Seasonal Eating

The Spanish, like the Chinese, appear to shop for produce every day or two.  Perhaps it is because we live in a city with grocery stores on every corner and apartments often lacking elevators, but I am always the only one in the market with an overflowing cart full of food.   Most people place only a few items on the conveyor belt at a time.  I know it is better that food doesn't sit around in the refrigerator forever growing bacteria and losing nutrients and flavor.  I haven't seen a single Costco-style buy-in-bulk store here.  I believe in harvesting when ripe, keeping transportation to a minimum, and eating what is in season (although I absolutely need to have tomatoes available year-round).  I like that in the grocery store I go to there are signs indicating the origin of each item, and the majority of the produce is from Catalunya.  True, there are bananas from The Canary Islands, and mangos, pineapples, and avocados from Latin America, but by and large, the food is local.  This is possible because like California,  Catalunya is blessed with a climate which supports a wide variety of agriculture.  Outside of Catalunya, the produce I've encountered is not as fresh nor as local.  Here are some recollections of various seasonal foods we enjoyed in our first year here.

October brought chestnuts, or castañas.  Instead of Halloween, the Catalans celebrate La Castanyada on All Saint's Day.  On this night, families get together and eat panallets (cookies made of almond flour with pine nuts on top), roasted chestnuts, and roasted sweet potatoes (moniato).  The sweet potatoes and chestnuts are often roasted and sold by street vendors, and their warm, hearty sweetness is wonderful on a chilly fall evening.

We went into the mountains to look for chestnuts, which grow on tall deciduous trees, and are encased in a deadly spiny coat.  When they fall from a tree they can do serious damage, as we witnessed when a friend climbed one and then shook the tree to make the nuts fall.  He warned those below, but his son did not heed the warning and was hit squarely on the back by falling chestnuts.  When he took off his shirt we could see that the spines had penetrated his shirt and were stuck in his skin, and he had red welts around them.  These things were so pokey that we could not safely gather them with bare hands. The safest way to open them is by stepping on them with a very thick-soled shoe.  In Spanish, a castañazo is a hard blow, and now we know where that word derives from.

I looks like a sea urchin, and is just as dangerous!

November was mushroom season-- bright yellow-orange chanterelles (rossinyols in Catalan), orangey-brown rovellones, black trumpets, and many others I didn't learn the names of.  I had always wanted to go mushroom hunting, but knowing that it can be a dangerous avocation, I had never had the chance to do it.   Catalans are so into mushroom hunting, that there is a hit TV show about it. Mushrooms need to be hunted for a few days after rain, when the temperature is not too cold nor too warm.  Some local friends took us into the woods and for the first hour we found absolutely nothing.  In fact I got trapped in a viscous bramble and barely escaped with my life.  I figured we weren't going to find anything. But THEN...

We figured out how to find them hiding in the tall dried grass, and we gathered a large basketful!  It was awesome.  Even Trevor, who won't touch a mushroom to his lips, had fun finding them.  I think it tapped into our prehistoric gatherer instincts.  

December through March is citrus season, and those famous Valencia oranges are everywhere.  There are countless varieties of tangerines as well, and each variety is labeled.  Some are larger, some seedless, some sweeter, some more juicy, others more tart.  We enjoyed fresh squeezed orange juice daily.  Here is a recipe for a simple but fantastic salad containing oranges, red onions, olives, and mint (sounds weird but it's to die for)!

4 large oranges, peeled and sliced

1 small red onion into thin rings

4 tablespoons olive oil

1-2 tablespoons sherry vinegar

1 tablespoon honey

1 tablespoon finely chopped mint

50 g of olives

salt and freshly ground pepper

1. Arrange orange slices and onion rings in a large platter with olives on top.

2. Mix in a jar or blender oil, vinegar, honey and chopped mint. Season to taste. Pour over the oranges and let stand 1 hour in the refrigerator.  

January-March is the season of calçots, a type of mild bulb-less onion which is grown like a leek with earth mounded up as it grows so that the bottom portion is kept pale and tender.  During this time of year, the weather is warming and people throw big barbecues called calçotadas where these wonderful onions are consumed in large quantities.  Grapevines cuttings which are byproducts of winter pruning are used to build a roaring open fire.  The calçots are then roasted, unwashed,  in the fire until they turn black on the outside and are soft on the inside.  They are wrapped in newspaper to keep them warm until served.  

