final Patio. This one of Ainslie.

Culture - what we do around here

Culture

well the chilli world tour is over for another year. more or less. and it doesn't seem that the significance of the chilli and its ubiquity is celebrated as much as it ought to be. Even in Portugal, which is known to have spread the chilli around the world, we didn't actually run into my chilli in Portuguese cuisine, except piri piri sauce with barbecued chicken.

 An  interesting point that Grette found on a Yale site was that the chilli really came in to the USA via people from West Africa who were brought in as slaves (they had clearly been early adopters of the chilli when it arrived with Portuguese traders) rather than by encroaching over the border more organically from its indigent home in Mexico.

One of the joys of this journey was to kind of come to grips with how seriously married people can be to their food. Comparisons, which I am so inclined to make, are insidious. And I know that. Thoughtful rational view would remind me that the typical Australian cuisine is extraordinarily rich in its diversity which ranges from various immigrant communities keeping the faith with their heritage to the innovative fresh food fusion that draws on Asian and European ingredients.   And that the take away food culture is fairly common across the developed world.

But what I noticed in all three countries we visited was both a loyalty and pleasure that people we came across took in their food.  And in that context, while the Middle East and Africa and Asia in all its diversity embraced the chilli with gusto, the Spanish and Portuguese, who distributed the chilli world wide, didn't take it on in the same way; the occasional piquancy of patatas bravas of Spain and the kick in Portugal's piri piri not withstanding. Rather they just took what they wanted from the capsicum family  and made pimientos a feature of everyday pub food - meals, tapas and all that. ie Capsicums. Red and green. Lots and lots of them. Skinned red peppers with tuna. Whole baked green peppers with grilled meat and chips. Strips of red and green capsicums in all sorts of salads. Peppers stuffed with minced pork and prawns, or bread and fish. Chillies in a sense, but not as we know them.

This 2013 leg of the chilli world tour has been big  in terms of culture: the Phoenicians, the Romans, the Berbers, the Arabs and the Catholics; leaning and hearing different languages; social and economic pain in a post industrial world and the cultural impact of that; writing things on walls; dance, song and ceramics. How people live together. As well as the food. Knowing who you are by the food you eat and how you eat it..

Finally - talking about cultures around the globe -  the different cultural difference I've noticed this trip is the gap between Qantas and Emirates when it comes to aeroplane music. Qantas has a kind of world music - including Shakira, Martha Wainwright, Paca Pena, Herb Albert. Emirates have a massive bunch of music tracks from Addis Ababa, West Africa, South Africa, Iran, South America, India, all around the world.  Great sounds to travel by.

Grette's photo of Madrid Skyline evening May 13, not quite so glorious where I am at the airport.

Fight, you are not alone

The other side of the crisis

On the fast train from Cordoba to Madrid, with one more night in Spain, I "read" - through an automatic web translator - an opinion piece by Jordi Soler in today's El Pais titled The Reverse of the Crisis. He reminds his Spanish readers of Orwell's  analysis of the positive benefits to community life in London during the second world war, ranging from growing, sharing and exchanging food and skills; to more reading (and more sophisticated reading) by bored soldiers at the front line and civilians deprived of other entertainment at home. Orwell argued that this response to hard circumstances encouraged a more thoughtful and community minded sensibility.

Soler suggested Spain's situation, while not as serious as the London that Orwell was writing about, also provided opportunities for a sophisticated, communitarian response: the other side or face of the Crisis could lead to a collaborative economics.

So reflecting on Australia, it must be fair to say we are not in a similar crisis, structural adjustment not withstanding. The focus on consumption in our consumer society remains pretty well undiminished. But we are picking up the economic and political rhetoric that seems to drive the dominant government responses to the crisis in this part of the world: We must pull our belts in. People on low incomes are too dependant on the state. A balanced budget is the priority before social well being.

The thing that unsettles me about this equation is we aren't being pitched together to make do creatively in Australia today, as arguably people were in London in the 1940s, or even people are in Europe today.   It looks like the language of hardship and striving might just be an excuse to narrow our thinking to self interest.

Patio in antique Cordoba

patrimonio cultural inmaterial

Being here in for The Fiesta De Los Patios De Cordoba frees you up from the burden of more simplistic self directed tourism. We don't need to buy things, we can just look in the courtyards, and there are a series of pathways through neighbourhoods of open courtyards that you can sign on to which puts some structure in the experience. That most of the visitors are Spanish and even local (although many aren't) kind of helps me deal with the situational challenge.

We took a guided tour through some of the patios in the antique areas of Cordoba this evening(Friday). It was in Spanish so I understood just a little. Grette understood a lot more.  But that was a good exercise for my Spanish ear. And a fine experience too given we mostly get things delivered to us in English and ready to consume.

