The virtues of iberico ham (Barcelona day 1)

I love ham. Let me just say that. I can honestly say I used to be a prosciutto snob, thinking that it was at the top of the cured ham food chain. That was until yesterday, when I had my first taste of authentic iberico ham from La Boqueria market in Barcelona. Let me just say -- it was glorious. I knew pigs were invented for a reason, and it seems that Spanish pigs are definitely at the top of the ham food chain. (And at 80 euros a kilo, they should be!)

But I digress. Yesterday I arrived in Barcelona. I must say that first impressions were pretty blah, probably because the weather was blah, and the airport was pretty blah, too. I am staying at Le Meridien on La Rambla, well, mostly because it was free. Hey, at least it is a "five star" hotel. Haha.

Anyway, other than my adventures in Spanish ham-dom, I laid low for the rest of the evening and allowed jet lag to harass me at approximately 3am. With my 3-day plan all laid out, I had forgotten to take jet lag into account and of course, completely blew through my morning schedule today when I slept in until 11:30. Oops. But hey, vacation is vacation!

Today was a busy day of scurrying around, NOT getting into famous sights, and the 2-hour, 7-course lunch at Comerç 24 (more on that meal in a separate post). I tried to get into La Sagrada Familia, but got there too late to catch the last elevator up for the day (the stairs are closed due to "safety reasons"), and the main floor of Casa Batlló also closed early for the day. So instead I strolled around El Born, and went into La Petrada (aka Casa Milà) which had the most amazing sculptures on the roof terrace. All I can say, though, is that this Gaudi fellow must have been on some serious drugs when he dreamed up these buildings...uh, I mean...he must have been uniquely inspired. Right.

Tomorrow I am off to attempt Sagrada Familia again, followed by a little detour out of the city to a town named Sant Celoni? What's there? None other than one of the six 3-Michelin-star restaurants in all of Spain -- Can Fabes.

I survived pastry boot camp (day 5...and beyond)

The last day of pastry camp was seriously a blur. We got to class and quickly watched demos of finishing a chocolate mousse cake and a bavarian cream cake. Then we finished our fruit tarts, baked up our palmiers and wrapped up all our food to go. A quick graduation certificate ceremony and a class review later, we were free to go off on our own into the pastry-filled sunset.

Then came the fun fun fun trip home. First I had a 2 hour drive from Hyde Park to Albany, made two hours only because I had to stop and take a nap halfway through because I nearly fell asleep and hit the rumble strip on the side of the freeway. Yes, it was scary. This is what happens when you try to drive on the NY Thruway after not having slept a full night in a week. Then I had my flight from Albany to DC, an hour layover in DC, followed by a 6-hour flight home. Like I said, fun fun fun.

And now I am back home. Not sure what's next for me in the pastry category, but in three days, I start work again. Can't believe this mini-sabbatical has passed by so quickly. I wish I could say that I am more enlightened about life or even my work, but I think I'm just more well-rested than anything else. We'll see how long that lasts. ;)

Playing with sugar and my beef with buttercream (day 4)

Quote of the day: "California? Oh yes, that place filled with nuts and raisins" - Chef Schorner, referring not to the produce but the human inhabitants of the Golden State

Today I played hookie. I'll get that out of the way now. I skipped my usual 3-course lunch at the CIA and went to McDonald's for some fries and a filet-o-fish. And diet Coke. And yes, it was glorious. One good thing about playing hookie though, is that I got back from lunch early, and Chef Schorner taught me how to play with sugar and create cool sugar domes. Sweet!

Moving on -- today we finished frosting and decorating our cakes. Let me just say for the record that I hate buttercream. It's fickle and fussy and it doesn't like me. However, with a whole lot of help from the chef and repeated attempts, I'm happy to have produced my first buttercream-filled cake. I happen to think it's pretty hot. ;) We also sliced up our puff pastry for palmiers, and made a yummy apple tart. I think that might be my new pie!

Dinner today was at the American Bounty, which serves up, well, America's bounty. I had the soup sampler (which included four soups ranging from cheddar beer to alligator gumbo), the free range chicken cooked two ways (stuffed, and sausage), and the vanilla panna cotta with spiced earl grey sauce for dessert.

And with that, the last day of boot camp is upon us. Tomorrow we bake up our palmiers, finish our fruit tarts and figure out what other pastry goodies await us in the future. Oh, that and I have to go home. :(