Lunch by Fina Puigdevall at San Sebastian Gastromonika 2019

San Sebastian hosts an annual culinary conference called Gastromonika. While the conference is designed for the restaurant and culinary industry, the public can participate in various activities. We attended two fun sessions in 2017 – the national grill competition and another about cooking in Portuguese Tavernas. We missed last year’s conference while traveling in Italy. This year’s conference offered many captivating choices, including wine tastings, regional food tastings, and competitions.

When evaluating the program, a lunch session caught our fancy: “Fina Puigdevall in her Landscape.” Fina is a two-star Michelin chef who has run Les Cols in Gerona (Catalunya) since 1990. Fina also happened to be a celebrity guest on our favorite gameshow, Pasapalabra. (Sadly, the show has been discontinued due to a rights dispute and we miss it a lot.) We recognized Fina’s photo and were intrigued by the opportunity to experience her creations, with wine pairings selected by the President of the Spanish Sommelier Academy, without having to travel to Girona or pay the prices of a 2-star restaurant. We were not disappointed by our choice!

On October 8, we enjoyed a 2-hour plus guided feast, which included 8 different wines with 3 appetizers, 7 small plates, and 2 desserts. It was amazing and we didn’t eat another thing the rest of the day. The food was superb, but it was also exciting to be able to understand everything going on around us. We have come a long way from the Portuguese taverna session 2 years ago, when we really struggled to understand the host’s descriptions.

Here are the highlights of our lunch, including the inspiring table setting and our hosts:

Yes, we used all of those wine (and water) glasses! Fina has the microphone in her hand, beside her is her daughter, with the sommelier. The other gentleman is a representative from Acqua Panna / San Pellegrino – each dish even had a recommended water pairing!

This colorful dish is an egg, cooked at low temperature with multiple sauces – beautiful and delicious:

The fish course – bacalao (cod) presented 4 ways:

The lamb course – before and after the sauce was poured:

And the desserts – a blackberry sorbet and an assortment of volcanic inspired pastries:

The wines were top notch. We could not have been happier with this event, which was so reasonably priced at 70E.

As you can imagine, we are disappointed to know that we will likely miss next year’s conference, but we will be in Italy again, which is gastronomically inspiring in its own way.

Buen provecho,

Shana & Jeff 

Back to School

Sorry we haven't posted in awhile. We pretty much have no excuse other than laziness, and the fact that we've been watching the MLB playoff games on delay, but we did return to school for the last two weeks, so we weren't doing nothing.

We did not return to Lacunza, the "fancy" private school where we completed 55 weeks of classes in our first 18-or-so months in San Sebastian. Instead, we signed up at the Official Language School, which is run by the provincial government, and provides language instruction in English, French, German and Euskera, as well as in Spanish.

We definitely have noticed the difference between public and private language education. First, we only attend class four hours a week, compared to 15 hours a week at Lacunza. On the other hand, the total cost for a school year (October through May) is only 200 Euros for both of us, which includes our books, while Lacunza cost almost that much for one week. Finally, although it was possible that our class could be much larger than at Lacunza, and there appeared to be 15 people signed up, it looks like only about 10-11 will be attending. So, not much larger than what we are used to. Our professor is very nice, as are our fellow students, who are originally from the US, Scotland, France, Brazil, Algeria, Ukraine, and Russia.

In terms of content, we are at the same level we were when we left Lacunza (C1), which appears to be the correct level for us. But, the amount of work is extensive including a lot of homework, writing assignments and even an oral presentation. Most of the students in the class seem to be there to prepare for the end-of-year test, which is required for certain jobs in Spain. However, since we just want to improve our level of Spanish, Shana and I don't even plan to take the test, which makes the stress level of the class relatively low despite the quantity of work.

I am not sure if we are happy to be back in Spanish school, and it is difficult for us to motivate ourselves to go to class Monday and Wednesday evenings, but it will be good to continue learning and practicing the language. And, since we are doing a lot of traveling between now and the end of the year, we are going to miss four of the next eight weeks anyway. (We are definitely less diligent students now than we were when we were younger.) But, we are hoping to attend more regularly in 2020.

