Mar y Montaña

This is a very easy recipe that also happens to be delicious—always a good combination. A cuttlefish is truly a revolting little creature both in and out of the water. I have always loved squid, especially the batter-fried variety I could never resist in Greece.

I got this recipe here:

El Cocinero Fiel

He is about the best video blogger on Spanish food. I have cooked at least a dozen of his dishes so far and they have all been well worth it.

Doldrums and New Breezes

Perhaps the most difficult thing about trying to master another language is that you can never rest on your past accomplishments (assuming you have any past accomplishments). I have recently passed through a couple of weeks in which I haven’t been as diligent about my reading in Spanish. I’m sure everyone goes through the doldrums from time to time when learning Spanish, or any language for that matter. With my sails flapping without effect I felt like my Spanish was actually worsening with every passing day.

It was partly due to laziness and partly because I couldn’t find a book I could really sink my teeth into. I have already listened to all of the Spanish books on tape that a friend gave me. Ironically, I requested that these people visiting from Seattle record some books in Spanish from the Seattle public library as I can’t find many here in Spain. Consequently I have been listening to books in English on my daily bike rides and consequently I have noticed an erosion in my Spanish.

I put the brakes on my skid yesterday by doing quite a bit of reading. I am trying to finish a book I am enjoying very much but it is proving to be quite a challenge. It’s difficult to pinpoint exactly why one book is difficult to read while I can pick up another and read it straight through with hardly consulting a dictionary. Often I find that books by the same author can fall on both sides of this linguistic barbed-wire fence. José Luis Sampedro’s La Sonrisa Estrusca is a mere 255 pages but has presented quite a barrier as far as my Spanish goes. I have been stuck for a couple weeks now trying to finish it, a few pages here, a few the next day—nothing like my self-imposed schedule of reading 50 pages in Spanish a day. I really like the novel so far so yesterday I sat down and plowed through about 30 pages. I also read out loud for about 30 minutes which I think is an excellent tool for improving pronunciation and overall fluency. Reading out loud for a half an hour is probably more speaking than you would do in an entire day.

I had to more or less will myself out of my trance of Spanish inactivity. I have a couple of Spanish movies to watch. I don’t find movies to be a very good tool in learning the language but every little bit helps. Movies also provide very needed help in cultural assimilation. Just the other day I was in a conversation with some Spanish friends and I felt left out because I hadn’t seen the popular movie they were referencing. I plan on filling that cultural void later today by watching the Spanish film Rec. I don’t want to lose my reputation for being the hardest working immigrant in Spain, at least when it comes to learning the language.

Chelsea 1-1 Barça

Barça really pulled one out of their butts last night at Stamford Bridge to advance to the finals of the Champions League with Manchester United. After the 0-0 draw at Camp Nou last week Chelsea had the goal they needed early on in last night’s match with a terrific shot by Michael Essien in the ninth minute. From this point on Chelsea had the sort of game they relish and that fans despise: a defensive slog in which they throw the entire squad in the box and then counter attack with lightening speed. Barcelona was fairly stifled throughout the match and, like in the first game, seemed timid and afraid to make a mistake instead of playing with brilliant abandon like they do so well.

I just couldn’t believe that Barça was going to play two games without scoring a single goal (as they had done last year). It was probably the worst officiated game that I have ever seen and the referee lost control of the match very early on. The culmination of the terrible calls came in the 66th minute when Abidal was given a red card when he didn’t so much as touch Anelka. Now Barça was facing a formidable defense with 10 men. In the 93rd minute Iniesta came through once again and stunned the crowd with the second great goal of the game.

I started off watching the game at La Tasca de Russafa but it was incredibly over-crowded. I left that firetrap at the break and walked a block down the street to El Faro. The atmosphere wasn’t quite as festive but at least I could move around without pushing someone over. When Barça scored I actually shook hands with a few of the other patrons whom I had only seen once or twice before while watching other matches at the bar.

I can understand people who think that watching sports on television is a moronic pastime. I sometimes feel this way if it concerns a sport that doesn’t interest me. After a great game like this one I feel a lot better about life in general than I probably should. I mean, why should I care if one sports team defeats another? All that I can say is that I’ve never felt that elated after walking out of a symphony or an opera, and I like symphonies and operas as much as the next guy (and probably more than the average knucklehead sports fan). I don’t want this to sound like an apology or an excuse for indulging in an activity that some would say is hardly worth the time of a serious person. It was a great night to be a sports fan. I’m glad I didn’t miss it.

