Marty Kaplan's Blog

Thursday, May 3, 2012

I have two more physical therapy sessions before I meet with my doctor who is directing my physical therapy on Tuesday and a follow up appointment with the traumatologist on Wednesday.  The knee is doing substantially better, but there is still a ways to go.  I am able to walk greater distances, but there comes a point when the limp returns.  I think that physical therapy has done all that it can do and it will be up to me to continue with the isometric exercises and get back to the gym to try and get everything back to where I would like it to be.

We made a quick trip to the market yesterday and stocked up on fruit and vegetables.  Strawberries abound at many stalls and this particular crop is from Valencia proper.  We also stopped off at El Parisien and ended up with three loaves of bread.  Their special bread of the month is made with a variety of nuts and dried fruits.  It is very tasty and went well with the salad that Susan prepared for lunch.  We wanted to eat light because we were going out to dinner with Brian and Ofelia.

We had a 9:00 o’clock reservation at Sorsi e Morsi and we decided to go by bus.  When we passed by the restaurant at 8:45 everything was shut tighter than a drum.  Since they don’t open their doors until 9:00 we stopped at a nearby bar for a cup of coffee and at 9:00 we headed back to the restaurant.  Everything was still closed and there was no sign of life.  Ofelia had arrived first and Brian was soon to follow.  It was Brian who told us that there was a second Sorsi e Morsi across the river and it turned out that the reservation that Susan had made was at that one.  The one in Ruzafá is only open for dinner on Thursday through Sunday in spite of what their sign says!!!!!!!   It was time for Plan B.

We decided that we would try Appetite, which is a few blocks away.  It too was closed due to the change in their hours of operation.  It began to feel that we were somehow trapped in a Valencian version of “Groundhog Day” because this is precisely what happened two weeks ago.  This time, however, we did not end up at El Fino.  We decided to give Maridaje a try.

The restaurant had been mentioned favorably in a 2010 NY Times article and, as we discovered later, it has been open for six years.  Their lunch menu includes a choice of five appetizers and there are always two rice dishes of the day from which to choose.  The menu in the evening is tapas style with a wide choice of salads, as well as hot and cold dishes.  There is an enormous wine cellar at the back of the restaurant that houses multiple bottles of 144 different wines.  When we walked in there was only one customer and he was at the bar.  We were seated by the owner and we studied the menu.

After careful study we ordered the following: a salad of lettuces with gambas al ajillo y crujientes de bacon – warm shrimp that had been cooked in olive oil with generous amounts of garlic and bacon bits; tostas de figatell – a small hamburger patty made with a mixture of liver and bacon, along with a variety of spices that tastes much better than it sounds; a crujiente de espinacas – spinach prepared in puff pastry; a variety of embutidos made in a town called Ontinyent; and finally a plate of pork medallions from the acorn fed Iberian black pig.  Everything was outstanding!  We also managed to down two bottles of wine and there was enough room left for the four of us to share a dessert of torrija topped with a velvety smooth scoop of vanilla ice cream.  I did some magic for the table and, as we were leaving, I did a magic effect for the owner.  It was a bit after midnight when we left the restaurant.  Brian kindly drove us back home and on the way we talked about several possibilities for an upcoming weekend excursion.  It was close to 1:00 when we finally went to bed.

Enasalda de gambas al ajillo

Embutidos

Medallones de solomillo ibérico

Torrija con helado de vainilla

Wednesday, May 2, 2012

It is nice to be back in Valencia where the sun is shining brightly and just about everything is in bloom.  We have just finished lunch and this evening we will be having dinner with Brian and Ofelia at Sorsi e Morsi secure in the knowledge that it will be open this evening.  We are looking forward to it.