This trip has strongly featured representative examples of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity, as proclaimed by UNESCO. Namely Flamenco, Fado and now this Fiesta de Patios. As our guide explained, in the middle of a residential street, hundreds of years old - with bars and loud music and a number the courtyards looking spectacular and with queues at their doors - it's not the material thing, it's about the life people lead. And that includes maintaining the patios, and their geraniums and ferns and wells and fountains, and holding the competition.  

UNESCO seems big in Europe. And cultural heritage makes a lot of work, particularly if people like us come along to see or enjoy it.

Reminds me of a plan a friend and I had in the early nineties of a dance led economic recovery.. After all a dance piece with only one dancer isn't a better more efficient product than a piece with a troupe of ten.

But this cultural heritage (patrimonio cultural inmaterial, in Spanish) is especially fun and powerful because it isn't just us visitors enjoying the festival, or the fado in Portugal, or the flamenco, it really is still a part of so many people's lives.

Pavement sample

Pavements in black and white

The pavements of Portugal are particular it seems. A mix of white (limestone) and black (granite) squares making lines and patterns, quite different in different cities and different streets. They are pretty hard. Well, stone is hard. And variously uneven and slippery at times. They obviously last a long time. And they are a cultural expression, ranging from  sweeping curves to geometric boarders up and down the sides of streets, and even pictures of the Madonna, or a landscape, or a cat picked out in a black and white mosaic.  

The thing is there are so many of them. Much lower in terms of carbon dioxide production than concrete. I just wonder if there are some hills or mountains somewhere made of limestone, that are disappearing.  

Mosteiro dos Jeronimos

Fish stew with no chilli, but capsicum

A tourist song

Well it's been a hard couple of days in Lisbon being tourists. no one should have to do it but I'm sure it is an economically important contribution that we are making.

Yesterday was a particularly grumpy day when I failed to find the tram route so as to follow the fabulous self guided tour down the very steep hill, and we had to walk up the hill and see too much castle and not enough of the other special sites and views instead.  And, well, it was a day only saved by a simple dinner in a cool bar and some pretty fine touristic Fado in a restaurant-club.

The previous night we saw a Fado presentation, a concert that is  marketed as guaranteeing you a good insight into the art form.. although we both found it a flat and serious and mournful really. The performers last night had some more zip and humour about them. Of course, it is a kind of music that revolves around the lyrics which, to me, really ARE a foreign language. So I know I can't judge.

 I did google "fado, austerity and the crisis" and found references to (for example) a band called Deolinda. So something is going on, as you'd imagine.

On Monday we'd taken a train to Sintra and climbed all over an old moorish castle, and giant royal palace, and another royal museum that has a giant kitchen precisely perfect for a life rendition of Gormenghast with extremely giant chimneys.   And room to roast a rhinoceros.

Today was another day of tourism. Lots of queuing to get in to  museums that are collections but not great experiences. The Jeronimo Monastery however, was extraordinary though. Wonderful ornately carved columns all such a golden yellow from being cleaned of the grime of centuries just 15 years ago.

But the Marine/Navy museum was full of model boats, really full, but rather missing the physical reality of all the trade  - in spices and gold and slaves - which Portugal's golden age encompassed. And - no surprise here - I haven't located a mention of the chilli; which was what I'd hope to see at the naval museum.

The Portuguese seem to be quite proud of their historical period of world domination, and at the same time, very committed to food like fish and custard tarts (called Pasteis de Nata- the good ones are very very good and earn long queues).  Like the Indian restaurateur and I, almost everyone knows that the chilli was brought by the Portuguese from America. But where's pride in having used world domination to make that culinary contribution?

I have to admit I've dropped the chilli ball here. I've been a bit too pleased with the sardines and the seafood stew. And I've left the thought of finding a Brazilian or Angolan restaurant  too late in our adventure. Tonight we eat fish cakes and tomato salad at home, with a beer, and a pasteis with strawberries. Nice relaxing simple food.   We are really tired and we can sort out all our belongings before heading to the "Fiesta de los Patios de Cordoba" tomorrow.

 Particularly satisfying in a way was the bus trip back today's tourist sites. First Grette queued for the pasteis (We got 10) which was a cultural experience. Then we caught a fairly random bus that ran through suburbs rather reinforcing in our eye the rundown nature of Lisbon and the hard time people are having. Next we chanced upon a 250 yr old candle shop where I got a candle shaped like a cabbage. Finally we walked back to our apartment past a very convenient metro entrance that we'd never noticed before, and have no need for now! Just starting to feel at home.

Angels of diversity

Students in their black chanting and marching,

Before the big night out

extra chilli - green

Porto to Lisbon

Farewell Porto hello Lisbon

Saturday night and Sunday there were thousands of students in identical suits and stockings and black gowns all over Porto. Some chanting political slogans and gathering outside University Admin and the Town Hall and others just gathering for some student graduation related musical event, all a part of a ceremonial burning of their faculty ribbons, Queima das Fitas. 

