The international ambassador of paella

This morning, we had a tour, partially on the bus and partially on foot, of Valencia.  We spent a little time walking around The City of Arts and Sciences, which is a new part of town with very modern architecture.  Some of the buildings in this area are the work of an architect named Santiago Calatrava, who is the designer of two relatively new bridges in Dallas.  When Calatrava was hired in Dallas, I read a story in a local newspaper about how controversial that choice was.  Apparently, his works in Europe typically came in late and over budget, and there was one project in particular where the tiles notoriously kept falling off of the building after it was constructed.  I now know which building, because we saw Valencia’s opera house today, and we learned that many of the tiles had been replaced.  It all made sense.  It’s a strange building, and to be sure, you’d love it if that was your style preference, but it’s part of why he was so notorious when city hall in Dallas tapped him for the bridges.  Since then, he designed the grand and unusual Margaret Hunt Hill bridge, nicknamed the Large Marge locally, and the Margaret McDermott bridge, which is an interesting story, as well.  That one is just a straight up concrete car bridge with a Calatrava design slapped on top.  After the fact, lanes were added for pedestrians and bicycles, but those have not yet been found safe for pedestrian use.  So the drama continues.  Still, we saw a cool looking opera house today:

After the tour of the rest of the city including the silk exchange and the world’s narrowest building facade, we went on to our cooking class.  We drove to the outskirts of town past rice paddies to a small, one room structure in the middle of nowhere, where we learned to make a real Spanish paella from a man who has won many awards for his cooking.  His name is David Montero  and he has apparently been named the International Ambassador of Paella.  He has some of his awards and honors displayed on the wall there, and he took a group of us through the process of making the traditional Valencian paella.  The one we made was with rabbit and chicken.  It was one of the best things we have done on this tour.  The food was spectacular, and the lesson was one where we took notes.  We also snapped a photo of the recipe so we could translate it to English and give it a shot when we get home.  I paid attention when his brother made the Sangria, just in case my recipe wasn’t as good.  Honestly, I do like mine better, but here’s what I observed on that score: 

• 1 bottle red wine (he used a Tempranillo)
• 1/4 bottle gin
• 1 bottle Fanta lemon soda (about a 2 liter bottle)
• Sugar (If I had to guess, about 1/8-1/4 cup)
• Cut up fruit chunks- he used apples, oranges, peaches and lemons.

It’s important to pay atttention to these things.  

Cas and I came back to the hotel and took a nap.  Now, we’re ready to go out for the evening.  It’s a big festival tonight, and we’ll need all our wits about us to get to wherever we decide to go and come back.  It may just be the beach tonight, and we just might try our hand at jumping over a bonfire.  

Photos: https://photos.app.goo.gl/pfA2563myHYwVp6U7