City Life

"First life, then spaces, then buildings—the other way around never works." – Urban Architect Jan Gehl

“How best to build our cities?” This is quite possibly the most important question a society can ask yet few communities even bother to raise the issue. From what I have seen of many cities, there doesn’t seem to be any sort of city planning at all. Cities are simply pushed along by commerce with local governments too feeble or completely unwilling to demand that growth be managed in a sensible way. The prevailing philosophy seems to be that what is good for the strip mall is good for the residents.

Copenhagen reduces by 3% its parking spaces and streets every year. Amsterdam has had a similar program over the past ten years which has drastically reduced automobile traffic in its historic canal district. As Mr. Gehl points out in the video, reducing roads simply gives citizens the incentive to travel by means other than the personal automobile. More often than not, the roads we are building aren’t vital to development; they simply provide what is known as induced traffic. If you build the roads the cars will come. If you provide safe places to ride bikes more people will choose this means of transportation which is infinitely healthier and more sustainable than the automobile.

A full third of the residents of Copenhagen effect their inter-city transportation by bicycle. Valencia is way behind Copenhagen with only 1.6% of people here electing to use bikes to travel around town. Most people in Valencia feel that it is dangerous to ride a bike here. There is quite a good network of bike trails around Valencia and to outlying areas. The problem, as I see it, is that pedestrians and cyclists are not respected in the urban model. The automobile in Valencia is little more than a terrorist weapon with drivers bullying pedestrians and cyclists at every intersection and on every thoroughfare. Valencia has vastly improved its bike path network in just the few years that I have lived here. Just today there was quite a traffic jam along the bike path which leads to the beaches south of town. More people are discovering this trail that is just a little over two years old.

Valencia is working towards their future in many ways. There is a new metro line being built that will go from the city center, pass through my neighborhood of Ruzafa, and then service the port area at Nazareth. Even with what I think is a pretty solid public transportation system, only 12.3% of Valencianos use it. These statistics are for the entire community of Valencia so I’m sure that city rates are much higher than this 12.3% but still probably nowhere near the numbers that Madrid boasts in this department.

Why should cities fund public transportation and bicycle paths? A lot of American conservatives would argue that we should let the free market decide. The glorious “free market” that we hear so much about. If public transportation and bike paths are so vital then the private sector would provide this service on a for profit basis. Of course, this is a childish argument because government subsidizes the auto industry to an astonishing degree at the expense of just about every other alternative. The same goes for the airlines. Parking is also heavily subsidized by local governments and most suburban businesses provide parking to accommodate traffic models for the peak days of the year with the lots going fallow for the rest of the time. Road construction projects require staggering amounts of capital outlay. If an American city were to spend 1/1000 of what they spend on roads to develop a bike path system, it would put Copenhagen to shame.

Why are cities like Amsterdam and Copenhagen so far ahead on the issues of mass transit and bikes? I was talking to someone here in Valencia about why people here don’t use public transportation or ride bicycles. I said that it was from lack of education. Immediately after I said it (in Spanish) I realized that I didn’t mean lack of education (which can be interpreted as being rude in Spanish). What I meant to say is that Valencia lacks the public relations apparatus to sell the idea of bikes to their citizens. I think that what Valencia needs is a way to portray bike riding as somehow glamorous. As is the case in much of the United States, the perception of public transportation is that it is for people who can’t afford their own car. Could there be a bigger sin in America than not owning a car? We often say that you are what you drive.

At a time when we should be extremely concerned not only about energy use but the regimes that we are financing by our heavy dependence on foreign crude, America’s oil use increased 17% between 1990 and 2000. That increase only serves to illustrate how little concern we have for our future. Besides stemming the tide of militant Islamists funded by our petro dollars, planning for the future can also be something as basic as providing pedestrians a place to sit down, as Mr. Gehl mentions in the video. I think that it is like setting up an ambush: first you have to lure people out of their homes and cars, and then you can sell them on the bigger ideas of what it means to live in a vibrant city.

I think a big problem for many people is that they just don’t know what they are missing by living in a city with a lot of life. They are only familiar with their lives of relative isolation in which they go from their private home to their private car, without really taking their fellow citizens into account. If you haven’t already noticed, automobiles seem to bring out the absolute worst in just about everyone. I am always amazed at how aggressive drivers can be even in the confines of a parking lot. Many drivers act out in aggressive manners they wouldn’t dream of walking down the street. It’s like their car becomes their evil alter-ego. Walking, biking, and mass transit forces people to be a lot more civilized towards one another. It has a calming effect.

Arroz de Mariscos

As I have said many times, Valencianos really only call something a paella if it is a true paella valenciana (with chicken and rabbit). Anything else to them is just rice. I just made this because I have only tried to make it once before. To be honest, I much prefer a real paella. I just like to film the dishes I make to sort of remind myself of what I have in my repertoire. ¡Buen provecho!