Tapas Time

Tapas are a quintessential Spanish tradition that I really wish would spread over to the United States. It's all about going out with some friends and enjoying some wine, food, and company for an evening. 

Besides the socializing, there are three parts to the act of tapas, though these can vary depending on where in the country you are. In Lugo we are pretty lucky as far as tapas are concerned, but I'll explain why later.

First, the tapa. Literally, the word tapa translates to "lid" or "he/she covers." I remember hearing the origin (or supposed origin) at some point, but I forget it now. You can come up with your own theories just as well as I can and they'll probably be just as accurate. 

So, what is a tapa, other than a lid? In this context, a tapa is a little something to eat along with your drink. This can be a wide variety of things, and depends on what region you are in. Here we can get some things that are pretty specific to Galicia, such as caldo gallego (a brothy soup made with potatoes and a vegetable that I believe is called "tree collards" in English), or raxo (a piece of fried pork with spices on bread). More Spanish-style examples are patatas bravas (like little french fries with spicy ketchup), or albóndigas (meatballs. this is slightly misleading because you almost always only get one.)

Here we have an example of raxo (a super greasy example) and champiñones (mushrooms) in the background. These ones are fried, but you can also find champiñones con crema which is, as you probably guessed, mushrooms in cream sauce. So good.

Next is really the main part of the tapas experience, or at least the part you pay for (in Lugo at least. again I'll explain more later): the drink.

In deciding what to drink, you must first choose between wine, beer or hard alcohol. Wine can be essentially divided into tinto or blanco (red or white) and from there it's only a matter of what you know how to order. I usually go with a rioja, because it's hard to go wrong with a rioja. 

Rioja with champiñones con crema. 

If you want beer, there's three options: caña, which is whatever light beer is on tap, often Estrella Galicia, tostada, which is whatever somewhat darker beer is on tap, and clara de limon, which is light beer with fanta. I know, it sounds trashy, but if you don't feel like consuming as much alcohol as your typical spaniard it's a good choice. 

Finally is hard alcohol, which is pretty much the same as you can get at most any bar. There are however a few Galician specialities that I'd like to share. They are: liquor café, crema de orujo, liqor de hierbas, and liqor miel. These are the typical Galician distilled spirits, and usually each bar will have theirs specially homemade, either by an artisan or by the bar itself. 

The last part of the tapas experience is the pincho (Gl: pitisco, Bsq: pintxo) which is a little piece of something with a toothpick stuck in. This is generally a piece of bread with some cheese or ham on top, but can also be a slice of tortilla de patata (this really deserves its own blog post) or empanada (pastry stuffed with tuna or ham and fried onions & peppers)

These are fancier pintxos than most of what I've seen.

So, now on to why Lugo is special when it comes to tapas. In Lugo, the drink is the only part of this whole shenanigan that you have to pay for. After you get your drink, the waiter will come around with a platter of pintxos and rattle off a list of tapas that they're offering. Then you, panicked and bewildered by the options, blurt out some string of syllables that hopefully come close to something the waiter said. And you take a pintxo. Depending on the bar, the waiter might come back once or twice more with more pintxos.

This compared to a lot of Spain where you might only get a pintxo or have to pay for your tapa as well as the drink. Here's how they work in some other cities:

Granada: no pintxos, +1 free random tapa.

Cadiz: pay for a tapa of your choosing.

San Sebastian: buffet style pintxos, free with your drink. 

This is only what I've heard however, so I may be wrong. I'm curious though, to see how tapas are done elsewhere. Some travelling is in order. But in the meantime, I'll just be happy that in Lugo I can fill up on tapas and not have to cook dinner every once in a while.

Thinking Thoughts about Things

The title of today's post is a quote from Dr Brewer, my phonetics professor in college. And while this post isn't strictly phonetics-related, I am going to share some of the thoughts I've thunk of about things. Words and so forth.

First, a bit about what people speak here. We're in Spain, so of course, everyone speaks Spanish (Sp: español), or, to be more accurate, and/or exclude all of the rest of the Spanish-speaking world, we can call it Castillian (Sp: castellano) because there are some pretty major differences between "spain-spanish" and "everywhere else-spanish" (but I'm not really going to go into that right now). But, we are also in Galicia, so most people speak Galician (Gl: galego; Sp: gallego). The two are generally mutually intelligible, and I have heard/been part of many conversations where one party is speaking Galician and the other is speaking Spanish. A small percent of the population speak exclusively Spanish, and a small percent speak exclusively Galician, but the majority will switch back and forth depending on who they're with and what they're doing.

Castillian and Galician are two twigs on one branch of the Romance family. I couldn't figure out how to make a nice-looking branching diagram, so here's a venn diagram instead.

But this diagram is missing an important datum: Portuguese. Really, Galician is more closely related to Portuguese than it is to Spanish, and it could be argued that it is more closely related to Spanish than Portuguese is. Hopefully this clarifies:

Really, you could add a bigger circle encompassing all three and call it Latin (it would be green)

Portuguese and Galician were once part of the same Galician-Portuguese language, which is the politically correct term for both "Medieval Galician" and "Old Portuguese" because they were the same thing. About 700 years ago. Then history happened. 

