New Taste "Treats"

It has been a very long day.
I ran into Carolyn, Mary, and Karen this morning as I was leaving the Eurobuilding.  We chatted for a few minutes with an Irish guy who asked if we were with Vaughantown, then I grabbed a cab to Atocha Station.  In the light of day, arriving to where the bus dropped me off last week, it all makes perfect sense.  I had about an hour to wait before my train, so I sat by the rainforest to watch the board where they post the track numbers for each train.  When my track came up, I went through security (along with a bride and a couple of bridesmaids in pink top hats with veils) and boarded the train.  It was a very fast, smooth ride.  The movie was a Spanish one, so I wasn't tempted to watch is, and I kind of dozed a little along the way.

Carlos met me and we dropped off my bags, then drove to a little village called El Palmar, on Albufera Lake, to have lunch.  Well, I guess you still call it lunch even if it takes the whole afternoon.  It actually took about, oh, three hours.  We had a drink, then two starters, then a salad, then a rice dish (but not paella, since real paella has chicken and rabbit), then coffee.  It was an interesting experience.  He wanted to show me the specialties of the area, and this just so happens to be the peak season for the small mussels that live in Albufera Lake.  Oh boy.

Mussels

He had to show me how to eat them (and he knew I was very unsure of the whole thing), but I only gagged on the first one.  After that, I had the routine down.  It probably wasn't the same routine he had, since he actually chewed them and all, but it worked for me.  Open the shell, hold my breath, scoop the mussel out with my top teeth, swallow quickly, exhale, and take a drink of water or a bite of bread.  I thought I was being really subtle about it, but he laughed about it when he told his wife later.  OK, mussels were doable.  The next starter was eel and potatoes in a spicy broth.  He didn't tell me until I tried it that Karen hadn't eaten it at all, and his wife hates it.  The flavor was not so bad, but it just looked nasty. It actually didn't have a bad flavor, but once is probably enough.  These eels are also only fished in Albufera Lake.  They come in from the sea through a natural channel.  The sea, of course, is salty, but the lake is freshwater.  If the sea level is too high, they close a dam to keep the salty water from getting into the lake.  The lake is used to irrigate the local rice fields, as well as drain them, and it gets its distinctive green color from the rice (not sure how).

Albufera Lake

When we finally finished lunch, we took a boat ride around the lake, which was really nice. The weather was perfect, the breeze cool, and the boat guy gave us each a branch of his huge citronella plant to ward off mosquitoes.  The lake used to be much bigger, he said, but it is now a wildlife refuge.  Only 40 people a year have the right to fish for the eels, just so you know.

Then we went into the city to pick up Carlos' wife to - eventually - go have dinner.  First, we drove through the old city center, then we stopped at the Colon (Columbus) Market for a drink (Coke Light for me).  The market is an actual old market which has been turned into a kind of gathering place, with a number of small restaurants and bars, a flower shop, and other things.  On Saturday night, it was full of people sitting out at tables.  Our reservation for the restaurant was at 10:00, several blocks away, but parking is a nightmare here, so we left the car and walked.  Dinner was basically tapas food.  We shared a plate of different varieties of manchego cheese (I skipped the one with truffles), then a plate of iberrico ham (not my favorite), and a tomato salad with big slices of tomato, chunks of tuna, and a couple of slimy slices of anchovy. Finally, finally, at midnight, we headed back.

Colon Market, an open air spot full of bars and restaurants.

I'm on my own tomorrow, which I am really looking forward to.  The City of Arts and Sciences area is very close by, as well as the old riverbed that has been turned into a park.  I'm going to sleep in just a bit, then get out and see what I can see!