Pi Pi Pizza!

Pizza Roman style

Though most pizzas are not really weally healthy meals in themselves, they COULD be. Think about it - a thin crust (fast carbs), tomatoe sauce and veggies (slow carbs) and chicken/ham/meat (protein) topping plus some cheese ( fat, calcium and protein) - voilá, a complete and healthy meal. Add a salad and a glass of wine and no nutritionist can complain, surely?

Pizza Florentine style

In this spirit of health, I venture out, once in while, to a place nearby where they serve pizza with different toppings and you can choose as many combos as you fancy rather than having one type of pizza - the thought of eating one type of pizza has never ever appealed to me - what if I order a whole pizza and I don't like it? Argh! 

And so nice to have a few bitefuls when you are in between meals.. or travelling...

Slurrrrp

Little bites of heaven

White anchovy on toasted bread with tomatoe

Sometimes, you just want to eat something small, simple and fresh. Just a few bites, washed down with a good red or a light white. Think fresh, crunchy toasted bread, lightly rubbed with a juicy tomatoe and sprinkled with a slightly bitter virgin olive oil.....lay a firm fleshed white anchovy or 'boqueron' as they are called in Spain, sip a cool glass of white and mmmmmm....

Sirloin and padrón pepper on bread

Or how about a quickly grilled piece of sirloin with a possibly hot little pepper, dripping juices and blood...grrrrrowl- brings out the animal in me. Definitely with a red!

Foie gras with caramelised onions

And if you have had a particularly tough day, why not treat yourself to a few bites of pan fried foie gras with caramelised onions, coarse salt and chives, accompanied by a glass of bubbly?

The Squid Sandwich

Bocadillo de calamares, Casa Baranda, Madrid

A lot of people are squeamish about squid - it's those damn tentacles again! And again, like with octopus, all I can say is TRY IT! When fresh, squid too is firm and tastes divine and not fishy at all, just squidy- ahem. Madrid is a great place to start training your palate, especially if you wander around Plaza Mayor and manage to find one of those bars/restaurants selling this absolutely delish dish called 'Boccadillo de Calamares' or squid sandwich. Sounds odd, huh? 

There are a few versions but the basic way to make it is to get fresh squid or squid rings, dip in egg and flour and fry in olive oil, bung on good bread and chomp away. That is all there is to it! The version I love and would give my right arm for right now is the basic with some good ol ali-oli ( garlic mayonaise) - OMG! (am slobbering here...). I had an amazing version in Madrid recently (main photo), where the bread had been dyed black with squid ink- a delicious and MOST attractive sandwich!

In Zaragossa, they add spicy tomato sauce and mayonaise and garlic and call this sandwich the 'Bocadillo de Calamares bravos' or Brave Squid sandwich -lol! I can just picture a brave squid fighting with an octopus....

Eight legs

Modern take on a traditional dish, Ignicio, Barcelona Spain)

It is funny how people fear anything with more than 2 legs - spiders, krakens, centipedes, millipedes....octopus...rightly so, I guess; the more the legs, the more the ability to hurt you, right? But does that fear have to extend by becoming a fear or distaste for eating these? I have been told that tarantula is quite good, Kraken? who knows but I know for a fact that Octopus is SUB-LIME. When fresh and well cooked, it is firm and meaty. Agreed that those suckers can be slightly off putting but trust me, have a bite and you will see it doesn't bite back....har har.

Gato Negro, Santiago de Compostella (Spain)

The Galicians, those ancient fishermen with modern fame for their sea food, make one of the most famous octopus delicacies that I know of: Polbo á Feira/ Pulpo a la Gallega or Galician Octopus. Tis a traditional dish made with octopus boiled in a copper pot, then chopped and drizzled with olive oil and sprinkled with coarse salt and paprika, set in a wooden platter over boiled potatoes. The cooking is a bit laborious as the beast has to be dipped a few times in the boiling water ( to curl the tentacles), then boiled and then left in the hot water..I'd rather eat this dish in a restaurant, to be honest!

Meson David, Barcelona (Spain)

You are supposed to accompany this with a fresh young red but I have had it with a bowl of white wine and found it refreshingly light and wonderful. This dish is ideal for cold and blustery climes and once you get over your initial squeamishness about eating anything with suckers on it, you will be as in love with this dish as I am! Yum!

Obviously, there are many, many more eight legged recipes but I thought I would share one of my favourite ones with you :-) 

Here is a traditional recipe in a tea towel, that is ancient now:

Can you decipher the Spanish?

Unusual dumpling delight

Funny how most restaurants, be they Chinese, Japanese, Mexican or whichever, try to outdo each other in how similar their menus can be. I prefer to leave these restaurants to their faithful flock and try new places or dishes and follow Star Trek's vision, "to explore strange new (foods), to seek out new (dishes) and new (restaurants), to boldly go where no (cowardly) one has gone before. Oops, sorry Ye Trekkies but shhhhhh, I am a trekkie too so am allowed!

The above is a meatball dumpling which has been covered in glutinous rice and steamed. Absolutely delicious and definitely to be tried out at home. 

Quackkkkk

Pan fried duck, France

There comes a point when you get sick of eating chicken, beef and pork...your tastebuds, if they were an emoticon, would go like this 😖 This is when my heart desires duck or venison and then settles on duck as more easily available. That meaty, gamey taste is just so amazing and I would have it more often but organic duck seems impossible to find. 

Crispy duck, Bratislava, Slovakia

The Chinese make amazing crispy duck - the Chinese make pretty amazing everything, let's be honest - their cuisine is their all time most popular export, isn't it? and to reason. 

Duck Teriyaki, Nanayo, Barcelona

The Japanese are not far behind with the above version of duck teriyaki.

Roasted duck, Casa G Krauss, Sighisoara, Romania

But this wee beastie is made flavourfully by many nations. Roasted in its skin and bathed in a wine and cream sauce, tis heavenly too

Duck with mushrooms, La Palmera, Barcelona, Spain

And how about this delightful pan fried duck with seasonal mushrooms, in a port sauce? 

Somewhere in the catalan countryside, Spain

Add red wine reduction and oh my...

And lastly, with a berry sauce...

I WANT ME SOME DUCK NOW!

Some random beauties

The other day, I revisited a place I hadn't been to for ages, to order a tapa I hadn't eaten in ages but which had stayed in my head as THE tapa to eat. Tis called 'Pop a la brava' which translates as octopus on a 'brava', the 'brava' being the Spanish version of the English chip. You must like/love octopus to like this dish but even for those who don't like octopus, trust me, you will have an orgasm eating this. Imagine a firm and tender slice of octopus on a crunchy but tender piece of potatoe, with a spicy binding sauce in between. Yummmmmmm. Definitely worth the nearly 12€ you fork out for 6 bites of heaven.

Recently too, I had this yummy and wondrously stodgy 'tapa' of what the Spanish call 'Russian salad' but is unheard of in Russia. Boiled taters, boiled veg like carrot and peas plus lashings of mayo and there you have it, a dish to see you through any Siberian winter. Add a delicious cava and voilá!

I am not in general a fritter fan but once in a while, who can refuse hot and crispy fresh squid with an unctuous sour cream dip next to it, accompanied by my favourite summer rosé cava?