food, part 2

So I've eaten some really good food here. The soup/stew/whatever that my señora makes regularly is amazing. Its always some combination of beans (usually garbanzo), mushy veggies and meat-based broth. Its like heaven-mush. She also makes some amazing chicken. I've had some good tapas when we eat out, including patatas bravas (potatoes with some sort of sauce on them), gazpacho, etc.

I've also eaten some weird food here. Mostly the seafood that my señora makes from time to time. Sometimes I have no idea what it is but I eat it anyway. Like the sea-snail things. And the squid eggs that we ate with Gerardo. I've also eaten plenty of mystery meat. Its all amazing, but I have no idea what kind of meat it is or where on the animal it came from.

Then there's the bad stuff. For the first time I said no to trying something at home the other day. It was oysters. Giant ones. I couldn't make myself do it. She also likes to put onions on my salads which I could definitely do without. She also puts pickled beets on my salads. Which is fine, I can eat them when they are sliced so tiny and mixed with other stuff. But the other day she just gave me a plate of giant sliced pickled beets with onions. I couldn't eat it. They taste like dirt.

But all of this is nothing when compared to the soup I was given a week or so ago. I sat down for dinner like usual. And there was a bowl of soup, like usual. With some veggies and bread and yogurt on the side. Again, like usual. Now, normally the soup I get is like some sort of veggie puree. I don't usually know exactly what it is but it is some vegetable-y goodness. This time though, something was off. The soup was a creamy white color with blobs of something tannish. There have been a couple of times where she plops a piece of bread in the soup. I don't know why, but apparently she decides it just needs something else. So whatever, the tan blobs i figured out. I took a timid bite of the white mushy-ness and it wasn't horrible. But it wasn't really that good either. The texture was kind of weird, the flavor was odd, there was soggy bread in it...After another tiny bite or two, she said, "Do you like the soup?" I was like, "uhh, yeah." She said, "Es sopa de mayonaisa..." I think you can figure out what that translates to. Mayonnaise soup. SERIOUSLY?!?!! If you can imagine combining mayonnaise (which is made with oil, if you didn't know) and like milk or cream or something (which doesn't mix very well with oil), you can imagine the consistency of this soup. Bleh gives me the goosebumps just imagining it. I couldn't eat any more. I ate all the potatoes and green beans. And the whole thing of bread. And the yogurt. And then said, "umm, I wasn't very hungry tonight." So she flushed the mayonnaise soup down the toilet and that was that.

And this is why you shouldn't try to figure out what you're eating.

But then there are times when it turns out just fine. I don't eat out very often here. I love Angeles's cooking and love not having to pay for food. Well, I paid thousands of dollars for this food actually. So I'm taking full advantage of it. But sometimes I want to go eat out and see what the food is like here, besides the food Angeles makes. Well, last Friday we had an opportunity to do just that. We went on a "field trip" with our Teaching Development group. The five us us (minus Charlotte, since she was in Rome. Poor thing.) went to Huelva (about 45 minutes from here) with our professor Jorge and a "teach in Spain" girl, Natalia. Natalia works at this school in Huelva 12 hours a week helping teach English in a variety of classes. We visited the school, observed a class, hung out with some teachers. Then we went to lunch. On CIEE's dime. Natalia had got some recommendations from some of the teachers at the school, so we went to a pretty nice restaurant in Huelva. It was pretty expensive, but hey, we weren't paying....We got some appetizers, the waiter's recommendations. Which consisted of some artichokey-hammy thing. And some sea bass. If you've never had sea bass before, go try it. Immediately. It doesn't even taste like fish. Oh. so. good. Then we all ordered our meals. I ordered some sort of meat. Some things we see commonly on the menu are "solomillo," "lomo," "pluma," and other things I don't remember. I don't know what any of those things are. I think I ordered solomillo if I remember correctly. I didn't really know what it was but I think its sirloin or something. If that exists in pork meat. Whatever, it was amazing. Huelva is known for its seafood, but I didn't feel like getting any fish. So I stuck with the red meat. They brought it out and had me slice into it and tell them if it was done enough. Which it wasn't. I'm pretty sure pork isn't supposed to be pink...or maybe it was beef. I don't know. So anyway, they cooked it some more and brought it back. So worth the wait. It was tender and seasoned perfectly and kind of crispy on the outside. And came with potatoes and peppers. You'd think that was enough. A couple beers, some delicious appetizers, amazing meal. But then there was dessert. They brought us a plate of 4 different kinds of chocolatey desserts. Each one of them was better than the last. Oh but that wasn't it. Next was a shot of basically pure caramel. Our waiter brought us a round of "chupitos"(shots) of some sort of caramelly alcohol. Not exactly sure what it was, but it was so sweet and syrupy and alcoholy....After 2 beers and a shot, I was feeling pretty good. At 3pm. But then our professor decided another shot was in order. Sooooo he ordered another round. Love Spain. So then we all stumbled back to the bus and came back to Sevilla. One of the best meals I've had in Spain!

So, you've seen some of the good, the bad and the ugly that I've had here. I'm sure this won't be my last post about food. I do wish I had some photos to add to this. But usually I'm so excited to eat that I can't wait and take photos first before I dig in. Sooo you'll just have to imagine it :)

There are still some things I want to try while I'm here. Including bull tail, everyone says its delicious. And some real paella. Some more jamón ibérico. More tapas. More helado. More tea. Oh tea. I'm in love with it. I will definitely be addicted when I get back and the first thing I want to do is scope out a tea shop to hang out in in Portland. After getting some sushi...