Factoids from a foreigner in Spain

Did you know that…

… if you pass a lorry on the motorway and it happens to be full of salad, it might contain up to:

- 21450 iceberg lettuces

- 40560 packets of celery

- 83200 little gem lettuces

… organic mushrooms take around six weeks to grow. Regular mushrooms can be grown in just under four weeks. They are watered more than the organic varieties and so grow faster (because mushrooms have a high water content) but are more susceptible to disease, and do not last as long once harvested as organic ones.

… “estar constipado” in Spanish doesn’t mean “to be constipated”. It means to have a bad cold. Some amusing conversations at cross purposes to be had in this chilly weather…. To be constipated, on the other hand, is “estar estreñido” – literally “to be strained”.

I didn’t know any of those things. You learn a new thing (or three!) every week.

I also learned this week that banana works well on pizza. This wasn’t one of my mad experimental cookery moments, although you would be forgiven for thinking so. No, I was actually served a banana curry pizza in a restaurant. I saw it on the menu and – to the amused disgust of my fellow diners – couldn’t help but order it out of fascination. The just-underripe banana had been cut into rounds and tossed in curry powder before being added to a regular ham pizza. To be honest, I could have done without the curry powder – it was just a bit too bizarre on the cheese and tomato base! But the banana was just like the pineapple on a Hawaiian pizza. Yummy! Another strange culinary experience of the week, admittedly on a much more luxurious scale, was eating thinly cut ox steak that I cooked myself at the table on a piping hot slab of stone. The concept of going to a restaurant to cook for myself took a little getting used to… but I couldn’t fault it for novelty factor and experience!

My spoken Spanish is coming along nicely. I had a mid-term review this week, and as a result of that I had been set a challenge – to start answering my (Spanish) colleauge’s phone when she wasn’t in the office. It was a prospect that I didn’t relish. But not to be defeated, I started picking up the calls. And to my surprise, I could understand what was being said, and after a few conversations I began to get the hang of what I needed to say back to the callers. My phone manner still leaves something to be desired, but it was a definite victory, and a cause for a little well earned celebration.

Hasta luego!