Fishy things and slimy beans.

Greeting to you all from a rainy Bilbao!

I'm nearing the end of my time here in Bilbao, and with only a week or so to go before I make my fabulous return to Finland, I'm very happy, but also sad to leave what has been a truly memorable and educational experience.

As I told you before, I started the fish station, and as I am truly awful at actually updating my blog (mikä on myös opinnäyetyöni, ihan vaan tiedoksi), I've also finished there. I'm now back at the cold kitchen which means gross foie gras, lots of baking and spending dire hours splitting peas (I'll tell you about that later).

The fish station was such fun and a great experience. I got to make Salsa Vizcaina, a traditional basque sauce made with onions and dried red peppers, fried and celaned plenty of different fishes, cleaned out mounds of chirlas (clams) and shrimps, made pig's trotters for lunch once as well. There was that moment at lunch when I just looked down at my plate and there in the middle of it was a pig's trotter covered in tomato sauce, and i just thought: "Ok then." I also made pil-pil, another traditional basque sauce, made using cod infused oil and fish stock to make a thich green sauce. It tastes good, but it's literally just oil.  Oil. The one thing I won't miss in the cooking when I get back home.

Durign my stint at Andra Mari and in order to graduate I needed to do a skills assesment demonstration and as part of it I made the folks at work korvapuusti a Finnish baked good, something akin to a Chelsea bun. They were a hit, I tell you. In fact so much so that they made me make some more of them the following week with new fillings. I made a batch with strawberry (not so good in my opinion) and a chocolate batch (omg that was full on). Now they have the reciper and talked about making mini ones to be served as petit fours. *u*

Ah, now to pea splitting business. One of the dishes we now have at Andra Mari is broad beans and peas with a chunk of jamon and it's juices. As the quality must be high, we of course use fresh beans and peas. Now this is where this all gets dire. First, you must shell HUGE amounts of peas and broadbeans. This is then followed by a quick stint in bloiling water after which the truly torturous part begins: splitting the little bastards. And you're basically dealing with roughly 3kg's of broad beans and 3kg's of peas and you can only split one at a time. Take the bean/pea, pop the case and out should spring two little half. Oh my god it is the most boring thing in the entire world and I don't even want to think how many hours I have spent doing it, with my back killing me from standing in one place and my hand wrikinling to prunes. Oh, and apparently broad beans emit some sort of slime when cooked and then split. That's particularily enjoyable.

Tomorrow is my last Saturday at Andra Mari, and then it's just 4 days of working next week and then I get to go home! And then I graduate! Two years of working reasonably hard will all come to an end when I get handed my certificate and I will officially be a restaurant cook. Yay me! Also I get to see some extremely fabulous people again!

FOLKS REMEMBER TO WATCH EUROVISION TOMORROW NIGHT ALRIGHT BEST NIGHT OF THE YEAR

Not a very vegetarian friendly post.

Good day to you, reader!

How time flies when you are busy and having fun! I realize that almost an entire month has passed since my last post, and even that one was a wee, patchetic one relying on a meme to try and entertain you.

Next week I am moving onto the fish station, so I'm currently spending my last days in the world of the meats (and my stint in meats was cut short by an enexpected, very cold week in England), but I'll tell ya what I get to do there! The next paragraphs are not vegetarian friendly.

A weekly thing for me at the meat station is to clean up 5kg's of mollejas, or sweetbreads. They are super tasty, but smell gnarly when raw, and then you get your hand in a massive pile of them and proceed to cut the gross white bits off (I don't actually know what they are, and to be honest, I'd rather not know). Sometimes you'll find wee pieces of bone.

Andra Mari also serves squab, and as such, they need to be prepared. Luckily we don't need to pluck them clean, but when we get a batch in they still have their heads on, so the first thing you do is get your knife and cut it off garnished with a nice crunch. And then chop the tips of the wing off, then remove them and it's legs and then the breast and voila! Nice squab ready to be served. Omnomnom. Also it's a very ugly bird, rivaling a turkey for thw title of ugliest bird.

