Bonifacio Part Two, And Another Day in Madrid

Today we slept in. Then we did some work before meeting Parental Unit Number 2 and Aunt Loli and Uncle Pepe at El Ñeru for lunch. A and B had fabada asturiana and S had fabes con almejas. Sindo, Loli and Pepe had some delicious merluza (file under hake). We recommend having the fabes con almejas as your first dish, followed by merluza a la romana.

Here is a recipe for fabes con almejas from the Asturian-American Migration Forum: Boom. I'm wondering if Sindo knows about this organization, because he is Asturian-American, too. He checked that box on his census form in 2005.

After lunch, we helped Sindo find small carved sheep for his Nativity set at the local Catholic gear shop on calle Bordadores. Then we kept walking down the street to check out the other half of the exhibition, “The Mirror and the Mask: Portraiture in the Age of Picasso," which is housed at the Fundación Caja Madrid, located in the Plaza de San Martín. This part of the show is free.

We looked at Lucien Freud's "Girl with a White Dog," from 1950-1951, below.



And one of our particular favorites was Lucien Freud's "The Painter Surprised by a Nude Admirer," from 2004-2005, below.


This kind of scenario sometimes happens in our studio in Madrid. But this is a family blog, so we'll have to leave it there.

During Michela and Brent's visit the week before last, we found this great cooking shop called Alambique, S.A. We wanted to show it to Barbara and Sindo and Loli, so we walked over to calle de la Encarnación. We bought some Spanish glass jars (for future spice storage) and looked in on a cooking class that was happening there.

After that, we walked up Gran Via and stopped in at the Casa del Libro to look for the Lazarillo de Tormes for Sindo to read on the flight back to LA on Friday.

Now we are at home again, watching a bit of news coverage on the much commented interview aired on TVE1 last night, in which José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero supposed that the average cost of a coffee is 80 euro cents (few people agree that coffee is that cheap, although a lot of cafeterías lowered their prices today after all the buzz created by the show). TVE1's program was called, "Tengo una pregunta para usted," and President Zapatero opened himself up to questions from average Spaniards about politics, the economy, and life in Spain for the average Spaniard.

On another channel, the Spanish national soccer team is playing Iceland in a qualifying match for Eurocopa 2007. Ho hum. March madness indeed.

And to conclude, another Bonifacio for our readers to enjoy:


We really loved Kathleen's interpretation of yesterday's Bonifacio painting. So here is another one. Knock yourself out, K.