The Monday Cure: Carrot Cake!

What better way to start the week?

This morning, my friend Cristina introduced me to one of her dad’s favourite hangouts, La Iguana Café, where we each had an enormous pork sandwich before I started to investigate the cake menu. I’m all for a balanced diet…

Top marks for 100% home-made tastiness. Moist, not too sweet, thoroughly satisfying.

I absolutely loved this succulent carrot cake! It clearly did not come out of some factory, all standardised, sterilised, packed up and frozen, but was made by a real person in their kitchen.

La Iguana Café’s burgers are legendary, apparently.

On our way there, we spotted this rather appealing piece of graffiti:

The writing refers to every-day concerns, as well as social (in)justice issues, all of which, I’m sure, swirl around the average person’s head. She still manages to keep on smiling, like most of us do, at least on a good day 🙂

 

Eat ’em raw, swallow ’em whole!

Andalucía – and Cádiz in particular – has the most fabulous array of seafood. On our way down there last weekend, Maria was waxing lyrical about “camarones”, tiny shrimp sold in cups or cones, eaten on the go, just as they come. And, as you can see, she found some:

The little blighters didn’t stand a chance…

Fresh sea urchins, anyone?

… you do eat them raw, although, unlike the camarones, without the shell, I suppose 😉

 

Some cod’s roe…

…made into a colourful salad. Tasty and nutritious!
The shrimp frittatas in the background were divine 🙂

And, to finish off on a complete non sequitur,  some puzzling… uhm… street art:

Make of it what you will…

Madrid Murals: Freaky Flies And Perky Prick

During the outing to Madrid last week (where we ate all that sushi), I came across some graffiti wall art:

A viking elephant… my flash seems to have given him red eye. The flies are making me feel all itchy…

Note the “Fuck the police” and “Euro Vegas No” additions

The “Euro Vegas” project, which was meant to create a massive gambling resort just outside Madrid, has been hugely controversial. Incidentally, it was reported yesterday that the whole thing had now been cancelled. See this BBC business news article for details.

With regards to the police comment, in mid-November, Spain introduced new legislation, which stipulates extortionate fines for insulting police officers and also the, uhm, Spanish flag. This has created a tremendous uproar, as these laws are seen as a hostile attempt to curb the growing number of (overwhelmingly peaceful) street demonstrations against the government’s ineffectual economic policies.

OK, I won’t bore you any longer with politics. I realise that you only clicked on the post to gawp at this one:

A radioactive codger… best not to get too close…

I dunno what this is… but it sure is colourful 🙂

That bird is far too puny to finish off the ghastly worm, and that lady has a rather hairy stalk.

Meet Toledo’s Resident Demon

That’s him:

“Shortcut to hell? This way, Madam.”
Spot the snail stuck to his toe 😉

OK, Toledo may not be home to any Banksies, but as long as it’s not just an indecipherable, gratuitous scrawl, I quite like graffiti, even if it’s mediocre. On that note, who am I to call anyone’s artistic efforts mediocre…? I can’t even draw a straight line with a pencil, and as for aiming a spray can at a fidgety target, like a wall, forget it!

I have a burning feeling I should know who these guys are… but I ain’t got the foggiest. Anyone recognise these mugs??

Spain’s Economic Crisis In Graffiti: “La Krisis”

Another graffiti I found in Toledo

For more pictures on this topic, click here.

“La Krisis” In Spain

The first thing I do every morning as soon as I wake up is flick on the radio.   Whatever station I happen to be tuned into, the topic never varies: It’ll be yet another dissection of the economic crisis.

Everybody is affected, either directly or indirectly. The statistics are truly horrifying: Unemployment in Spain stands at 27.5%, and youth unemployment (people aged 25 and under) is a staggering 56.4%. This makes Spain the worst hit country in the Eurozone after Greece. Roughly half the people I know here in Toledo are out of work … it’s a very sad situation indeed.

You don’t have to look very hard to see the signs – dilapidated buildings, an army of beggars and homeless people (who are clearly not alcoholics or drug addicts) lining the streets, daily demonstrations against the government’s punishing spending cuts and mass lay-offs and, of course, an ever-expanding scrawl of graffiti on the walls.

The stencil image is of Mariano Rajoy, Spain’s current Prime Minister.

I’ve previously put up two short posts on this topic, click here and here if you want to see them.

How is the global economic crisis affecting the places in your corner of the world?