Hostel Lentil Soup

Backpacking has its benefits.  I came back with mean calves and a pedometer that on one day read over 33 THOUSAND.  I think that pedometer is nuts.

Does it look nuts? I'm pretty sure it malfunctioned.

One of the things about Europe that surprised me was the lack of fresh food.  When you're not preparing your own food you have little control over ingredients.  This is exacerbated by all of the menus and explanations happening in a language that I don't know.  I'd call myself barely conversational.

So, croissant con jamon, queso y tomate.  Doesn't equal ham and cheese and tomato slices.  Oh no.  Tomate is a tomato spread, think tomato the texture of marmalade.  Okay but when you're expecting tomato slices it's disappointing.

That said, I didn't eat a fresh vegetable until day 10 of the trip.  By day 5 James was in dire need of fiber.  So we went on a quest to find a fiber supplement.  The only thing we could find in the number of small Farmacias were fiber cookies.  They weren't awful.  Think animal crackers from the small Circus train box with fiber in them.

After we went on our quest to find the fiber cookies I left James to the rooftop to hang out with the party people and I went on an adventure to a small neighborhood market in search of soup.  There was no canned soup.  No bean soup, no lentil soup, no chicken noodle soup.  Nothing.

So I decided I was going to use the hostel kitchen and cook soup.  Without spending 25 euros on spices and food that the two of us couldn't eat, I came up with a tasty compromise.

Just to clarify.  The hostel in Granada, Hostel One, had no spices in the kitchen.  This was the smallest hostel we stayed in and it was a converted private residence.  I was expecting a working kitchen.  The utter lack of spice was pretty much devastating to culinary creativity.

I armed myself with a stock pot, water, lentils, onions, olive oil and what I thought was chicken broth.

Quick soak the lentils.

Chop and slightly brown the onions.

NOT chicken broth.  Don't be fooled.

So this chicken Caldo is kind of a milky soup on its own.  It's not similar to American stock or broth or bouillon.  It smells slightly strange but cooked down quite nicely.  All in all, not a horrible addition.

Add broth to onion and boil with lentils.  Ta-da!  Soup.

Hostel Lentil Soup

(there are parts that give hints for cooking in your own kitchen, with spices and utensils and a familiar market nearby)

Step 1. chop and brown onion in stockpot with olive oil  (add scallion or garlic if not in a hostel)
Step 2. quick soak lentils by boiling for 10 mins, rinse lentils, set aside
Step 3. add chicken stock to onions (add finely diced spinach or carrots)
Step 4. add lentils, boil until lentils are soft about 1.5 hours (add flat leaf parsley, thyme, pepper and salt to taste)

Enjoy.  Yay for fiber!

Spain and Portugal

Hello.

After 16 days of Spain and Portugal I'm back home all safe and sound and no worse for the wear.  I did manage to get a very nice Andalusian tan as well - I'm looking golden for April.

Very happy to report my grandmother's strict warnings involving all Europeans wanting to take my money were, as I had hoped, completely unfounded.

My only experience with being overcharged as a tourist happened with me as a willing participant.  I'm not really much of a haggler.  My thoughts are, if I'm willing to pay what you're charging then I'll pay it, if not I won't.  Most of the time I pay.

I stumbled upon some fantastic people and some even greater shops that sold amazing things.  (One small shop in Lisboa, Portugal had 5 x 7 framed needlepoints with sayings like, "Shut up and kiss me" and "F@#$ You" with a precious little flowery design.)  Wallets made out of milk cartons.  Old photographs of people I don't know.  I found these shops to be very Etsy, very hipster chic.  I LOVED THEM.  They were of course all in Lisbon.

Lisboa is what it's called locally, regardless of what you call it -- it was hands down my favorite city.  It had its own feel and gave off less of a sense of shaped by big brand name culture.

Sadly, the food we found was not as awe-inspiring as I'd hoped.  Lisbon does house a fantastic, tiny, Italian Restaurant called MOMA located on Rua de Sao Nicolau.  It's right in the heart of a very tourist oriented pedestrian mall leading from Rossio Square down to the ocean.  It was only two doors down from our Hostel but we didn't discover it until our last day.  The food was reasonably priced and delicious.