Hasta pronto,

Jeff and Shana

2019 Film Festival Wrap Up

We did it – 20 (21 for Jeff) movies in 9 days! Very fun; very exhausting. (We know, truly a first world problem.) Unlike last year, I didn’t leave early from a single movie. But that doesn’t mean every movie was good. There were a few gems, one real clunker, and the majority were fine but nothing special. Even though we spent a ton of time trying to pick interesting and intriguing options (from over 150 films), they can’t all be winners.

As you’ll see from our annual summary of the movies below, we saw a huge variety of movies, including many more Spanish language films than in past years. In addition, we attended one of the themed dinners paired with a Culinary Cinema movie. This was a terrific experience where we met one of the founding chefs of Noma and creator of the New Nordic Cuisine philosophy – Claus Meyer, his daughter, the film’s director and his parents. We enjoyed sitting at a table with 9 locals and are proud to say we spent the entire evening talking about movies and food in Spanish. We will want to repeat this experience next year for sure.

Here are the movies we saw (in the order we saw them):

Blackbird – by the director of Notting Hill, a remake of a Danish drama about a terminally ill woman spending a last weekend with her family before ending her life. Terrific cast that includes Susan Sarandon, Sam Neill, and Kate Winslet. It focuses more on family and life’s complexities than death. It was a good way to start the festival.

Portrait of a Lady on Fire – a French film set in 1770 about the relationship between a female painter and her subject, a young woman soon be married to a man she’s never met. A beautiful but slow-moving study of the plight of women with limited choices and power. (Jeff skipped this one.)

Mientras Dure La Guerra (While at War) – Alejandro Amenabar’s latest movie in Spanish about the struggle of one of Spain's greatest intellectuals to come to terms with the events leading up to the Spanish Civil War in 1936. A fascinating story of how ideals and political realities often do not mix well. We enjoyed this opportunity to learn about a critical moment in Spain’s history.

Bridges (Zubiak) – a Basque film about the bridges being built between the victims and perpetrators of ETA terrorism. Watching a widow break bread with her husband’s assassin was intense and a reflection on the power of regret and forgiveness. For us, a chance to dive into the sometimes-violent history of the Basque region.

7 Reasons to Run Away (From Society) – 7 vignettes that merged comedy and horror in an often cringe-inducing way. While the first was extremely funny, in a sick way, the later ones mostly missed the humor and focused on the horror.  (Thankfully I skipped this one.)

Seberg – Kristen Stewart’s portrayal of actress Jean Seberg, who was targeted by the FBI for supporting back activists, and particularly the Black Panthers, in the late 1960's and early 1970's. An interesting story of government abuse, but it didn’t impress.

The Truth (La Verite) – Catherine Deneuve and Juliette Binoche portray an egotistical movie star mother and her daughter in conflict. Despite the great cast, and a few fun zingers, we couldn’t find much to like. It was lovely to see Binoche in person presenting the film with the Japanese director.

The Taste of Pho – a Vietnamese immigrant’s struggle to relate to his young daughter and his unfamiliar, changing environment. A standard, slow moving tale with nothing new to offer.

Pacified – A story about family, politics and violence in the favelas of Rio de Janeiro, Jeff thought this movie was well done, but did not appear to break a lot of new ground. The festival jury appeared to disagree and awarded this movie its highest accolade. (I skipped this one.)

The Green Wave/Let It Be Law – a documentary about the efforts to make abortion legal, safe and free in Argentina, where one woman dies every week from complications from a clandestine abortion. Even though we knew beforehand that the law did not pass, we were still disappointed at the end of the movie for all of those who campaigned for it. The efforts to pass the law continue. The audience’s standing ovation for the director and an actress-activist was great to see.

Zeroville – James Franco’s latest release about an oddball who becomes an editor in Hollywood in the early 1970’s. While it had several very funny moments, it made no sense to me. (Jeff liked it more.)

Death Will Come and Shall Have Your Eyes – from Chile, it was about a couple coping with one’s decision not to seek treatment for a terminal illness and to spend her last days in a remote cabin location. It was slow and it’s use of magical realism added nothing.