But not too much history, because as the diagram shows, it's all still pretty similar. There are a few differences though, which I'll share next. Bear in mind, this is all just my observations, and I haven't done any real research. Or fake research either (read wikipedia)

• More vowels than Spanish, less than Portuguese. Unlike Spanish, Galician uses /ɔ/ and /ɛ/ (the "ou" in "bought" and the "e" in "bet" respectively) but it does not distinguish between nasal and non-nasal vowels like Portuguese does. 
• Random diphthongs. Most of the time, Galician uses the same vowel sounds as Portuguese, which gets us words like "fóra" and "catro" (/fɔra/ /kɑtɾo/ or /kɑtɾu/) instead of the Spanish "fuera" and "cuatro" (/fu͡eɾɑ/ /ku͡ɑtɾo/) (En: "out" and "four") Sometimes though (and by sometimes I mean very frequently) we get / ei͡/ and /o͡i/ sounds where there would probably just be an /e/ or an /o/ in both Spanish and Portuguese. Or a /u/. For example, we have Gl: "fontaneiro," vs Sp: "fontanero" and Pt: "canalizador" (En: "plumber") Or a better example perhaps: Gl: "escoitar" vs Sp: "escuchar" and Pt: "ouvir" (En: to listen)
• My name is Megang. If it ends in a n, it really ends in a /ŋ/.
• All "j"s are "x"s. Pretty much any time you would use a "J" in Spanish, you get to use an "X" in Galician, which is great because X is the cool letter. (as in X-treme) It's also nice for me, because in Castillian "j" says /χ/ (the coughing-up-a-lung sound) and I have trouble with it. But, "X" says /ʃ/ which is the be-quiet sound, as in "shush."
• Lots of "h"s are "f"s. Or they're not. Sp: "hablar" (/ɑβlɑɾ/) Gl: "falar" Sp: "hombre" Gl: "home" (/omi/ or /ome/)
• Reflexive pronouns. In Spanish, reflexive pronouns come before the verb (me gusta, me levanto...) while in Portuguese, they supposedly come after, but people don't really use them (gosto de, levantou...). Galician uses the Portuguese format, but actually sticks to the plan more frequently (gusta-me, levanto...)
• Contractions. Like English, Galician and Portuguese have a lot of contractions. But they don't use apostrophes, and most of them are of the preposition + article kind. So, where in Spanish you'd (look, a contraction, thanks apostrophe!) have "de las" in Galician you have "das" (En: "of the")
• Memories of Latin. Galician has a few random words that seem to come through a thousand years of linguistic change untouched. Examples: "non" (En: "no") and "can" (En: "dog")
• The my. Like in Portuguese (but unlike English and Spanish), Galician requires that you use the article as well as the possessive. So, you get things like "as miñas chaves" (literally, the my keys).

So, that's what I've learned of Galician. I can do a few basic phrases (like "Tes as chaves?" or "graciñas" En: "Do you have the keys?" "thanks") but that's pretty much it.

Some Spanish Castillian observations: 

• Verbs are tricky. Nouns are comparatively easy. A dog is a dog, a rock is a rock, and existentialism is existentialism. Sometimes there's a double (or triple or 4-tuple) meaning I don't know, but usually they make sense. Chorizo is chorizo, but it's also a dick, and a dick (see what I did there?). Verbs on the other hand require more diagrams.

Or

Or

Besides the meanings, tenses are hard. I called them tenses, but really I mean to say moods. In English, we use "auxiliary verbs" like "can" "should" "would" etc... In Spanish, we have a mix of semi-kinda auxiliary verbs "deber" "poder" (should/must and can/could, more or less) and inflexions, which can be used in conjunction with the auxiliary verbs. There's three (okay, four) kinds of inflexions-- conditional (I would do X), imperative (do X), subjunctive (If I were to do X...) and indicative (I do, am doing, was doing, will do, etc) I guess. I don't really want to count this one because it seems like the "normal" one to me, but that's just my English brain being confused. 

I get two main kinds of problems from these things. 1 is the subjunctive, straight up. For a oversimplified explanation, see the first diagram above. 2 is when the inflections (other than the indicative) are supposed to be used in conjunction with the semi-kinda auxiliary verbs... But I'll not bore you with more complaining. 

Anyway, despite how it may seem, I have learned quite a bit of the two languages, and even had the chance to practice some of my Portuguese listening skills the other day. (there were some Brazilian tourists sitting next to me in a cafe and I may have been a creeper and eavesdropped on them.)

Edit: I forgot! I was going to add some of the ways Spanish has influenced my English (and other American's English), that is to say, some weird "mistakes" I've made/heard.

Not being able to think of the appropriate English word. Like "scale" or "college." "Weighing machine" and "university" just sound odd. 