 

Each family has their closely guarded recipe for the dipping sauce, known as romesco, which is made from olive oil, ground almonds, garlic, tomato, vinegar, and red peppers.  You grasp the calçot on the green top with one hand, and pull down with the other hand so that the burnt outer layer sloughs off, and you throw it away.  What you have left looks vaguely like a dangling, limp, banana slug.  Dip your roasted slug into the sauce and then eat it.  It's sweet and kind of slides down your throat.  Delicious!  Half the fun is how black your hands get.  

February-April is strawberry season.  I didn't know that Spain is the world's largest strawberry exporter, and that Huelva (down south) is the epicenter of production.  The strawberries here are sweet and not too acidic.  Our favorite way to eat them is dipped in dark chocolate, but they are also fantastic with lemon yogurt.  

March - May is artichoke and asparagus season.  The artichokes here are gigantic, plentiful, and cheap, and Spain is the number 3 producer in Europe.  Catalans like them sprinkled liberally with salt and olive oil, and roasted in the ashes of the fire (or in the oven) until they are quite shriveled looking.  Because they are rather woody, it does take about an hour to cook them through.  One can also find wild asparagus growing in the woods, and it has a spicier flavor.  

June-September is stone fruit time:  first cherries (June-July), then apricots, plums, nectarines, and peaches.  What can I say... tree-ripened stone fruit is amazing.  

July - September brings delicious melons!  There is nothing better on a hot summer day than the crisp, juicy sweetness of watermelon.  They are rarely powdery and 95% of the time sweet and crunchy.  My personal favorite are these pictured below, which have light yellow flesh and are similar to a honeydew, but sweeter and melt-in-your-mouth heaven.  They look ugly on the outside-- dark green and rough with lots of crackled scars, and a very hard, tough rind.  I have never been a melon person, as sometimes they make my mouth itch if I eat too much, but I have fallen in love with these melons.

Looking forward to discovering new foods during our second year!  I know there is a season for snails, and yet I don't think I can do it...

Religion in Spain

Everyone knows that Spain is a Catholic country.  Everywhere you turn there are churches, grand cathedrals, and monasteries.  Every other street, holiday, and person is named for a saint.  Yet in the year we have been here, we have met almost no families here that regularly attend church, or that seem at all religious.  One family we know mentioned going to church on Easter, and another family's son attended Catechism classes.  But other than that, nothing.

 According to an February 2013 study by the Spanish Center of Sociological Research, about 70.5% of Spaniards self-identify as Catholics, 3.1% other faith, and about 24.1% identify with no religion.^[2]   Most of these present-dayCatholics only attend services a few times a year.  It used to be that becoming a priest was an excellent career move and brought prestige to the family.  It guaranteed a high level of education, a good salary, and high social standing.  However, the number of priests and nuns in the country has been declining steadily for years.  What an incredible reversal of history!  How did this come to pass, I wondered.  Well, here's what I've found out...

The Catholic Church in Spain was incredibly powerful in the Middle Ages-- unfortunately often corrupt and oppressive.  It concentrated its wealth and power along with the feudal nobility, and together they ruled the populace with an iron fist. The country we now think of as Spain began with the Christian Reconquest of the Iberian peninsula (from the Moors in 1492) under Ferdinand and Isabel, who are called The Christian Monarchs.  Jews, Muslims, and people of any other religion were forced to convert or literally driven out of the country a few months later that year.   The Spanish Inquisition was notoriously brutal in their persecution of heretics for over 300 years.  Spanish missionaries voyaged to all corners of the New World just one step behind the Conquistadors.  Christianity and political power in Spain were inextricably intertwined for centuries. 

By the early 20th century, the long-suffering underclasses began to become swayed by the anti-religious ideologies of Communism and Anarchism.  During the Spanish Civil War between 1930-35, hundreds of churches were sacked and burned by the working class revolutionaries, and some 7000 priests were killed.  The Catholic Church supported Franco and his brutal dictatorship, and I think the Spanish people have never quite forgiven them for it.  During the 39 years of Franco's dictatorship, Roman Catholicism was the only religion to have legal status; other worship services could not be advertised, and only the Catholic Church could own property or publish books. The Government not only continued to pay priests' salaries and to subsidize the Church, but it also assisted in the reconstruction of church buildings damaged by the war. Laws were passed abolishing divorce and civil marriages as well as banning abortion and the sale of contraceptives. Homosexuality was banned. Catholic religious instruction was mandatory, even in public schools. 

When the dictator died in 1975, the country underwent radical social changes, which included rejection of the religion which had been shoved down their throats for so long.  Religious freedom was declared, the democratic government was secularized, and church subsidies gradually phased out.  Divorce and contraception are legal and not stigmatized. 