We also have tasty, super yummy oxtail which gets coated generously in salt and fried and then stewes in a delish red wine sauce for a few hours and then it's tender and yummy. Sometimes the tails come in from the butcher's still hanging together because the butcher hasn't put his knife through it properly.

For some reason the eriz del mar, sea urchin, is served from the meat station. This is very unfortunate, as cleaning them is the most disgusting and frustrating job to do. First you need masses of tissues so when you have a tight grip on the damn thing it doesn't pierce your hand. Then with your knife you pop the little thing that keeps all of it's meat inside. That's all fine, but then we have to scrape the hole bigger, and a lot of the time the shell breaks (though it's a lot easier getting the meat out if that happens), which is poop because we serve the relleno, filling, in the shell (puke). Once that's all done, it's time to go for the meat. You just want the orange meat, which is surrounded by a lot of mierda. And it all smells awful. I was so close to actually throwing up when I cleaned roughly 50 sea urchins. Worst day of my life, I tell you. Then the cleaned meat gets made into a relleno, with veg and salsa bizkaina. You couldn't get me to taste that even if you paid me.

As I've mentioned before, the amount of oil used is large. So large in fact, that if we have an oil fire on the grill, no one bats an eyelid because it happens all the time.

It's hard to believe that I'm going back home to Finland in less than 7 weeks. Time has gone by so fast, and these last seven weeks will go just as fast (and I'm only working six of them, I have the first week of May off, so my cousin Alice and I are hitting Barcelona, holla!). I am looking forward to going back, I get to see my friends and family, and I get to graduate. But I will miss Spain and Bilbs, I like it here. Also I can get a can of beer for 0,22€.

Now I'm going back to the Great British Bake Off.

Meat.

Tomorrow I am leaving the safety and homeliness of the cold kitchen and venturing in the world of the meat station.

Greetings from my bed.

Long time, no write! One is ever so sorry.

Anyway, today I shall have plenty of time to write, as I'm home ill. I had a fever last night so I'm taking the day off to get better, so hopefully I'll be ready for work again tomorrow. Or at least for the weekend, because that's when my Mum is coming! Hooray!

Moira came over a couple of weeks ago, and that was a lot of fun! We did some funky things, we went up the funicular for some fantastic views of Bilbao, admired the Guggenheim from the outside, and went to Plentzia to the seaside :) My birthday went really well; Moira, the other Finns and I gorged ourselves on homemade sushi and it was glorious.

Work is still going very well, I've been working mostly in the cold kitchen so far, and have really got the hang of it there. I can plate almost all of the dishes there and I'm beginning to know a lot of the recipes by heart as well. The one thing I get to do every week is make the brownies for the petit fours. I get to choose what flavour I make them as well. Last week I made a white chocolate and lime one, and that was a smash. This week I made a dark chocolate and ginger one, which they all seemed a bit weary about. Hey, it's better than seaweed meringue.

The weather here is cray cray. We've had days where it's 22degrees, sunny and you're outside in a t-shirt, and then less than a week later snow is covering the ground. Now what is this?????? Snow was one reason I was so elated to leave Finland! One Saturday I got to work to find it looked like this:

                                           Obviously not work, the view from my room FML                                       


 I'm home alone at the moment as Ana went to Senegal on a work trip, and we still don't know when she's coming back! Kind of nice being all alone. At least she doesn't have to witness me wallowing in my ill state. A couple of Sundays ago, I came home and found that Ana had made me this little tasty beauty:

I have been somewhat productive today! I sent a few job applications, which is something I hate doing. Nothing worse than trying to sell yourself when you'tr burrowed underneath blankets feeling like poop. Anyway, now I am going to nap and then watch Pretty Little Liars because even though that show is ridiculous I cannot stop watching it.

Queen of the Meringue.

