While a few Spain bloggers have been kind enough to contribute to our Top 5 series, you lot have come up with some excellent alternatives in our forum competition. The brief was easy, just produce a Top 5 list connected in any way to Spain. And the winner is… Steve W with this excellent list:

Top 5 “only in Spain” moments:

1. Nine people in a hire car, bumping down a track to a beach bar at 4am.
2. Fireworks and marching bands at 8am for 7 days in a row.
3. 72 people injured in a bull running. “Same time tomorrow chaps?”
4. Kalimotxo – red wine and coke.
5. Brandy for breakfast before work.

It sums up all the madness, disregard for health and safety, and general predisposition to having a good time that we love so much about this country. What would you add to this list?

Thanks go to all the other excellent entries, in no particular order (and I hope I have you all!):

Top Five best mistakes made by my Spanish students, by Barca
Top Five strange but true vignettes of Spanish life, by Barca
Top Five best times of the year, by Greytop
Top Five Significant Spaniards, by Marbella
Top Five Things a Spaniard would never say, by Marbella
Top Five Podcasts from Spain, by Valenciason
Top Five Tourist Activities in Spain, by Valenciason

Thanks to all of you. Steve W wins a Notes from Spain T-Shirt… but will have to be patient as they are still in the design phase!

See you in the forum…

Is this the craziest fiesta in Spain? Anywhere in the world for that matter? This morning, between the hours of 11 a.m. and midday, 40,000 ‘guerrillas’ pelted each other with 110 tonnes of tomatoes in the Valencian town of Buñol! Full marks to Graham McLellan, author of the above photo, for risking his camera in that environment… it doesn’t seem the ideal place to be wandering around with anything electronic! Well, same time, same place next year if you’re fond of soft, red, over-ripe fruit!

Update: A messy video of the after-effects!

The experiments in celluloid continue (aka Ben goes for a wander with his Canon Ixus!) Flamenco on a sunny afternoon in Madrid’s Retiro park… Forgive the wind at the beginning and dig those passer’s by! Direct video link
 

All the Notes in Spanish podcasts and worksheets can now be found at their new home, Notes in Spanish.com Come and have a look!

During my first three years in Spain I read every book on the country that I could get my hands on. The travelogues that I most enjoyed came from a bygone era – Orwell’s outstanding Homage to Catalonia, the brilliant Voices of the Old Sea by Norman Lewis, to name two of my favourites. Apart from Duende (another great book, but is it all true?), the only contemporary book of this genre that I really enjoyed was Driving Over Lemons, by Chris Stewart, with its quiet and pleasant tales of setting up home and farm in Andalusia’s Alpujarra mountains.

Well, Chris Stewart is back, with part three, The Almond Blossom Appreciation Society. It’s much the same as the first two instalments, lots of amusing encounters with the locals, and local animals (in the first few chapters we cover dung-beetles, an escapee parrot, and the usual errant sheep), but if Chris Stewart is living your particular dream, then this book will be just as enthralling as the first two.

Personally, having been in Spain for a while, I now tend to judge contemporary Spain books on how much I can still learn from them about Spain, and on that count ABAS is doing pretty well. So far I have discovered that a Carmen (leafy enclosed patio in Granada) is only a Carmen if it has a view of the Alhambra, that the Moors would verbally threaten olive trees that produced no fruit, and that I must read more Michael Jacobs… Thanks Chris!

Pick up at copy at Amazon.co.uk

We have decided to launch the NFS Newsletter so that you can keep abreast of what’s new at Notes from Spain! We hope to publish this once a month, and include news about the site, highlights from the month gone by and the month ahead, and hopefully there will be a monthly competition in the pipeline!

The first newsletter will be out at the beginning of September, and will include great news about changes to the Notes in Spanish podcast (all good, don’t worry!)