After we'd been to a Brazilian jazz concert we braved bulk students in black, all with countless bottles of alcohol, spilling in and out the metro and running up against railway police for (it would seem too often) failing to validate their tickets. Then when we it got back to our hotel there was a crowd of students, mostly young women, all standing very still out the front.  It looked like was some kind of stand off, possibly a ritual "hazing" of some sort. But nothing much happened, so we went to bed.

 

In the morning there were students still dressed in their formal black having breakfast with their families, or being photographed proudly with them while gathering in big numbers outside the town hall for a ceremony. 

There were also a lot of other people asking for money around Porto, at outdoor restaurant tables and ATMs (doing their best to insist,  with us tourists) and more evidence of people sleeping in streets than we saw in Spain.   With nests of cardboard and blankets on the steps of closed shops.

I don't know if that says anything about hardship or about the different parts of Spain and Portugal that we are seeing, because Porto seems quite rough and ready, with lots of graffiti, and roadwork everywhere, so it may also be a question of tolerance.

On the other hand, the scale of this student event, and the presence of families everywhere did make us imagine there's an increased reason for sticking to education when there are so few jobs out in the market place.

Sunday afternoon we arrived in Lisbon to lodgings in the heart of the tourism square. Lots of beer, mementos and ice cream going on. We couldn't find a shop that sold bananas, milk and water until we were led to one by a religious procession involving incense, marching bands and lavender.

Then went to a recommended Indian restaurant, Tamarind, which was delicious. We were reassured that the food WASN'T spicy. We asked for extra chilli!  The chilli world tour goes on.

Anyway, the crisis here, for this restaurant, is a shift from 70 customers a night to 11. Melbourne, where one of them did her Masters, is looking good. 

The cheap fish cafe down the road was full.

We went for an after dinner walk to find a set of angels  painted on a wall that Grette had seen on the way in from Porto. One has an anarchist 'A' on its chest, another a crescent moon, then a star of David, a cross, and a five point star. And all making the peace sign. Also saw a graffiti slogan incorporating the 'A' which referred to essence and purity. Not sure how that fits together.

From the Monastery of St Estaban of America

An out of sequence post because I accidentally deleted the earlier version

when trying to add a cation; viz: more useful comments from the walls of Spain. 

This one from Salamanca. 

A tourist's work is never done

There is this obligation to eat something typical or local or unfamiliar when traveling. the mackerel with steamed potatoes and green sauce last night was a Highlight.(as was for a different reason the piri piri oil that came with Grette's rotisserie chicken.. see photo below) However I have savored a couple of less satisfying lunches: Yesterday, at a waterfront cafe looking out to the charming old city centre I  tried the menu del dia's beans and meats dish, in which the black beans were very hard and beanie and the various meets chewy and fatty and piggy. Today a version of the local fast food speciality "francesinha",which is a sausage, beef and sweet ham sandwich covered in melted cheese: in a beer and tomato sauce and Served with beer and chips. Which could have done with some chilli, dare I say. And yes, I'm not likely to run across this meal anywhere else. so I'm not complaining.

We also had chocolate and port at one one of the more famous port houses across the river yesterday too, but that was perhaps less a duty to the cause of tourism.

I'd like to put on the record the very obvious statement that it's tiring being a tourist. All that walking and buying and  eating. And the risks... I get so distressed when I don't find the most typical, or tasty or locally hip cafe or when we spend extra precious leg strength climbing the wrong hills, or fail to find an insight into local life or culture.

One of the highlights yesterday was to chance upon a puppet museum,  which showed a DVD of highlights of the Marionette Company of Porto's shows over the past thirty years  plus the puppets and designs from at least ten shows. There is a real power and art in making the inanimate live.  Plus it was great to come into contact with something that is not art and history through the Church.

The puppet company is still going, but struggling now with a 62% cut in public funding. Austerity and all that. This year's show is a re-staging of their fairy recent contemporary take on Cinderella. There are many people who could do with a few fairy tales right now one would think.  Or is that what has been going on?

Today our highlight was a nice quiet time at the beach. Doing, in fact, what locals might do. We've moved from cold spring to war spring, and while Grette and I paddled in the cold Atlantic and  protected ourselves from sunburn, there are quite a few people here, as in Bondi, very committed to the tan.

And a Brazilian contemporary jazz concert tonight.

Piri Piri chilli oil with the barbecue chicken

Grette is pouring some chilli rich piri piri oil onto her

Dinner last night

Microtheatre and micromeals

Last night Grette and I went to see "Microtheatre for money" which is a theatre venue in the middle of the Madrid red light area with a bar and five small performance spaces in which small theatre groups perform 15 minute shows for four euros each.

After a drink and a bite to eat we saw an entertaining take on youthful ambition in Madrid, (with us the audience being variously colleagues, housemates and city buildings) and then after a cup of tea we saw a gritty street corner dialogue between jazz musicians who didn't play music and who we couldn't quite understand.

