Friends, Family & Catalan Food

Sat 23 & Sun 24 Feb
Since we had to visit our dentist in Glasgow (after 3-4 years of no check ups things were getting a bit urgent!) which is on the same road as my parents’ house, afterwards we popped in to see my family and stayed for lunch. As it was a Saturday the nephews had descended on mum and dad for their weekly dose of entertainment including pool, Xbox, computer games and DVDs. I ended up with Ruben on my lap watching Tom and Jerry which I never liked very much even as a child! I caught up with my sisters, admired Ruben and Dan’s new haircuts, Kate’s new car and Matthew’s increasingly longer hair while Michael did his PC advisor best on my dad’s and Sarah’s laptops. We had to leave in time to get back for a party in nearby Bridge of Allan at Roser’s flat.

Above: My nephew Danny aged 6 with new funky haircut in his favourite T-shirt.

Above: My wee sister Kate holding her youngest boy Ruben aged 3 1/2.

Roser is from near Barcelona in Catalonia and after Ailsa’s Burns Night the Catalans had promised to return the favour with a Catalan dinner party. In one of the photos you can see the Catalan chefs including Toni who is the winemaker who provided the amazing red wine at the last party.

Almost all the food was prepared from scratch which was pretty impressive-even the quince jelly! All the guests had been asked to bring wine or other drinks and so most people brought at least a couple of bottles meaning that we had more wine bottles than guests! There was some lovely cava which, of course, is a Catalan drink.

Above: Amazing home-made Catalan food before we demolished it including yellow cards describing the food in Catalan, Spanish & English.

Catalan food and drink menu in Catalan & English:

(to be completed)
Escalivada - ?

Codonyat amb formatge de cabra – quince jelly with goats cheese

Esqueixada de bacalla or Brandada de bacalla – salted cod with beans

Empedrat Olivada –olive tapanade

Espardenyes -?

Truita de patates –tortilla (Spanish omelette)

Truita de carbasso – tortilla with courgettes

Pa amb tomaquet –bread with tomato & olive oil

Embotits: pernil salat, llonganissa, xorico, sobrassada - ham, sausages, chorizo,
---
Coca de poma –apple cake

Torrons –very sweet bars with nuts

Pastissets de Tortosa -sweet pumpkin in pastry
Cremat –rum, coffee beans, lemon peel, cinnamon & ?

Above: Some of the chefs explaining the menu- left to right Roser our host, Sonia, Toni, Montse and Clara.

For a special warm Spanish cocktail called ‘cremat’ we used a whole bottle of rum which was donated by my dad – apparently my nana used to have a drop in her coffee and this was a left-over bottle she hadn’t used- I’m sure she would have approved of us putting it to a good use! We begged some coffee beans off the hotel bar over the road from Roser’s saying it was for a Catalan ‘dessert’ and that went in too!

Above: Toni setting light to the 'Cremat' cocktail which contains an entire bottle of dark rum.

One of the Catalan contingent brought Catalan music and we tried out a traditional dance which was very slow and apparently popular with elderly Spaniards! I then tried to persuade everyone to carry on dancing to Abba and Amy Winehouse with no success :-(

As it turns out, a number of the Catalan people come from the same village near Barcelona and only met here by accident- seems a bit of an odd coincidence that they should all have ended up in Stirling!

Apparently there is a Catalan tartan which you can see here:
http://www.tartanstore.net/tartan/Catalan-1992-Olympics-Modern/64803? For some strange reason it is not very popular with male kilt wearers!

The next party is going to be a Latin American evening hosted by Jennifer from Venezuela and Nicki who lived in Guatemala for a few years - we've been promised there'll be salsa dancing!

Above: The morning after the night before- Charlie yawning on his favourite spot- my pillow!

The next day I went shopping for new specs since mine got trodden on. I spent hours scouring the opticians of Stirling for the second time and eventually found a pair I liked but as there was a special offer on where you could get a second pair free or reduced I then had to find another pair…. (Michael liked me in a pair of ostentatious Dolce & Gabbana framess but I absolutely hated the stupid diamante spangly logo on the arms)! I ended up spending almost £300 on 2 very similar pairs and then going home and realising I’d wasted my money - in all the 8 years I’ve been wearing specs I have never used my spare glasses! Shopping with a hangover is not a good idea! Anyway, after some persuasion and tenacity on our part, the shop agreed to refund me for one pair bringing the cost down significantly. I can’t believe how expensive a nice pair of specs is now!