A Wedding & Burning Man

Dear everyone,

Thanks to those who wrote reassuring me that we should not edit the food reviews and photos. My Uncle Tom, who used to be in the fishing industry, wrote with some useful information on hake or, as the Spanish say, merluza.

"hake is now called Pacific Whiting on the West Coast. It formerly was fished by foreign fleets from Russia, China, Korea. Now they are excluded from the 200 mile zone. The name change was thought to make it more appealing to market in US. This fish is very tender, but must be handled with chipped ice water as enzymes will deteriorate the flesh if it is allowed to warm."

I can vouch for the melting tenderness. Great stuff. It's not the most attractive fish when live and whole, although, like most of us, it would probably prefer to be alive and unattractive than the alternative. Sorry, it's very early in the morning.

Flew from Barcelona to Las Palmas Airport and took a bus into the city; our hotel, the very comfortable Parque, was close by. Walked to the museum, Contemporanea Atlantico Arte Moderna or CAAM, which is in a lovely old part of the city. The Canary Islanders don't quite look Spanish to me, on the whole, and their accent is different. I kept thinking they were Portuguese. The original Canary Islanders were more like Berbers. The architecture in the old part of town looks somewhat like Colonial Mexican with a touch of North Africa.

We are always in a state of excitement when exploring a new area or city. This is a new island and a new part of the world.

Looking down the street at the exterior of CAAM. The red building, 2 cream colored buildings and I think the white building on the right-hand side of the street are all CAAM.

And a little further down the street. They are about 2 blocks from the ocean.

Looking up the street, the old Cathedral.

Around the corner, the Columbus House Museum. I don't believe Columbus ever lived here, or not for any length of time. He did provision his ships in the Canaries.

And this is the amazing inside of the museum. So the beautiful old colonial exterior, and when you enter, this is what you see. The show looks stunning in this setting. Magnolia was very happy to be a part of it.

Faisal's piece Adeve, printed at Magnolia, carbon black pigment on two very long panels of backlit film. Omar, Faisal and some BBC journalists.

All very well, but what, you may ask, are you doing at CAAM in Las Palmas, Gran Canaria, Canary Islands? We were introduced to Faisal Abdul-Allah and Barbaro Martinez-Ruiz by Enrique Chagoya. Barbaro teaches at Stanford, along with Enrique, and Faisal was a guest professor. Barbaro and Faisal worked with us to print a few large-scale images for an exhibition at Stanford of Faisal's work. During the course of our work together, we became good friends. The show at Stanford later grew into an exhibition at CAAM. The timing was right, we had never been to the Canary Islands, Barbaro told us the museum was amazing, Magnolia had worked on a lot of the show, and so we came.

Era and Faisal - note: no brown coat. It is almost warm here, while the rest of Europe is freezing.

Inspecting an installed tapestry; Barbaro in foreground.

Faisal, Barbaro and Omar, the Director of CAAM. Barbaro and Omar grew up together in Cuba.

The patio in the staff area at CAAM. What wouldn't we give to have such a place for our staff at Magnolia.

Faisal and Barbaro's sister, Marilu (sp?), who is an artist living in Barcelona. They give a thumbs up to the food. Squash or pumpkin soup in front of Marilu.

I haven't so far mentioned the problems we were having with our flights on this trip. We had 3 different flights either cancel or change on us. A joint flight operated by Iberia and Vueling from Seville to Las Palmas was moved up one day. Fortunately, they gave us more than a week's notice, so we were able to change hotel reservations, other travel, etc. while on our trip with sometimes spotty internet connections.

When we arrived in Seville and met up with Salustiano, he told us that SpanAir that day, and quite suddenly, had gone bankrupt and ceased operations. They were not operating, not refunding any money, and not paying their staff their wages. We were scheduled to fly out of the Canary Islands to Barcelona on SpanAir. When we searched for replacement tickets, they were almost impossible to find. We almost thought we would have to cancel the Canary Islands, but ended up booking with the dreaded Ryanair at great expense (as it was last minute). The problem was they had no flights available on the day we wanted, Saturday, and we had to fly out on Friday afternoon, right before Faisal's opening. We also paid an exorbitant price to check our little carry-on (about $50), as TryingAir (Ryanair) charged Marilu (above) an extra 120 British pounds (about $190) for her carry-on. They charge you more if you don't pay for it on-line, and they are so friggin arbitrary. On our flight many people had oversized carry-ons, but on some flights the people in charge are Nazis and overcharge you for everything. Actually, the TryinAir staff in the Canary Islands were pleasant and seemed like normal people.