To subscribe, just enter your e-mail address in the form at the bottom of the left-hand column of this page. Your details will be kept totally private, and you can unsubscribe at any time. And if you have any ideas about what you’d like to see in the NFS newsletter, let us know below!

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Almejas (clams) a la Marinera

There are many variations on this recipe, depending where you have it. Sometimes it has a light green sauce if it is made with parsley, or red if you use paprika, in which case it can be either spicy if you use hot paprika, or mild if you use sweet paprika. Any of these combinations is delicious but I have a particular preference for the mild red one, which is the one described below.

Preparation time: 25 mins

Ingredients

1/2 Kg (1 pound) clams
1/2 onion
2 garlic cloves
2 sticks of fresh parsley chopped up in very small pieces
1 tablespoon of flour
1 glass of white wine
3 tablespoon of olive oil
salt
1 teaspoon sweet or hot paprika

Preparation

Firstly wash the clams by placing them to soak in cold water with a pinch of salt for 10 minutes, so that they release any remaining sand. Meanwhile, chop up the onion into 1/2 cm (1/4 inch) squares, peel and crush the garlic cloves, and wash and finely chop the parsley. At this point put the clams in a sieve so you have them ready when you need them.

Select a medium-sized saucepan and pour in 3 tablespoons of olive oil (or until the bottom is completely covered). When the oil starts to smoke add the onion bits and cook for about 5 minutes at medium heat, or until the onion is soft. Then add the garlic and cook for another minute, add a tablespoon of flour and a teaspoon of paprika, and stir it with a wooden spoon so they get coated with the oil and don’t burn. After 30 seconds add a glass of white wine and a pinch of salt, and drop the clams into the mixture and stir them while they open. As soon as they open they are done, but as some take longer than others to open you can take them out and place them on a serving dish as they do so. When all of them are open (remove and discard those that don’t open), pour the sauce over the clams and sprinkle a bit of parsley over the top.

Tip 1 – When you finish eating the clams, soak a bit of bread in the sauce, it’s delicious!

Pimientos del padron

These small green peppers come from Galicia but can be found in markets all around Spain and are delicious to have as a tapa.

There is a Spanish saying which goes "Pimientos del padrón some are hot and some are not” – usually they are not spicy, but every now and again you find a real scorcher that can bring tears to your eyes (or in Marina’s case cause hiccups)!

Preparation time: 6 minutes

Ingredients

1/2 Kg (1 pound) Pimientos del Padrón
2 teaspoons of rock salt
3 tablespoons of olive oil

Preparation

For this recipe you need to use a big frying pan or divide the peppers in to two lots and cook them separately. Cover the bottom of the frying pan with olive oil, and when it starts to smoke add the peppers. Sprinkle the salt on top and swirl the frying pan as if it was a wok, so the peppers fry evenly all over. Let them cook for about 5 minutes or until they start to wrinkle. Place them onto a serving plate and eat while they are still hot.

Comment on these recipes in the Notes from Spain forum.

Why is it that all Spanish women seem to hate the hard drinking, fat, womanising, disaster of a chauvinist cop known only as Torrente? For all those reasons no doubt. What is there to love about a figure who spends half his life in puti-clubs, calls his dog Franco, Moroccans ‘Moros‘, and refers to South Americans as a genetic degeneration of the Spanish master race? The reason Torrente is so often disliked is that he is so representative of the worst possible kind of Spanish male.

He’s a medallion wearing, bigoted, lecherous drunk. As a policeman he’s corrupt to the core. But once you accept that, you begin to see the Torrente films as classic works of Spanish cinema, and hilariously funny ones at that. Santaigo Segura, who directs and plays Torrente himself, has managed to perfectly caricature the worst side of backward thinking Spain and Spanish pride.

The second film, Torrente 2, is the finest, largely due to the classic role of Gabino Diego as Torrente’s junkie side kick. Once you accept Torrente for what he is, then a wonderful parody of the deviant side of the Spanish national character is there for the taking.

