Umame

This writing has to do with things that are very specific to me - but I made them hopefully vague enough that maybe in some way you can relate. Do you ever have these feelings?

Here, in my rented household room in Salamanca at 2am, I lay slightly uncovered, thinking long and hard about the thick heavy silence flooding my ears, cleaving the air in its fullness of moment to the luscious tune of a faint rining as if a mocroscopic horror hilm violinist was positioned with his strings on the outskirts of my eardrum. Every pulse of my body is heard, it´s an uncomfortable silence. At school I usually leave a fan on while I sleep to provide a white-noise curtain to everything around me for pleasantly deaf sleep. I ponder the viability of learning French and German by translating Good Eats episodes or Monty Python for that matter. The motions of shared public privacy drive continually as nagging preoccupations. My feeling here is still as an outsider, even when participating within. Associations seem fleeting in reflection of vested interests - to be or to let everything else be. Social niceties become a momentary passport into beings, but reporters always must stop at the threshold - even the professor. The continual 'out' never seems to stray beyong the 'be' in, but the new 'in' has allowed a door to open out. Is the 'be' so acculturated it can't find out? My out is unfortunately in since the professor is always out. To digest and report is not to be out, but where else is out if not in? Delayed privacy is eternal out, and still waiting, which further inadvertantly sequesters. Where is liberation from this continual communical outward ' in' and singular inward out? But for the unpassable threshold and perfect romance. Some are so obsessed with in that they just don´t explore out.

The personal financial institution is a shared future good, resulting from social supplier pressures, delayed ultimately by frictional unemployment. The realization of this enterprise occupies forever the minds of its destined proprietors but difficult to discuss because of the forward contracting connotations and difficult to ignore because of the intense market opportunity and potential. While expected, it´s often set aside for completion of curent projects and in preparation for tyhe commencement of this future good. While intensely private, the institution is expected to invite wide public support and perhaps participate in foreign direct investment, if not foreign placement altogether.
I guess we ought to visit the Arbotreturm together, dear.
While delaying of this merger is frowned on by older institutions for the Keynsian reasoning of short term market clearing by government interaction, the long term medicine in the end may work out best as markets tend to fix themselves, messily sometimes, although ultimately scarcity and marginal propensities reign supreme. Assuming clear property rights and clear contractual enforcement - as the unemployment rises again after the credit crunch, opportunities in the market will stimulate momentum to realize the venture, although details have not fully been negociated at this time.

To live in the imaginary is a fatal but easy flaw, particularly with association and enticement. By a mile or in sand the thoughts manifest in a splash of 'wow!' in frustating patience. No arguments, always pondering - I thank you and help myself. What do I want? To be pleased into my imagination... but also to not feel guilty in indulging alone - to provide and bring 'wow!'... isn´t that the real transcendance of now? But how far does the imagination go - how restricted does it need to be by 'reality'? It depends on your approval of Plato´s ideas on art. Is imagining and describing as good as being? Depends. How far are we willing to go to realize imagination? Depends on who shares it.


Back into making sense - last night we went out to dinner! But first during the day I was a bum. A lazy bum. And a happy bum. Sleeping until 10 or so, having gone to bed at 11 or so, I woke up to Mamá having made the Spanish version of French toast! They´re called here Torrijas, and they are made with less egg custard to brown and a LOT more cinnamon sugar. It´s a heavily spiced little slice of eggy sweet bread. Delicious! And I very happily asked Mamá if she´d like to try it with the traditional American topping that I now gratefully have in my possesion - real maple syrup! It took me a little while to explain what it was, you know the liquid that comes from a big tree at the end of winter that can be cooked and cooked until it´s thick and strong. I guess it´s difficult to describe exactly if you don´t know the words for a 90% reduction of tetra-decinarian Acer Sacchurum para-frozen climate 2% sucrose sap graded by color. Well she liked it anyways, but still prefers her cinnamon sugar - to be fair the sugar is awesome with it.
After our Torrijas, I learned how to make Paella! The best way I can describe it is a yellow mix between a good surf and turf soup and risotto. The surf and turf soup is based on the fact that the crustaceans and bivalve molluscs were all prepped to individual stocks (a shrimp stock created by reducing water with the shells and heads, then pureed - I would personally strain out the parts, but whatever ; and then mussels held in water for purging and cleanliness, the water then boiled and strained) then the chicken parts, chorizo and ham all browned in oil, and to the side a sofrito of onion pepper and tomato (with seasoning) browned. Similar to risotto, the rice was cooked briefly in oil to slow down water absorption and accentuate starch extraction for the creation of a thick sauce to accompany the finished dish - water is then slowly added (or crustacean and bivalve stock reductions) to further enhance starch extraction. The result, however you put it together is a thick rice stew with happily browned assortments of surf and turf throughout. Traditionally an important detail is to let this risotto cook untoushed as opposed to the French insistence on stirring, the result being a special crust on the bottom that is regarded as a specialty not least of which for the caramelized sugars involved. This process is of course the Maillard reaction which is still be researched, as it is caramelization of internal sugars at temperatures generally too low to have such an effect. Infinitely complex and momentarily incomprehensible, from meat, cheese, duck and mushrooms (and LOTS more) it results in a flavor most of us don´t realize we have and wasn´t described in history until the 18th century by the brilliant Brillat-Savarin: umame. Reduced by asian scientists to being triggered by glutamate (MSG anyone?) in particular, this taste is a certain fullness, a fulfillment of flavor without being particularly salty or sweet or bitter or sour. It has been suggested to be called 'savoriness' in English, I just tend to call it delicious.