Yesterday being a día festivo there was really not much to do.  We puttered most of the morning away and part of the afternoon.  We decided to have lunch at A Nou and try the dish for which Susan received the recipe.  Susan printed out a couple of pictures for Teresa and coupled those with a CD of photos that she had taken and we were good to go.  In case you haven’t hada chance to check out Susan’s blog post about A Nou here is the link http://www.vistasdevida.com/

When we walked in the restaurant was hopping.  There was a party of ten all the way in the back and a number of parties of four studded throughout the restaurant.  We pondered what to order for an appetizer and Javi solved the issue for us by suggesting that we try the first of the season clóchinas, which are local version of mussels.  They were small but tasty.  Teresa sent out a little surprise for us while we waited for the fideuá to make its appearance.  It was a coca crowned with meatballs made from veal. Delicious! We then got to finally sample the fideuá made with mushrooms and secreto ibérico, which is a highly marbled cut of pork from the shoulder of the Iberian black pig.  It was so good that we had to restrain ourselves from licking the paellera in which it had been prepared.

We shared a dessert that featured a pistachio laced cake topped with cheese and vanilla ice cream.  We finished the meal with coffee and then Javi poured each of us a copita of Narancello, which, as its name suggests, is orange-based as opposed to the lemon-based version of Limoncello.  When we left the restaurant it was a little after 5:30 and lunch had lasted for a bit more than two hours.  A nap was certainly called for and I was happy to oblige.

We were in for the rest of the afternoon and evening.  Susan spent most of her time reading and I played around with some of my magic for kids and worked on a new presentation for a classic card effect.  We were in bed a little before midnight.

Clóchinas

A surprise appetizer!

Fideuá con secreto ibérico

Tuesday, May 1, 2012

Guess what?  You’re right!  It’s another día festivo here in all of Spain.  It is El Día del Trabajador, which would be the equivalent of our Labor Day.  So, most everything is closed down, although many bars and restaurants will stay open.  Many people took Friday off so they could have a four-day holiday.  Tomorrow in Madrid it is El Día de la Comunidad so that means a five day holiday for those who took Friday off.  The overabundance of holidays, both civil and religious, is one of the reasons why new foreign capital is reluctant to invest in Spain.  There are too may days when work does not get done and that does not include vacations.

Yesterday we were packed and ready to go by 11:30 so we checked out and left the bags with the front desk.  There is a VIPS around the corner from the hotel so we decided to have our breakfast there.  VIPS is a chain that in addition to a restaurant has another section where they sell beverages, snacks, newspapers, magazines, books, water and alcohol.  They also sell gift items.  We took a table by the window, ordered our breakfast and watched the world go by.  We left VIPS at 12:30 and went in search of a drugstore to pick up a few items and we returned to the hotel to get our bags and take a cab to the train station.

Our train was scheduled to depart at 2:10 and they opened the train for boarding at 1:40.  We settled in our seats and waited for the train to depart and it did so on time.  The return trip was fifteen minutes shorter than our Friday trio because there were no stops at Cuenca or Utiel Requena.  Our train arrived five minutes early and when we exited the station we took the seven-minute cab ride to our home.  We unpacked and checked our e-mail and then decided to stop by Miguel’s to pick up a couple of packages that had arrived.  Miguel was out of the office so we decided to stop by Mantequería Chisbert and let Nacho prepare a snack for us.

He spent a while explaining to us his decision to close on Saturday afternoons and Sunday so that he could have the semblance of a real life that included other activities beside work.  He will now open on Mondays and work a five and a half day week.  When he finished his monologue he set about providing us with food and drink.  I chose a beer and Susan chose a glass of red wine.  He then proceeded to set before us a plate of pan con tomate, queso romero and jamón serrano.  Fortunately we chose the small plate because we would still be there trying to finish the large plate version.

When we were finishing up Nacho decided that we needed to have a gin and tonic made as only he could make them.  Out came a lemon, a chilled bottle of Master’s Gin, three bottles of the world’s most expensive tonic water, three glasses and ice.  He explained his recipe as he went along.  He poured a rather generous amount of gin into each glass, added the other ingredients gave everything a swirl with a knife and set the drinks before us.  I had never had a gin and tonic before.  In truth, the only mixed drink that I have ever had before was a Sloe Gin Fizz and that was when we were on our honeymoon in 1965.  However, I was game and, in truth, it tasted very good.  When we finished, we slowly made our way back home.

