McDonaldization

In this post I would like to talk about burgers and fast food chains. According to the dining stories burgers were born to take advantage of poor quality meat. The first Russian immigrants, who came to the Germany in fourteen century, introduced this dish and began to roast beef on the grill. They called it “burger” or “hamburger”.

In 2000, three young boys of Burger King of Scottville in New York were arrested of putting spit, urine and cleaning products in the burgers. As the result many customers got food poisoning and were hospitalized. Other similar case happened in McDonald's restaurant in Colorado Springs where was found a cockroach infestation in the milk-shake machine. How can we eat in fast food restaurants after all? Unfortunately parents are still taking their children to these kinds of places ignoring the effects that this food can have on their health.

 Today it seems that “all” fast food chains follow strict hygiene standards or so they say. But, get inside into the baths of these restaurants and you will see how “clean” they are. If they don’t clean their baths, do you think they clean their kitchens? 

Nine Million Euros Burned Every Year by Spaniards

Fallas is the most important festive season in Valencia. It’s celebrated from 15th until 19th of March in honor of Saint Joseph, the patron of carpenters. The tradition begins in the 18th century when the carpenters of the city burned old furniture to say goodbye to the bad omens and the winter and give a warm welcome to the spring.

Nowadays the tradition continues, but instead of burning old furniture, the architects build up huge satiric monuments to criticize the society. These monuments receive the name of  Ninots and each  Ninot costs thousands of euros. What is more, all these monuments will be burned on the last day of Fallas. Meanwhile Spain faces the deepest financial crisis, the Fallas of Valencia burn around nine million euros every year. And it seems that society doesn’t care about. Instead of providing funds for health and education the Spanish society invests money on building these cute Ninots.

As if this weren’t bad enough, Fallas pollute the city very worryingly. During the festivity there are fireworks twice a day every day. What would say Saint Joseph if he saw in what the tradition of burning the old furniture has become. 

Foie Gras: Torture in a Tin

Have you ever eaten Foie gras?

Foie gras is a food product made of the liver of the duck. It is well known in French cuisine for its buttery and delicious flavor. It can be served as an accompaniment to another food item, such as steak.

But do you know how Foie gras is made?

According to the PETA Organization (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) to “produce foie gras workers ram pipes down male ducks’ or geese’s throats two or three times daily and pump as much as 4 pounds of grain and fat into the animals’ stomachs, causing their livers to swell to up to 10 times their normal size. Many birds have difficulty standing because of their engorged livers, and they may tear out their own feathers and cannibalize each other out of stress.”

The birds spend their whole live in small cages where they hardly can move. It is the same if people spend their life locked in a small room. Can you imagine living in a room forever? Animals do not deserve such treatment. I have to admit that I am not vegetarian, but I am totally against the massive production of meet under these conditions. And despite being a cook and worked in many restaurants that did use this “delicacy” I have to say that I hate foie gras.  

This is a link to a video that explains how foie gras is made: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BAzrSl0ztsQ#t=119 

Stop speaking your mother tongue!

I think the best way to learn a language is stop speaking your mother tongue. It could seem a pointless statement when you live in your country already, but I have seen the same pattern hundreds of times and I am seeing it once again here in Graz. Many Spanish students spend all their time complaining about how hard German or English is. Actually no language is easy to learn, but everyone should take this opportunity of being in another country and try to speak the foreign language as much as possible. And this is what I am doing here in Graz. At first it was very difficult to get used to living in another country and speaking in the foreign language. I felt very sad, because after so many years studying German I wasn’t able to say anything in German. However I remembered I went through a similar situation when I came to Spain. I knew no Spanish and nothing about this country. But I learned some vocabulary and tried to put it into practice with native speakers.  First I spoke very poor, but I didn’t care, because I knew I would gradually improve my level. So when I came to Graz I thought I could follow the same strategy with German and English. Today I try to speak my mother tongue as less as possible. I found many foreign friends and I speak with them only in English or German and I think is the best way to learn a language.

What do we celebrate on January 6?

In Spain we celebrate the Three Kings Day. According to the Christian tradition, three foreigners visited Jesus after his birth and brought him many valuable gifts. We still celebrate this tradition today and on the night of the fifth day of January the Three Kings bring gifts to children. The children who behaved badly usually receive a small bag with sweet coal (sweeties made from sugar and water). On this day we also eat Three King’s cake. It is a ring-shaped cake containing both a small figure of Jesus and a dry bean. According to the tradition, the one who gets a figure of Jesus must be crowned, but whoever gets the dry bean must buy the Three King’s cake next year. 

Three King's cake

Sweet coal

Why classical music is still alive?

Rock, Jazz, Heavy metal, Pop, Rap, etc., there is a lot of types of music that have been promoted over classical music. What about classical music? Why it is still alive? The classical music had been preserved for hundreds of years, from the Baroque period into the Contemporary and Late Romantic era, but what is more interesting is that classical music, according to the experts, is the only one which can produce all kind of feelings at the same time. Unfortunately, this antiquated music is now ignored by our society who is so desperate to follow new trend. 

These guys inspired me to blog this post (Students from Castellon's Music College)

Tortellini vs. Ravioli

I decided to write about this topic, because recently I realized that many people still think today that tortellini and ravioli are completely different dishes. Working in a small Italian restaurant on weekends one day a customer ordered meat-filled tortellini with mushroom sauce. Unfortunately we run out of tortellini and offered him meat-filled ravioli instead. The customer refused and asked for another dish.

Dear pasta lovers,

Tortellini are round in shape and have a hole inside, whereas Ravioli are square in shape with no hole inside them.  Both of them are prepared from the same pasta and the only difference is the shape. In both, Tortellini and Ravioli’s stuffing could be: meat, vegetable, fish or creamy cheeses, etc.

Yours faithfully

A bit of history

In earlier times, tortellini and ravioli were considered to be delicacies to be eaten only on weekends as they were considerably expensive. In those times, the stuffing was vegetable based as poor could not afford meat all the time.