It is a great format for the modern market , with the youngish evening out theatre types almost always prepared to spend money on food and drink, and like most of us fairly happy to risk a small amount of money and fifteen minutes (if no more!)  on a piece of theatre.  It's hard work for theatre makers but they'd be used to that.. five shows a night would be sorts fun but really tiring, and they'd make  - maybe -100 euro a performance night.

The secret, as in all these innovative settings, is to make good piece of theatre.

Then tonight in Salamnca we went to great tapas bar called Tapas 2.0 which had some new takes on the tapas format (a Chinese dumpling of pigs tail; wok fried veg with caramelized goats' cheese; tempura asparagus and prawns; before a chocolate, pepper and coffee log with raspberry sorbet) which goes to show what focussing on a short concentration span can do.

Tapas are a Spanish invention, and "Microteatro por dinero" (to give it its Spanish title) is kind of tapas theatre. It still allows people the chance to talk and drink as well as appreciate something inventive and even profound.

It might just work in Australia. Well, during a summer of festival season, at least.

shopping bag in a fashion shop, Raval Barcelona

No hay pan para tanto chorizos

This witty analysis of Spain's problems in 2011 would be worth another run now. Literally not enough bread for so many sausages,  it is much funnier when you know that chorizo is also slang for thieves. Now that the ongoing cuts (including pay cuts to teachers of up to 25%) and the continuing scandals of corruption throughout government and the royal family kind of provide an insight into the conditions that gave birth to the indignados, who came up with the slogan, and hence the occupy movement.

There's a lot of thinking that seems to go into interesting dimensions of commentary and resistance here in Spain.

This weekend we enjoyed a trip to the country and visit to Tarragona in unseasonably freezing conditions, returning to Barcelona to hear there's been a protest against the cuts today of 80,000 people. Mayday across Spain on Wednesday could be pretty interesting.

One of outcomes here in Catalunya is a strong and visible independence movement.  Hence the slogan on the Mayday poster photographed in the streets of Tarragona, below: "we produce, we decide" .. Enriched by the exhortation to overcome capitalism.

 Speaking of Catalan commentary, Sister Teresa Forcades, a Spanish Benedictine nun ordinarily from Barcelona, was on Catalan TV tonight arguing that capitalism is unethical.

That's where religious perspective has a force, in allowing you to talk about right and wrong. Always a nice component.

independence and may one protest Tarragona.

Super fast train

Well so much for Spanish language school.

 It is nice to be refreshed at the somewhat limited level of Spanish that I have, and improved a touch in the two weeks but it's also confronting to realize how little I know and how slow I am at learning. Simpatico teachers and fellow students, or not.

Of course having finished my course I can now think of all the questions and topics for discussion I might have raised in our class: for example, where will I find some good Latin American food, and who can tell me when there will next be a demonstration against the austerity measures?

Now we are on the AVE train from Madrid to Barcelona. 300km/h. Slightly cheaper and quicker, if you take all the airport fol de rol into account, than flying. Unless you also take into account how long it took me to buy the tickets over the Internet. But that's another matter.

In any event, I have mobile data  in my iPad so I am connected all 600km of the journey. So I can upload this post.  But you know, I EXPECTED wifi! .. I don't know what went wrong.

There were media reports yesterday, as you may all know, about the 27 % unemployment in Spain; the highest level since Franco. No wonder there are manifestations against the austerity measures..  but it's dark outside now and the fairly crowded AVE is showing us French films in Spanish,  and selling us beer, chips and bocodillos. One could imagine all's right enough with the world. Shortage of WIFI not withstanding.

Flamenco live

Flamenco is an extraordinary art form: rhythm, music, voice, words, dance, story, full of improvisation and collaboration. We saw a show at the famous Casa Patas last night and the first half (in particular) was just extraordinary. One of the things I love about Flamenco is that it is so sensual but not pretty. And passionate,  but also satiric. An unabashed expression of humanity.

I read something in passing the other day suggesting that the number of young people in Spain learning and performing Flamenco is falling in the face of global music and performance trends.  It should probably be expected. I don't know how profound that shift is. But the show last night just reminded me of what we might lose as transnational culture develops.

I was looking for some world  music + flamenco the other day but couldn't find it., Although I've got no doubt it is  here in Madrid.. but that kind of collaboration needs the ingredients: the African or Indian music disciplines or forms, and similarly the artistry of flamenco. We need of need the cultural diversity to grow and interact, but to stay diverse.



Here's an image of Inmaculada Aranda, who were sitting about five feet away from last night.

What change might happen

THE CRISIS

Back at Spanish school after the weekend. Grette and I in our different classes (Grette is intermediate I'm a kind of middle beginner) both ran through what we did on the weekend, twice, once with each of our teachers. So we are well practised at summarising the conversations, meals, shopping and walking of the past few days.

