Marty Kaplan's Blog

Sunday, October 21, 2012

In spite of a weather forecast to the contrary the sun is shining brightly.  I just discovered that we were supposed to catch up with Nacho and Cayetano at noon and not at two so I am off to take a quick shower and I will finish this entry later. We are back and I will give you all the details of our lunch tomorrow.

Yesterday we had lunch with Pepe.  He prepared a paella con cangrejo for us and it was the first time that he had used crab in a paella.  It was delicious and truly tasted of the sea.  We had a salad along with the paella, as well as a bottle of wine.  We picked up a dessert from El Parisien and that went down nicely with a cup of coffee. Before we knew it, two hours had flown by and Paquito, Susan and I were off to our respective homes to grab a little shuteye.

Around 7:00 we made a quick visit to Las Añadas de España to pick up a good bottle of gin, as well as some tonic water.  On our way back we stopped off at a bar/café near the house and we had a drink and a snack of patatas bravas that turned out to be our supper.  Susan spent the rest of her evening reading and watching a little TV.  She also spent some time restoring some old photos of her mom and dad.  I am in the midst of translating the articles for the first issue of “The Manuscript” and unknowingly I started with a big challenge – a very complex and involved coin trick that takes a good eight pages to describe.

What strikes me most about this past week is how much time I have spent in conversation with others.  I haven’t added it all up, but I know that the answer is hours and hours.  I am sure that part of the answer lies in the fact that being retired we have more time to spend with friends.  However, the flip side of the coin is the people with who we are conversing are not retired.  It makes me think that here in Spain, in spite of Twitter, Facebook and other Apps, the art of conversation has not been lost.  I fear that it is something we have lost in the big cities of the US.  We are so busy rushing from pillar to post that we rarely tike the time to stop and spend some quality time with others in meaningful conversation.  It is the way in which we get to know others and others get to know us.  It makes our world less impersonal.

Saturday, October 20, 2012

The rain started a few minutes after we arrived at Carosel last night and fortunately we had opted for an indoor table lest we had to get up and move our feast indoors. Jaime and his wife and Jim and his wife, Yun, had already arrived so we distributed our selves around the table and studied Jordi’s evening menu.

Jim or James J Butler, Jr., if you prefer, is a professor of hydrogeology at the University of Kansas in Lawrenceville.  He is currently a visiting professor at the Universidad Politécnica de Valencia, where he will be presenting a seminar later this year. Jim met Jaime when both were studying at Stanford and Jim is here through Jaime’s good graces.  Jim was born in Houston and has traveled widely in both Europe and Asia.  When The People’s Republic of China was opened up to American scholars during the Carter years, Jim was one of the first Americans to go there and it was there that he met his wife.  Jim has dabbled in magic and is very familiar with both Genii magazine and The Magic Castle.

Our conversation was very animated and while we chatted we managed to consume a plate of grilled vegetables, some pulpo a la brasa, huevos rotos con patatas y morcilla, secreto ibérico, longaniza, chuletitas de cordero and some slices of vaca gallega, which is reputed to be the best beef in Spain.  The two bottles of Sierra Cantabria went down very nicely and were the perfect accompaniment to our meat-heavy menu.  Susan and Jim had flan for dessert and I had coffee.  We did a chupito experiment after the meal and we sampled mistela, orujo de hierbas and orujo blanco.  Orujo blanco is not my cup of tea.  It is similar to grappa and I am convinced that it will take the paint off of a car, but what do I know.  The party continued as I did some magic for the group.  I did three effects and that was just enough to put the finishing touch on a lovely evening.  We left a little after midnight and headed straight home.  We were in bed by 12:30.

Friday, October 19, 2012

The threat of rain for the weekend has entered the forecast.  We are having dinner tonight with Jaime Gómez, a Professor of Mathematics at the Universidad Politécnica de Valencia and fellow magician, his wife, a visiting professor from Kansas, his wife and the two of us.  We will be dining at Carosel so that we can try out Jordi’s new menu items, all done over a wood-burning grill.  We shall see if we end up dining indoors.  This will be one of three consecutive dining experiences.  Saturday Pepe has invited us for a very special paella and on Sundaywe will visit with Nacho who will show Susan how to make an arroz al horno and then we will return home for after-dinner drinks and an opportunity to show Nacho our new digs.