Odd turns of phrase. "It gives me stress" instead of "I am stressed"

Also, Spanish has some phrases whose translations might seem antiquated or just not commonly said. My favorites: "me da igual" which translates to "it's all the same to me" and is something I probably wouldn't say on a regular basis. But "me da igual"? multiple times every day. "Tengo ganas de..." literally, "I have desire to..." do something. I guess you could say "I'd like to..." but it's not quite the same.

Belated Holiday Post

So, holidays in Spain are rather different from holidays in the Ango-Saxon countries, so much so that they really do deserve a blog post even though I've been putting it off.

1.) Nochebuena (Christmas Eve) It's traditional to have a big, expensive dinner at home the night before Christmas, usually seafood. I had a difficult time trying to my students the English words for some of the things they eat, because I just don't have a word for the animal that is bigger than a crawdad but smaller than a lobster. Small lobster just didn't cut it.

2.) Navedad (Christmas) The day for papa noel! Some kids get gifts this day, but it's not traditional. The whole holiday season is referred to as navedades. More eating is of course required. I later read a newspaper article claiming that the average Spaniard gains 6 kilos over the holidays, but that is a lot of weight and I don't know where they got that number from. I suspect that they do the same thing I do, which is make up numbers for the sake of having numbers. The traditional food (well, candy) for this day is turrón, which is an almond-based sweet that comes in a variety of forms. 

Here we have turrón duro and turrón blando (hard and soft turron). The hard kind is kind of like peanut brittle, and the soft kind is kind of like that last little bit of peanut butter in the bottom of the jar that never got mixed in very well, but almondy and sweet and tasty.

3.) Nochevieja (New Years Eve) This is a really big deal in Spain, much more so than the states. At midnight, you are supposed to eat 12 (twelve) grapes in quick succession, one with each toll of the bell. You can even buy 12-packs of peeled, skinless grapes at the supermarket. This seemed like cheating to me, and I bought real grapes, and so did everyone I invited over for the grape-eating. I was still finding seeds around the flat like a week afterwards. 

Sarah and I trying to eat grapes and not choke. Fortunately no Heimlich Maneuvers were preformed that night. We also went to a New Years party hosted by some of Sarah's friends where we drank cava (Spanish champagne) and red wine with coca-cola, which isn't that bad really.

At least I finally had a chance to wear that dress I bought with Shelby in Bham. Also, since when am I the tall one? This never happens.

4.) Los Reyes Magos (Three Wise Men Day) I'm actually not sure what to call this day in English, because it's not a thing I've ever known anyone to celebrate. This is the traditional gift-giving day, which frankly makes more sense. The three wise men brought gifts to the baby Jesus, and now they bring gifts to all the children everywhere. I'm not even sure where exactly Santa Clause comes into the picture. It is also traditional to have a parade in town, which I didn't know until later, so I missed out. The traditional food for this day is el roscón de reyes, which is a cake-type dessert shaped like a doughnut. 

Pretty delicious. I invited some auxiliares over for dinner, and one of them brought a little roscón to share.

There is something wrong with this picture

This is the door to my apartment. Do you see what the problem is here? Maybe not. Let's zoom in.

Deadbolt, check. Locky chain thing, check. Peephole designed with the vertically challenged in mind, check.

But.... there's no knob. The deadbolt does the same thing, I guess, but in the same way chopsticks work for eating steak or a hammer works for opening a jar.

SUPERMERCADO!!!

I used all-caps for the title because this is probably the most boring post I'll post. In the subsequent paragraphs I will discuss the various supermarkets to be found in Galicia, their pros and cons and what makes them special. Maybe you were expecting a Christmas/holiday blog, but NO. supermarkets.

First on the list is Froiz, because 1) it has a weird name, and 2) it is the closest to my flat.

I like Froiz because it's like two minutes from my flat and they have good bread. They are also a Galician brand, and I am all about supporting the Spanish (and especially Galician) economy. On the downside, they have less selection and are a little more expensive than other supermarkets, and you can't weigh your produce yourself. Although they do have tortillas and refried beans.

Next on the list is Mercadona, because it is next closest to my flat.

Pros: lots of selection, good prices, catchy theme song ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ytT6355sDr4 ), five minutes from my flat, an inviting font, and you get to weigh your own produce!! Cons: the layout is confusing and the bread is mediocre. 

Next: Gadis

Gadis is my favorite supermarket. It has all the pros of Mercadona, plus it is another Galician brand, the bread is good, and the color scheme is awesome. yellow orange and brown, woo! On the downside, it is about 9 minutes from my flat. This is the only photo I have of Gadis. it's over there in the bottom right corner.

Next: Carrefour


cons: it is the french version of walmart, only expensive. There are almost always homeless people outside and the empanadas are no good. pro: this is where my microwave comes from.

next: Dia %


yes, that is the name of this supermarket. I don't know much about it, so it gets a score of average. I once bought frozen tuna pizza and beer from a dia %.

Next: Eroski

This is another huge, international brand, and I have never been inside one. some day. con: overused color scheme.