Pizza at North of the Island in Tenerife

What is the difference between Samosas of India, Spring Rolls of China, and Chagio of Vietnam???, the stuffing right? ...... On the same theme, here is the new snack, with stuffing that contains a piece of white cheese, wrapped with a spinach leaf and fried in the crispy rice flour wrapping, served in the bed of sweet and sour sauce with a dash of soya sauce....imagine the taste….its yum...gone in a second leaving behind its lingering taste....but wait.....what I like the best is...er..the serving appetizer spoons...I need to buy those......

The chef said, “Its on the house, my new creation”.

He was introducing a new snack, Paquetos de quesos y espinaca con salsa agridulce and he wanted me to try it.

I gave him full marks.

I like restaurants that care for its clients and are always trying new creations and this Italian restaurant ‘Tasca Pizzeria Maracay’ gets a brownie point.

I actually went for pizza because that is what it specializes in. They have oven-roasted pizzas with great variety of combination. We ordered three kinds

Pizza cuatro quesos: Pizza with four different cheeses: Mozzarella, Parmesan, Camembert, rogurfort.

Pizza Stramboli: with tuna, ham and prawns

Pizza Vegetariana: with Mushroom, asparagus, black olives and capsicum.

The oven-roasted pizzas have their distinct burnt taste, that sets it apart from the normal ones.

Since most of the Spanish food has bland taste, I like restaurants that have good sauces to go with the meals. We ordered ‘Queso asado con dos mojos (cilantro and rojo pimientos’ which is actually roasted white cheese soaked in two sauces :coriander and red capsicum.

We also had a pretty looking salad, okay, it was not just pretty, it was delicious too. With the combination of rocket leaves, lettuce, black and green olives, asparagus, cherry tomatoes, red cabbage, basil, olive oil, it is hard to imagine it can be anything but tasty….

Tasca Pizzeria Maracay’ is an Italian restaurant in the north of the island at La Guancha in Tenerife. It has very good ambience with pine furniture and many artifacts decorating the walls. They have bamboo furniture outside in the open and on a bright sunny day, it’s a perfect place to spend an afternoon.

Coffee Culture In Spain

Journey from Mumbai to Canary Islands can be very tedious, because there is no direct flight (have to change 3 flights, via Paris and Madrid to reach Tenerife) and there is no food offered in local European flights. My mouth was parched from exhaustion and I needed to buy a drink. I asked for water, but had to wait till airhostess was ready to bring her cart of drinks. I was too thirsty to drink anything else but water, that was on sale for 2 euros.

On arriving at Tenerife airport, I entered the cafeteria and ordered coffee for me, not specifying the kind of coffee I needed. I was served Café Cortado (expresso with little milk) in a tiny cup. I regretted cause I should have specified that I needed Cappuccino(the milky brand with lots of foam floating on the top making beautiful designs)

In Mumbai, everybody drinks too much tea, some to freshen up and some to kill hunger. In Spain, everybody drinks too much coffee and for the same reason. 

Spanish coffee is roasted and blended in a unique way, with its undeniably quality and unrivaled variety, it represents more than a drink, it is actually a way to relax and celebrate life.

There is great variety to choose from, as the country is filled up with cafes, terraces, restaurants, bars, clubs, pubs, and everywhere you see people sipping coffee.

Mothers leave their children at school then head towards coffee house for some gupshup before going home to their daily routine. Men need coffee with their every puff (it helps them think better, maybe). In Spain, “tomar un café” is one of the most common phrase and an essential part of their everyday life.

But little gyan is important or else you will be stuck with most weird taste in your mouth for ordering the wrong type of coffee.

Café solo, (which means single espresso,) is the most common type of coffee with no milk and is normally served in small cups. Cafe solo represents the basis of all Spanish coffee, It’s the strongest coffee and Spanish normally have this around 11am.

If you are travelling in Spain and like strong coffee with no milk, then Café Solo is for you. If you think it is too small then you can order Café Doble (double espresso), If you find it too strong, then ask for ‘Americano’ (this has more water added and is served in bigger cups) and if you think that none of these is your type and you still prefer without milk, then can ask for Café Suizo (espresso topped with whipped crème) or Carajillo (which is spiked with brandy or whisky)

Most of the time, Spanish prefer their coffee with milk, which is much weaker than Café Solo. They start and end their day with ‘Café con Leche’ (this is half milk, half coffee) and they even have it after every meal.

