The Hand that Feeds: A blogular tribute to the company that single-handedly nourishes me

I live in a student apartment. Three other girls, two from Córdoba province and one from Jerez de la Frontera, and myself split our lovely abode. Being from a more developed "food culture," Spanish students are privileged when it comes to their nourishment. Their diet of fresh fruits and vegetables, bread, cured meats, etc. are supplemented with individually frozen portions of happiness. Spanish mothers send their offspring back to the city with tons of tupperwares of home-cooked meals. These dishes include stews, lentils, meat with potatoes, migas, seasoned fillets of chicken, even snails. Since most people in Spain come home from work or school around 2 for lunch, these tupperwares are taken out in the morning and left to thaw and then heated up upon arrival home. How's that for a TV dinner?

A prime specimen in our chest freezer, overflow from the regular freezer.

One very smart mommy puts her food in recycled milk containers!

My mother, and father for that fact, happens to be one of the best cooks in the world. (Whose isn't?) But alas, Kristen is too far away to send me little home cooked meals. Therefore, I rely on the closest substitute I can:

Photo of Mercadona plant outside of Sevilla.

I am lucky enough to be living by a Mercadona. Whilst Jackie and Eric were listing of the benefits and detriments of their new apartments in Madrid and Sevilla, respectively, they both had pretty damn near the top of their list the fact that they had to shop at Dia, the poor man's Mercadona.

Mercadona's house brand is Hacendado. I buy pretty much every single product that Hacendado fabricates.

Hacendado is Spanish for "Christ-how-do-they-have-all-the-products-that-I-want-and-why-does-it-cost-so-much-less-than-all-the-real-brands-like-for-christ's-sake-la-lechera-yogurt-is-so-damn-expensive-who-the-hell-would-buy-that-with-the-Merca-brand-right-here."

Roughly translated, of course.

All Hacendado.

Another tidbit about the ins and outs of Mercadona, from a linguistic standpoint. Learning Spanish in Andalucía makes a strong impression on the way one pronounces their words, to say the least. Listening to this dialect day in and day out for about a year and a half has caused me to permanently cut all d's out of the 'ado' endings of words, and for that matter the whole last syllable of a lot of words. It's hot out, I don't feel like pronouncing.

Therefore, when I grab my enourmous reusable plastic shopping bags, I inform my roommates and whoever else happens to be in the vicinity, "Bueno, me voy a la Merca. Alguien necesita algo?"  which means, "I'm going to the distribution center of happiness and nourishment. In order to be helpful those around me, I am offering to buy you any product that you might need from the great provider, granted it is not bulky. And no valuepacks of milk. You haul that shit back on your own."

Again, roughly translated.

Laura and Rocio never fail to snicker.

"Haha mira la guiri. Ha dicho ´la merca´ en vez de Mercadona. Qué graciosa!" roughly translated as "You've been here too long to not know which words are shortened and which words aren't, but not quite long enough to create your own slang words in Spanish. You are a constant source of joy and amusement, and can you get me a pack of gum from the store, the minty kind, here's a euro."

Anywho, this whole post arose because I am hungry yet I'm on a Merca detox. As I am going on vacation on Thursday with Joseca to the north of Spain (can't wait!!), I refuse to go grocery shopping until I get back. As I have an overload of dried legumes, pasta, non-perishables, etc., I last week declared that I would not go to the Merca until I eat the food I already had. Today I decided this does not include fruit and vegetables, so I went to get a bit of produce. But other than that my diet has consisted of way to many dried things that I boil and then add other things to make them taste better.

I will return to Málaga next Wednesday with tons of photos from Northland adventures. I'll post after I raid the Merca, clearly.

Winter, water, and wine

Winter has hit Málaga like a ton of bricks. And this year, like last year, it has been raining. A lot.

The rain has a habit of wrecking everything. When you go everywhere on foot, bus, or motorcycle, rain means you stay home. With the heater on. And pajamas. Watching the Office.

But to compensate for chilly weather, Málaga puts up Christmas lights.

Lots.
Of.
Beautiful.
Lights.

Calle Larios at night.

Plaza de la Constitución.

Pointsettas, Plaza de la Constitución.

That orange was moments earlier used as a soccer ball.

Another great thing about Christmas time: the scent of roasting chestnuts. I don't have a photo of this, because it's a scent. And also because I have not taken a photo of the chestnutman (note for non-native speakers: chestnutman not a real word. The correct term for this person is "vendor of happiness and provider of warm hands.")

Yet another great thing about Christmas: the fact that any present I buy here for the family is automatically cooler and more thoughtful because I brought it from Spain. I'm going to take a leap of faith and guess that my parents do not read my blog, based on the fact that my mom asked me what, exactly, a blog was when I emailed them a link. Therefore, I can post what I got them.

Mom and dad, if you see this, this is not your gift.
It's a stand-in gift. I got you both ponies.

I got them two bottles of good wine here that were fairly pricey. Living in a wine-producing country has benefits. If I spend 2.50 euros or up on a bottle of wine in the Mercadona (the grocery store which single-handedly nourishes me), it better be a gift, a birthday, or payday. To ascertain the true value of these bottles of wine, I used the following formula.

I define the following variables:

TWV = true wine value
COW = cost of these bottles of wine
PA = price adjustment for being bought at Hipercor, figured at 0.85, as it should cost that much.
CFDTF = coolness factor due to foreignness (calculated at 1.5)

TWV =(COW*PA) CFDTF

Solving for TWV, that wine is approximately 15 times better than the wine I normally get, and nearly 21,321 better than the imported wine we get from Spain in the States, give or take.

I'm usually pretty bad at gift giving (Bath and Bodyworks, anyone?) but this year I put a lot more thought into it, and this year I'm much more excited about giving people their gifts than receiving them. Seeing their faces, hopefully making my mother tear up, as I have another gift for her that is awesome. (Won't put on here on the off chance she is internet stalking me.)

Thursday I head back to the US and A to spend the holidays there. My parents, my brother, perhaps the baby of my dad's post-doc student will be born, Mexican food. So much to look forward to.