In 2005 Spain became the third european country to legalize gay marriage.   It is not uncommon for people not to marry-- to have children and live together for years, and it does not seem to scandalize anyone.  If you walk down the beach you will discover plenty of uncovered breasts, and in some areas complete nudity, and no one seems to bat an eyelash.  This is no longer a socially conservative place!

Obviously Spaniards are proud of their glorious cathedrals.  On Palm Sunday people still buy palm leaves to take to mass and to decorate their houses with.

An intricately braided palm frond for Palm Sunday.

Especially in the south, religious feeling runs deeper.  During Easter week (known as Holy Week or Semana Santa) we traveled to Cordoba in Andalusia to view the processions.  They take over the entire town, blocking roads every day for hours.  Each church has it's own elaborate parade float featuring images of the Virgin or Jesus Christ on the cross, illuminated by hundreds of candles and decorated with flowers.  These gigantic floats are carried by 10 or more devout church members who are hidden beneath a cloth covering.  It seems as though the entire town must participate, young and old.  Large marching bands playing solemn dirges heavy with trumpets and drums were comprised of both students and adults.  Both adolescents and church elders walked with gigantic candles wearing robes and tall, pointed hood/masks, which look to American eyes like KKK outfits.  Women wearing black dresses and lacy veils walk behind, singing mournfully.  Traditions like these are still deeply ingrained in Spanish culture.

However, on a recent tour, our Spanish guide commented that nowadays it is the Latino immigrants who are the ardent, conservative churchgoers.  How ironic that the Spanish brought Catholicism to the New World, and now it's they who are keeping Catholicism alive in Spain.

Germany

July was sweltering in Barcelona (consistently in the mid-eighties and humid).  And because we are on the top floor of our apartment building, just under the sun-baked terra cotta terrace, it didn't cool down much at night.  Thank goodness we had air conditioning in two rooms-- the children's bedroom and the living/dining area.  Mark and I spent the majority of summer nights on the sofa bed, and the four of us have spent many days huddled in our one cool room with the curtains drawn and the AC blasting.  When we had to leave our refuge for food, we were hit with a heavy wave of withering heat.  For our summer holiday we sought respite in a slightly cooler climate.  In addition, we wanted to experience a culture, language, and architecture completely different from Spain's.  Mark has some German ancestry, we'd never been there, and we wanted to visit some friends who were spending the year abroad in Berlin, so off we went.

The kids were surprised to learn that they were part German!  We have spent so many years building their Chinese identities and learning Spanish, that we never really talked about the Scotch-Irish and German bits!  Their Dutch heritage is obvious from the Van Haren surname. Actually, we just found out that in fact some of their German-speaking ancestors are from what is now the Czech Republic, near the southern border of Germany.

 

Every European capital needs their triumphal arch and their cathedral.  

Language

Mark dedicated a solid three weeks to learning German, and thank goodness he did, because fewer people spoke English than I had expected.  When we went to Holland, EVERYONE spoke English impressively well.  My linguistic nerd husband found German a bit challenging, in part due to its nominal declension, which neither English nor Spanish have.  He also reported that in German there are THREE genders, which is even worse than Spanish's two.  German is an agglutinative language, which means many words are very long, because they are made up of many different word parts stuck together.  If you know how to break them up it can be fun to figure out the various parts, but it can be hard to remember the names of streets when they are so darned long. Was it Kufürstendam or Kufürstenstrasse?

I, on the other hand, made zero effort to learn German and proceeded to mispronounce just about everything.  Coming from Hawaii, I had NO exposure to German growing up.  How was I to know that the S is pronounced as a Z and that CH sounds like CK, or that EI sounds like I while IE sounds like E?? Wisconsin boy, on the other hand, encountered the surnames of people he knew growing up in his hometown on trucks, signs, and billboards everywhere.  "Gutknicht!  Laube! " He kept exclaiming.

Because German uses the same alphabet as English, it seems like we ought to be able to understand it, but I felt very clueless.  Over the course of two weeks I am ashamed to say I only learned how to count to three.  There was an amazing farmer's market near the house we stayed in, and I confidently stepped forward to buy some beautiful fruit, but then I was hit with a wave of helplessness when I opened my mouth and realized I had no idea where to begin.  Luckily, in Berlin most people seemed to understand English.

I also have to admit that to my ear the language sounds somewhat laughable. Between the weird vowels like ü and ö, and the multiple consonants like "ckt" and "schl," I thought everything sounded either dirty or silly. 

