Category: Travel

Gastronomic Valencia: Part 1

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CENTRAL MARKET & CATHEDRAL

We’re on a gastronomic tour of Valencia, Spain, and the surrounding region.  Valencia is the third largest city in Spain and, as many know, famous for Valencia oranges.  It’s also a center for some very innovative cuisine, bringing influences from Italy and the Arab world together with the richness of the local ingredients.  Our group of 23 people consists of seven Americans, seven Brits, three Canadians, two Aussies, two from Hong Kong, along with our Dutch-born lecturer and the British tour manager.  Diverse geographically and all very congenial.

We flew together from London and spent the first full day with noted chef Ricard Camarena.  First off was a trip to market with the chef to buy the ingredients for the lunch he was going to prepare for us.  The central market in Valencia dates from the beginning of the 20th century and has a somewhat colorful facade; inside it was sparkling clean.   dsc01281 I love markets of this type and just seeing all the produce, dried goods, meats and fish, for me is fun.  dsc01334But it was even more enjoyable to go with Ricard and follow him around as he carefully selected aubergines, mushrooms, mandarins,  tomatoes, and the like and negotiated with the venders.   dsc01299He believes in only using products from the market in his various restaurants.  While in the market, we stopped for a coffee (or freshly squeezed orange juice) at his coffee bar.  Everyone in the market knows him.

Before going to Senor Camarena’s lab, we had a brief tour of the Valencia cathedral which combines Romanesque, Gothic and Baroque elements.  Our lecturer doesn’t really lecture (fortunately), but provides informed comment with occasional bits of humor about specific aspects or highlights of a building or a work of art.  Just the right dose of facts to make us appreciate what we are seeing.

LAB & LUNCH

At the Ricard Camarena Lab we were treated to a cooking demonstration as Ricard made mini versions of the four dishes on our lunch menu.  Seated classroom style, we watched as he explained each ingredient and the steps involved.  His English was quite good, but Gijs, our lecturer, translated as needed and added in extra commentary.  We got to sniff and taste various bits along the way which made the whole process more interesting.

After an hour and a half or so, we decamped from the lab for wine and hors d’oeuvres while the lab was set up with a long table for lunch.  Lunch was both a taste adventure and an intellectual one as we ate the completed renditions of dishes we had followed every step of the way.  Shown here are two of the dishes we had:  smoked aubergine (eggplant) covered with a strip of tuna belly sitting on a bed of tuna rillette with capers and topped with three bits of tuna “bacon” and the dessert, a pumpkin waffle with pumpkin cream, pumpkin seeds and an oval of ginger ice cream.  Truly a treat and a very special experience, not available to us as individuals.  dsc01378 dsc01393

After this three hour extravaganza we returned to our hotel and later made a brief after hours visit to the museum of modern art for an exhibit entitled, “Lost in the City.”  If anyone needed it, dinner was on your own!  We had a few tapas in the hotel.

All photos copyright JWFarrington

Header photo:  Soup lined up for serving

UK: Dorset Details

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EXPLORING DORSET COUNTRYSIDE

We hadn’t seen these friends in almost ten years, but readily accepted their invitation to visit them in Dorset and stay overnight. We took the Southwest Train from Waterloo to Wareham and thus began a wonderful visit. R and S were relaxed hosts and we picked up as if we had just seen them last week!  dsc01162

Going to Dorset was a trip back in time. Small villages, narrow lanes bordered by hedges, historic stone churches, and open fields—heath and flood plain—backed by high ridges. Even the remains of Saxon walls and Corfe Castle which predates the Norman invasion of 1066. dsc01163 dsc01169

The first afternoon we walked a trail in a nearby national park at nearby Arne which was the essence of fall. Yellow to brown trees, leaves scattered on the woodsy path and eventually views of the islands in and around Poole harbor.  We rewarded ourselves after our long tramp with tea and hot chocolate.  dsc01171

Dinner was at a very old and historic pub, Scott Arms in Kingston.  Old and historic, but previously lacking business. Its new owners upped their game and the menu now strikes some Caribbean notes in addition to the more traditional pub fare—jerk flavored chicken, vegetables with goat cheese, and, scampi tail breaded and fried with chips and peas (the all-time favorite English vegetable, I think). All washed down with beer, cider, or even wine, if you must have it.

dsc01187The next morning we awoke to a crusty frost with all the garden trees and flowers thickly coated. I marveled at how lovely it all was, a bit like a fairy land, and quickly grabbed my camera to capture its beauty. I hadn’t seen frost like that in a decade!

