Brie & Tuna Sandwiches

I’m kind of a big tuna fan. Tuna sandwiches. Tuna melts. Tuna in salad with cherry tomatoes and some dill. Heck, my mom even does this thing where she’ll toss in a can (or two, we’re a lot in my family) of tuna with Kraft Dinner and some vegetables and while, at least as much as I can remember, my sisters detest that dish, I’m a fan of it. And if you just made a face at that, don’t knock it til you try it because it just might surprise you. To sum up: I like tuna. And I made a tuna sandwich. With brie. This is all sorts of fancy here, guys.

Summer in March

Madrid has been warm. And by ‘warm’ I do mean, “We hit 20° yesterday, today was 24° out and the weekend’s supposed to be sunny as all heck.” To which all my Canadian and American family and friends are going, “We still have five feet of snow,” and, “We don’t care about you and your stupid weather.” While the Madrileños have continued to sport thick winter jackets, scarves and toques, my friends and I have labelled ourselves as even more foreign with our t-shirts, sleeveless dresses and capris. (I had a small child point and giggle as I walked by today and I spent the rest of my walk wondering if  I had something on my face before I realized I was the only person not wearing pants and yup, that’d be it.) Which meant that, when I met Alex’s parents on Wednesday, we got to take advantage of the terrace on El Corte Inglés in Callao. It had been on my list of ‘places to go’ for what feels like ages, but I just never made it (which is just sad when a person considers how much time I actually spend around Callao) and I’m glad that the day I did finally get up there, it was on a brilliantly sunny day.

Soup & Sandwiches: My Childhood in a Meal

While having a link clicking party for one, I stumbled onto this post over at The Candid Appetite. I don’t know if I’ve ever mentioned this about myself, but I love soup. As in: if I had to choose to eat one thing, the thing I would choose would be soup. This, like Jonathan does in his post, I can blame on my mother. Since we a.) lived in fairly small towns and b.) relatively close to the school (aka: could see the school through our back window and across a farmer’s field and just past the football field), my siblings and I would make the trek home every lunch hour where my mother would have a pot of soup and a stack of sandwiches for us. Of course, there were days where leftovers greeted us or else, if she wasn’t going to be home in the evening/would be too busy to cook dinner/various other reasons I’m forgetting right now, she would swap lunch and dinner and we’d have a full spread while soup would come out later.

As with Jonathan, I thought my soup experience was what everyone else’s was. Until a friend in high school went, “What do you mean, you only have soup?” to which we gave each other extremely confused and slightly judgmental looks before I paused and asked, “Well, what do you eat for lunch?” to which she replied with a full meal her Phillipino  mother had cooked up for her after she’d made her way to school. For a moment I felt the lack of with my simple soup and sandwich fare. But that wore off by the time I made my way back home, soup waiting for me. 

Favourite Photogs: Bernat Fortet

I saw a few of Bernat Fortet‘s Color Hunting photographs as I was scrolling through my tumblr the other day and had to click on over to his site. While I’m not really big on the rest of his work, his Color series is definitely interesting and eye catching. It hits more notes as art photography over photojournalism, but I am a big fan of how well his colour pairings go together and how clean and simple they all are. I would have no problem buying one as an art piece to hang on my wall. 

Bikes & Bars

This cafe has a bicycle hanging from the ceiling and all your arguments are invalid. All other places better step up their decor, because this takes it to a different level.  Also: I should really start working on putting together ‘a guide to Madrid’ type of thing. (Sandra Juto’s Berlin and Gothenberg guides seem like good inspiration. Any other guides you’d suggest?)  Toma is my (new) favourite place to stop for coffee and Dubliners is where we stop at least once during the weekend, for a drink or two and some football.