People

Germans are definitely blonder than the Spanish, taller, and built stockier.  Berliners smoke a lot less, and they dress casually in a nondescript fashion.   They do not smile very easily in general.  Some friends of ours are half-Spanish and half-German, and they told us that there are huge differences in character between the Germans and the Spanish.  The former  being more serious, disciplined and unfailingly punctual, whilst the latter just the opposite.  We found these stereotypes to be generally true.  For example, Germans almost never jaywalk, whereas it is the rule in Barcelona. They also do not hesitate to reprimand total strangers who are not toeing the line.  Our friend Nicholas, who spent the last year in Berlin on a fellowship with this wife and two children, related this story:  He was with his kids on a sunday morning, with no cars to be seen.   The pedestrian signal was red.  A man began crossing from the opposite direction, walking towards them, so Nick followed suit, holding his children's hands and making sure no cars were approaching.  The man then proceeded to scold Nick for jaywalking, and when Nick indignantly pointed out that he was doing exactly the same thing, the man replied, "I am jaywalking, but YOU are setting a bad example!"  We have heard that the Swiss are equally rule-abiding and uptight.  But on the positive side, they are reputed to be genuine and direct, whereas some of the Spanish warmth could be considered a bit fake.  But generally they seem to be a reserved people.

Although Berlin is full of immigrants, mostly Turks, it is still a fairly homogenous place, and our bi-racial family got a good number of stares.  It seems that staring is not considered rude in Germany, nor in Spain.  At the sidewalk cafes, I thought it strange to see the first row of chairs facing the street, as opposed to facing each other, so that people could literally ogle people walking on the street as entertainment.

Interestingly, the Germans seem quite relaxed about nudity.  We spent a hot summer day at a local lake, where, especially amongst people over 40, toplessness or complete nudity seemed the norm.  It doesn't bother me, and the kids didn't seem fazed, either.  How many naturists can you spot in the photo below?

Physical Environment

Berlin was the capital city of Germany for a time, and thus has its share of grand buildings, very similar in style to those of Washington DC, with thick, heavy pillars, neoclassical balustrades, and domes.  Not as graceful and elegant as Paris, nor as whimsical and ornate as Barcelona.  But sturdy looking, and generally without balconies (which makes sense given the climate). World War II devastated the city, and the Cold War followed, and therefore the architecture of many of the buildings are modern, functional, and rather unattractive.  Graffiti is rampant.  However, I appreciated the abundance of trees and green spaces sprinkled throughout the city, which is a contrast to arid Spain.  Barcelona is much more densely populated.  In comparison, Berlin felt like a giant suburb-- sprawling and flat. There is a huge park, the Tiergarten, which used to be the royal hunting grounds, in the center of the city, and we biked through it almost every day.  The kids loved the shady allées and spotting wild bunnies at dusk.

Germany is of course the home of the Protestant Reformation, and therefore there were both Catholic and Protestant churches.  The churches here look very different from those in Spain.  Most of them are made of red brick, with steep spires.  I thought them quite handsome, and the brick construction made Mark feel as though he was in the midwest.

We were lucky to be able to use the bicycles of our home exchange partners, because the city is fantastic for bikers .  Bike lanes are literally everywhere, clearly marked with their own stoplights.  We only rode the U and S-bahns three times in two weeks.  As in Holland, people really bicycle a lot, and we did not observe any traffic jams at all.  The sky was blue and the air quality was very good.  Granted, we were there during the best time of the year, and our friends reported that the winter was far to long and grey for their liking.

Germany wins our prize for abundance and quality of city parks.  Everywhere we turned there were parks for children, and each one had a unique and creative play structure, many utilizing natural materials, such as logs and ropes.  Every apartment building of decent size is required to have its own play area, which I think is brilliant for families with young children.  The place we stayed at had a sandbox, fort, garden, and bunnies.  Our friends' apartment had a communal trampoline.  The public parks have features which wouldn't fly in the US due to liability concerns, such as an area with an abundance of heavy 6 foot logs which the kids could construct with freely!





Germans seem to like flowers. Farmer's markets are popular, and there are lots of fresh flowers available.  Unlike Spanish or American flower arrangements, they seem to like a more natural, wild aesthetic.  Our apartment had fresh flowers in the entryway, and a neighbor left a vase of flowers at our door one day.  The parks are well-kept, but again, they are not carefully pruned in the English or French manner, but rather left natural and casual.  But whereas Barcelona has almost no grass to speak of, Berlin has plenty.