Our evening was quiet and we worked for a bit on the computer and read a bit.  I was in bed by 10:30 and Susan came to bed a half hour later.  Today’s photos were taken by Susan on Sunday when we visited the Chagall exhibit at the Thyssen Museum.

Monday, April 30, 2012

Yesterday we endeavored to recover from Friday’s and Saturday’s events. We slept in until about 10:00 and by the time we had showered and dressed it was a little before noon.  We went in search of some breakfast and ended up at a little bar/restaurant just up the street.  A little coffee and a little tortilla española were enough to energize us and so we decided to pay a visit to the Thyssen Museum, which is around the corner from the hotel.  It is one of my favorite museums because of the breadth of its collection and the fact that they are hosting an exhibition of some of Chagall’s most important works.

Museums offer a special discount to senior citizens and so our combined tickets cost us 16 Euros.  Our tickets were good for admission to the Chagall exhibit so that gave us an hour to tour the permanent collection.  We focused on the more modern artists and once again the canvases by Picasso, Dalí, Estes, Lichtenstein, Gris, Mondrian and a host of others.  At 1:15 we entered the Chagall exhibit and, to be perfectly honest, there was nothing there that grabbed my attention.  I decided to take a seat on one of the benches outside and let Susan take her time going through the exhibit.  When we left the museum we discovered that we had missed a downpour while we visited.

We decided that it was snack time and we walked into 100 Montaditos, a restaurant chain that you can find in just about every city and town in Spain.  Their greatest virtue is that they are inexpensive.  I had a beer, Susan had a glass of red wine and we shared a goodly quantity of potato chips and olives.  The bill was 5 Euros.  When we finished we returned to the hotel and decided to take life easy.  Susan read some and played on her iPad and I finished writing and posting my two blog entries.

Around 8:30 we were getting a bit hungry since we had not had lunch so we made our way to a restaurant called La Mucca located a few blocks from the hotel.  The place was packed and we did not have a reservation.  A funny thing happened while we were waiting in line.  A gentleman (?) walked in and, ignoring the fact that we were next in line, began to talk with the Maître D.  I tapped him on the shoulder and told him that we were next in line and he should wait his turn.  He excused his actions by saying that he had a reservation.  He wanted to change his reservation for two people to three people.  The Maître D told him to wait at the bar until his table was ready.  He asked us to take a seat on the nearby sofa and he would have a table for us in ten minutes.  He was true to his word.  As we sat down he said, “I thought there were three of you.” Guess whose table we ended up with?

The menu at La Mucca is very eclectic and ranges from hamburgers to exotic pizzas, Italian specialties as well as Thai specialties and everything in between.  We ordered a table of embutidos y quesos and a salad with tomatoes and tuna.  We had a brownie for dessert.  The quality of the food is good, but it is not great.  Some of the tastes are really not authentic and disappoint the palate that is expecting the real thing.  We did, however, accomplish our goal of getting something to eat.  We went back to the hotel, read for a while and went to bed around 11:30.

I found a few more wedding photos that I will include here, as well as some shots of La Mucca.

Ramón and

Ramón, Juan Diego and Ramón's parents

Sunday, April 29, 2012

We woke up yesterday at 10:00 and showered and dressed so that we could be at B Chic – where the ceremony was to take place – by 11:45.  The ceremony was scheduled for noon, but Ramón had called us on Friday and asked us to be there a bit early.  We cabbed over and the driver had no problem finding the space.  That turned out to be a good omen.

B Chic is normally a restaurant, but all tables had bee cleared out and the large dining room had been set with chairs and sofas to accommodate all the guests who would be attending the ceremony.  When we walked in there were servers standing by the door offering arriving guests a variety of juices and smoothies.  Perhaps two dozen guests had already arrived and judging by the number of seats many more were expected.  This was to be a new experience for us because this was the first gay wedding that we had ever attended.  Gay marriage is legal in Spain although the current government is considering changing that law.  The Partido Popular, the party of the right, continues to be loyal to the Monarchy and the Church.

