Fideau en Toga!

Tuesday, August 18th

Sus and I left Javea on Monday and drove about an hour or so back North to Valencia. She actually lives in a town called Sagunto that is about 20 minutes north of Valencia. Sagunto is an ancient town that was established during the 5th century BC so it is pretty cool.

We arrived and had lunch with her mom. It was the first of many incredible meals. Really, I can't talk enough about how good of a cook both Susana and her mom are. Susana is for sure, without a doubt the best cook I have ever met who is my age. Actually she is the best cook I have ever met of any age with the exception of my grandmother. She turns cooking into an art creating her own inventions of food, using anything, improvising anything, all with the same result: blissfully divine food. I would rather eat something cooked by Susana than go to a restaurant any day. I could write the rest of this blog about every meal we have but I'll spare you all. I'll just sum it up to say that after a week of starving and eating crackers in Madrid, I am eating well. And learning a lot. I actually excited to go back to my apartment in Madrid to try out all the things I have learned to make with Spanish food (I'm sure Jordan will also be very excited for my newly acquired Spanish cooking knowledge).

On Wednesday we met up with Susana's group of college friends to go to a town name Toga that is about an hour up in the mountains. It was such an amazing little town because it is extremely old and remote and tiny. The majority of the city streets were so narrow that you couldn't drive a car down them and all of the people in the town seemed to be right out of an old Spanish movie. I had a great time, especially because her friends were particularly friendly and welcoming. I felt so comfortable with them and within the first hour I felt as if I had been part of their group forever which was a blast. We at some delicious food cooked by one of the guys and then walked down to the river. It was the clearest river I had ever seen and was so refreshingly cool.

Sus and I with the road signs on the walk back from the river.

There were many colorful bottles hanging as decoration in the streets because the city had been celebrating some holidays.

The delicious Fideau that Pascual made. It had noodles and spices and all kinds of fresh seafood. It was soooo good! One of the best things I have eaten here (which I will probably say a lot because I have eaten all kinds of great food but really it was amazing)!

A few of us in the river.

We've spent the past few days mostly relaxing at Susana's house and taking it easy because I have been sick with allergies and a cold (I always seem to have health complications when I travel). Its been nice to be able to relax in such a comforting house. Today is Susana's mom's birthday so we have been cooking and preparing things all day. Last night, I made a cheeseball with my favorite recipe which my mom gave me and I tell you it is not such a simple thing that you can prepare in 15 minutes here. For example, you cannot find finely chopped pecans in a bag. No, I spent 30 minutes peeling them and chopping them myself. The same goes with crushed pineapple. I chopped it, crushed it and drained it rather than just opening that simple little 8.5 ounce can of crushed pineapple (and converting everything to grams was fun to, haha). And seasoned salt? Well that most certainly does not exist in Spain so I looked up a recipe to make it from scratch using 7 other ingredients. 2 hours later, at 4 a.m., I had my final cheeseball product. And the final taste is delicious. I'm very proud that I made it all from scratch but man does it make me appreciate the cooking luxuries I have at home. When I return in December I know exactly what my suitcases will be packed with...food.

The cheeseball was a big hit at the dinner and everyone kept asking me what it was called. I said "Well, we just call it a cheeseball" and they all decided to just call it "la comida americana" (the american food). So they would say, pass me the american food please, haha. I got several recipe requests so I am happy with my labors.