Hello again to you dear reader! Welcome to another installment of my fabulous Bilbao life. Hah that was the biggest joke if I ever heard one.

I feel that in the past 5 weeks I have mastered the art of the meringue. The amount of meringues I have made since working at Andra Mari has been astounding. I've made all different kinds of flavours (today I made a WAKAME (that's a seaweed) meringue - and let me tell you I have NEVER tasted anything so gnarly as that) and in different forms, so I feel now that I am a Queen of the Meringue.

Other things I've gotten to do at work besides making meringue have included killing four live txangurro (crabs) and then ripping their legs out and then tearing them and cutting them apart to pick out all of the meat. That was actually really good fun and a great experience. But the guys need to stop looking so surprised when I tell them I've never handled live crabs or lobsters or other things. Seriously, I go to culinary school in Finland. We deal with frozen crap for the most part.

Last week on my day off, Rober, Adri and I went to a pastry course of sorts. It was run by a company that makes all of these products for baking and stuff, and naturally utilized their products when making the desserts. The pastries looked nice, but the way of making them was quite artificial, using lots of ready made powders and such. We got the recipes (as well as a small knife and a t-shirt!) for them as well, which could be a good base for a good pud. Just modify them a wee bit.

A couple of the desserts made. Very chocolatey!

Moira (aka my sistah!) is coming over next Tuesday for a few days! This is very exciting and happy news. She is coming on the morn of my birthday, WOOOO! Happy times! Also my Mum is coming over in the beginning of March too (JES RUISLEIPÄÄ) and then Dad and Fiona are coming over the end of March. Imma gonna be a busy with all dem peeps.

Daym 5 weeks has gone by fast.

Well this has been very boring; goodbye.

Some what I call pictures

Time really does fly when you're having fun! Two and a half weeks in already, but it also feels as I've been here for 2 and a half months. The weather has gotten infinitely better; the sun has been out almost every day and the temperature is breaching +20 degrees HELL YES.

Work is still good, I'm gradually getting the hang of things and remembering gastronomic terms in Spanish. Ever since I told the chefs that I enjoy baking I've been spending quite a bit of time in the cold kitchen baking and making desserts, which is really nice. I've also gotten to clean a whole load of shrimp, anchovies as well as de-leaf 8 kg's of artichokes. After I'm done with the artichokes, I've got what I call (GEDDIT??) manos de alcochofas, also known as artichoke hands in English. When peeling fresh artichokes just tons of dirt gets stuck onto your cuticules and skins and then you end up scrubbing them raw when you get home to get somewhat clean hands.

I've promised to make a Finnish lunch for the staff one day, but I'm really stuck with what to make. I literally don't have to the guts to serve them something like maksalaatikko (liver and rice casserole) or makaronilaatikko... Suggestions my lovelies? Lunch is actually really nice at Andra Mari. We'll sit down together for at least half an hour around 1pm, and eat whatever we've found. And as always it is accompanied by white bread. I cannot wait for Mumsie to come over in just over a month with RUISLEIPÄ (I am already having dreams about it omnomnom). Also, the amount of oil the Spaniards use in their cooking is ridic. And they deep fry a lot stuff too. Literally all I eat at home is salad (and noodles) because of the amount of oil is in my lunch at work. Oioioi.

I have tought the chefs at work a wee bit of Finnish; the amount of fun they get out of saying moi moi is hilarious. Today I asked Zuri how she was, and she said she was fine apart from being a little phlegmmy, and then asked me what phlegm (one does live that word) is in Finnish. Her face was priceless when I said räkä. Oh yes the Finnish language truly is a gem.

I have been taking some photos, and I've already posted a load on my facebook, but I don't want to assume that every one who reads this has fb (sometimes I wish I didn't), I shall share some with ye!

Plucking feathers and eyeball gouging.

