Sunday 1 April 2007

Things I don't like about living in Spain, part I

On the whole I love living here in Spain. Asturias is a beautiful region, I enjoy my job, I like our house and I'm very happy here with Matt and the cats. However, there are certain aspects of life here that I wish I could change.

My particular gripe today is mushrooms of the shop-bought variety. We made a pizza last night. It was topped with aubergine, green pepper, and mushrooms. We make our own dough (in the bread machine) and tomato sauce and slice all our own toppings. The whole process takes a while but it's worth it - the finished product is always very tasty. However, preparing mushrooms here is, to be frank, a pain in the arse. I don't know what exactly what they're grown in, but it's gritty, and it clings to the mushrooms for dear life. I know you're not supposed to wash mushrooms in order to clean them as they have a sponge-like structure and soak in the water, thus imparing the flavour- instead you're supposed to wipe them with a damp cloth/piece of kitchen towel. Obviously the person who invented this cleaning method did not live in Spain. To begin with I wasted a significant amount of time trying to clean them with kitchen towel only to find dinner still grinding between my teeth when I nibbled a piece of mushroom. Now I've resorted to washing them under the tap and then drying them off in the salad spinner. Not ideal, but at least our dinners are now grit free.

1 comment:

Melody said...

I'm not a mushroom fan so I don't have any sympathy *grin* But I do agree that there is nothing better than home made pizza. I used to make my oen pizza base in my bread maker too but now I have a new recipe I use via my mix master. And it is sooooo delicious.... yummo!! (Hey thanks for your gift in the mail today - it sure did make me smile!! Thanks!!)