More on food

After yesterday’s mouthwatering post, I decided to talk a bit about my likes and dislikes when it comes to gastronomy. First, I need to say I miss proper Brazilian cuisine. A lot! Even silly things that I simply cannot find here, such as chilled “água-de-côco”, to drink on the beach on the coconut itself, or in jars at restaurants. So whenever I’m home, I gain some weight from overeating what I missed out on the rest of the year.

There are certain things I don’t like much: still can’t put up with onions (though I know that they are essential to some dishes), I won’t eat too exotic meat (rabbit, for example, which is actually quite popular in Spain, but no way I’ll eat it), and I’m not that into too spicy foods. It’s too much for my tongue and stomach (which is by nature very delicate). I think it’s great that some people know what spices go on well with what, but what seems a bit too much for me is overusing chili, for instance, and then missing out completely the original taste of the food. It’s funny because I live with Mexicans, and while in one hand they complain that the chicken here “tastes like nothing”, on the other hand they don’t like the strong flavor of Roquefort cheese, which I love.

One good thing about living in Europe is that you learn more about international cuisines just by osmosis, especially in the UK, since they have restaurants from all over the world. I found out there that I do really like Mediterranean food, and also from the east side of the sea – the Greek cuisine is so rich and tasty, for instance! I also started enjoying foods that I didn’t back home (out of prejudice or laziness) such as Japanese food.

Another subject is the issue of dietary restrictions: I believe there are delicious vegetarian dishes out there, but I don’t think I could commit to it. I’m not that into meat, but every now and then I would like to enjoy a barbeque, for instance. As for veganism, how could I survive without cheese? I just love it! I know that behind it all there’s the issue of the way animals are treated. I wished I could afford to eat only organic meat, milk, fruits and vegetables, but so far it is just too expensive. Hopefully the agro-industrial companies will manage in the future to change this situation – for the sake of our planet and of us! Then, there are people who are allergic or have other restrictions, such as people who cannot eat gluten. Those have a hard-time, especially in places like Brazil, which is a shame. People tend to look at then as if they didn’t want to eat anything because they are picky, when actually there are cases of people with so severe allergies that they can even die by just accidentally touching a certain food.

About cooking: I enjoy cooking, as long as it isn’t just for me and that it isn’t everyday. Perhaps whenever I have children I’ll have the right stimulus and time to cook more often. It’s just that it’s even a bit depressing to spend at least one hour cooking a nice meal and then eating by yourself in ten minutes. Then you have all that food accumulated that either gets spoilt or too repetitive. So I confess that frozen and ready meals are a bit of a solution, a not very healthy and tasteless one though. I love watching cooking TV shows. I only wished I could afford more and did things better… I probably would if I had been stimulated to cook from my childhood. But, no regrets… I have my lifetime to learn how to make del dishes and hopefully share them with more people. For now, I take the chance that Barcelona has a good amount of nice restaurants and go on trying new things.