Yesterday we had lunch at A Nou and, as always, it was a very pleasant meal.  The three appetizers yesterday were a coca filled with tomatoes and goat cheese, a cream of tomato and carrot soup and a delightful combination of spinach, shrimp and egg that had been prepared in the oven.  We chose an arroz meloso de langostinos y setas as our main dish.  Susan had chunks of baked apple topped with a scoop of chocolate ice cream for dessert and I had some fresh pineapple topped with a small scoop of lemon sorbet and a small scoop of mojito sorbet.  Very refreshing!

We had no problem navigating our way to A Nou because we were walking.  Traffic however was backed up to forever because of a demonstration by both students and parents protesting the heavy cuts made to education.  As a sign of protest parents had held their children out of school.  In addition to protesting the cuts, they were also calling for the dismissal of the Minister of Education who has overseen the cuts, made changes in the curriculum, expanded class sizes and floated the idea of charging one or two Euros to students who bring their lunch to school because they cannot afford to buy it.  His latest gaff was to state that, with respect to Catalonia, one of the goals of education was to make Catalonian students more Spanish.  The verb españolizar is a hot button term because it brings up memories of Franco’s attempts to outlaw all languages except Spanish and to penalize, fine and/or imprison those who used the other languages of Spain.

There was another protest in the evening and that made it difficult to get to the meeting of the veteranos, but the good news is that I was able to make it.  It was our first meeting of the year and it was nice to see Jerito again.  All the usual suspects were at the meeting – Pepe, Paquito, Juan Luis, Gurrea and Gioco.  Gurrea showed us a version of Out of This Worldthat was very impressive and Gioco followed that with a powerful trick from the creative mind of Dani DaOrtiz.

At 9:30 we headed out in search of a bite to eat and we chose the path of least resistance settling in at the café on the corner where we usually end up ordering sandwiches and a beer.  To prove that we were well indoctrinated we ended up ordering sandwiches and a beer.  Gurrea drove me home and it was a little after 11:30 when I walked through the door.  Susan was still up watching TV.  We turned off the lights at midnight.

Thursday, October 18, 2012

There has been a slight change in plans regarding the bookcase.  They were delivered as promised, but the gentleman who is going to put them together is unable to do so until Monday.  His week has turned out to be busier than he expected.  Since there is no absolute need for the bookcase until late November there is no problem.  There is not much on today’s agenda.  I have a meeting of the veteranos and I imagine that we will go out for lunch.

Speaking of lunch, we had lunch yesterday at a small Moroccan restaurant called Al Adwag.  It is located on Calle La Nave 16.  It is a very small place with maybe six tables.  It has a very limited menu, but they do have a menu of the day.  Susan chose from the menu of the day and started with some imtabal  – sometimes known as babaganosh – it is an eggplant dip that has a smoky taste to it.  It was served with triangles of pita bread.  I started my meal with fatoush – a salad consisting of lettuce, tomato, cucumbers and toasted pita served with a lemon based dressing.  Both starters were very tasty.  Susan main dish was essentially a vegetable couscous although it did contain some bits of veal.  I had a lamb tajin served with the traditional accompaniment of dried fruits, almonds, sesame seeds and cinnamon.  The couscous was very flavorful. The couscous was very flavorful.  My tajin was very tasty, but it had an abundance of bone and very little meat.  That was the only downside.  I would consider going back, but I think I would choose from the vegetarian dishes on the menu.  I still think the best Moroccan food experience in Valencia is available at Ducala.

Our evening was uneventful.  With all our comings and goings yesterday we managed to walk five miles and we were both a bit tired.  We had a light supper.  Susan made a frittata with goat cheese, ham and onions and after supper we spent some time reading and watching a bit of TV.  Bedtime was at midnight.

