Month: November 2021

Vegans, Vegetarians, Ecologists… I’m Extremely Sorry…

It sounds kind of eerie to start this last blog post apologizing, but I feel like I have to. As I said in the title, I’m extremely sorry to all the vegans, vegetarians, and ecologists of the world, yet I just can’t help but feel that meat, specifically beef, is the best possible gastronomical experience one can be submerged into. Throughout the course of the last 10 weeks, I’ve given you just a slight overview of what my culinary passions are. And the obvious reality is that I left many out. 10 blog posts are not enough to talk about the wonderful and complex world of food. The only thing that I had for certain, however, was that this was going to be my last post, in some sort of emotional final tribute to gastronomy. And when it comes down to feeling pleasure when eating, nothing beats a quality steak or any other meat product, to be honest.

Every time I get the question of what my favorite food or restaurant is, my answer is always the same: I don’t know. There are many things I like. And although this is 100% true, if I would give an answer other than the ambiguous I don’t know, it would definitely be related to meat. Steak, Spanish ham, Steak Tartare, Carpaccio… there’s an infinite number of possible dishes that stem from a high-quality meat product, and I absolutely enjoy all of them.

Thinking about the best culinary experiences of my life, there’s one that always stands out above all others. That is when my family and I visited the, at the time, considered to best meat restaurant in the world. The place is called El Capricho and it’s located in the vast plains of northeastern Spain where their amazing “army” of beef cattle rest. The restaurant lies in submerged chilly underground of the Spanish fields in what in the past was a small winery. That day, I had the privilege of eating one of the best steaks I’ve ever had in my life (see the photo I took right below). The meat came from one of the exclusive old-aged cows the restaurant owned and as soon as we took the first bites we could feel the intensity of the flavor due to this. Eating this steak, cooked “bloody” (it’s not even an option there; it always comes rare), was like eating pure butter for how tender it was. It had everything a great steak has to have: excellent texture, intense and leveraged flavors, and an absolutely perfect cooking point.

Steaks like this one are definitely unique gastronomical experiences to have, and they’re certainly the food with which I enjoy eating the most, but meat embraces much more than just these “cuts.” A well-condimented steak tartare made with quality meat is also another highlighted dish at any good restaurant. At El Capricho it looks just as shown on the image at the right. And, now that my journey in the blog world is coming to an end, I want to mention how important Spanish ham is for me as my final remarks. Spanish ham, not Italian prosciutto, not regular supermarket ham, but rather Spanish ham is without a doubt one of the best things from my country and is also one of the best meat products in the world. The taste of just the thinnest of the slices, has such a powerful yet perfectly balanced taste, that it renders it unique from any other food you could possibly think off. And when you start to think about the care received by the special breeds of pigs that provide us with this magical product, you even appreciate it more. As I’m literally out of words to describe how Spanish ham tastes like or feels like, I’ll just leave you with a photo and let your imagination write the last sentences of my blog.

TED Talk Reflection and Unit 3 Ideas

Looking back at my TED Talk, the first thing I can say is that my performance is exactly what I was looking for. One of the things I “feared” most about doing this assignment was that it could end up being more of a speech than an actual TED Talk, so I think that I made key decisions throughout the nearly six minutes I talked for in order to make my speech stand out as a TED Talk. The most notable one was to frame the whole issue with the cigarette as a battle/war between two armies: the anti-tobacco movement and the cigarette. I feel this was efficient in both conveying the ideas I wanted, and also captivating the audience in a more casual way, which I feel is what TED Talks are all about. Another thing I feel I did strongly was providing adequate pieces of evidence at the necessary times in order to enrich my argument. Overall, the performance was solid and met my personal expectations. Something to work on for next time would be timing. Knowing which key information to talk about and which less important one to leave out. I felt that perhaps I included a little bit too much information that wasn’t vital to support my arguments.

One of the ideas that initially came to mind when thinking about a public controversy was the bizarre question of what the longest river in the world is. Or, in a similar fashion, what the longest coastline is. Focusing on the former, though, this controversy which obviously lays basis on facts is extremely interesting to explore. How can we say for certain, in mathematical and geographical standards, which is the longest river in the world? The reason why this idea came to my mind too, because, yes, it’s kind of a weird proposal, is because it really surprises me how governments fight each other for the title of having the longest river in the world. There have been many political disputes between Egypt and Brazil, which are the home countries to the Amazon and the Nile rivers, just to see who “possessed” the longest of the two. I feel it would be interesting to investigate the geopolitical advantages having the longest river in the world yields, or simply explore why would countries fight over this factual controversy.

Fruit Fairytales

Since the beginning of my blogging quest I had already planned what the two last posts would look like. In them I would be discussing two of my greatest culinary passions; goodies that I consume 0n a daily basis to satisfy my daily “dopamine level requirement,” in the hypothetical case this were a reality. I know, it may sound bizarre that I feel such high levels of pleasure from eating something, but it’s an uncontrollable response from my body. I love food so much, that all of my senses are boosted whenever I consume something I really like, and my goal is to tell you in these last two posts what are those things that especially satisfy my dopamine thirst. One of them is fruit. For the other you’ll have to wait for next week.

Fruits are a fundamental part of not only my nutritional health, but also my mental and phyiscal wellbeing. Whenever I consume fruits, especially quality ones, I feel like if I were drinking a magic potion that automatically boosts my attitude and both mental and physical strength. It might be scary to say this, but my daily mood is usually highly dependant on the fruit I’ve consumed in a 24-hour stretch. Now that I’ve reveleaded the almost medicinal effects consuming fruit has on me, I’ll unveil what my favorites are. The ones that maximize my physical and mental wellbeing as well as my attitude. Having lived my entire life in the mild Mediterranean climate of northeastern Spain, I’ve grown with the tastes of fruits such as the European peach, cherries, grapes, and the so-called Santa Claus Melon. Over the years the taste of these fruits has perfectly bonded with my culinary tastes, thereby rendering them the fruits with which I cherish the most.

From among those four great fruits I’ve listed above, the peach perhaps has to be considered my soft spot. I absolutely love peaches. In any color, shape, or form, this fruit has become one of the highlights of the summer season for me. Taking a bite into the sweet flesh of a peach skyrockets my dopamine level off the charts as well as creates a very strong sense of nostalgia in me. This fruit was also my grandfather’s favorite, and from the moment he moved from Italy to settle in Spain

up to the moment of his passing away, he always had a couple of peach trees in his lush garden. The amount of time I spent in my infant years with him taking care of those trees or simply sitting under them with a freshly-picked peach in our hands, is a treasure I hold with a golden lock in my memory. Peaches are a synonymous of home and happiness on warm summer days where their sweet juice is even more refreshing than water itself.

Grapes, cherries and melon are all fruits with exceptional varieties in the Mediterranean and in case of cherries, for instance, in Spain. Spending a May afternoon in a terrace in the city of Barcelona with a good bowl of cold red-wine cherries that bleed as soon as you bite into them, is another of my greatest culinary pleasures. Or what about concluding a Summer meal under a pergola with a potent sugary flavor of a Santa Claus Spanish melon. Simply irresistible… And fruits are so magical that you can make fairytale desserts with them. Like I’ve mentioned on countless occasions throughout these weeks, modern cuisine has its roots in tradition and good products, and sometimes fruits are simply the best “natural” goodies we have.