Calçots, a winter treat of Catalonia, with locals who open the door to their roots & customs.
“What do you love about traveling? For me, I love to fantasize about what my life would be like if I lived in the place I'm exploring. I'm on a quest to understand what life is like for people there: When and how do they work? Go to school? Eat? What is social life like? How do they interact with others? How many people go to church and how often? Why are they all so darn thin?! How much does it cost to rent a house? To pay for medical bills? School? Sure, I also enjoy going to the important museums and can't-be-missed sites, and I especially love exploring nature, but how people actually live is what really interests me.
In December 2023, we stayed with friends in Barcelona, Spain, renewing our friendships and connections in this city and doing a bit of final research in preparation for our Along the Mediterranean: Country Hopping along the Sea cultural immersion trip we'll be offering in June of 2024. On that trip, we'll spend a few days in Spain, a few in France, and end in Italy. Our friends invited us to their "mountain house" for an afternoon. I'd never been there but had heard a few stories. It was about an hour out of the city, and we stopped on the way in a little village to buy the "best" local bread, which turned out to be rather plain white bread. After leaving the city, we wound through little villages and recently fire-ravaged hills before arriving at their family's mas, a large countryside Mediterranean house, which traditionally was the center of an economically self-sufficient farm and community. They shared how their family has grown over time and split up the house and property, adding on and remodeling here and there to a centuries-old stone home that now serves as a weekend house for many family members. Before eating, we went for a walk in the area, which not too long ago would have been a hike through heavily forested hills. Now, cleaned of all underbrush, with black skeletons of trees remaining, ancient stone terraces, and other historic treasures were revealed. These hills were once covered in wine grapes until phytophthora came through and decimated the vines in the late 1800s. An entire industry was wiped out in a season! The winemakers built large stone "tanks" into the hillsides where the wine was stored until they were able to sell it. It was fascinating to peer into well-preserved, stone tanks, which are now hidden in these nearly abandoned hills.
Arriving back at the mas, we snapped hundreds of little twigs from the firewood pile to compile what I thought was kindling to start the barbecue. It turned out to be the fuel for the entire cooking session. We then cleaned dozens of large green onions, called calçots in Catalan, which we then lined up on a grill. After a few minutes over the flames, the onions started bubbling and dripping, and that's how we knew they were ready to be wrapped in a heavy paper bag to sweat. To serve, we dipped them in maybe one of my favorite sauces of all time—a tasty mixture of ground almonds, tomatoes, paprika, garlic, and who knows what else—and then chin up, into the mouth they went as we pulled off the white tender part between our teeth. They were incredibly tasty, but what is more interesting than how they tasted was that you can only eat them here, in this small region and only while they're in season, in this small window of time in the winter, making them even more special.
Laughing, with black fingers from charred greens, messy chins dripping with sauce and onion juice, followed by upside-down beer, we were happy to be in this crisp winter air, sun shining, sharing a local tradition with friends!”
Cindy
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Join us for our next travel chapter!
ALONG THE MEDITERRANEAN
Barcelone & around • Nice & around • Naples & around
June 2-14, 2023.
Last spots! Register before February 2, 2024!
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Picture © 2023, Simon D. Webb • thedensecompany
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