Wednesday, October 17, 2012

Next Tuesday at 9:00 AM we need to be present at the Oficina de Extranjería located at Motilla del Palancar 23 for a meeting where we will present all necessary documents and, hopefully, have our residence visa renewed for two more years.  This process will be infinitely less painful than our experience last year when we had to wait in line for five and a half hours to hand in our documents.  We arrived at 7:00 AM to insure our getting a number and we then waited outside on the cold until 12:30 when we were finally let into the building.  Our actual ID card was not ready until early January and that necessitated another visit and another line, although that line was mercifully much shorter than that of November.

We are getting the house ready for the arrival of our personal belongings.  We are clearing spaces so that we can unpack everything into its proper place.  For me that means making sure that there is enough space for all my magic books, as well as decks of cards and other magic effects.  The bookshelves that are being delivered from Ikea in about an hour will house all of my books and will provide the storage for all my decks of cards.  The bookshelves that are already in place are where all my magic apparatus will live.  Having put everything away I can then focus on hanging my photos and posters and the office will then feel like it is totally mine.

We were hoping to have dinner at Jordi’s last night to give his new barbeque grill a try, but it was not to be.  Jordi has closed down Carosel until tomorrow.  That being the case, we waited until Brian came by at 8:30 and while we talked about life in general, we also made a decision as to where to have dinner.  Last night’s winner was La Comisaría. We headed out a little after 9:00 and we were seated by 9:30.  On the way we passed by El Molinón and chatted with Vilma for a bit.  We decided to sit indoors and we made ourselves comfortable at the table for four that is closest to the kitchen.  Eddie was nowhere to be seen and a chef, new to us, was cooking in his place.

We were warmly greeted by Ana and she gave us our menus and the wine list.  We chose an icy cold Albariño for our wine and we settled on four dishes – chupa chups de langostinos, dim sum, a semi-ceviche of blue shrimp and some crispy ravioli stuffed with goat cheese and other goodies.  While we were working on our second dish, Eddie and his family – including the dog – arrived and took a seat at one of the outdoor tables.  Ana told him that we were inside and he came in to apologize to us.  We were a bit puzzled as to what the reason for the apology was.

The last time that we ate at La Comisaría was early July.  It was a Friday night and Juliet Henderson was visiting with us.  We had a reservation and the place was packed and the service personnel were all over the place.  Ana’s steady hand was missing that night and the younger servers were scurrying all over the place without accomplishing much of anything.  Eddie was under fire in the kitchen trying to fill all the orders that kept coming and coming.  We said a quick hello to him and he nodded our way and seeing that he was incredibly busy we went back outside and took our seats.  No harm no foul.  He was obviously busy and had no time to talk and on another occasion when things were a bit calmer we knew that he would come our table and chat us up.

Eddie was now at our table and apologizing for his behavior that night.  He told us that he was in a very bad mood and that it had to do with the service personnel.  He said that he was afraid that he had angered us to the point that he had lost us as customers.  We told him that truly there was no problem, nor was there any offense taken.  We could see that he was under fire and that he needed to focus on producing the food.  Having set the record straight, Eddie went back to join his family and he later returned to our table with his daughter, Grace, who is now five months old.

Eddie was excited because he will be opening a new restaurant in early March.  It is located a block away from La Comisaría and its focus will be entirely different.  The menu will focus on steamed dumplings and every table will be outfitted with a steam table in the center that will allow the dumplings to be served at the perfect temperature.  It will be the only place that we know of in Valencia that will feature what will be essentially dim sum.  He has gotten very favorite terms from the owners of the space and will be meeting with the architects shortly to discuss the design of the new space.

One of the topics of conversation that came up last night was how it was the Brian ended up in the Foreign Service.  He was twenty-five at the time and was working with the court system in Michigan.  By chance he happened to pick up the newspaper and in one of the columns that was devoted to answering people’s questions someone had asked how one went about getting into the Foreign Service.  The columnist explained about the Foreign Service Exam being the first step in the process.  Brian put down the paper and said to himself, “I want to do that!” As he then explains it, he took down his typewriter and dashed off a letter requesting information about the exam.  He traveled to Chicago to take the exam and then he had a follow-up interview some weeks later.  Before he knew it, he was off to Washington for six months of training.

