Can Ramon Party

Welcome to the 2nd annual Can Ramon Party
www.canramon.biz/

It's a first for Maria and Mini Maria. David is a cofounder of the party!

Catalunya is known for it's beautiful women-check out these two.
Lola Martinez y Maria Martinez Junyet.

Here are 6 more beauties! (We snuck in one American ringer).

Joan is a perfect host and winemaker...

...as is Manel. Pictured here with a very happy Chicagoan.

The wines of Manel and Joan are from their winery Finca Can Ramon. (www.canramon.biz/) These wines are of the highest quality and can actually be purchased in the Chicago area. It's more fun to drink them at the winery, but you'll need a long weekend. Shown here are their white, red, and cava.

The ladies of the house know their way around this country kitchen blindfolded.

They made wonderful toppings for the Catalan Xato salad-tuna, cod and anchovies.

OMG! (Dios Mio!)

Party cofounder and celebrity guest chef Florencio's house cured salmon and papaya,

and FOIE GRAS, (so irresistable that David and I pinched a piece or two before dinner),

and pequillo peppers stuffed with a rich cod mixture.

This is Florencio's marinaded tuna. A first for me and delicious!

A rookie coaxing a caracol (snail) from its shell.

A Catalan delicacy - a stew of Caracoles. Here's looking at you kid.
Yummmmmmmmmmmm!

Catalan pastries for dessert paired with 2 amazing ten year old dessert wines: a Chardonnay from Navarra, Spain and a Selection des Grande Nobiles from Alsace, France plus Can Ramon's own after dinner wine.

Food's ready and the room gets quiet-well in Spain the room is never really quiet. There's so much to say about the food and wine and friends.

Food and wine fit for the King of Spain himself. Or should I say the Counts of Catalunya.?

David pours cava for his sister and mother. Notice-that's a magnum he's pouring one-handed!
David is also a winemaker...you can follow his Vins Caseta de Fusta on Facebook. Also David has a blog: http://casetadefusta.blogspot.com His xarel.lo premiered this March.

Master chef, Florencio Martinez, and master winemaker, Manel Avinyo, - I don't think they're discussing the weather.

The Chicago/Sitges connection.

Can Ramon as viewed from atop Mont Gros.

It all starts with the vines, just beginning to leaf out in April.

Thank you to our friends at El Velero and Can Ramon for a perfect day. We welcome mini Maria to the 1st of many parties to come. To finish our day a breathtaking rainbow over Sant Pere de Ribes on the drive home. I swear I'm not making this up.

Go Jimmy Go!

We went to the Tourism Expo at Fira Barcelona on Friday. It was hugely interesting! There were three halls dedicated solely to travel. The first hall had exhibitors from all of Spain. The second hall concentrated on exhibitors from the rest of the world and the third hall concentrated on Catalonia. We picked up brochures, leaflets, maps, itineraries, plans, hotel suggestions, travel tips, samples of local products, and a limp. Boy were our feet sore after a full day of travelling between booths! There is nothing more fun than talking with people excited about travel.....makes you want to hop on a plane, train, auto, bus, metro, or taxi and go discovering.
An opportunity to try a new mode of transportation presented itself and it didn't take much convincing to get Jim to try it out....

Padron Peppers!

Padron peppers start to finish.
First wash, then dry them....

... heat a little olive oil in a hot skillet and add the peppers.

Stir them as they brown and wilt.

Add a little sea salt to the finished peppers and enjoy!

MNAC and Antoni Tapies Foundation

A view of Placa de Espana from the MNAC .... Museu National d'Art de Catalunya.

Another view...toward the Sagrada Familia.

Carved chair by Antoni Gaudi. The modern section contains works by Gaudi, Ramon Casas, Santiago Rusinol, Juan Gris and Joaquim Sunyer to name a few.

Fornaluz (in Majorca) by Joaquim Sunyer. This painting brought to mind the year we stayed in Fornaluz and walked in the countryside. Got lost actually, but all turned out well.

The museum is situated in the Palau National that was built in 1929. So, as well as interesting exhibits, the building is also extremely interesting.

Imagine having a meal here. What a view!

*******

Five years ago on a Modernisma tour of Barcelona we first encountered the name and work of Antoni Tapies. At that time the renovation of his foundation building was planned but not executed. The building renovation which took 2 years is now open to the public (since March 2010). I can't say I understand his art, but it sure helped to view the video interview where he explains his thoughts.

He uses a lot of alternative materials as well as common materials in unusual ways. In his own words ....he uses limited colors because pure color has already been used by other artists.

This one is my favorite...gotta love a guy who makes a painting about thinking of coffee!

The space is an old building that has been gutted and reduced to it's structural elements.

This wire sculpture is a mock-up of the installation that is on top of the building. Look closely and you will see a chair. The piece is titled Cloud and Chair.

Yup, Tammy Faye Baker eyelashes!

Waiting for Gardot

While Mary and David were here Jim picked up a concert schedule for the Palau de Musica in Barcelona. Thinking to make a play on the title "Waiting for Gidot" Jim said "oh, look at this...Melody Gardot...Waiting for Gardot. That's all it took....Mary knew all about her and her music, including having it on her iPod. We'd never heard of her.......serious lapse in our musical knowledge. We listened, we liked what we heard and we bought the tickets!

The concert was phenomenal!!! The space, the atmosphere, the classical guitarist lead-in act, the lighting...all of it amazing. When Melody performed you could have heard a pin drop!
She had the audience at 'hola'!
We had seats up at the top of the house, but we still had a view of Melody when she played the piano and her guitars. Her voice was haunting, sometimes so soft everyone leaned forward to hear her.

Sorry this one is fuzzy! This is the only photo that captured the lighting on the forms coming out of the walls! The hall is a work of art in itself.

Jim was able to take some brief videos of her performance so you can get an idea of her music. She and her musicians played without a break and she came back for one encore. The encore is Melody singing without accompaniment. Thank you Mary and David for expanding our horizons!