After I had learned about Paella, I simply lazed about all day until I went and got to spend an hour or two IMing Bethany and making plans for Italy. It will be expensive, but incredible! I just can´t wait to be able to share firsthand my experiences with someone who understands - like I remember feeling while visiting Caroline in particular. It becomes tiring simply taking notes, I have become known in particular for my note-taking by my classmates.

Another detail is I´ve gotten lax on card and letter sending, I should resume that practice. After talking to Bethany for a while, I met up with the group by a hospital not far away and we all went to a nice Italian dinner! I didn´t know we needed to be dressed up, I just happened to be looking nice... that happens a lot. I guess it pays to just stay well dressed when you can´t remember if you should be or not. Anyways, we went to this place whose name escapes me but the title was Italian restaurant and pizzeria. Well to be honest I wasn´t expecting much. All the Spanish pasta I´ve had was with a kind of strange cheese sauce that tastes like Kraft and horrible crumby hard attempts at pizza crusts. Oh well. I sat around some very nice girls and one of them even had her boyfriend visiting! Alex was a very nice and quiet guy, very adorably having some of the same mannerisms and speech patterns as his girlfriend - a very sweet friendly and cute couple I think. Unfortunately hotel managers do not think so fondly on them, she went to visit him at his hotel one night and they actually made her pay for a night´s stay. As a business I guess I understand, but that´s still really insensitive and not a way to get repeat business. Unfortunate stuff, but they were still cheery and we had a good time just talking, particularly Kathy next to me about food! She loves to bake and cook too! We talked about yeast breads and quick breads and the challenge of vegetarian cooking (a girl sitting across from Kathy was also a vegetarian) and the fascinating nature of lots of food. We also made plans to bake chocolate chip cookies Thursday evening - I can´t wait! We decided that the cookies must be soft in the middle and nicely browned around the edges.
We were sat down to two long tables, where one supposed we would be served family style in groups. Our first dish was a selection of salads - uninterestingly composed, unevenly dressed and generally lack luster. The next dishes were all cheese-sauce covered pastas with the occasional piece of meat or vegetable - some tasted like Spanish ham and cheese, others again like Kraft cheese. I was unimpressed and somewhat depressed at this portrayal of Italian cuisine. Why does everyone feel the need to limit 'Italian' in their minds to pasta, tomato sauce, melty cheese and ground beef? It´s sad, there are so many more incredible food traditions in Italy - beautifully braises and gorgeous variations on basic pasta dishes with interesting vegetables. They then brought out interesting lasagnes... with a delicious spinach variation and a less delicious ham and cheese version as well. By this time discourse had ranged from 'holler' to the interesting phrase 'I feel like a fat kid'.
Then came the pizza. Impossibly thin and crispy with random huge yeast bubbles, lovingly covered with an intensely flavorful tomato sauce and less liberally topped with a perfectly melted and slightly browned mozzarella - this was fantastic. Thank God someone in Spain can make pizza! Lovely toppings ranging from ham to bacon (!! :-D) to tomato to olives to spinach to just cheese. I think I strangely enjoyed the cheese more - it was easiest to enjoy the fantastically crisp crust and the fulfilling rich savory flavor of the tomato sauce and feel the perfect tearing of the melted mozarella. Our plates runneth over. And then came the desserts.
Perfectly soft and crisp crépes with sugar or chocolate, soft and well balanced gelatos of lemon or strawberry cheesecake or chocolate chip, and interesting variation on tiramisu. The crépes were taken out first and when second courses of that came out, someone actually shouted out 'Shut up, where´s my spoon!'. It was of course a 'had to be there' moment, but we all nearly choked on our food laughing. It was a huge meal... and ultimately extremely pleasing and fulfilling. To top it off I got a lovely cup of café con leche - which ultimately was a mistake because I couldn´t get to sleep and instead wrote that jibber jabber above. Oh well, totally worth it and very delicious.

Best wishes and I will assume that only one or two people are actually reading this blog by the amount of response I got from my 'Meaning of Life' entry... so hi you two and keep letting me know how things are going back at home!