While in training, all the trainees were asked to look at the map of the world and indicate nine choices for their first assignment.  Brian’s ninth choice was Nigeria, a most dangerous post as he would discover later, and, wonder of wonders, he was the only member of his class of thirty-five who had indicated Nigeria as one of his choices.  That meant the Nigeria post was his.  We have heard stories about his time in Nigeria and the armed compound where the diplomats lived, but that is perhaps something to discuss later.  Brian’s difficult first assignment was probably the reason why his next assignment was Portugal. Where he would later return as the Head Consul.

We finished our meal with a shared dessert, coffee and the obligatory chupito.  Brian walked us back to our place and then continued on to his flat.  Ofelia is in Brussels visiting with friends and family.  She will be there until mid-November.   We, of course, miss her, but we look forward to catching up with Brian for another meal and perhaps even an excursion or two.

Tuesday, October 16, 2012

Inma came to clean this morning and she arrived at eight, as advertised.  We decided the we would go out for breakfast to get out of her way while she began her every other week cleaning of our place.  We went to the Mercado Central and took a seat at the Central Bar.  It was a rather cool morning and it looked like half of Valencia had taken their scarves out of the drawer.  Granted it was in the high 50’s, but it wasn’t that cool.  Be that as it may, Susan had coffee and a croissant and I ordered a café cortado and a pincho de tortilla.  After we finished, we took a brief stroll through the market and said hello to Cristina who had been ill the last week or so.  It was good to see her smiling face again.

I walked by Amparo’s stand yesterday and it was shuttered and it was shuttered again this morning.  I am hoping that there is no problem that is keeping her and her family away.  I will definitely stop by tomorrow to see if I can find out what is what.  We made a brief return home after out visit to the market and made our way from the house to the Banco Popular to get an official statement of our bank account for the last twelve months.  It is one of the documents that we will need to bring with us when we have our visa renewal appointment next week.  Our go to guy at the bank is Carlos and he is just truly amazing.  He has solved every issue with which we have presented him and he has done it both efficiently and courteously.

Yesterday, when Susan came back after her Pilates session and coffee with the girls, we decided that it was high time to pay a visit to La Fórcola.  It was nice to see Antón, Juan and Leo and it felt right to take a seat at our usual table.  Antón opened a fresh bottle of wine for us and we savored it while we studied the menu.  Susan ordered some anchoas en salsa verde and I began my meal with a salad.  Susan’s entrée was an oven-baked dish of cod, onions and potatoes.  I chose a pizza.  Dessert was some chocolate banana ice ream and for old times sake we finished our meal with a coffee and a chupito of limoncello.  It made the walk home much more pleasant.

In the evening Susan went to a talk about photography and I stopped by the CIVAC.  There was a flea market going on with several members putting up a number of their magic items for sale.  I restrained myself and the only thing that I bought was a small deck of cards that I need to try out an effect I am working on.  I finally saw Pepe who was back in town after ten days in Ibiza.  He looked tan and well rested.  He is on a diet and his dietician is making him keep a blog of his progress.  He invited Susan and me to join him for paella on Saturday afternoon and, as always we are looking forward to that.  He also mentioned the possibility of starting up our Thursday sessions of the veteranos now that fall is here.

There were a number of people at last night’s meeting that I have not seen in a while.  Of course, the possibility of picking up some magic at bargain prices is an event that will always bring magicians out of the woodwork.  It was nice to see Sofi, Paquito and Gioco again and I was pleased to see both Gurrea and Juan Luis whom I had not seen since we returned from LA.  I stayed for about an hour and then made my way home.  When Susan returned we had a very light supper and afterwards Susan read for a while and I headed off to bed.

Anchoas en salsa verde

On the left a traditional balsamic vinegar made from grape must and vinegar. The bottle on the right is a balsamic condiment. It is made from pure grape must that has been aged for a given period of time. It is quite sweet.