Finally, and I'm now writing from the perspective of the present, because we flew home last night and are only pretending to be in the Canaries in this blog, we woke up yesterday morning to an email from British Air informing us that our flight from Barcelona to London had been cancelled. We later found out that this was probably due to heavy snow in London and elsewhere. The air traffic controllers had ordered that half the flights in and out of Heathrow should be cancelled. We scrambled, emailing, calling England, and were able to secure and make an earlier flight, which meant we left our Barcelona apartment immediately and sooner than planned.

Fortunately, and so far as usual, we missed most of the horrible weather that the rest of Europe was experiencing. We hadn't even realized there was a problem. The canals in Venice were/maybe are in danger of freezing. Our friend, Elisabetta Wholey, sent us this photo of her place in Umbria.

Love,

Era and Don

Dear friends and family,

First of all, I have to explain that our last trip: a short visit to Texas and then NY in March, we had a very good time, but became very disheartened with the earthquake, tsunami and nuclear meltdowns in Japan and the turmoil in the Middle East. Didn't have the heart to write much and felt it maybe wasn't appropriate. Now we have the heartbreaking tornadoes in Alabama. But life goes on and I guess we can accustom ourselves to most anything.

In March, the San Antonio Museum of Art was the last stop of The Missing Peace. The Museum was able to accommodate all 80 some odd pieces in the show and installed them beautifully. Many artists showed up for this last episode, some of the tried and true and some we had not yet had the pleasure to meet. Our dear friend, William Wiley, gave an entertaining talk. Below is a photo of the assembled artists, taken by a Good Samaritan, whose name I did not get, with Don's camera.

This is a photo of some of the attending artists with some of the people who made this exhibition happen all around the world.

We stayed in Austin most of the time with Don's brother, Scott, and Scott's wife, Karen. Great hosts: comfortable house and great cooking. What more can one ask?

This quick trip in April is all NYC. We have been here working with Kiki Smith on a series of 3 tapestries. What a trooper; she is right in there, focusing on what is being done every step of the way, paying attention, scrutinizing and making important decisions. A joy to work with. And it is work for all concerned.

Thursday we changed hotels to the super comfortable Surrey. Fortunately, we have a trade there. In the taxi on the way we got a call from Mikael Kirkman of Bicycle Coffee. He and Bailey were in NY also. Met them at the Conservatory Water, a large pond in Central Park, a few blocks away from the Surrey. He gave us some of his great coffee beans, which we gave to Kiki.

Bailey, Mikael and Era, squinting into the sun.

Thursday evening was a special treat. The Tibet Fund, a very worthy organization, had a gala fundraiser dinner at the Pierre Hotel. Our tapestry is the large piece with a buddha in red robes. Many artists donated pieces which were auctioned off for the Tibet Fund's important work in preserving Tibetan culture, and Tibetans, for that matter.

Don tossing barley over his shoulder to ensure good fortune (I think he got confused with spilling salt. He was supposed to toss it gently up in the air; instead he gently hit the lady behind him.)

Chef Eric Ripert organized a group of his chef buddies to help in a major way with this event. Chef Eric told us that not one chef he asked to participate turned him down or showed the slightest hesitation. Each chef cooked a special dinner for one of 9 large tables of about 20 people. We were very fortunate to have Chef Dan Kluger of ABC Kitchen cooking for our table. He and his team did a fabulous job. We were able to tell him that we had reservations at his restaurant the next day (and we did, thanks to our friend, Deb Hoffman). We positioned ourselves as close to the food preparators as possible -- wanted to see everything, but then became so interested in speaking to our fellow diners that we didn't see much of the food prep.

Our chef, Dan Kluger, and crew from ABC Kitchen.

An absolutely brilliant salad, shredded pea pods with parmesan and a mustard vinaigrette on radicchio. Chef Dan emphasizes and gets the most beautiful color in his food.