Double Plus 15 (El Doble Mas Quince) – a woman nearing 50 meets a “man” through an internet sex site, only he turns out to be a 16 year-old boy. The connection they make by spending several hours together impacts them both in unexpected ways. This was a clever and fun way to explore how human interaction is important in an increasingly disconnected world.

The Burnt Orange Heresy – a dramatic thriller set in the art world with Donald Sutherland and Mick Jagger (!). Well-paced, sinister, and sufficiently intriguing to be recommendable. One of the better movies we saw, and we loved Mick’s performance.

Rocks – a poor, British-Jamaican teenager’s struggle, with the help of her diverse group of friends, after her mentally unstable mother leaves her and her younger brother alone. This film had good buzz after the Toronto festival, but we didn’t think it lived up to its potential.

The Specials – this French movie from the directors of The Intouchables tells the story of two non-profit organizations, one run by an orthodox Jew, the other by a Muslim, and their efforts to help and care for severely autistic young adults, in part by training under-privileged youth from the Paris projects to be one-on-one care givers. An amazing and very special film that won the festival’s audience award – at the screening we attended the audience gave the directors and one of the actors a more than five-minute standing ovation. See it!

Wasp Network – based on real events in the early 1990’s when a network of Cuban spies operated in Miami to stop anti-Castro terrorism. With Penelope Cruz and Gael Garcia Bernal. Interesting but not compelling.

Spider – an Argentinian film about a trio of young right-wing nationalists’ participation in efforts to undermine the Allende government in the early 1970's and how those events haunt their lives in present-day Chile. A more compellingly-told story than Wasp Network, but still felt like the movie missed opportunities to really make a point about the continuity of right-wing violence from the past to the present.

Gazta – a documentary about Idiazabal cheese, one of the Basque country’s signature foods. We learned a lot and enjoyed seeing the local landscape and livestock, as well as hearing famous Spanish and Basque chefs wax poetic about this special ingredient.

A Taste of Sky – a documentary about a cooking school and restaurant (Gustu) in La Paz, Bolivia, which was founded by Noma’s chef to provide under-privileged youth an opportunity to become chefs. Amazing to see what opportunity looks like for two students who knew very little about gastronomy before starting the program. One of them is currently working in San Sebastian in a Michelin-starred restaurant and he was one of the chefs responsible for the post-movie dinner we attended. The director is a young, recent USC film school graduate, and we enjoyed talking with him and his parents. We also enjoyed comparing notes about movies with the 9 Spaniards with whom we shared a table at dinner.

Song of Names – a young Jewish violin virtuoso disappears without a trace before his debut performance in 1951 London. 35 years later Tim Roth’s character searches for his long-lost adopted brother based on an obscure clue while reflecting on their complicated and haunted relationship during WWII. Another movie with great potential that got lost in its own story-telling.

Amazing Grace – a movie pieced together from the footage filmed by Sydney Pollack of Aretha Franklin’s 1972 recordings in a Los Angeles Baptist church of the all-time, best-selling Gospel album. It was fabulous to watch this tribute to Aretha’s talent and passion, but I’m not sure I’d pay for a full-priced movie ticket to do so. Hopefully you can watch some or all of it on Netflix one day.

So, that’s all of them. As we review the list, we are reminded why the film festival is our favorite event of the year and we are already looking forward to next year.

Hasta luego,

Shana & Jeff

San Sebastian Film Festival 2019

Hard for us to believe, but it is already time for the San Sebastian International Film Festival, the third we will attend since moving here. The Festival starts tomorrow and runs through September 29.

The first year we were here, we only attended nine movies in the nine days of the Festival (https://vinoconvino.blogspot.com/2017/10/9-movies-in-9-days.html) because we were limited by the hours we were in school and our need to do homework and sleep. Last year, we missed the first and last days of the Festival for two different trips, but managed to attend 16 movies in seven days (https://vinoconvino.blogspot.com/2018/10/san-sebastian-film-festival-2018.html).