The assortment of berries in the market was astounding. We tried fresh currants and gooseberries for the first time.

History

European history did not interest me in the least in high school.  Growing up in Hawaii and being of Chinese descent, we always looked to Asia, and the Old World of dead white men seemed distant and irrelevant to me.  I couldn't tell a Prussian from a Russian.  What language do they speak in Belgium, Belgian?  Do they speak Dutch in Deutchland?  Of course I have a different view now, and being able to travel in Europe this year really helps me to recognize the differences and similarities between the many countries of this continent.  I hope these travels will do the same for my kids, and the memories of these places will be a foundation on which they can build in the future.

Strange to think that Germany, Spain, Holland, and many other countries were at one point all one  realm under Carlos II, a Hapsburg.  Here we see the crests of all the Spanish kingdoms in the center  circle, and the other European kingdoms which comprised his domain on the sides.


Berlin has a good amount of dark history-- the Nazis, concentration camps, the SS, the Berlin Wall... Some may be surprised that we took our 8 and 10 year-olds to Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp.  But Mark and I firmly believe that History and Truth are of dire importance.  It's probably good that they are too young to really fathom the horrors of the Holocaust, but we want them to understand the causes, so that they know that human beings are capable of terrible things when their minds are controlled by others.  We want them to recognize injustice, so that they can stand against it in their daily lives.  We want them to realize the importance of freedom of the press, freedom of speech, and democracy.  I think Zoe understands now how propaganda works, and how societies use scapegoats.  Trevor may not fully grasp these ideas, but he has been introduced to them, and I think he'll be able to connect the dots later.




     A striking monument to the Holocaust victims.

The Berlin Wall was a huge scar on the country.  So many lives lost.  It's hard to imagine how I would have reacted if something like that had occurred in my country.  Imagine peering across that deadly strip of no-man's land, with freedom on the other side of the far wall...

Mark and I were young adults when the Wall fell.  Since the Cold War loomed so large in our childhoods, it was interesting to visit for the first time part of the Soviet bloc and learn about life under Communism.

Now the wall is an inspiring symbol of freedom.  

Checkpoint Charlie is a kitschy sideshow now, but we had to see where East Germany used to meet West Germany.

 

Templehof Airfield is no longer in use, so it has been opened up as a park.  It is the site of the Berlin Airlift, a tense moment during the Cold War when the Soviets tried to blockade West Berlin but the US under JFK flew in supplies for over a year.




Sights
 

The Pergamon Museum was absolutely amazing.  These ceramic tiles are originals from the Ishtar Gate in Babylon, built in 575 BC.  And the carvings on the Pergamon Altar are mind-blowing.

Potsdam is where the Prussian royalty such as Frederich II built sumptuous rococo palaces.  Although the gilded, ornate style is not to my taste, we appreciated the craftsmanship and fine works of art.  There must have been hundreds of naked baby statues adorning the palaces.

The Reichstag building is where the German Parliament meets.  When it was set on fire in 1933 the Nazis used it as an excuse to seize power.  Architect Sir Norman Foster designed a fantastic Star-Wars-inspired dome which sits on top of the historic building.

Outside the City


     We rented a VW and cruised the autobahn for a couple of days.

Quedlinburg is one of the best-preserved medieval and renaissance towns in Europe, having escaped major damage in World War II.  This type of half-timbered construction was brought over from England, and some of these buildings date back to the 1500s.  It was very, very quaint.

 In Wernigerode there is a fairytale castle which reminded the kids of Harry Potter's Hogwarts.  The art nouveau chapel was the most beautiful I've ever seen, and the grand dining room truly impressive.  It was nice to get into the countryside a bit.

Once upon a time...

Conspicuous wealth.  

What a view over the fiefdom!

Dresden was leveled by Allied bombs during World War II, and has been lovingly restored to its former grandeur.

The Zwinger.  That's fun to say!

This communist-era building definitely stood in contrast to the palaces next to it. 

The Green Vault museum holds insane treasures--  elaborately carved ivory, gigantic diamonds, ostrich eggs and nautilus shells turned into animals...

Cuisine
There were plenty of vegetarian and vegan restaurants and options in Berlin, which was wonderful.  Unlike in Barcelona, good, cheap Thai and Vietnamese food was easy to find, and we took advantage of that.  Portions are larger in Germany than in Spain, and the people are larger as well.  The beers are enormous, and so are the sausages.

We very much enjoyed Berlin and are eager to also visit Bavaria sometime. The family with whom we did the home exchange were warm and generous, and it was a wonderful trip.