We were warmly greeted by Ramón and his partner, Juan Diego who were glad that we were able to be present at this very important moment in their lives.  I met Ramón in 1990 at a magic store in Madrid.  I was there to take a look around and see what was available in a Spanish magic store.  Ramón was there to pick up some supplies for an upcoming business trip to Chicago.  We would connect again at the Spanish National Magic Convention in Toledo that summer and our friendship would continue through the next twenty-two years via the Internet and during our summer visits to Spain.  One year Ramón had come to San Francisco to study English and it was the same year that Rachel got married.  So he was present at her wedding and now we were present at his.

In addition to attending the wedding this was an opportunity to catch up with many familiar faces.  We had not seen the members of Ramon’s family for a number of years and of course his mother and father were present, as were his two sisters, Susana and Tonyi, and his brother, David.  Ingmar, a long time friend of Ramón and fellow magician had come from Sweden to be present and Berni, a new friend of ours whom we had met at the convention at La Coruña was there, too.  We chatted with everyone for a bit and then we walked into the space where the ceremony was to be held and took our seats.

There was a lectern set in the middle of the room with sofas on each side for the family.  There were also two armchairs placed about twenty feet away from the lectern where Ramón and Juan Diego sat.  The ceremony was a civil ceremony, but unlike any civil ceremony you have ever witnessed.  It began with a tribute to the couple read by the woman who authored it.  Next came a longtime friend who sang a selection from “The Phantom of the Opera”. Next there was a reading from the New Testament. What followed was a complete surprise for just about everyone present.  Juan Diego’s brother came to the lectern and read a letter written by Juan Diego’s mother to him before she passed away.  It brought everyone to tears.  Next came the elements of the civil ceremony and the exchange of vows and rings.  That was followed by Mark, a star of the German stage, singing Willy Nelson’s “You Were Always on My Mind”.  Next, the director of Ramon’s newest magic show came to the podium and delivered a very heartfelt and powerful tribute. As a finale, champagne was passed and we toasted while a duo of opera singers sang a number from “La Traviata” while everyone toasted the newlyweds and drained their glass.  With that the ceremony came to a close and the obligatory photos were taken and we all began to make our way to Libertad 22 where the reception was to be held.

The weather, which had been cold and overcast, had changed to light rain while we were witnessing the ceremony.  The site for the reception was a ten-minute walk from B Chic.  On a good day it would be no problem.  This was not a good day.  The sidewalks were crowded, the roadway is narrow and the puddles were abundant.  Berni led the way and guided us as quickly as possible to the reception site.

Libertad 22 is a site that one can rent for a function.  Juan Diego had designed some of the space for the event and the pictures on the wall contributed to the rest of the atmosphere.  Just as the ceremony was not your typical ceremony, the reception was not destined to be your typical reception.  About half of the invited guests had already made their way there and the remainder would arrive shortly.

Many of the guests, family aside, were from the world of entertainment and art.  It certainly was an eclectic group.  Some of the guests had helped out Ramón through the years as he put together his numerous stage shows.  There were a great number of singers, actors and dancers present and that was to become all the more evident as the afternoon progressed.  There was a DJ and the music was non-stop.  Susan observed that you know that you are at a gay wedding when the number of men on the dance floor is more than the number of women.  These guys had obviously danced before at other events and at other discos.  Some of their routines almost looked like they had been choreographed.

The servers passed wine, beer and a variety of soft drinks and water.  The buffet table was filled with embutidos, cheeses and a variety of breads.  The servers circulated among the guests with gazpacho shots, a canapé of fig and ham and a puff pastry that contained a filling of mushrooms and other goodies.  Then they passed cocoanut shrimp, octopus and mini-hamburgers.  Little did I realize that there would be more to come.  We had sampled the cold hors d’ouvres and now it was time for the hot ones.  There was another round of mini-hamburgers, a warm soup, gnocchi and other goodies.  The table was then cleared and desserts magically appeared.  In addition to a variety of bars and small cakes there were several varieties of pudding, although the word pudding is really not the best word to describe these delights.  Spaniards have their cocktails and mixed drinks after the dessert and so there was a table in the back where you could order your gin and tonics, or your scotch and water or your rum and coke or whatever floated your boat.