CORFE CASTLE

Fortified with porridge, fruit, and orange whiskey marmalade, we ventured to Corfe and a walkabout around Corfe Castle.   It stands on a ridge and looms over the surrounding area. I was wearing all the layers I had with me and still found it chillydsc01240.  dsc01253 dsc01246

Lunch was at Clavell’s Café and Restaurant where we tucked into the vegetarian special for R and S (they eat healthily), a sausage and onion baguette for Greg, and a tasty cod, prawn and spinach puff pastry pie for me. Served, of course, with peas and chips.

KIMMERIDGE FOSSILS

This part of Dorset is not far inland from what is called the Jurassic Coast, the site of many notable fossil finds. One man, Steve Ketches, began collecting fossils as a young child and then continued to collect, focusing his efforts on the one location of Kimmeridge.   img_1271His impressive collection is now featured in a new small museum which opened just two weeks ago.  These are mostly marine specimens since they were found at the coast and they are most attractively displayed.  The labeling, done as someone might make handwritten notes, makes the information conveyed very accessible and seemingly informal. Shown here is part of an ichthyosaur fossil.

I should note that our friends are not only passionate about preserving their environment, but also keen long distance walkers, even competitors, hence all the walking we did with them.  They participate in 24 hour 100 mile races which take place around the world.  She is a record holder for her age group and has competed everywhere from Colorado to South Africa to this past spring, their home county of Dorset.  During that twenty-four hour period, you do any combination of walking, running or jogging with the goal of completing the one hundred miles well before the end of the time.

Note:  All photos copyright JWFarrington (some rights reserved)

UK: Town & Country

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This week we’ve seen two exhibits and made a short jaunt to visit friends in Dorset, Wareham to be specific.  We’re a short walk from the V&A Museum so that was an essential as was the featured exhibit at the Royal Academy.   Being in Dorset was being transported to another world, full of history and marked by heaths, ridges, flood plains, and even a castle.  Corfe Castle sitting high on a ridge in Corfe.  All lovely.

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FASHION AT THE V&A

The Victoria and Albert Museum has free exhibits and ones for which you must pay.  We decided to take advantage of one of the free ones.  It was a history of British fashion from about 1790 up through the ages to around 1970.  Mostly women’s clothing, but here and there examples of menswear.  It was fun to see the many layers women wore in the early years, so many that you wonder how ordinary women, as opposed to rich ones, could dress themselves.  Here are a few highlights that appealed to me.  You can probably guess which decade the later ones are from.img_1245 img_1246 img_1249

 

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ABSTRACT EXPRESSIONISM

The other exhibit we saw was “Abstract Expressionism” at the Royal Academy of Art, and it was superb!  A very detailed exploration of the movement with lots of attention paid to several of the biggest names, Gorky, Pollock, de Kooning and Rothko.  But also, we were introduced to Clyfford Still, an outsider in the movement whose work was really only seen by the public after his death in 1980.  The museum in Denver dedicated to his work owns ninety-five percent of it.  A westerner from North Dakota, his work shows the influence of those landscapes.  img_1285

I found the exhibit fascinating, appreciated Pollock’s work and impact in a new way, and loved the intimate display of seven of Rothko’s works in a smallish space–strange to say, I know, since the works themselves aren’t small.  But in this hanging, you can immerse yourself in the saturated color.  No photography allowed so I can’t share it with you, but, if you’re in London, do go!

Note:  All photos copyright JWFarrington (some rights reserved)

Loafing in London

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We arrived yesterday morning in London and powered through the day with lots of walking, one nap, and a respectable early bedtime.  Today we increased our step count exploring Knightsbridge (think Harrod’s Food Hall) and spending time in both Hyde Park and Green Park.  The rose garden was mostly over except for one or two last blooms.img_1194 img_1206img_1219

 

img_1216RECENT READING

The Latter Days by Judith Freeman
Continuing my reading of memoirs by writers and reporters, I read this one by novelist Judith Freeman. She was brought up in the Mormon faith, but strained against its strictures and rules from an early age. Certainly by her teen years, she was rebelling internally, being given talks by one of the church elders, and subjected to little chats with her mother who admonished her to behave more like her older sister, Marcia.

Somewhat surprisingly, Freeman married a local boy at seventeen, got pregnant very soon thereafter and surrendered any thought of college for herself. Later she and her husband moved from Utah to Minnesota and grew even farther away from the church.

Freeman’s memoir is straightforward and plain as she recounts a childhood starved of warmth and thin on material goods. I found some of the early chapters slow, but appreciated more her later discussion of the turquoise notebook she found from her high school years and how she was eventually able to quench her thirst for learning and channel her desire to become a writer. She has written several novels based on her Mormonism.

All photos copyright JWFarrington