Cooking under the circumstances was a little frustrating for the cooks as they had to use a little electric stove. There were pauses for different speakers, while the cooks endeavored to keep the food warm; the result was the toast was burnt in places. It was still delicious. I believe this was goat cheese with fluke sashimi.

Richard Gere

Era sat next to the president of the Students for a Free Tibet, Tendor, which was totally fascinating. Of course, we spoke about Ai Weiwei and his arrest by the Chinese government and subsequent disappearance. We all hope that he is not being treated too badly and for his imminent release. Across from us was a Tibetan artist who has a work in The Missing Peace, Tenzin Rigdol; and a lovely woman, Kamala Cesar, an Indian dancer who once took an Indian dance class with a young Aggie Brenneman, our daughter's Indian dance teacher when Marisha was in grammar school; and Kamala's husband, a very sweet man who is a singer. Also at our table were Tibetan artist, Gonkar Gyatso; a journalist from W Magazine; various Tibetan dignitaries and other people we didn't get to meet.

Donald and Shelley Rubin and Richard Gere were honored at the dinner and gave talks. Donald Rubin told us about how his dad started a union local; I think it was Local 9. How he remembered being on a picket line at the age of 3 with his parents. It reminded me of my mom taking me to anti-nuclear marches when I was about that age. I so respect those who take time out of their busy lives to try to make this world a better place. I do it occasionally; not enough.

A round of applause to the hard-working chefs, staff of the Tibet Fund and honorees. Far left, front row are Rinchen Dharlo and Robyn Brentano of the Tibet Fund, Richard Gere, Shelley Rubin, Donald Rubin, some of the generous chefs. Eric Ripert is second from the right.

More in next installment.

Love,

Era and Don

Dear friends and family,

Our last meal in Spain was in Segovia at the restaurant, Jose Maria. We got a recommendation and directions from our hotel receptionist. Very cold, Christmas decorations up (it's Dec 27).

Segovia town square.

The bar attached to the restaurant, a sort of Happy Hour going on, which lasts until God knows when. We arrived for dinner at 8:30, far too early for a self-respecting Spaniard to dine. We passed through the bar and there was almost no one eating in the dining room yet.

Spanish troubadores or tunas. Unfortunately we could barely hear them above the din.

Every fine restaurant in Spain has one, an entire Jamon Iberico. I don't know why they covered this ham's black foot; perhaps modesty.

First course - we couldn't resist: Jamon Iberico de Bellota or pata negra, acorn-fed ham. Delicious. We are probably dwelling ridiculously too long over this meal, but it was our last dinner in Spain. We're savoring (and slavering).

Both Don and Woody Allen have joked that bacon will some day be found to be good for you. Well, here is the Spanish thinking along those lines. From a British website which cites Spanish nutritional studies (http://www.ibergour.co.uk/en/jamon/beneficios_salud_jamon.html):

The fat of Iberico bellota ham contains over 55% oleic acid (a mono-unsaturated fatty acid). Rigorous scientific studies have shown that these fats exercise a beneficial effect on cholesterol in the blood by increasing the amount of good (HDL) cholesterol and reducing bad (LDL) cholesterol. Only virgin olive oil has a higher oleic acid content.

The total proportion of unsaturated fatty acids in cured Iberico hams that have consumed a diet of acorns is over 75%, making it the most "cardiohealthy" of all animal fats, even healthier than some fats of plant origin. The breed of pigs is not the only explanation; their staple diet of acorns and grasses also plays an important role.

In addition to its beneficial effect on cholesterol, Iberico ham provides proteins, vitamins B1, B6, B12 and folic acid, all highly beneficial for the nervous system and proper functioning of the brain. It is also rich in vitamin E, a powerful antioxidant, and in minerals such as copper, essential for bones and cartilage; calcium, iron, zinc, magnesium, phosphorus and finally, selenium, which has been attributed with antiaging properties.

With regard to calories, 100 grammes of Ibérico bellota ham provides less than 250 kcal (roughly the same as bread) meaning that, eaten in moderation, it can be included in low calorie diets.

It is also an excellent substitute for red meat: 100 gramof ham contain 43 grs. of protein.