Anyway, on top the weekend walk in the very extensive park Caso del Campo (photo of lunch below), where I think one of the feral animal problems is raccoons; and a fine evening meal in one of those twittering conversational Spanish public spaces; we visited friends of my brother and talked about the problem of Spain.  I am grossly oversimplifying the argument here, but our Spanish host seemed to be arguing that there is a deep division in Spain and one side will always look out for themselves at the expense of the other. His Irish partner thought one of key issues is that too many of the population are happy to pursue an easy life. They both agreed that the emerging generation of young adults have no sense of building a better Spain. And those whose parents are doing OK particularly don't seem to be in a rush. If they are still in Spain.

When we were in Morocco, towards the end of the week, it was pointed out to me that the Royal Family there owns the big supermarkets, the biggest real estate businesses, and so on.  Here in Spain, it is perhaps a slightly wider crowd of people who benefit the most. But there is certainly a strong sense that circumstances, as always, suit the most comfortable. I was impressed with the Socialist-led government of Andalusia offering to provide students at public schools three meals a day.  I was advised not to believe what I read in the papers. And not to expect any change.

Very frustrating this not-expecting-change thing.  We  listened briefly to ABC Radio this evening, and learnt that Chrissy Amphlet has died (she was great); but then turned off RN breakfast because we couldn't bear any of the same old same old.

My little intellectual struggle on this trip is to try to get sense of where the real resistance and positive vision for social change will come from. I kind of romantically imagined that Spain with its history of passionate politics and the hard times that are affecting so much of the population might be a good crucible for  that. But then you think, when you see the pleasures of the good life that still available to many, and the undoubted economic problems that no one seems to have articulated a believable response to, that there's no reason to EXPECT Spain to lead the way. And,as we all agreed over our cup of tea on Saturday, that when you look it from here, Australia is still in the box seat to carve out a better path.

EATING

Finally tonight, my friend Jonni has suggested all the blogs are about eating. well yes, that seems to be the challenge of the ChilliWorldTour.  I reckon I'd be investigating the actual presence of food with chillies here in. Madrid if I wasn't so focussed on learning Spanish. And also, if I  didn't actually like Spanish food so much. Anyway - I'd appreciate a few comments (Jonni, et al) if we are to braided the conversation away from all that meat and all those roasted peppers.

No chilli but green pimiento in pride of place

The Chilli World Tour can probably afford a couple of days, in Spain perhaps, 

celebrating other members of the capsicum family, such as the green pepper, and 

The smokey paprika. It seems we are only two degrees of culinary appropriation

Away from each other, who ever we are. This was our lunch, awaiting the table

 top barbecue. Grette's beer is invisible. 

listening and talking

The first week of intensive Spanish classes is over. It's been a bit like living under water. Among other things it makes me feel like a small child and reduces most of my Spanish conversations to the same level. And while I know how important practicing your basic language is, it seems so much easier often - especially at the shops- just to grunt and shrug and point.

I guess that's true of a lot of people. not just language learners.

Apparently there is a new generation here in Spain, the Ni generation. Ni students, ni workers. In an economy such as Spain's, which recently had the second highest income in Europe according to our tapas guide , lots of this newly shaped generation won't have grown up with any experience of working hand to mouth. For those living in families with work, I expect that's making for some new - or possibly old - family dynamics.

It's hard to see here in the centre of Madrid, as a foreign tourist, how this is taking shape. But it does seem clear that those who do have work, work pretty long hours. Siesta not withstanding.

I engaged my basic Spanish in a conversation with the woman running one of the bread and pastry shops nearby. It seems slow, lots of shops look closed, is this the crisis? Yes it's the crisis she said. But it's not a crisis. The poor are getting poorer. The rich getting rich. The banks are doing very well. Everybody knows - to quote Leonard Cohen.

Also doing well, and not all affected by the crisis,  are some of the restaurant/cafes/bars in the squares throughout the old city. Grette and I were enjoying a beer out of the wind, with olives and crisps,  we heard again the twittering sound of lots of conversations. I expect that it isn't endemic to Spain, but we haven't really noticed that busy chirpy noise anywhere else.  I think if you are going to spend an hour or so sitting around with a drink, chatting, then you'll have to be good at the chat. And I have no reason to imagine that the conversations are particularly deep or hilarious. But it  does suggest a kind of easy going but lively engagement.

I have to admit that we we were having beer the crowd was pretty much the same mix and age as the crowd you get after work in Edgar's in suburban Ainslie, so it may well be we haven't stumbled on much of significance here.

Anyway, if anyone would like to add comments to this blog. that would be great!

A taste of chilli - dynamite at the Berber Pharmacy

A Moroccan image in retrospect. Chilli still very thin on the ground here in Madrid.

A fine mindful message for me on a Madrid street

Cooking lessons

So before Morocco becomes a distant world to me I figured I should think a little about cuisines, chillies or no.

I must admit the subtlety/lack of salt and chilli heat surprised me. You  had to pay acute attention to the food to enjoy the famous 35 spices that go into the tajines. Indeed, the tajines and couscous that we had, or could have had, for two of almost every three meals on the tour did become unsurprising.