I've now been in Bilbao for just over a week, and it's great! The weather has gotten better (bar Saturday night's storm), the sun has made a couple of appearances and everything is just going great! Happy times :)

Work is still superb, I constantly get to do stuff I haven't done before, and I just want to do more. I've even learned the kitchen staff's names; there's Zuri, Balta and Adrian, and then Rober who is currently on vacay and I haven't met him yet.

I did an evening shift on Friday, during which Zuri and I cleaned up a sorda (absolutely no idea what it is called in English). Here is a visual aid:

Oh my goodness it's supersoft sort of like Pixi if you ever gave her a little pat. Now for you hunting folk in England who've picked apart a bazillion pheasants this will be nothing new to you (and potentially of no interest either), but I've never done anything of this sort so I am keenly telling you all about my experience. You start by snipping off half of the wing with scissors, and then start pluckin'! Once the bird nekkid (and the floor covered in feathers), you gouge out the little eyeballs with scissors, that was kind of gross. It got served so that it's head was on the plate (you don't eat it, imagine stuffing that beak down your throat!), and it's intestines were mushed together with foie gras and served on toast. Yum?

On Saturday I had a jolly evening with the Finns; but getting to their place was quite an ordeal. I mentioned the storm earlier, it was CRAY CRAY. So crazy that I actually broke my umbrella. I'm actually quite sad about that as I got if as gift from my Grandmother for my high school graduation, and it has Moomins on it. But I got a new BIG one and hopefully it will last future storms. Anyhoo, once I got to their flat and dried off, the merryment began! Oh being a country where a litre of not too bad white wine cost 1,15€ (the other one they had seemed to be of a higer quality but it cost 1,19€ and let's face it, 0,04€ is a considerable amount of money to save when you're on a budget) and where you get free drinks in a bar because you are an exotic Finn. NOT EVEN JOKING ABOUT THAT ONE.

One of these days I might get my butt in gear and upload some photos, but until then enjoy this (eventhough it's shit and funny and not even Spanish but it's great and you can further your Spanish by listening to it and I can remember stuff from Buenos Aires (REMEMBER, SAUL????) and yeah it's really awful but I remembered it yesterday so enjoy)

Chef reporting for duty.

I have now successfully completed two days of work at Andra Mari. WOHOOOOO!!

I'm really enjoying it; and I've actually got to do stuff that I've never done before. Yesterday, literally the first job I was given was to de-vein 4 massive foie gras. Holy smells they stink. And the texture.... bleurgh. My ever present gag reflex and I had a blast with that one. For those of you who don't know what foie gras is, it's the liver of a force fed goose or duck. Oh yes, oh so very natural and delightful... not. Anyway, it is a delicacy (apparently, I don't think I've ever tasted it, and after yesterday and today, I don't want to either. Just thinking about the smell makes me gag) that is served in Andra Mari with dried apricots and nuts.
Anyway, you start with a foie that looks like this:

                                                                                             

Then you get in there with your fingers and find the vein. It's really mushy, and breaks apart easily, but it's kind of gnarly. Then when you've found the veins, gently start pullinng them out. There are two large ones. Once the foies were veinless, we poured salt, sugar and port on them, and left them for 24hrs to marinate. Today I had the delighful task of rolling the foie gras into 4 tight rolls so that they can be served all nicely. So imagine something akin to poop, then the smell to go with it, triple that and that's what I was dealing with today. SUCH FUN. Anyway, the foie were rolled up nice and tight, and can be served when needed. Hands

up how many of you are gonna eat foie gras in the near future?

Anyway, on to more pleasant things! The people at Andra Maria re really nice; I would list their names but alas, my ability to remember names has failed me yet again. There are 4 chefs working there, one is on holidays at the moment, so it's the three chefs and little old me. I get there about 10 in the morning and we work through the day until about 5pm. Lunch service is from 1pm-4pm. The atmosphere in the kitchen is really good; it's easy to ask questions, and they have patience with my Spanish. Most of the time they do end up repeating themselves because I don't always understand everything the first time, but I haven't screwed up  yet! Except today I almost electrecuted myself (to death) with the old hand held whisk. Not even joking. Plugged it in, and turned the bit where the chird is attached to machine to get it out of the way, and a sound almost like a gun shot (been watching lots of CSI lately, every bang is a gun shot) and a massive ball of light just happened infront of my eyes. I think I was blinded for a second too. I'm okay, still alive, and there is new electric whisk which doesn't have the potential to kill people.