Nothing like getting a top expert to forewarn us about the latest dangers to unwary tourists on the sunny streets of Spain. So, without further ado, our Top 5 series continues with an appearance by a famous Barcelona detective. Ladies and gentlemen, in his own unique voice, I give you Larry Kovaks, P.I.:

“These rainy days. Strange for August. But that’s the way mother nature intended it for this old mudball and you better goddamn well accept it. Means the guiri crime wave is ebbing, so there isn’t much work for me. Good thing they asked me to do this top 5 thing.

But the idea of a top 5 scam report irks me. What exactly does top 5 mean? The top 5 most successful scams? The top 5 best scams? The top 5 five most ingenious scams?

The virulent underbelly of guiri scamming is truly a menace to this society. I couldn’t, in all due consideration to the respectable author of this blog, say that there is a top 5 of any scam. A scammer, a gypmeister, a short conner, what have you, has one m.o. And that is to pull the deed and not get caught. Therefore, by any means necessary and he or she is happy as, well, a sauced-up guiri in Lloret.

Considering the nature of my work, and the highly compromising situation I would put myself in if I were to reveal my perceptive insights into crimes I am going to solve, I will limit this list to the 5 most nefarious and dastardly scams I have confronted yet. Gypmeisters should not take this as sloth on my part. I am hard at work on the next cases.

1. The Drop Cigarette Con
My first face-off with vice in this dissolute burg started with this one. I was subjected to perhaps the most common form of gypmeisting. In Barcelona, at least. What these fellows do is block you in a confined space (usually an escalator, or a narrow staircase). They do this by dropping a cigarette or other meaningless personal item, and impeding your exit while they "try” to retrieve it. An accomplice of theirs sneaks up behind you and bumps you. As they bump you, they snake their gypmeisting fingers into your pockets and steal your wallet. They got me one time …

2. The Bouncing Cartoon Con
Some of the dirtiest rat bxxxxxxs to have scurried across these piss-laden streets. What they do is sell these cute little bouncing cartoon cutouts. Often they are Simpson’s characters, but they just as well may be Mickey or even Minnie Mouse. A goddamn shame. What they do is put seductive pop music on and "make” the cartoon cutouts dance. Foolish associates have ventured the notion that the bouncing cartoons are actually powered by magnet fields. No such thing. It’s much more sinister than that. There’s a little motor behind that stolen boombox. And much more …

3. The Soccer Trick Con
With world cup fever on the wane, this might not be a "top 5” scam. But it is definitely a scam. And a dirty one at that. What these fellows do is throw on some knock-off Barí§a gear and dribble a soccer ball around. Only in the most touristy spots. I encountered them on the Ramblas a few weeks ago. They dribble up to you, do a fancy trick, and … well, even vigilant eyes like mine can’t spot gypmeisters like these. They beguile you with their "elastico” moves. And before you know it, your vacay plans go blooey.

4. Crap On Clothes Con
This is a fairly old con. There are several variants, but one of the most common goes like this: The gypmeister hides behinds trees or bushes or what have you and he or she squirts a foreign substance onto your clothes. They say something is on your clothes and offer to clean it off. BEWARE! This moment is key. What they are about to do is relieve you of your hard-earned euros.

5. American Tourist Con
As shocking as it might sound, there are gypmeisters who, con mucho morro, don tourist disguises in order to rip off tourists. I encountered these fellows on the Ramblas, of course. The Ramblas is a veritable paradise for gypmeisters of all races, creeds, and filthy intentions. They are in cahoots with other scammers and gather around them in order to attract real tourists. Real tourists are innocently lead into their tempting world of gypmeisting (in my case it was the classic "hide the pea con”).

In this world you can’t judge by appearances. Just remember that.

I would like to thank Ben for the opportunity of sharing this invaluable knowledge with potential tourists of Spain. Please, watch out. If you ever see any suspicious behavior, don’t hesitate to contact me: kovakspi@gmail.com.