My extreme Western pallet is used to loading in the spices and the salt and the preserved lemon like there's no tomorrow. A bit of a shorthand for the Western way of life, and our relationship with the planet, one might say. But it does make it hard to slow down and taste the vegetables.

As it happened, the little sausages at our last lunch (along with the very simple vegetables coloured with saffron and discrete spices) were a highlight. As were the deconstructed salads that came with a couple of earlier bigger dinners: Separate dishes of beetroot, cauliflower in olive oil, eggplants and zucchini cooked into a delicious pulp, and carrots with cumin and a sour orange or lemon dressing.

I suspect there's a profound message in there for me if I could listen, but the bit that will stick will probably just be the occasionally simple meal, and that fabulous dish of carrots.

For the chilli world tour, I'm thinking there needs to be a lot more done on the history of the spice trade after the Portuguese had temporarily set up Casablanca. Most of the Moroccan perspectives that we came upon were about the Desert, The Mediterranean, expanding into and returning from Spain and the Atlas Mountains. Not new products from the new world.

The Atlantic coast was a great place for strategic piracy, of course. Maybe that's how the chillies got in? In the sandals of Portuguese slaves..

Morocco: A bag full of spices back in Madrid

We are back in a homely apartment in Spain with its view of the Madrid city skyline after a rich and full on week in Morocco.

I don't know how considered a plan it was, but one of the evolving themes was to give us kind of humanist understanding of being a muslim. How that and Islamic architecture links in to the practice of prayer etc and  that people such as guides and drivers quietly fit it  into their work with the passengers.  I found a mob of little connections to the notions around mindfulness... ways of ensuring we are connected to the real world you live in, and so forth.

Not that every tourist in every tour group will take it much on board but certainly the people of Morocco that we met were keen to paint a diverse accepting notion of their cultures and society.

The links from the Romans and Phoenicians to the desert nomads and their journey to Spain, not to mention the Arabs from Syria and the pirates of the Barbary Coast - well we had signed up to the mini tour of the imperial cities so I guess that's what we should expect.   Marrakech with its date palms and desert and Africa connections kind of makes you think bigger and wider.

It would have been good to have spoken in depth with more women; most of the guides, our hosts and tour leader were men. Charming erudite and extraordinary patient in the main. I guess one could try to request a tour with a woman as tour leader (some are women and some are men) etc etc. I guess we're not far away from a dial your own tour system where you specify all the ingredients that you need.

Two of our fellow tour passengers,  Ian and Leonie, were deaf. Ian says he is thinking of exploring an Auslan tour for a bunch of people.  Another form of dial your own tour.

This in itself was another cultural experience for me. I ended up paying particular attention to the guides and tour instructions and making notes... sort of twitter length summaries of the most interesting or communicable or relevant things for  Ian and Leonie. And then we'd comment on them to each other. They are very skilled at reading scribbles. I've got a book full, not in any chronological order, but it would make a great aide de memoirs if I was to slot in some of Ian's photos.. (Mine being too full of chillies.) Anyway, that specific kind of engagement gave me a different ongoing perspective. And also, as they are lovely people, the real reward so that was a great experience to have.

Spanish starts at 6:00am Marrakech time tomorrow so all my thoughts about chillies, cuisine, new buildings,  cultural and economic change, will have to wait.

even if there is no chilli in the mix per se there is paprika et al

(from iPhone)

The famous Jemaa el Fna

Thr great square in Marrakesh packed With people of all ages,and horses pulling carriages, and cars and motorbikes crossing through, in the near dark, with food stalls and markets, and crowds huddled around drummers and singers and children selling toys thst you sling glowing in the dark into the sky. Talk about creative chaos! If David Branson went to his heaven he was there tonight and it seems every night.

dinner on the balcony overlooking the square included piquant sauce, but it was the action in the square below us that was is invigorating.

I just can't imagine something like this working with alcohol around. Teenage girls in groups. A few drinks under their belt. Young men and motorbikes and darkness and big crowds. family groups would be particularlt unlikely. It's easy to imagine what might go wrong. I mean fireworks night perhaps, but every night?

Well, maybe in Spain I guess.

(from iPhone)

everything comes to those who wait

A cafe style meal of eggplant, spinach and skewered meats accompanied by generous supplies of chilli sauce. we didn't even ask. Perhaps I have been eating to up market to have discovers the true place of chilli.

a wide street in the markets

best chilli shot to date

Camels to Fountains

I'm not sure of today's post is on the main theme or even any recognisable sub themes..
It's about bargaining and the fact I'm not too good with it and don't enjoy it, when the idea is that you do.

I'm sure that natural bargainers would have no time for my insecurities but the problem is that I often find it impossible to know what my limit is or what I think the product is worth. when people tell me it's their best price, and it took the blood of poor widow to sew those 5 million knots over two years, I believe them. And anyway what is a carpet or a moziac fountain worth? and then of course one feels like dunce if gifted bargainers got it for 5% or even 30% less. I so hate to feel I'm being taken for a ride. And of course one's own purchasing and bargaining event is of limited interest to the others in your group. So I didn't buy a belt because I could not face the bargaining process even though I could do with a belt but luckily we did buy a fountain (to be air freighted from Morocco to to Ainslie) which is handy because we've got a piece of wall with power for the pump already established in a very Mediterranean setting.

