Comment from Sarita
Time: July 19, 2008, 7:18 pm

I believe the correct term is “hispanophile”

Comment from Beckett
Time: July 19, 2008, 7:54 pm

Ben,
You’ve lived in Spain for a decade and today is the first time that you’ve ever made salmorejo?! ¡No me digas! Salmorejo is one of my all time favorite Spanish dishes. I could eat it every day. Thanks for the link to Marina’s recipe.

Comment from Ben
Time: July 19, 2008, 8:08 pm

Beckett - Marina usually makes it I’m ashamed to say! I could eat it every day too!

Comment from Jonathan
Time: July 19, 2008, 10:41 pm

Yes, “hispanophile” is the word. I’m also a big salmorejophile, and for those of us too lazy to make it for ourselves (shame on me), the Alvalle version in a tetrabrik is the best of the off-the-shelf stuff. There - that’s sacrilege for you!

Comment from luke
Time: July 20, 2008, 12:12 am

My name is Luke and I’m a Hispnaphileoholic.

Comment from luke
Time: July 20, 2008, 12:13 am

Have I just said that I’m addicted to people who like Spain? It wasn’t meant to come out like that!

Comment from Dano
Time: July 20, 2008, 5:35 am

Ben:
That soup looked great. The wife is going to try and make it for me. Thanks for sharing.

Spainoholic works best in my opinion….Hispanofile doesn’t seem specific enough when refering to the county of Spain.

Keep up the good work!
Dano

Comment from Chris
Time: July 20, 2008, 5:36 am

I’m a bit ashamed to say this, but although I’m a “hispanophile,” I don’t like salmorejo. The problem is the tomatoes… I don’t like tomatoes at all. I guess you could call me a “hispanophile of the non-salmorejo variety”…. or something like that.

Comment from Jonk
Time: July 20, 2008, 6:11 am

Chris;

How do you survive? Haven’t been to Spain but from reading about it, tomatoes seem to form a very important part of their cuisine.

Comment from Edith
Time: July 20, 2008, 10:11 am

I would say it’s hispanophile… btw, salmorejo is quite similar to gazpacho, isn’t it? Except for the fact that gazpacho has also got cucumbers in it, as well as bell peppers.

Comment from parubin
Time: July 20, 2008, 10:35 am

Hispanófilo in Spanish, thus my guess in English would be hispanophile.

@ Edith : Yes, it is a cold tomato soup ideal for the hot summer. Simmilar to gazpacho. Like gazpacho it goes really well with hard boiled egg and serrano ham. Salmorejo is a bit thicker in its texture because it has bread in it.

@ Jonk : You are right. Tomatoes, garlic, olive oil… have to be all part of the Spanish DNA by now.

Comment from leftbanker
Time: July 20, 2008, 12:57 pm

I’m like a Spainoholic, except with booze.*

I make industrial quantities of gazpacho during the summer. If I am invited over to yoyur house, chances are I will bring a couple of liters of gazpacho. It’s sort of my calling card.

Chris:
I think you can be cured of not liking tomatoes; kind of like being hypnotized to quit smoking.

*Extra credit for anyone who knows where I stole that joke.

Comment from gary
Time: July 20, 2008, 3:35 pm

I love the 1/8th litre thing in the recipe

Wiva imperial measures and a hogshead of brandy for all

Comment from Jambro
Time: July 20, 2008, 5:14 pm

Spainophile. Thats what I am.

Comment from luke
Time: July 20, 2008, 10:51 pm

@leftbanker
WC Fields?

Comment from Chris
Time: July 21, 2008, 3:35 am

@Jonk: Yes, tomatoes are important in Spain and I, like a goof, have to pick them off of everything I eat…. I don’t mind tomato sauce… just not other tomato-related things. I get by however I can! haha

@leftbanker: Maybe I should start a “campaign” to find a “cure” for tomatoes….

Comment from Edith
Time: July 21, 2008, 12:36 pm

I am a tomatophile.

Comment from ValenciaSon
Time: July 21, 2008, 3:05 pm

Leftbanker, you are invited to my house! See:http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=spain&ie=UTF8&lci=lmc:panoramio,lmc:wikipedia_en&ll=39.909736,-4.350586&spn=11.791643,20.566406&z=5&source=embed

Comment from gary
Time: July 21, 2008, 3:07 pm

@Edith - me too but not the homogeneous, flavourless, hydroponicly grown supermarket tomato that never ripens and never goes off.

