…and you still inspire me with your ensalada tibia, a salad of mixed greens, stir-fried champiñones (mushrooms), balsamic vinegar, and queso parmesano. Try as I might, I’ve never been able to reproduce this simple yet wonderful dish that I enjoyed (twice!) at Paprika, that little cafe we kept going back to during our long weekend in Granada.
So why do I bring it up again? Two reasons:
1. I am tickled paprika-red to discover that Paprika includes spacekadet.org and my flickr stream among its website’s enlaces (hyperlinks!).
2. Next time I go to Paprika, I will be able to communicate with the friendly staff in their native language. Yes, I’m starting Spanish Level 1 in a month! I am lucky enough to work right next door to the Bishopsgate Institute, which hosts lunchtime Spanish courses, among other things like yoga and creative writing and salsa (but I’m not quite ready for dancing just yet). I’ve tried learning languages in the past, but as my Latin can attest, I have never been very successful. But then again, I never really wanted it. Now that I’ve been to Spain and lived in Austin, TX (where I always kicked myself for not learning the language of the ~207 million hispanics who live in the area), I feel more driven than ever. Plus, it will allow me to get in on the secret conversations between my dad and sister, who learn languages way better than I.
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Monica, like you I wonder why I chose Latin over a language like Spanish. Perhaps it was because Spanish seemed too “common” and “easy” and anyone who studied Latin was considered a puzzling brand of student. Latin students were either NHS, eclectic philosophical types (me, back then) or die-hard, Catholic-to-the-core types. Now I wish I’d taken Spanish. “Common” can be a good thing.
That’s really cool about Paprika! Honestly, you could be a food writer with a vegetarian/vegan point of view. Clearly, Monica, you ARE passionate about food. You could be the Rick Steeves of the culinary world. You could travel all over (tax write off) then write books, and give vegetarians some direction. (I think the thing that concerns me most about travel to foreign countries is fretting over what I would EAT there!)