Saturday, November 14, 2009

Saturday morning noodles in Madrid



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The food pictured is a small plate or "tapa" of what is called "fideua", which is a Valencian paella made with saffron-colored noodles and little bits of chicken, pork and shellfish mixed in; the wine is a robust, Ribera del Duero red and the whole thing, standing up, went for €2.50, this very morning in the center of Madrid.

I thought that today, for a change, I'd rather write about this little meal than about all the crap that is going on in the world.

I had a camera with me  because my wife and I were out collecting wall graffiti for her to use in her digital artwork, which she hangs on her web page.

I am trying to learn flash, but it's pretty heavy going. All I can do for now is to take a film made in Corel Video Studio and turn it into something that opens quickly and runs smoothly on the web page. I still have no idea how to construct all the lovely bells and whistles that morph  as you move the cursor across them.

Getting back to the photo: although I like to cook, to eat and to drink, I'm no foody. Good food and  good wine, without too much ceremony, in the informal atmosphere of a noisy Spanish bar, on a busy morning is one of my pleasures. No big deal. That is important for me... that it be no big deal.

When people talk too much about food it makes me uncomfortable  for some reason, like when people talk too much about sex and  most dissertations about wine are insufferable.

Things that are better to do than to talk about.

The picture expresses some of that, I think. DS

5 comments:

Kurz said...

Hehehe.

I had two huge dishes of fideua today.

By the way I know a bunch of interesting places were people paint legally, in case your wife is interested.

Anonymous said...

Great article. I take much the same attitude as you do to food (no 'drizzled' sesame oil or balsamic vinegar over a bunch of pretty leaves).

Spanish food, in general, is not the best in the world (Serrano ham is almost inedible after Parma or San Danieli) but I admire your loyalty towards it.

David Seaton's Newslinks said...

Well, there is no Italian Paul Bocouse or Arziak or Fernan AdriĆ” right now. Nobody is talking about italian food, ther is no buzz. I don't here anything about Italian food, beyond la mama's home cooked pasta. certainly at this moment Spanish food and wine and especially Spanish chefs have more of a rep than Italian's.

stunted said...

Anonymous should try some pata negra, to mention only ham, and perhaps appreciate what is simply good. Focusing on the superlative has an annoying tendency to leave the small wonders of life out of focus.

Kurz said...

"Serrano ham is almost inedible after Parma or San Danieli"?! Not that I want to turn this into a food dissertation but what kind of serrano ham are you referring to?

Surely not the one I'll be getting for Christmas... he he.