This year, we are planning a similar pace to 2018 but during the full nine days (20 movies for Shana, 21 for me). After spending much time planning our purchases, we were ready to buy when tickets became available last Sunday at 9:00 am. However, because of technical glitches on the Festival site, what should have taken about one hour, took five! We were not very happy, but neither were all the Spaniards posting on the Festival's Twitter feed. It was fun to be able to understand all the complaining.

We will, of course, have a post about this year's Festival when it is over, but until then dear readers, we will be incommunicado.

Hasta la vista,

Jeff and Shana

Tivat and Dubrovnik

Although the point of our recent trip to the Balkans was to swim, we wanted to post briefly about the cities we visited - Tivat, Montenegro and Dubrovnik, Croatia.

Montenegro is a very small country (population is only about 625,000 people -- less than Seattle, not to mention LA), and Tivat is a small resort area. Although Tivat has a tiny, nearby airport, there are few flights. So, like most people, we arrived in Dubrovnik and took a car to Tivat. This required a border crossing into Montenegro, which looked a bit like crossing into an Eastern Block country in a movie from the 70's or 80's, a pretty long ride along a two-lane road and a ferry crossing. The ferry is totally utilitarian, but extremely important for getting people to and from Tivat:

On our trip back to Dubrovnik, a large cruise ship was passing through the narrow channel that the ferry crosses causing a terrible bottleneck. Fortunately, our aggressive Montenegrin driver got us very close to the front of the line so our wait was limited.

Tivat itself is very small and, like many resort areas is all about the "beach" -- although the "beaches" were more of a pebbly water entry point or concrete ledge. We stayed in a slightly older part of town, but a relatively new harbor is filled with large yachts (including one we found on the internet, which is owned by a Saudi sheikh and cost $300 million to build), and surrounded by high-end shopping and newly constructed resorts.

The location is beautiful; here is a view from our hotel:

Unlike Tivat, Dubrovnik is an ancient city and a long-time tourist destination. Given the level of tourism, we were amazed to hear that the population of the city is under 50,000 people. We chose not to stay in the old town, instead renting a VRBO above the new port. The views from our balcony were spectacular:

The first morning after we arrived, we woke up early and walked a bit over a mile to the Dubrovnik old town to walk along the ancient walls that still enclose it. We were happy to have done this early because once the tour groups show up (mostly off of cruise ships), the volume of people on the walls becomes unbearable. Not to mention that it was really hot. When we were on the walls, however, the crowds were limited and the views were amazing:

Although it was expensive (over $30 each), walking the walls of Dubrovnik is definitely the highlight of any visit there. While we visited a few museums, along with the old Synagogue (second-oldest in Europe after the Old-New Synagogue in Prague), none was really very impressive. The central square of the old city is nice, but the hoards of tourists and the heat, which is reflected and intensified by the stone walls, make it difficult to savor:

We very much enjoyed our visit to this part of the world we had never visited before, and can definitely see returning to Croatia to see Split and Zagreb (in the northern part of the country), perhaps along with a tour of the islands. Plus, we know they have good wine and oysters there.

Hasta pronto,

Jeff and Shana

Our Swimming Adventure in Montenegro

We had a terrific time on our Strel Swimming adventure in Montenegro. It was unlike anything we’d ever done before, and perhaps ever will do again; well, anytime soon at least. Perhaps a few highlights and observations will be a better format for this post, rather than a narrative.

First, our training was important. You should always train for what you are going to do and getting comfortable in the open water was super helpful. It gave us the confidence to jump right in each day, even though we weren’t the fastest or best swimmers in our group – not even close.

Second, although all levels of swimmers are welcome on these types of trips, we think that’s a bit of an overstatement. Before the trip we thought of ourselves as strong swimmers, and we still believe that’s true. But being able to swim well and being a swimmer are two different things. My background, with loads of swim lessons, swim team in high school, and swimming for exercise at various times, meant I had developed and maintained a decent level of technique. Jeff had the ability and fitness to power through the swims, but, as we learned, his lack of technique meant that he was probably working twice as hard as everyone else to keep up. Nearly everyone else on the trip regularly swims for exercise. To truly enjoy a trip like this, being a “swimmer” helps a lot.