Susan’s cod dish

My pizza caprichosa

The legendary blue Valencian sky

The mercado central in the afternoon

Monday, October 13, 2012

It was a very uneventful weekend.  My cold was in full bloom and it seemed that the intelligent thing to do was to stay indoors and take life easy.  That is exactly what we did.  Yesterday Susan prepared an outstanding lunch consisting of a veal Marsala, some green beans using a recipe of Ina Garten’s and, last but not least, a salad.  We opened a bottle of a Verdejo called El Palomo Cojo – The Limping Dove.  It was very tasty and at 7.50 Euros, it was a bargain.  We spent the rest of the day reading and watching TV.  We purchased several episodes of Inspector Morse, which is one of our favorite BBC programs.  It is both witty and well acted.

I am feeling considerably better this morning.  I had an appointment at the gym for an evaluation, but I cancelled it because I don’t think I am up to heavy exercise or cardio yet.  I did get to the Banco Popular to get an official statement of our account, which we will need for our visa renewal.  We spent part of the weekend gathering all the necessary documents and, according to an e-mail just received from our friend, Salva, we should have an appointment real soon.  It will be a relief to have the renewal out of the way.  Susan is currently at her Pilates class and should be home soon.  We will most probably go out for lunch this afternoon and this evening there is a CIVAC meeting and, if I am feeling up to it, I will be there.

Political discontent continues to grow here in Spain.  The only decisive steps that the current government has taken has been to cut funds for health care and education and raise taxes and the VAT, which is a national sales tax.  It currently stands at 21% having been raised from its previous 18%.  They have also frozen or reduced the salary of government employees.  The current PM is rather indecisive about asking for a bank bailout and that has resulted in a very shaky stock market and bond market.

In addition to the economic crisis, the issue of independence or separatism has raised its head again with both Cataluña and The Basque Region being at the forefront of that movement.  The politicians are having a field day batting the issue back and forth and who knows how it will turn out.  Personally, I do not think that a secessionist movement means that, in the end, all parties will lose.

Saturday, October 13, 2012

Well, it’s official.  I have a cold.  I think I caught it last Monday either from the people who were coughing and sneezing on the AVE or from one of my fellow magicians at the CIVAC.  Now I have no other option than to wait it out.

Yesterday was a day of minimal activity.  Susan made a lovely lunch.  We had a salad, duchess potatoes and filets of chicken breast.  The Albariño that we drank to accompany the meal went down just fine.  We had an early supper that was made up of leftovers – some sliced turkey, jamón serrano, paté de campaña, a variety of cheeses and a leftover empanada or two.  Having emptied the refrigerator a visit to the Mercado Central was first on out list of things to do today.

Our first purchase was some ham and some turkey.  Needing to replenish our white wine supply we headed for our favorite wine merchant and picked up two bottles of Verdejo, one of Albariño and a bottle of Mala Vida, which has become our favorite red table wine.  Next was a visit to Basilio where we picked up some vealand we finished our morning excursion with a visit to Amparo where we stocked up on fruits and vegetables.  In the course of our visit we ran into Jordi who was concerned because we did not show up on Friday evening fro dinner as we had planned.

Today we ordered the makings of a new bookcase from Ikea.  Ikea keeps threatening to open a store here in Valencia, but that it a discussion that appears to have no definitive ending.  There seems to be no agreement as to where to locate it.  Once that is decided then they will have to build it.  The closest Ikea store is in Murcia. Murcia is about 112 miles away from Valencia.  We have found a service that will pick up our order in Murcia, transport it to our home here in Valencia and set it up.  The boxes will arrive on Wednesday and they will set up the bookcase on Thursday.  The bookcase is an exact copy of the bookcase that lives in my office and we will place it on the opposite wall and when my books and magic arrive at the end of November their new home will be waiting for them.

It did rain a bit yesterday, but rain has been taken out of the weekend forecast.  As I look out my office window I see that the sun has come out and the rest of the day promises to be cool and sunny.  We just may have to go in search of lunch.