All this in the most  amazing ninth century medina where the little alleys and corridors can just fit a line of pedestrians moving in opposite directions with an occasional donkey or even a motor scooter. Hisham, our guide, grew up in the alleys.  I imagine it would be a great environment for kids to run around in.

And the most recent photo below is of spices including chilli in the markets here. Really the busiest, most crowded place I've been in. With everything from camel heads to wedding regalia, although we missed the appliances section if there was one.

Paprika ginger cumin turmeric chilli

Markets in 9th Century medina in Fes

Chillies for accent

At the Meknes market

highly delicious harissa tonight

To go with a very fine but surprisingly subtle array of dishes

THIS is Harissa.

Inside and outside the bus

I have engaged a few fellow travellers on my chilli hunt. At lunch we enjoyed the use of the harissa in bottle, which was certainly tastier than tomato sauce, while at dinner here in Meknes we especially asked for it and found  the fresh sauce provided was a surprisingly penetrating essence of chilli for our couscous etc.  I think I'm probably going to leave my anxious desire to see evidence of chilli in  everything, and will save up my focus for our days in Marrakesh, which is the spice capital of Morocco.  

You do have to bite your tongue when travelling in a group. But my friends should be impressed that I took a deep breath when one of the conversations in our mini bus seemed to suggest that if only there was no social security for women who are single parents, or anyone who is out of a job, then people would just face up to their responsibilities.  ...and that would make for a better society. For what it's worth, in addition to the tour guide and the driver, there is an Italian, a Canadian and nine Australians, at least six of whom are Queenslanders.

I am we'll aware that today and tomorrow an Anglicare Australia  mini-conference on Consumer Directed Care - which I helped to set up - is going along on the other side of the world.  At ANU to be precise. Lorna Sullivan will be talking about how we should think of being of service to people in providing or supporting the provision of care, rather than providing the services in and of themselves. I didn't quite see in the bus this afternoon how to turn the conversation round to that. but I wish I could.

Chillies are a safer bet.

first touch of harissaesque hot sauce

Joel's dinner photo - spot the chilli

Casablanca - named by the Portuguese!

 In Casablanca with our group now about to tour the key cities of Morocco. Mostly Australian with a Canadian .. the most charming. He has a good habit of  photographing his best meals so I will  ask him to post them to the blog if they have chilli.

Last night we had a fine chilli free dinner of tajines and harira (soup). I guess I could have ordered harissa on the side. But this was the first group dinner and first posh restaurant so I thought I'd play it safe.

I'm developing a diversity of interests to complement the chillies.  Such as the Berber history and presence here. The Berbers are the first people of Morocco and i think are re than Half the population. 

When Grette and I walked a little of the Camino in Spain a few years ago we came across the Berber heritage of Astorga in Northern Spain : they had been the mulateers of Europe and the cuisine still reflected the need to eat the meat first and the soup last (so that you didn't miss out to much if the French arrived  mid meal and you had to scarper.)

Anyway, now it seems the Berber language  is close to being made one of the official languages of Morocco - with Arabic and French - after a long process and quite a bit of political or cultural change. I look forward to capturing a bit of text later in the trip.

So I think now this blog obsessions are circling around the chilli divide. Pre and post chilli cultures and cuisines. Not, I think, that the Portuguese had a direct role in the evolution of Morocco.

 If anyone knows better let me know. 

Cajero automatico

Graffiti on auto-bank: "your booty our crisis"

also, "scammers:  (it's) not a crisis (it's) a scam"

Fwd: Green pepper

A chilli. Well not exactly, but a green pepper with our Spanish dinner.

Torre San Pedro el Viejo

Torre San Pedro el Viejo, a tower that 
predates the chilli in Europe by 200 years, 
which we saw on a tapas and historical tour
 (also without chillies) last night. 

We had vermouth, two types of ham Iberico, 
With manchego cheese and dray manzanilla
sherry, then tortilla de patates with wine of
the region, a kind of eggplant parmigiana
with cava, baked sucking pig and two Rioja
tempranillos and then sweet sherry and ice
cream shots. no room for chillies!!
 But I've got a lead on where to go when we
Are back in Madrid next week.

Blog jueves

Nothing visible on the chilli front today. We went the the Reina Sofina centre for contemporary art, the highlights of which were Picasso's Guernica ( predictably) in a crowded room and some end of life paintings by Miro and Picasso in a very empty room.  

