Paella

Paella is a traditional Spanish/Mediterranean dish made of rice, veggies, tons of olive oil, and fresh seafood. Fresh as in it was moving once you ordered it. A few friends and I have begun a search for the best Paella in town. We meet every Sunday and try out a new restuarant...Ted has been ever so kind to keep track of our experiences.

There are 2 main types of Paella in Spain...pre-made and fresh. There are companies that make the Paella, flash freeze it, and sell it to all the touristy restuarants on Las Ramblas for unsuspecting travellers. We do not fall into this category.

The best Paella is found in Barceloneta (the seafront area of Barcelona), in small mom & pop restuarants that keep serving you food until you pass out. Also, many of the best places only make the dish once a week, on Sundays. And if the place is really good, all the locals know about it and the dish is gone by 3pm.

The place we went to last week had a sign charging 15.50 euros/person. That, even for Spain, is a little ridiculous. We went inside and once the realized we weren´t tourists, the price automatically went down to 8 euros...awesome. After waiting about 1.5 hours and munching on crab croquettes, fish, and "surprise pimientos" (the surprise is 1 out of every 10 pimientos are extra spicy, sorry, I ruined it...), we finally received our Paella. It was glorious. Easily the best meal I have had in Spain. Words can not describe it, but I can´t wait for next Sunday.

To top off the weekend, we went to the beach for the next 3-4 hours. The weather has been pretty rainy/dreary lately so it was nice to work on my tan (haha...tan). Monday morning means back to the grind. I have a few meetings set up at work and Dr. Miró and Maria have asked my assistance in a few of their projects. They are changing the department from a service-based (Medical ED on one floor, Surgical ED on another, Psych ED somewhere far far away) to acuity-based model (Resuscitation here, Urgent/Non-Urgent there). I also get to provide my two cents for the new ED they are building which is scheduled to open in 2014. Sounds cool, but I also have a lot of research I need to jump on in the next month. Hopefully I can keep my air of competence awhile longer.

Talk soon