In Finland, what you wear in the kitchen is very important, and it's really strict too. Hats and aprons are required, and absolutely no piercings (apart from teeny ones in the ear). Here it's so much more relaxed; we don't wear hats in the kitchen, and I've had my lip piercing in and nobody has said anything about it either. Also, we are allowed to smoke during the day if it's quiet (I have a rule to never smoke when I'm working no matter what job it is, HEALTHY LUNGS AHOY. Not) but seriously, do you want your chef's whites to smell of smoke? Euww.

On Tuesday, Ana took me around the Casco Viejo (the Old Town for you non Spanish speakers) and the center of Bilbao. We walked around in the pouring rain (it just doesn't stop raining. Ever), but my brolly is good and I was dry even by the end of it. I got myself a local SIM-card (call me or msg me +34662562165), and Ana kindly pointed out where the sex shop was if I happened to need anything from there. Not sure what to make of that. She also showed me the area where all the Asian shops were, as well as the Indian and African shops. I, like any good student, stocked up on noodles and sweet chili sauce. And the Indian shop had PG Tips. Yay, tea! Also there is a shop in Bilbao that sells leather shoes, belts and bags and holy cow they're all so cheap!! A leather satchel was about 50€. Yo I'm getting me some leather goods before I return. I just have to try and remember where the shop was. Meh.

Still not hissing my s'.

                                        

Se lluvia en Bilbao.

My first full day in Bilbao has passed, and I’m settled in. I knew that it rained a lot here, but this is even giving England a run for its money. Today was cray cray; there were perhaps three moments when it didn’t rain, most of the time it just poured from the sky. It hailed a couple of times too. That was fun.

I arrived to Bilbao yesterday morning, having gotten up at 4am in Finland in order to make my 6.25am flight. Because I have fabulous friends and apparently find sleep unnecessary, I slept for an hour and a half before leaving. At least I snoozed through both of my flights! Looking through the little airplane window as we descended towards Bilbao was the first of many glimpses to my home for the next 19 weeks. Beautiful, snow capped mountains, little villas and Basque cottages on the sides of the mountains and then Bilbao itself; a bustling city situated within mountains. 

There are 7 other students from Omnia with me here; I’d name them here but I can’t remember all of their names. They’re all living together, in two flats not too far from me. Yesterday was spent just hanging around the area where we live; I actually ended up crashing on the sofa of one of the flats for the first night. We also got a bubbly (cost a grand total of 2.75€, welcome to Spain!) for the first night celebration and even managed to go for a beer even in our weary states.

My flat is really and nice, and pretty new. I’ve got my own room and bathroom (!) which actually is really nice. My flat mate is a woman called Ana, and from little time I’ve spent with her, she seems like a vivacious and cool woman. Tomorrow she's gonna show me around, and we're spending the day to get to know each other more. Also I have wifi here which the other students are really jealous about! Literally their only complaint about the flats they’re in was the lack of internet connection. Oh how we are the addicts of internet. I myself am a self confessed addict too. Damn those social media sites. And fanfiction (I really blame them).

I start working at Andra Mari on Wednesday, and on Monday I went to visit it quickly. It’s really nice, and the views are spectacular! I met the owner, a nice and bubbly man called Roberto, who promised to pick me up from the train station on Wednesday morning. I met a couple of the chefs too, they seemed really cool too, and I think we’ll get along. Well I hope so. I also dragged my chef’s knives here and turns out I don’t need them. At least I’ll have good knives to use at home. Seriously, you couldn’t cut bread with the ones here.

