Sunday, June 24, 2012

Thursday evening I headed out at 7:45 for a meeting of the veteranos and as it turned out only Guerrea, Paquito and I made it to the gathering.  Jerito showed us a video of one of the first live programs to be emitted on Canal Nou, a local station that traditionally broadcasts its programs in Valenciano rather than Castellano.  This fifteen-minute program was shown some 38 years ago and it featured Jerito, Gurrea, Paco de Andrés and May Royer.  Each of the participants performed an effect and Gurrea closed the program with his card manipulations.  It was enlightening to watch this footnote to the history of magic here in Valencia.

Afterwards we caught up with Pepe, Jaime and Gioco at Carosel.  Pepe had a guest in tow, Ramon Riobóo.  Ramón is a member of the renowned Escuela de Magia de Madrid and has just had his first book published in English.  He was in town to do some taping for Magic Agora.  We settled into a back table and ordered a number of tapas while we talked magic.  It was close to midnight when we exited the restaurant and although normally we would have sessioned for a while, everyone was tired so we each went back to our respective homes.

Friday morning we stopped by Miguel’s to tell him that we had found a new place.  We owe him July’s rent, but the upside is that we can transfer things form Point A to Point B without having to rush things.  After our visit we headed to La Fórcola for lunch.  We both started with the anchovies in a green sauce and I followed that with a pizza and Susan opted for the pasta.  Ice cream and tiramisu were our dessert choices and we finished the meal with coffee.  I had asked Antón about the availability of a wonderful white wine from the Alto Adige region of Italy and to my great surprise and pleasure he gave me a bottle as we left the restaurant.

Susan caught up with Zahava in the afternoon and I spent that time reading and working on my magic.  We spent a rather quiet evening with Susan reading my copy of Las Doce Llaveswhile I read the digital version of Mazapán Amargo.  We were both quite exhausted from this week’s activities – mainly the search for the new place – so we went to bed fairly early.

Yesterday Susan got up rather early and headed out in search of a beach chair that folds neatly into one of those nylon carry bags.  She walked through the Turia and shot a number of photos.  When she got back we debated about where to have lunch and we both simultaneously suggested La Comisaría.  When we arrived there were several large parties on the terrace so we opted for the table with a direct view of what was going on in the kitchen.

Eddie was working the lunch shift and we put ourselves in his hands.  He started us off with some tomates tres texturas and followed that dish up with three different flavors of croquetas. All were quite tasty, but the best of the lot were those made with leeks, potatoes and cheese.  Our next gastronomic foray was a Carpaccio of veal that was accompanied by a panoply of tastes and textures – mango, ginger, wasabi, sea salt, nori  – a veritable treat for the taste buds.  Our dessert was a mango mousse topped with fresh cherries and an orange chocolate cream.  We finished the meal with coffee and a chupito.

In the course of our conversation with Eddie he told us he discovered that his neighbor was an organic farmer who supplied a number of locals with fresh organic fruits, vegetables and eggs.  He then proceeded to give a sample of those wares and he filled a bag with lettuce, a tomato, carrots, a beet, a cucumber, a squash and six eggs.  He told us to take them home and to enjoy their freshness on Sunday, which is precisely what we shall do.

Our intent was to go to a guitar concert last night, but we were a bit too tired to head out at 6:30, so, once again, we just took life easy.  Spain was playing France in the Eurocopa and so we watched the end of the game and were pleased that Spain won 2-0.  They will now play Portugal in the semifinals.

The Turia on a Saturday morning.