domingo, 28 de agosto de 2011

food

I have experienced so many things this weekend that summarizing them for a blog would take me ages - and it would not be interesting at all; instead of writing you something, I will just place a link.

I started dating And F some months ago, and since April we are a couple. One of the things we have in common is that we both enjoy cooking...and eating. With this link you can see things we hace eaten. We also plepared almost all dishes, with two exeptions: A magnificient kebab we got at Kent in Vienna and Georgian food we had at Karmelitermarkt, also in Vienna. The Photos from the Georgian food can be easily indetified: two pictures in which a glass with a green liquid appear (toothpaste-green). That was an estragon-flavoured soda from Georgia...looked from outer space, tasted weird and smelled like hell.

Here the pics, enjoy!

viernes, 12 de agosto de 2011

I want to be like mamá Bertha

On Tuesday, I was on the phone with my good colleague Sarah, with whom I have “the food conspiracy” project, and she suggested me to have dinner at Amacord, an typical Austrian restaurant. The restaurant was not far away, so I decided to give it a try.

The place was traditional Viennese (dark wood furniture, beiges walls, no music) and packed with people. I hesitated a while whether to stay or to have sushi at Kujiro instead. Kujiro is an excellent sushi bar, very small (7 seats) and the cooks and owners are Japanese.

I ordered the lamb osso buco with chanterelles and mashed potatoes. The last time I ate osso buco was about 6-7 years ago, and it was cooked especially for me by my lovely grandmother. She cooked the veal (not lamb) osso bucco in a soup with cabbage, carrots, zucchini, potatoes and cilantro. As she always does specially for me, she separated the bone’s marrow on a separate plate, so I could eat it with lime juice on a corn-tortilla.

I still remember the first time I had osso buco (called chamberete in Chihuahua) cooked by my granny. My sister and me had friends who stayed overnight and she made us osso buco tacos for dinner…it was delicious.

The lamb osso buco I had was heavy (I had to order two glasses of red wine - an excellent Zweigelt - and decided to walk home to support my digestion), but tasty. The portion was maybe too big for me, but the mashed potatoes were simply fantastic! I remembered that by mixing boiled potatoes, salt and butter you can get one of the best culinary inventions ever.

The best about Amacord were the memories that my meal triggered. Mamá Bertha, my grandmother, is a second mom for me, for my sister and for my brother…and also for all my cousins. She is always smiling and telling all of us how much she loves us.

Since I can remember, she takes medicated pills to control her blood pressure and her pain (arthritis), nevertheless she is never complaining. She is simply full of love. When I get old, I don’t want to be like the old people from my last blog, I want to be like mamá Bertha.

viernes, 5 de agosto de 2011

two old stubborn and intolerable ruffians

Last week I read an interview with Julia Fischer, a young German top violinist. She played and recorded several times under the direction of Russian/U.S. American conductor Yakov Kreizberg (who died recently this year at the age young age of 51).

In the interview Julia Fischer mentions that Kreizberg was stubborn, perfectionist and challenging person...just as Julia herself. Apparently, when both artists worked together, the sessions were hard, stressful and tense. Reason for this was the similitude in their rigid personalities.

Ms Fischer mentioned that Kreizberg's illness had a positive impact on his personality: Knowing he was going to die soon it made him softer. Kreizberg valued each time he could still conduct. Julia recalls that in his last days as a conductor, he turned more "flexible" and even tolerated mistakes when playing a concert.

Enough superstars, now back to my daily life in Innsbruck:

I cycle daily to work and each time I do something illegal: I ride my bike on the sidewalk for approximately 8 meters (from my house door until the corner). Those are like 5 seconds of illegal activity.

Two days ago, I cycled back home and when I reached the “illegal” corner an old man shouted at me because I was using the sidewalk. As a good Latino, I yelled him back.

Yesterday in the morning before going to work, I went to the postal office to drop a letter, and once more, I committed a traffic felony, but this time I was completely amazed by the angriness of an old lady. I never in my life saw an old woman swearing so loud on the street. She shouted Verdammt noch einmal which can translated as "damn it!", I yelled back saying that I only carefully drove 3 meters from the postal office til the corner, then, I continued cycling, but behind me, I could still hear the old woman barking.

It seemed like those two old people have been waiting days or weeks to explode, and yell and be offensive.

Julia Fischer said in her interview that giving birth to her son made her a more relaxed and tolerable human being, just as happened with Kreizberg by knowing he was going to die soon.

But really, what kind of bastard you have to be all your life, so that even if you have experienced the love of a child and years later, know that you will die, you are still an old stubborn and intolerable ruffian?