My friend and favorite photographer Rion Nakaya now lives in Paris and goes on weekend jaunts all over Europe just like the locals do. Her most recent set of photos is of fish vendors in Bilbao's Riverside Market, which has been the city's center of trade since the 14th century....
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Ben Curtis of Notes From Spain has put together a quick list of Spanish table manners, five items that might surprise someone dining in Spain or with a Spanish family for the first time. Here's tip #5: "Don’t stop talking for too long! Noise is key to any good family meal in Spain. Try to talk to the person diagonally opposite you, and shout if you have to make yourself heard, which is quite likely as everyone else in the room is also talking to the person diagonally opposite them as well. So rare is silence at a the Spanish table that they have an expression for such occasions based on an equally improbable event: "Ha pasado un angel!" -...
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Joan Nathan of the New York Times talks to Ana Benarroch de Bensadón, author of a cookbook of Sephardic dessert recipes. After Spain expelled its Jews in 1492, her family lived for centuries in Tangiers; she moved to Madrid with her husband in the 1960s after political instability in Morocco, and brought with her dishes that had all but been forgotten in Spain over the last 500 years, notable for how they combine their Jewish, Spanish and North African roots while still keeping kosher: No dish is as Spanish as a creamy flan. But hers is made with oranges, almonds and sugar, with no cream or condensed milk that would keep it from sharing a kosher table with meat...
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I am currently in Barcelona eating as much ham as I can before leaving on Sunday. In between porcine bites, I sometimes venture into places like supermarkets just to see what a supermarket in Barcelona looks and feels like. Last evening, marching down the snack aisle, I came across two kinds of Lay's potato chip bags with a drawing of what looks like a chef. I pick the bag up and discover it is none other than Ferran Adriá of El Bulli fame, the man often described as the greatest chef in the world and the man who moved foam from the shaving kit to the dinner plate. Lay's is putting out a line of Ferran Adria "Artesanas" potato chips....
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After three days in Barcelona, my family thinks I am going to turn into a ham. Not just any ham, but a jamón de bellota, made from the famous acorn-fed black-footed (pata negra) Spanish pigs. In three days here, I have bought five different kinds of ham and ordered it for breakfast, lunch, or dinner in some form. Every morning, I go to the Boqueria and inspect the wares of the many ham vendors found at this wondrous market, which is every bit as great as advertised. I ask everyone I meet there where they buy their ham. Not many people speak English, and my Spanish and Catalan are nonexistent, so I don't really glean very much useful information from...
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Sheryl Cababa of Crispy Waffle visited the Canary Islands recently and shared her favorite culinary souvenir: The food preparation that most captured our attention was mojo. Not mojo like Austin Powers, but mojo-- pronounced 'mo-ho'-- as in a sauce. It is basically the Romesco sauce of the Canaries, and comes in different incarnations: red mojo (the most common), green mojo, goat cheese mojo, etc. It is apparently used on nearly everything, but most commonly found on papas arrugadas, or 'wrinkled potatoes'. These are small potatoes boiled in their skins in sea water then cooked dry until they gain a wrinkly appearance. Mojo is then poured on top and it is served as the most common tapa in the Canaries. I...
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The Spanish company Pateria de Sousa produces a foie gras called Ganso Iberico, which they're marketing as an ethical foie gras because they avoid "the process known as la gavage - force-feeding birds with grain by using a metal tube - by allowing geese to stock up on extra food naturally in preparation for their normal winter migration to Africa. They are slaughtered once they have fattened themselves for their expected long flight south." Ganso Iberico is only produced once a year because of migration, and is even more expensive than traditional foie gras, which costs £10 to its £16 for just 2½oz (70g). Interesting factoid thrown out in the article: "Although the production of foie gras is banned in...
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