The exhibition around Guernica showed some great art and told some powerful stories about the 2nd Republic, the role radical contemporary artists had, and thought they had, in popular analysis and politics, about the kind of inevitable force of business, capital and authoritarianism which saw Franco come to power. You can't imagine Australia's mining giants supporting the anarchists and socialists and surrealists in any battle for legitimacy.  It made us wonder about any lessons the thirties might have for the new era of uncertain capitalism that  - from here in Spain at any event - seems much of the world is drifting into. 50% youth unemployment  and I don't know what is happening to older people out of work here. 

I missed the protest at Atocha railway station the other day where incoming politicians were put on the spot about the unfair mortgage laws that are seeing people lose their jobs and then their houses. I havent seen evidence the radical theatre here now that was a feature of 30s Madrid yet.  I suspect it's on the Internet. And my Spanish is rather limited for research purposes, so if anyone out there has the cyber contacts please let me know. 

 Meanwhile  The Guardian suggests the Churches, well some of them, are fighting a rearguard action in the UK; strongly accusing the Conservative government of demonising the poor. While the complex series of events which has led to the near collapse of so many banks really can't be blamed on the poor, or even on social security (which in many countries is the poor by another name) it seems that there are more than enough people content to see them do things tougher. Check out the Anglicare Australia research showing its the most affluent who think the poor should get a bare minimum support. 

 So I'm looking around here to see signs of how this contest of ideas is being expressed.

I must say, I am not missing the Australian political analysis and commentary.

Weds am.

An interesting item in Monday's Guardian discusses the German position of power in Europe, and wondering about the difference not having a colonial history makes to its cultural impact and presumably its cultural diversity. (It's amazing how much you can glean from one paper if you only have the one.) Anyway it relates to the pride one time colonial powers have in their achievements and identity.

In that context I've been surprised by the continuing strength of local food traditions here.  Somehow the paprika inveigled its way onto the Spanish cuisine along with potatoes (claro),  red peppers of the capsicum variety, chocolate and tomatoes. But of chillies there are none. My point being there are a lot of Spanish restaurants .

Grette  and I went for a long walk tonight tracing down a Mexican restaurant mentioned on a guide site. Passed through a patch of Indian and Chinese places but we were too early - 7:30 pm - and they were all closed so I'm not yet sure who their clientele are or what the food is like. But we then traipsed past a number of classic tapas bars filled with fairly young loud people, found the Mexican cafe and didn't really like the look of it, and so we ended up eating hummus with carrot sticks and listening to Kylie Minogue, The Seekers, and Men at Work among others in a quiet kind of too cool to be hip cafe in the tapas bar area. Hence the photo featuring paprika below.

I think I'll need to keep chasing a bit of South American food here, because that makes an interesting circle  and also investigate if there is any museum or art exhibitions dedicated to say cochineal or more likely chocolate which were a couple of Spain's big American gifts to Europe.


After many hours everyday I now have some transportable blog connectivity. I used some time chasing a chocolate museum - one in Astorga and one in Barcelona, and a cochineal museum of which there appears or be none. Well, we'll see.

racion of carrots hummus and corn chips with paprika although not chilli

racion of carrots hummus and corn chips with paprika although not chilli

Madrid hoy

This episode of the chilli world tour - the Spanish, Portuguese, Moroccan bit - is starting slowly.

Partly because this blog itself  won't be paste for a day to, when I have local SIM card and account to connect the iPad.

I find it surprisingly hard to relax without any news of the world, distressing Australian politics or internet connections. Easter Day today, while scandalously full of open shops and businesses, appeared  rather light when it came to Internet and telephone connection services.

I try to turn it to my advantage by  focussing a bit extra on mindful breathing. But somehow  the lure of this agitated disconnection and the unfulfilled desire of listening to the sports reports, watching television of any kind, and checking my emails - is stronger than the world of the momentary breath. I'Ve got no doubt there's an opportunity for me there.

Today in Madrid, (Grette's and my first day) after watching a spot of traditional Easter competitive community drumming,  we ate a very satisfying menu del dia ( menu of the day) which had no sign of chilli. Im not surprised . but i noticed. im going to have a look around over the next week or so to see if where the chillies show their face.  I am anticipating our visit to Portugal so I can compare. On a strictly menu del dia basis of course.  

Of course it was the Portuguese who managed to spread the Chilli, in a few short years, right across the world, to almost no economic advantage that I am aware of. Whereas the Spanish claim responsibility I think for chocolate, vanilla and cochineal. All very profitable in their day. Anyway, the Spanish people I know are proud of their role in international chocolate marketing. So I am looking forward to testing out the comparative Portuguese knowledge and pride in the chilli.

Finally I hear the president of Ecuador was recently in Spain inviting recent medical graduates or come on over  to Ecuador where they are needed and wanted. Given the economy here in Southern Europe, Latin America probably looks very appealing.maybe the is a kind of  reverse colonisation, where the growing newer countries can now foster a brain  drain in their direction to suit themselves.

No new blogs until I solve my connectivity problem.
 Spain is great but no signs of chillies yet.
I think I will need to search out Latin American cuisine.
 Phot0s and comments once these two key issues are resolved.