Sunday, April 10, 2011

The Consulate, Gilligan's Island, and More Spanish Cooking

Our visa applications have been successfully submitted!  During our meetings Tuesday morning, we received commendations for our perfectly prepared paperwork (all credit goes to Jerry).

¡Nuestras solicitudes de visa han sido enviadas con éxito! Durante nuestras reuniones del martes por la mañana, recibimos elogios por nuestra documentación perfectamente preparado (todo el crédito es para Jerry).

MY ACCORDION FILE TAKEN TO THE CONSULATE.  JERRY HAD ONE, TOO.
MI ARCHIVO DE ACORDEÓN LLEVADO AL CONSULADO. JERRY TAMBIEN TENIA UNO.

Everything was in perfect order.  Our health insurance was exactly what was required.  Our translations were certified as needed.  Our photos were the right size.  We had enough copies (and then some) of all the originals.  When we arrived at the consulate, we were greeted warmly.  The people we worked with were charming, knowledgeable, and exceptionally efficient.  It was a great experience.  We should have our visas in three months.  Maybe less.  So, now we just relax.  Well, really, now we can focus entirely on getting rid of our stuff.

Todo estaba en perfecto orden. Nuestro seguro médico era exactamente lo que se requería. Nuestras traducciones fueron certificadas según sea necesario. Nuestras fotos tenían el tamaño correcto. Tuvimos suficientes copias (y luego algunas) de todos los originales. Cuando llegamos al consulado, nos recibieron calurosamente. Las personas con las que trabajamos eran encantadoras, conocedoras y excepcionalmente eficientes. Fue una gran experiencia. Deberíamos tener nuestras visas en tres meses. Tal vez menos. Entonces, ahora simplemente nos relajamos. Bueno, de verdad, ahora podemos centrarnos por completo en deshacernos de nuestras cosas.

MARINER'S VILLAGE, WHERE WE LIVED.  NO, THAT'S NOT JERRY IN THE BOAT.
MARINER’S VILLAGE, DONDE VIVIMOS. NO, EL NO ES JERRY EN EL BARCO.

On our way home from the consulate, we went by way of Marina del Rey — where we lived for seven months in '82/'83 — and had lunch at The Warehouse.  We chose the place just because we happened to pass it as we drove around the Marina.  Once we walked in the door, however, I recognized it as a place we frequented when we lived there.  It was easy to recognize.  Nothing had changed.  All the decor — including the carpeting and upholstery I'm pretty certain — was exactly as it had been in 1983.  Sadly, the place had the smell of 30-year-old carpet and upholstery.  But, the mahi mahi sandwiches were excellent.  So it wasn't a bad choice.  In case you never knew, the "tropic port" depicted in the opening credits of "Gilligan's Island" was in reality Marina del Rey.

De camino a casa desde el consulado, pasamos por Marina del Rey — donde vivimos durante siete meses en el ’82 / ’83 — y almorzamos en el restaurante, The Warehouse. Elegimos el lugar solo porque lo pasamos mientras conducíamos por la Marina. Una vez que entramos por la puerta, sin embargo, lo reconocí como un lugar que frecuentamos cuando vivíamos allí. Fue fácil de reconocer. Nada ha cambiado. Toda la decoración, incluidas las alfombras y los tapizados, estoy bastante seguro, era exactamente como en 1983. Lamentablemente, el lugar olía a alfombras y tapizados de hace 30 años. Pero, los sándwiches de mahi mahi eran excelentes. Así que no fue una mala elección. En caso de que nunca lo supiera, el “puerto tropical” que se muestra en los créditos iniciales de “La isla de Gilligan” era en realidad Marina del Rey.

GILLIGAN. THE SKIPPER, TOO.  THE MILLIONAIRE AND HIS... ETC.
GILLIGAN. EL PATRÓN, TAMBIÉN. EL MILLONARIO Y SU ... ETC.

Wednesday night, Jerry cooked up another delicious dinner from the pages of his Spanish cookbook, "The New Spanish Table."  This time we had Moorish Chicken and Nut Pie (olive oil, onion, chicken stock, chicken, paprika, cumin, ginger, cinnamon, cayenne, tomatoes, raisins, sea salt, puff pastry, pine nuts, almonds, egg, milk, and finished off with confectioner's sugar).  Unbelievably good.  And we managed to restrain ourselves, which meant we had enough for lunch on Thursday.