Goddamn palookas. Poltroons. ‘Bout time someone took them to the cleaners.”

As part of our on-going Top 5 series, Ryan from Catavino has come up with the greatest travel adventures to be had in the world of Spanish and Portuguese wine:

1. Sanlucar de Barremeda
A small and indiscriminately located town in Andalusia, it is the home of Manzanilla sherry and a place I fell in love with last summer. As a result of my passion for sherry, Manzanilla being one of my favorites, the trek to Sanlucar was more like a pilgrimage than a vacation. Sitting at a beachside bar watching the sunset with a cold glass of Manzanilla sherry, I literally thought I had died and gone to heaven. Couple that experience with a tour of one of the oldest Manzanilla sherry houses, where I sipped 150yr old PX out of a barrel, and I would have to say this is a “don’t miss” for any wine lover.

2. Priorat and Montsant
Located just inland from the Roman town of Tarragona, this is one of the most exciting new wine regions in Spain. However, because Priorat wine is currently priced well beyond anyone’s wine budget, you might find yourself exploring other regions for economic reasons. Fortunately, there is another option. The region of Montsant literally circles Priorat, offering fantastic wine for great value. Rugged terrain with steep hills, poor soil and rich history, this region is a fun place not only to visit, but when stopping in the region’s default capital of Falstet, it is a great place to pick up some wine! Because production levels are so low, however, it may require you to book a ticket and plan a trip to taste many of the exquisite wines from this region, which in the grand scheme isn’t such a terrible thought to ponder.

3. La Rioja
How can I not mention Rioja? You have Longroño with narrow streets and winding roads where some of the regions greatest culinary treasures can be tasted – think stuffed mushrooms, white asparagus, and chorizo and potato stew, but you also have wine galore. Although for me, I would rather spend my time in Haro, a quaint town that is not only full of great restaurants that serve traditional roasted lamb, but also holds the greatest wine museum created by the winery Dinastí­a Vivanco. I’ve been to a lot of wine museums in my travels and to be honest, the majority of them bore me. What makes this wine museum different is that they take you through the entire wine making process from beginning to end, while giving you a unique and interesting perspective on the process of making wine. This is not to be missed by any wine lover who has a chance to wander over there.

4. Toro
Granted, you could probably visit this small Castilla y León town in a day, but it will be a day well spent. In truth, although the Bodegas are growing rapidly, they are relatively uneventful to visit and the region as a whole is a bit barren. On the other hand, this area is dripping in history, having sent some of its Toro wines with Columbus as he went off to re-discover the new world. Additionally, the town is nestled inside ancient stone walls where a castle and a quaint little square house several small bars offering just about every wine produced in the region. You can wander all night trying different tapas and tasting the rich ink like wines from this region, while feeling history vibrate through your soul. Plus, not a stone throw’s away, you have the incredible white wine region of Ruéda with its cornerstone grape Verdejo. The best part is the fact that you are only two and a half hours from Madrid, allowing you to not only visit the city famous for its night life and architecture, but also taste wines from one of the most famous regions in Spain!

5. Oporto
Located in Portugal, this city has so much history and significance to the world of wine it would be a shame to miss it. Influencing such wines as Ribera del Duero and Toro in Spain, and Port in the Douro valley of Portugal, Oporto is wedged in the valley of the Douro River as it makes its exit out to the Atlantic. Steep slopes with colorful houses and historic buildings, Oporto even lays claim to one of Gustav Eiffel’s architectural achievements – a giant two level bridge that is the focal point for visitors to this town. Take a day to eat octopus at a small restaurant on the bank of the Douro and then wander across to the other side of the river and take a tour of the world’s most famous and historically significant Port houses where you can sample their wines. This year is the 250th anniversary of the region’s wine demarcation as the oldest regulated wine region in the world. If you visit Iberia, don’t forget this town!