With regard to calories, 100 grammes of Ibérico bellota ham provides less than 250 kcal (roughly the same as bread) meaning that, eaten in moderation, it can be included in low calorie diets.

It is also an excellent substitute for red meat: 100 gram

I dunno, I always thought ham was considered a red meat. I am happy to hear of any excuse to eat this delicious substance. I only include this to absolve you of any guilt when you do go to Spain or your next Spanish restaurant.

Grilled asparagi and zucchini with shrimp; also scrumptious.

More shrimp or langoustine, grilled. Yummy.

A regional bread soup. Don liked it; I could take it or leave it.

No room for dessert, but this does remind us of the restaurant's name. A rather eccentric meal by Spanish tastes, but that's what we felt like eating.

This is the restaurant where the cute little piglet was broiled or baked and then quartered with the edge of a plate, making that unsettling crunching sound. The attractive young lady at the next table ate it with a big smile.

Back to our super comfy room at Hotel Don Felipe for a great night's sleep. Drove next morning to the Madrid Airport; had a frustrating time delivering the rental car to the right location, caught our Vuelling flight with no problems, arrived in Paris, CDG, took the train into Paris. Freezing. Don was really in the mood for Soupe de Poisson, but that's another story.

On our drive out of Segovia, we stopped and got this photo of the Roman aqueduct. Discovered if you click on these horizontal panoramas in the blog, they blow up a little larger.

Now for the D&E Starred Recommendations for Spain. Inspired by the Michelin Guide, as all the starred lists are. In deference to the Michelin, I decided to keep it to 3 stars as the top rating, but with a twist. For instance, I will do half stars.
3 stars (***) means highly recommended, a worthy destination for an extended (more than a few days) visit, and in fact we would go back.
(**.5) stars means worth a side trip or a significant detour
(**) stars means worth a small side trip
(*.5) stars means picturesque, worth a stop over if you were going that way anyway
(*) star means worth a stop over if you were going that way anyway, but might be difficult to reach (traffic, narrow winding, crazy streets, etc.)
(0) means don't stop
All ratings are totally subjective and our taste may not agree with your taste. In fact, our taste can sometimes be a little quirky.

In order of our trip:

Madrid (***) - Just for the food and museums alone. We went to the Prado and the Thyssen-Bornemisza, which were both fabulous. Mel Ramos recommended these and also the Reina Sofia Museum -- which was recommended by many and which we did not have the time to see :-( -- and the Joaquin Sorolla Museum. Squeak Carnwath recommended a little church in Madrid on the outskirts of town which has some very beautiful Goya frescos on the ceiling. So obviously we have to go back.

Toledo (**) - unless you are a big El Greco fan. For historical interest, it's important. Too fastidiously clean for us (as in cleaned up for tourists).

Plasencia (**.5) - a small, but charming town. 2.5 stars for the amazing parador. Good food.

Caceres (***) - Gorgeous historical city. Great to walk around. Can't say anything about the museums as they were closed for the holidays. Also the Fluxus Museum and the amazing natural environment on the outskirts of Malpartida de Caceres. Good food.

Merida (**) - A little over 2, really. Some nice Roman ruins. The archeological museum was closed when we were there. I've heard it's a good one. Designed by Rafael Moneo. Good food.

Ciudad Rodrigo (*) - Worth staying over, if you are driving that way, from Madrid to Portugal or vice versa, and you happen to hit it at the right time of day. Otherwise, we wouldn't bother. Hard to get into - little winding roads

Salamanca (***) - I have to give it 3 stars, although we were there for only a few hours. Beautiful city.

Segovia (***) - Close to 3 stars, but it is not very large. Charming, beautiful small city. Again, we were not there very long. Would definitely go back, even though it is hard to drive in with their little winding roads. It is fairly close to Madrid, so would probably return by train next time.

Also, on a previous trip to Southern Spain we went to:

Granada (***) - The Alhambra is a dream, incredible Moorish architecture and gardens; wouldn't book a long stay here as the city is pretty small.

Cordoba (***) - Smallish old medieval town with the mind-blowing Mestiqua; wouldn't book a long stay here as it's even smaller. Barely squeezing into the (***) category. Good food.

Seville (***) - Beautiful, fun city. The palace is second only to the Alhambra; gardens are lovely.

Love,

Era and Don

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