El miércoles por la noche, Jerry preparó otra deliciosa cena de las páginas de su libro de cocina en español, “The New Spanish Table”. En esta ocasión tuvimos pastel moruno de pollo y nueces (aceite de oliva, cebolla, caldo de pollo, pollo, pimentón, comino, jengibre, canela, cayena, tomates, pasas, sal marina, hojaldre, piñones, almendras, huevo, leche y rematado con azúcar glass). Increíblemente bueno. Y logramos contenernos, lo que significaba que teníamos suficiente para el almuerzo del jueves.

MOORISH CHICKEN AND NUT PIE.
EMPANADA DE POLLO Y FRUTOS SECOS.

Today, we met a dear and wonderful San Diego friend for a farewell-for-now lunch at The Public House in Temecula.  If you haven't been there and you can get there, you should.  Unusual menu.  Fantastic food.  The best, by far, service.  Huge portions.  We finished off, well Jerry and I did, with their "S'mores" dessert, which was sinful and, if possible, even better than it sounded (graham cracker, marshmallow, chocolate ganache, chocolate brownie, fresh vanilla cream).

Hoy conocimos a un querido y maravilloso amigo de San Diego para un almuerzo de despedida por ahora en The Public House en Temecula. Si no ha estado allí y puede llegar, debería hacerlo. Menú inusual. Fantástica comida. El mejor, de lejos, servicio. Porciones enormes. Terminamos, bueno Jerry y yo, con su postre “S’mores”, que era pecaminoso y, si era posible, incluso mejor de lo que sonaba (galleta graham, malvavisco, ganache de chocolate, brownie de chocolate, crema de vainilla fresca).

OUR S'MORES AT THE PUBLIC HOUSE.
NUESTROS S’MORES EN THE PUBLIC HOUSE.

6 comments:

  1. Congrats! Now, as Tom Petty said, the waiting is the hardest part. :)

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  2. The chicken pie and dessert looks yummy. Hope the next steps go as smoothly as your application. We often wonder what it would be like to go live in a different country, never realized the amount of paperwork and preparation.

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  3. Grettings from Spain (Marbella), i accidentally found this blog and you did an excellent job Mitchell.I Felt in love with this website.

    I checked all your post, pictures are great and your experiencies in my country made me laught.
    It´s always nice see a different point of view and know how the rest of the world feels our "weird" culture.

    Malaga is a very good place for living and 1 hour around by car, you both will find thousands of interesting spots, little villages and lovely places.

    Just and advice don`t buy any property till you are 100% secure is the place you wanna live, explore the coast before choose.

    When you in Malaga y highly recommend visit the "White Villages" of the Comarca and off course the cute village of Casares.

    I´ll be back here another day , and i will give you more opinions if you don´t mind.Glad to see you like Andalucia.

    By the way ,check this site: http://www.expatforum.com/expats/spain-expat-forum-expats-living-spain/
    They are mainly british expats living in Spain, but i´m sure you will find some interesting points around the forum.

    Bye bye guys!

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  4. I have that cookbook too(The New Spanish Table)! Now, I have a mission for you when you get to Sevilla... Will you please visit the Ines Rosales factory & hug everybody there for me? They make what is probably my most favorite food in the universe: tortas de aceite. I posted about the Ines Rosales company on my blog back in 2004; later someone was kind enough to add a link to a very good recipe for recreating tortas de aceite at home, and even now, in 2011, I get more referrals from people all over the world searching for "tortas de aceite" than for any of the other 1000 blogposts I've ever written.

    http://tildology.com/2004/08/23/ines-rosales-tortas-de-aceite/

    Mmmmm... Cosa maravilla!

    :)

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  5. I too would like to know if you've stopped by the Ines Rosales store. I haven't been, but my wife and I just discovered their tortas at Sahadi's on Atlantic Ave. in Brooklyn. They're delicious!

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    1. Adam:
      Thanks so much for following up on this blog post. We were heading out and I missed responding to these comments way back then. Ines Rosales has a factory about 30 minutes east of the city. They welcome visitors and host tours, but since we don't have a car, it's probably not someplace we'll be getting to any time soon. I've got to start looking around for their products.

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