It is important to understand the difference between ‘Café con Leche’ and Café Cortado. ‘Cortado’ means short or ‘cut’ but it has nothing to do with language. Don’t even think that waitress will give you short espresso. Nah! Café Cortado is café solo with just a bit of milk.

But what if you want less coffee and more milk? You must say “El Café: un Manchado por favor”

If you cannot tolerate caffeine, there’s always the option for ordering ‘Descafeinado’ but again, be careful, you must ask for ‘descafeinado de maquina’ unless you want to get an instant coffee poured into a cup of hot milk.

Then there is another interesting type called ‘Café con Heilo’ (coffee with ice) this is not cold coffee that you might have had sometimes in your own house where in you make coffee and just add ice. There is a ritual to prepare this, which is pretty much like this: 

You ask for a cup of coffee (it could be black or light brown, it doesn’t matter) and a glass filled with ice cubes. Add the sugar in your hot coffee, let it melt and then pour the cup over the glass containing ice. Drink it fast.

Confused already? Okay here is the list if that helps:

Café Solo (Espresso)

Café Doble (double espresso)

Café con Leche (espresso with milk, usually half and half proportionally)

Café Cortado (espresso with a bit of milk)

Café Manchado (little espresso with more milk)

Café Suizo (espresso topped with whipped cream)

Café Americano (large Café solo with more water)

Café Bombon (Café solo with condensed sweet milk)

Carajillo (espresso with a drop of brandy, whiskey or rum)

Café Caramel  (Café solo with condensed milk)

Café con Heilo (Espresso with ice)

There are so many variations and they are so entangled that they only blur your mind and confuse you. With many coffee houses in India, many people have developed a taste for different variety of coffee.

When in Spain, I may order Manchado or Cortado but back home in Mumbai, its always 'just cutting chai……'

When in Spain, You Must Eat ‘Churro Chocolaatey’

We live in a better world. There are hardly any secrets left. World Wide Web answers most of our queries from the easy comfort of our home. We have TV, movies, reality shows, visitors that educate us, transporting us to most weird places which we would never dream of going, exposing us to the customs and culture of world beyond our reach.

but....

Many years ago, when there was no Google, no u-tube, no web connection, World was a lonely place. People met only those who lived just few miles away. Adventurous people travelled to new places to explore different regions of the world. When they returned, they brought back stories to share about the different culture, their dressing style and their food habits.

One theory is that once an adventurous Portuguese man travelled to HongKong, Hunger pangs took him for a walk in search of something to eat. He drooled when he followed the smell of frying bread. There was a group of Chinese men sitting in a way-side restaurant, dipping the fried bread in the hot porridge and eating.

Seeing his hungry expressions the Chinese men invited him to share their meal.

"What is this?" he asked holding the crispy fried bread in his hand.

"This is 'You Tiao'" they said.

He loved 'You Tiao' so much that he started visiting this place everyday. 

He thought that it would be nice if he could take back the culinary technique  to Europe so that people in his country could enjoy it too.

But unfortunately, nobody was willing to share the cooking secrets with him.

The Chinese Emperor had made it a crime with capital punishment to share the knowledge with the foreigners. 

Thus although he relished ‘You Tiao’ he could not learn the Chinese skill of ‘pulling’ the dough. 

As a result, when he returned back home, he tried to explain it in the best way to reproduce the same taste.

They modified the dough, introducing a star design through star shaped die.

Thus Churro came to exist in Spain

Churro are often sold by street vendors, who fry them freshly on the street and sell them hot. They are crunchy and are either sprinkled with sugar or served with hot chocolate.

This is the must-have-snack for me when I come to Spain.

A batter of flour, sugar and salt is piped out from large Churrera through a star-shaped nozzle into the pan containing hot oil. This reminded me of the Jalebi hawker on Indian street who pipe out the batter in concentric circles into hot pot of oil. 

 The chef controls the flow of the batter by moderating the valve.

With the help of two steel rods, he controls the flow into spiral motion forming concentric ring.

he stirs it for even frying of the batter on all sides

When they are crisp and browned, he carefully lifts the fritters

Tosses them on a countertop

 cuts them with the scissors into strips

and serves it either with sprinkled sugar granules or with the cup of hot chocolate.

Best time to enjoy this snack is in the cold, winter, early morning, preferably at 5am, if you are awake.....or returning home from late night parties.