there was a huge police presence. We must have counted at least 50 Mossos d'Esquadra (Catalan national police) on motorcycles, several police cars, ambulances and a paddy-wagon. There was also a bunch of support and communication vehicles. It looked like they had at least two extra bicycles for each of the 107 racers.  

   By the time the race reached Falset, there were three pelotons. Philip (who is a bicycle racing aficionado) thought it was unusual that the race was so spread out. There were over 20 minutes between the first and last racers. Even though we were on a hill, they came by pretty quickly.

   The raced finished in Barcelona today. The winner was Alejandro Valverde. He rides for Team Movistar which happens to be my Spanish telephone company. Valverde has won the Volta a Catalunya multiple times. For complete info on the race, please link to:

            http://www.cyclingnews.com/races/volta-ciclista-a-catalunya-2017/stage-7/results/

 



 

 

 

¡Calçotada!

 

 

   Spring is the time of year for calçots (large green onions). People get together and grill them. It's the Catalan equivalent to a crawfish boil. There's special sauce you dip them in known as "romesco". For a recipe, link to:      https://spanishsauce.wordpress.com/2008/03/04/calcot-sauce-recipe/

It's really delicious!

   Our neighbor, Philip (a.k.a. El Baron), invited me to attend a calçotada (calçot party) last Saturday. Our hosts were Pedro and his wife, Rosa Maria. Pedro is in the construction business and has a farm just east of town. He built a nice little house/barn building that has a kitchen, bathroom and barbeque pit. It's the perfect place for a weekend get-a-way.

   There were a bunch of people there I knew. Sophie from DO Montsant was there with some of her French family. Albert and Lluisa were there and there were a couple of grape growers I've met over the years. I made a new friend, Sandra, who's an English lady living in Cornudella.

   There was also a posse of polite and well behaved children. Susan and I have remarked many times how the children here are so well behaved. You never see people yelling at their kids and you never see kids acting up. This is one of the most attractive things about Spain.

   To prepare calçots, they must be grilled over a hot fire. The outside layers get blackened and you strip off the black part with your fingers. This is messy and a big part of the fun. You then dip it in sauce, raise it over your head and lower it into your mouth (see below). The process is very similar to the way you used to eat spaghetti when you were five years old. It's against the law to eat calçots with a knife and fork.

   Grilled meat (in this case, lamb and sausage) is always served at a calçotada but not with the calçots. Pedro did a fine job with the meat. We had traditional Catalan cake (coca) for dessert to celebrate the birthdays of Rosa Maria and Dani. The cake was from a little town nearby called Serra de Almos. We now have very nice bakery in El Masroig. It's on our street but they don't make cakes.

   When you attend an event like this, you can pretty much write off the rest of the day. After almost four hours, it was home for a siesta. ¡Gracias de Nuevo Rosa Maria y Pedro!