I love the soft gnarled flavoursome tomatoes my pals grow and love their giant spanish cousins

Comment from Flinn
Time: July 21, 2008, 6:07 pm

Ben,

It’s great that you are able to live in a place that you love so much. Most people in the US are not able to do so…in fact, many people can barely tolerate where they live, or just live there because they feel “trapped”. But there are people who live in NYC, for example, who love every day they get to wake up in such a great city. Ditto for San Francisco, Chicago, and a few others. To be able to live in a place that you love is a wonderful feeling.

Comment from Edith
Time: July 21, 2008, 9:37 pm

@ Gary,

I agree! There’s nothing like home-grown tomatoes which have never seen a greenhouse from the inside.

Comment from Anwar
Time: July 21, 2008, 10:52 pm

Hi, Ben.

Since you’re also familiar with Spanish culture, and are studying and teaching Spanish, you can also probably handily qualify as a hispanista (hispanist)!

http://buscon.rae.es/draeI/SrvltConsulta?TIPO_BUS=3&LEMA=hispanofilo

Comment from raytibbitts
Time: July 21, 2008, 11:01 pm

@Flinn - I have found very few people in the U.S. that feel “trapped” as you say, and many, many more who love living where they live, whether it be big city, suburb, or rural. Personally, I can’t stand city life, but it`s all I can afford here in Spain. My wife (a Spaniard) and I take turns deciding where we’re going to live.
Having said that, there’s a LOT I love about living in Spain. But, to be completely honest, “there’s no place like home.”

Comment from soy pescador
Time: July 22, 2008, 12:30 pm

I have to agree with Ray on his comment. I have been in Spain in a small village in the Valencia region for 2 years now. My wife is also a Spaniard and we are still not completely settled. Actually we are always in the conversation as where we should be living. We have decided to look in the near future of living in my country for a so she can experience my culture for a while. As to me becoming a Spainoholic maybe in the next 20 years or so , who knows ?

Comment from Jonk
Time: July 22, 2008, 3:27 pm

I think most places in the western world can be good to live in, especially if we make the best of all our circumstances to make friends.

I met a woman who now lives in Beijing which is still very much a developing city and she said she was missing it after only a few weeks because she has made all these friends, joined art classes and Tai Chi classes and has done her utmost to fit in.

These sorts of stories exist all over the world.

Comment from Edith
Time: July 23, 2008, 1:32 am

@ Raytibbitts,

Everyone who is near the end of his tether - economically speaking - probably feels trapped, no matter where he lives.

RE ‘there’s no place like home’: culture shock is a very complex phenomenon and it involves lots of factors like age, socio-economic status, personality structure, cultural incompatibilities, etc.

Comment from Jonathan
Time: July 23, 2008, 2:55 pm

‘what is the Spanish version of a Francophile’ = “Spanglophile” I think. At any rate thats what I can myself - Lol

Comment from Edith
Time: July 23, 2008, 4:19 pm

A spanglophile is someone who loves Spanglish AKA border Spanish! Vamos a tomar un ‘brequecito’ para ‘lonchear’… etc…

Comment from gary
Time: July 24, 2008, 6:36 pm

I still cant get used to seeing someone on “TV” that I have met in person …

Salmorejo looks great

Comment from gary
Time: July 24, 2008, 6:37 pm

Incidentally - full screen view is great.

All that without a teleprompter…

Comment from Jesús
Time: August 10, 2008, 6:14 pm

So you like salmorejo, don’t you? Well, then taste the Andalusian Gazpacho. It is almost the same, but Gazpacho is served in a glass.
I’m from Seville, and I have drunk litres and litres of Gazpacho since I came to this world.
My father says that it is “a river of vitamins”. And you don`t need to make it: you can buy it in supermarkets (v.g. Mercadona) and it is even cheaper than make it yourself.
Greetings from Seville.

Comment from Jesús
Time: August 10, 2008, 6:21 pm

Just one more thing: I think I’m wordophile, or all-the-cultures-of-the-wordophile, or peoplephile or… whatever.

Comment from luke
Time: August 11, 2008, 8:13 pm

@Jesus. You could be a philanthropist, someone who loves all mankind. (I’m trying to ignore the irony here!).