We spoke with Rachel last night.  She too is fighting a cold. Her sister-in-law, Melissa arrived on Thursday night.  She is in Boulder with a two-fold purpose.  Sunday will mark the first anniversary of the passing of Israel Rosencrantz, Rachel’s husband and Melissa’s brother.  Rachel and Melissa will visit the cemetery on Sunday.  Additionally, Melissa has come back to pick up a number of her mother’s items that have been stored on Rachel’s sun porch.

That’s the word from here.  Thanks for reading the blog. I hope you are enjoying reading it as much as I enjoy writing it.

Friday, October 12, 2012

It is yet another día festivo here in all of Spain.  What we call Columbus Day is El Día de la Raza.  Since it is a three-day weekend it is what the Spanish call a Puente and that means a lot of people have taken off for the weekend.  As it turns out many of them have come to Valencia and many of the hotels here are at full occupancy.  The seaside town of Benidorm does not have an available room.  The only downside is that this is supposed to be a rainy weekend.  We shall see.

Looking at the forecast for the next ten days it appears that autumn has finally arrived.  Instead of temperatures in the mid or high-80’s, we will see temperatures in the mid-70’s.  That will be a welcome relief.  It will make walking a bit more pleasant.

Yesterday Susan had her appointment with her hairdresser and I with my barber.  On my way back home I picked up my new glasses, which will make a big differences in the quality of my vision.  Before I got back home I stopped off at the Mercado Central to pick up a couple of items and while there took a seat at the new Central Bar, which opened a short while ago.  It is one of three places that the award winning Michelin chef, Ricard Camarena, has opened here in Valencia and all of them at more or less the same time.  Here is a brief video about Central Bar http://www.elmundo.es/elmundo/2012/08/16/valencia/1345140382.html.  He has also opened a bistro that he calls Canallabistro and a haute cuisine restaurant that is called, strangely enough, Restaurante Ricard Camarena.  It does seem strange that in this time of economic crisis someone opens three dining spots simultaneously.

It most probably illustrates the fact that those who have always had money, still have money and those who are most feeling the pinch of the economic downturn are the poor and the lower middle class.  This parallels what is going on in the US and signals the growing gap worldwide between the rich and the poor.  It appears that there is somewhat of an economic recovery happening in the States, but most estimates here imply that things will not start to turn around here until 2014.

We had lunch and supper at home yesterday.  I have managed to catch a cold and it has sapped my energy and Susan is just plain tired after two plus months of running around.  We have no grand plans for the weekend, but here in Spain life is filled with surprises.

Thursday, October 11, 2012

Both Susan and I are looking forward to settling into some semblance of a routine.  To that end, Susan resumed her Pilates class yesterday and I made it to the gym for some cardio, as well as some exercise.  On our way back home, albeit at different times of the day, we stopped by Nacho’s and visited with him for a while.  Susan paid a quick visit to the Mercado Central to pick up some fruit and vegetables and we then sat down to make the very difficult decision of where to have lunch. We debated going to either El Molinón or Ballando Nudi.  Ballando Nudi won out.

It was good to see Francisco after our two-month absence.  We spent some time catching up and then took our seats and studied the menu board.  It was obvious after a brief study of the menu that Francisco’s commitment to both organic and quality products has not diminished one iota.  For our lunch we chose an ensalada balsámica, raviolis filled with pesto and a pasta Bolognese.  Each was outstanding in its own way.  This is not very complicated cooking where the focus is sometimes the arrangement on a plate and an unheard of combination of ingredients.  This is simple straight ahead cooking where the emphasis is on quality and good taste.  We lingered a bit over coffee and a chupito and it was 5:00 o’clock when we walked through the door.

We both took a late afternoon nap and the rest of our day was uneventful.  We spent the evening reading and caught up with a news program on TV. I did receive a phone call from Jaime Gómez who teaches math at the Universidad Politécnica here in Valencia.  Jaime is a fellow magician.  It seems that this semester there is a visiting professor from Kansas and Jaime has proposed that we all get together for dinner next week.  We chose next Wednesday as our target date.  Susan and I went to bed a little after getting off the phone with Jaime.