There was a parade of performers who sang and danced and did some hilarious sketches.  There was a duo of cross dressers who did four of the skits and at one point they were joined by Mark, the singer from Germany, to do a version of “It’s Raining Men”.  There was a Marilyn Monroe impersonator who turned out to be Ramon’s assistant in his current magic production.  There was also a male stripper dressed as a bride who did a rather reserved number in deference to the variety of guests present.  Finally, there was another champagne toast that was bit different from most.  At the bottom of each glass of champagne there was a stone.  Most were cubic zirconias, but one of the glasses contained an actual diamond. There was a gemologist present who was there to examine each stone as it was presented.

Susan and I left the party a little after 8:00 having thoroughly enjoyed ourselves.  We had been on the go since 11:00 and our energy level was resting on empty.  We made our way back to the hotel and spent the rest of the evening relaxing with a book or playing on the Internet.  Saturday turned out to be one of the best and most unique experiences we have ever had.

Friday, April 27, 2012

We were up a little before 8:00 to get ready for today’s trip for Madrid.  We had done most of the packing last night, so all we needed to pack were those cosmetics and things that we usually use in the morning.  A quick shower followed a quick breakfast and we were out the door by 9:15.  As luck would have it a cab was passing by our front door as we exited the building.  It was a quick ten-minute trip to the AVE station on Joaquín Sorolla and no sooner had we sat down on one of the benches than they opened the gates for boarding.  It was a good half hour before the train was scheduled to depart so we took our seats took out our books and read for a while.

The train departed on time and the route the train took was not the one we were accustomed to.  I think it took a more southerly route because we made stops in Utiel-Requena and Cuenca.  Both stops could not have lasted for more than three minutes and soon after each stop we were speeding along at 200 miles per hour.  Utiel-Requena is a wine producing area and we had the chance to see a goodly amount of recently planted vines.  At one point the sun came out and dispersed the overcast skies.  We arrived in Madrid five minutes ahead of schedule and the entire journey took one hour and forty-five minutes.

The cab ride from Atocha was ten minutes and checking into the hotel went smoothly.  The desk attendant was very charming.  It turns out that she is from Galicia and since we have spent a goodly amount of time there we were able to talk briefly about our experiences there.  She is from a small town called Cambadós, which is famous for its white wines.  We know that from experience.  It is well possible that one of the results of our conversation was the fact that she upgraded us to an Executive Room with a king size bed and more floor space than the normal room.  We unpacked, put things away and made ready to head off to the Estudio Internacional Sampere to catch up with Virginia and have lunch.

We decided to hop a cab to get to the school and that proved to be a mistake. What should have been a five-minute cab ride took close to twenty minutes.  Traffic was unbelievable and the competition between cars, buses, motorcycles, bicycles and pedestrians was fierce.  The good news is that we got there.  We walked in and were quite pleasantly surprised.

Bright colors greet the eye and things look very spacious.  The entire office area has been redesigned and is now bright and airy.  David who is in charge of the every day operation of the school has his own office that is glass enclosed.  Everyone else shares a common space where they have ample personal space and lots of room on their desks.  We said hello to old friends Margarita and Asunción.  Margarita is in charge of housing visiting students and also helping them solve problems with their señoras.  Asunción is the coordinator of classes for visiting students.  We also greeted Jaime’s son who now works at the school and Virginia’s son who is also employed there.

After chatting briefly with the assembled group Virginia, Jaime, Susan and I headed out for lunch.  We stopped in at a restaurant that features the cuisine of Andalusia.  It is a small space with a bar that accommodates perhaps eighteen patrons sitting and standing and in the back there is a dining area with six tables.  We made ourselves comfortable and studied the menu.  We ended up ordering a freidura, a plate of fried seafood that includes shrimp, sardines and squid, ­calamares en su tinta, albóndigas and carilladas de ibérico also know as pork cheeks.  We had a beer or two to wash things down and finished the meal with coffee.

