Happy Thanksgiving

Today being Thanksgiving, I took myself out for a special lunch. I’ve always loved the holiday: It’s good to be reminded to be thankful, and of course there’s the food. I love the whole meal but to be honest, if there wasn’t any cranberry sauce, I’d have a hard time eating the turkey. In fact, who needs the turkey? Cranberry sauce, stuffing, sweet potatoes in any form, and pumpkin pie, those are the makings of a happy Thanksgiving for me.

Having no one to celebrate with, I took myself to my favorite restaurant in my favorite place: Restaurant Pont Vell in Besalú. Thanksgiving is an American holiday so you can’t expect the same food here. And in fact, my lunch was completely different: no cranberries, no stuffing, no sweet potatoes, no pumpkin pie, and no turkey. Instead I had fish mousse for first and sausage with mashed potatoes and sauteed wild mushrooms (rovellons) for the main, followed by more mousse, this time chocolate shaped into a cake. And look at the view I had from my table.

They don’t do Thanksgiving here but they have adopted Black Friday with a vengeance. Never mind that it can start on any day of the week, any time in November, and last for days or weeks. Many people don’t know what Friday means anyway. I remember a time when there was no such thing as Black Friday. People started shopping for Christmas right after Thanksgiving, but it didn’t have a name except the Christmas Shopping Season. When did it get a name? Who named it?

Wandering around I saw a truck driver pull off what seemed to me like an impossible manuever, backing into a tiny street alongside a lovely Romanesque chapel. That man should win a prize. And then there was the river and a wee bit of fall in the air. Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!

On The Road with Friends: Besalú

Gracia and Miquel are Catalans but I met them in California before I moved here.  We’ve remained friends for the last 13 years since I’ve come to live in Catalunya and they continue to live in the Bay Area.  Although a relatively new friend, Gracia has been very supportive of my move to Catalunya and whatever project I've taken on.  When her mom was still alive, she would come to Catalunya often and we usually had the opportunity to meet up.  But it had been a while since our last visit, so it was with great pleasure that I went to pick up Gracia and Miquel at the AVE train station the other day and whisked them off for a visit to Besalú.

Besalú is a charming village that still retains much of its medieval architecture.  The most impressive of these buildings is the bridge that spans the Fluvià river, yet the feeling of stepping back in time embraces you everywhere.  But that is not to say that nothing modern has invaded.  American-style muffins – that is, very large muffins of various flavors – have become popular and Besalú has one bakery almost exclusively devoted to this delight.

Muffinville

But muffins aside, it’s the beautiful medieval bridge that keeps me coming back to visit.

See that white umbrella? That's where we had lunch.