Third, we had a great group of 16 other swimmers (and 2 guides) who were fun, supportive, and diverse in age and background. We really lucked out and hope to see members of the group again in London, Melbourne, Zurich, LA and Chicago.

Here are photos of our main boat and a mid-swim drink break – bonus points if you can pick us out:

Our swims ranged from 2 to 2.5 km and we swam twice a day – once in the morning and once in the afternoon. In between we visited small towns in the area, had lunch, and one day did a hike. We spent two days in the Bay of Kotor and the other two in the Adriatic Sea. The scenery was amazing and being out on a boat all day was a great way to enjoy and appreciate these coastal areas.

During day 3 of swimming we were hitting our wall. Jeff was sore and developing an overuse shoulder injury and I was running out of steam. I borrowed a pair of fins to do swim #6 and was glad I did. You don’t notice your physical exhaustion in the water as quickly as you might on land. We both took the fourth day of swimming off – I was sick and Jeff was ready for a break.

We have no regrets about taking the swim trip. It was a new challenge and we met amazing people. While we confirmed that swimming is not Jeff’s thing, that made Jeff the hero of our group – everyone was so impressed that he was willing to go outside his comfort zone to make his wife happy. He gets the “super hubby” award. Jeff may not do another swim trip, but I would be up for it! Any volunteers to join me?

More details of our adventures in Montenegro and Croatia to come soon.

Hasta pronto,

Shana & Jeff 

Best Oysters Ever!

We have returned from our swimming trip to Tivat, Montenegro, and we will have much more to say about swimming, Tivat and our visit to Dubrovnik, Croatia as well. But first, I want to post about an amazing half-day tour we took from Dubrovnik to Ston (pronounced "stone"), about 45 minutes north on the Peljesac peninsula.

The ride north was beautiful along the amazing Croatian coastline, where small towns are built in picturesque inlets of the Adriatic. When we arrived, our first stop was a bay where oysters are farmed. Oysters have been cultivated in this area since Roman times, and our host for this part of the tour was a fourth-generation oyster farmer who took us out on his little boat so we could try the freshest oysters possible.

The location was drop-dead gorgeous:

The things you can see on the water are small buoys that each mark the location of a rope covered in oysters, which is connected to a concrete block on the bottom of the bay. We watched our host haul up a rope covered in oysters and shuck them right on the boat:

 The end result was simple, enjoyed with lemon, some local white wine, and absolutely delicious!

Definitely the freshest oysters I have ever tried, and Shana even managed to eat one although she still does not appreciate the delicacy. Oh well, more for me (I managed to eat a half-dozen with my wine for the best breakfast ever).

After leaving the boat, we continued on to a local winery, Vina Vukas, where we tasted a number of wines including what is believed to be the first champagne-style sparkling wine made in Croatia (technically, it is too hot in Croatia to make that style of wine, but the winemaker we met did it by growing the grapes in shaded areas). We were very impressed, and even bought a bottle to bring home with us.

(Our tour guide on the left, wine maker on the right). We enjoyed all four wines we tasted (a white and two reds in addition to the sparkling), and learned a lot about Plavac Mali, the most important red wine grape in Croatia, which is closely related to Zinfindel and Primativo from Italy.

The final stop on our tour was the small town of Ston, which is home to the longest defensive wall in the world other than the Great Wall of China:

So, why did Ston need this amazing defensive wall? Believe it or not, because of salt. Ston is home to the oldest salt pans in Europe, which are still in use today. In the year 1333, Ston became part of the independent Dubrovnik Republic, and its salt began to provide 1/3 of the income of the Republic (at the time, 1 kg of salt was worth 1 kg of silver, about $650 US today). So, in the 14th and 15th centuries, the Dubrovnik Republic built (and garrisoned) these walls to protect the salt of Ston.

After a short time in Ston (it really is just a tiny town), during which we devoured some really good pastries, we returned to Dubrovnik.

Overall, it was a really good tour, with spectacular oysters, great views and good wine. I couldn't ask for more.

Hasta pronto,

Jeff and Shana