Our conversation was wide ranging.  Our first contact with the Sampere family was in the summer of 1974 when we made arrangements for the first ever Foxcroft Mini-Term in Spain.  Alberto Sampere was running the school then, along with his wife who was one of the teachers. Juan Manuel, who would run the school after Alberto’s passing, was just getting out of the army and Jaime, Virginia and Cristina were the same age – more or less – as our high school students and would accompany us on our excursions.  When we left Foxcroft for Westridge I once again made a connection with the school and they helped us set up out first Interim in Spain program.  That program morphed into our intensive summer program where students would spend four weeks in Spain living with families, taking classes at the school and participating in a goodly number of cultural excursions.  Juan Manuel is no longer with us and Jaime, Virginia and Cristina have families of their own.  Rather than go into minute detail suffice to say that we talked about our common past, the present and the future.

When the meal was over we went back to the school and chatted a bit more.  We headed back to the hotel a little after 4:00 and this time we decided to walk.  I struggled a bit, but I made it.  The weather did not help.  It has been a strange day alternating between cloudy, sunny, overcast, threatening and very humid.  Those changes play havoc with my body thermometer.  We stopped at a nearby store and picked up several bottles of water and then headed up to our room to rest, relax and read a bit.  I was able to get in touch with Rebeca Valls who is one of the stars of the play we will be seeing this evening.  More about that later.

We left the hotel a little before 9:00 and ended up with a cab driver who had no idea where the theater was.  Nor did he have a GPS, which most cabs have these days.  The good news is that he eventually got us there.  Rebeca had left us two tickets at the box office so we picked them up and waited outside until the first show got out.  Believe it or not there is only a ten-minute break between the first show and the second show, but you could not tell that from the energy the actors evidenced during their performance.

The play is called BURUNDANGA and that is the name given to a truth serum that is also used as a date rape drug because the one who takes it has no memory of what transpired during the previous hours.  Its use in the play is to get someone to tell the truth.  It is a five-character play and it is a comedy that has its moments of slapstick.  Rebeca plays the pregnant Berta who is trying to discover the truth about her boyfriend who is the father of her baby.  What she does not know is that he is a member of the terrorist group ETA and he and a friend end up kidnapping someone for ransom.  That someone happens to be the uncle of Berta’s roommate.  The play runs an hour and forty-five minutes without an intermission and it is quite funny even though the premise of the play is ridiculous.  It has been running for quite a while and Rebeca recently rejoined the cast.  In her first experience with this play she played the roommate.

After the play was over we met Rebeca at the front door to the theater.  Since she had not eaten because of the two performances we suggested getting a bite to eat nearby.  She suggested a restaurant called Este y Oeste, which features Middle-Eastern food and is owned by a Kurdish family.  A friend of hers, Sergio, joined us also.  Sergio is working on a degree in both directing and script writing.  He is originally from Valencia, but will most likely stay in Madrid once he gets his degree.

It seemed like everyone in the restaurant knew Rebeca and that is not very surprising.  In addition to being a very charming young woman, she is very natural and there is no pretense about her.  Although her first love is theater she has worked quite a bit on TV and in a number of films.  We first saw her in a production of La Casa de Bernarda Alba, at the Matadero de Madrid, but it was not until later that we discovered that she was Nacho’s novia.

We shared a number of dishes that last night. We enjoyed some croquetas de jamón, a plate of jamón serrano, some kefte and a beef brochette.  We washed it all down with some beer and wine and for dessert I did some magic.  I only did two effects, but they both played well.  It was a little after 1:00 when we left the restaurant.  We all walked to the corner and said our goodbyes.  Susan and I found a cab and as a fitting closure to our evening he drove us to the Hotel Ritz and then suddenly realized that we had said The Palace.  We crawled into bed a little after 1:30 with the hope that we would sleep well and be sufficiently energized for Saturday’s wedding.

The renovated offices at the Estudio Internacional Sampere

Margarita y Asun

Virginia

Jaime