I haven’t spoken much Spanish yet; but at least I’ve got the basics still down. Because the last place I really spoke Spanish was Argentina, I have the Argentinean and South American accent when speaking it. But in a month I’ll probably be hissing all of my s’.

I hadn’t realized how proud the Basque people were of their country. All the signs are in Basque (euskera) first, then Spanish. One of the other students asked Iker, the guy who’s taken care of all of our placements etc here, whether there are certain types of clothing that should be avoided. The answer was simple: you can wear anything you want except nothing with a Spanish flag. The Basque are insistent on this being their country, and want nothing to do with Spain itself. Also when I asked about the local football team, I said “Atletico” and Iker was very quick to correct me and say that it’s “Athletic Club”. And even though it’s the third best team in Spain, they don’t get as much recognition internationally as they only sign Basque players. And people in the Basque country don’t support Spain’s football team when they play internationally either. They don’t support France either. And they don’t like FC Barcelona or Real Madrid either. Probably shouldn’t profess my love for Barca and Messi very loudly here.

My favourite thing about Bilbao so far? The fact that it's called Bilbo in Euskera.

Still in Finland

Well hello to you, dearest reader!

Next Sunday I am finally making my way to Bilbao, Spain to spend 19 weeks working at a restaurant. I'm currently in vocational school in Finland, and in my final year of studying. All I have left is this placement in Spain, and I'll be graduating in the spring once I come back.

I've always been interested in travelling and learning about new cultures, so going abroad for a term or two seemed very natural. Spain has such a rich gastronomic culture, and the decision to go to Spain came without much thought. I also chose Spain so that I can dig up my long lost Spanish that I learnt during my gap year in South America, which by now is exceedingly rusty. Hoping to pick up the language quickly, and also might just pick up that dictionary again before I leave...

The restaurant that I'm going to be working at in Bilbao is called Andra Mari. It's located in the municipality of Galdakao, which is located in the Greater Bilbao area, in the middle of countryside surrounded by mountains. So it's safe to say the views will be pretty spectacular. Andra Mari has been awarded one Michelin Star, so I'm really humbled that they've chosen to take me on for the duration of my placement. I'm really looking forward to it; I'm hoping to learn so much, and I plan to milk everything I possibly can from it. And the food served there sounds pretty amazing too. I've been stalking.

As much as I'm looking forward to Bilbao and spending my spring there, I'll admit that it wasn't my first choice. Barcelona always had that appeal for me with it's great atmosphere, restaurants and general feel to it, but now that I've digested Bilbao for a few months, I'm really glad I'm going there. I've heard great things about it, and I got to go to Spain (and leave Finland, I'm not too good at staying in one place for long periods of time it would seem), so I'm all smiles here. And I'm also gonna say this now before I get a whole load of messages telling me to go to the Guggenheim there; I'M NOT INTERESTED.

It still hasn't hit me that I'm leaving in a week, but I am still quite pleased with myself that I've at least thought about packing and what I should take with me! I hate packing. Like really, really hate it. And now I have to think what I will need with me for almost 5 months, oh dear just the thought of this is making me feel sad. But I've gotten all of the paperwork done for it, so that's good, I've got someone to come and live in my flat while I'm gone, and I get to leave the slushy filled, wet street of Helsinki behind me for a good solid 134 days (yes I've counted).

As much as I go on about being glad to leave Helsinki and all that jazz, I am really going to miss my family and friends. No more movie night with tortillas, no more Glee marathons (thought my friends are probably relieved they don't have to hear anymore of rants about that show and me professing my everlasting love for Klaine), no more relaxing and enjoying each others company, no more going to over to my Grandparents' place for experimental duck cooking.  But you needn't worry, I am coming back on May 26th. 

But if you miss me, you can always listen to this gem, and think about me sitting underneath the moon with a beer. 

And Williams deserves a medal for this.