'nduja like sobrassada?

Just read about the "sausage of the moment" at the NYT: 'nduja (pronounced en-DOO-ya). It's a spicy, cured, soft sausage from Calabria likened to "'flaming liquid salami,' 'spicy pork butter' and, from one heartfelt fan, 'the spreadable Italian love child of pepperoni and French rillettes.'" Sounds great, but it made me think of a similar sausage we discovered in Malaga called sobrassada. It's actually native to Majorca, but has spread all over the Spanish coast. It's also soft and spreadable like 'nduja, but made with pimentón instead of chiles. They must be related, right? Turns out, the (reportedly) best sobrassada comes from the Soller valley in Majorca, and some of its original inhabitants (15th century) were from Calabria. Since chiles weren't discovered by the Europeans until they found the New World in the late 15th century, the sausages in their current form couldn't have existed when the Calabrian colonists arrived in Majorca. However, there is most likely a connection. I love discovering stuff like this.

Würzburg

We left Dublin early on Saturday, November 7, arriving in Frankfurt at 10:00 AM. We hopped in the car and drove through the misty, russet and yellow countryside to Würzburg. After checking into our hotel we walked to the market square where we immediately sought out a bratwurst stand. And there would be many more brats in the following days. Yes, we came for the sausage.

We spent the afternoon wandering the market, drinking Glühwein, buying baked goods and photographing ourselves in front of interesting-looking buildings. There was a moment or two of line dancing, but not as much as Dad would have preferred.

That evening we dined at a huge but cozy, candle-lit restaurant called Das Backöfele. The standout dish for me was scallops with pumpkin risotto and Bill loved his pumpkin soup. (The pumpkin oil reminded him of Slovenia.) A great first day.

Out and about in Dublin

I took a day off from work on Tuesday, October 27 and Mom, Dad and I spent the afternoon in City Centre. We ate lunch at the Silk Road Cafe at the Chester Beatty Library and then visited the Beatty's collection of religious manuscripts. We also visited an exhibit at the Gallery of Photography, stopped for coffee and wound up drinking champagne at the Westbury.

After Mom and Dad returned from Cork, we came into City Centre again for the monthly combined service of our church's three congregations on November 1. I'm so glad Mom and Dad got to attend one of these celebration services and see the progress of the restoration of our Georgian church building. It was a cold but sunny Sunday. After the service we had lunch at one of our favorite spots, The Winding Stair. Our lovely lunch ended with a bit of excitement when the server spilled a bit of their fabulously tasty aioli on Mom's blouse. [Bill correctly guessed the secret of the aioli by the way--smoked paprika.] This mishap resulted in a free blackberry tarte, and the aioli left no stain on mom's blouse, so a very happy ending.

For dinner, Bill made use of a wondrous find at St. Anne's Market--tomatillos! I was very happy to enjoy a favorite Rick Bayless recipe--chorizo and potato tacos with tomatillo avocado salsa. I have no picture to showcase this terrific dish, so I'll show you one of the tortillas in the making. This is the best part when the tortilla begins to puff up.

Mom and Dad left on Tuesday for their Sligo trip, and on Saturday November 7 we began our trip to Germany.

Guest Blogger: More Mom

Here is a travelogue by Mom about their trip to Sligo.

November 3 – November 5, 2009

Charles and I traveled by train again. This time we went to Sligo. Actually we had to get off the train after a couple of hours and get on a bus for the rest of the way into Sligo. That gave us a view of the area we couldn’t have seen from the train. The countryside is beautiful with rolling hills and lakes. Sligo is a small, old city in the northwest part of Ireland. It was raining there also. But rain doesn’t stop us. We checked into Pearse B&B about noon and walked into the city center. We found a nice shop called The Cat and the Moon which sells Irish made goods.

That night we went to Hargadons Pub and enjoyed live music. Hargadons interior is unchanged since 1864. Since Sligo is known as W. B. Yeats country, we were interested in the Sligo city library exhibit on Yeats. His Nobel Prize for literature is housed there. Later we found the Yeats Memorial Building which is the headquarters of the Yeats Society and has a permanent exhibition of pictures from his life. We watched several videos explaining his politics, writings and personal life. We were there a couple of hours. It was a great place to get in out of the rain. The Garavogue River runs through Sligo. It is turbulent and beautiful. The swans which live on the river were not in sight while we were there. The train agent told us that they were hiding in the reeds while it was so rainy. We enjoyed our three days in Sligo and would love to go back in summer when there are coach tours of the surrounding area.

Guest Blogger: Mom

Here is a travelogue by Mom about their trip to Cork:

October 29 – October 31, 2009

Charles and I took the train from Dublin to Cork on Thursday, Oct 29th. It was a rainy day in Cork. When we checked in to our B&B, Garnish House, we were served a lovely tea with fresh baked scones, fruit cake, chocolate cake and brown bread, butter and jam -- delightful on a rainy afternoon. After tea we walked over to Cork University and went to the Glucksman Gallery which had an exhibit of modern works by Irish artists (see the chair with the cow’s udder seat). Later we walked to the city center and strolled around in the English Market (“There’s nothing English about it, apart from the fact that it’s covered with a roof which was a radical innovation from across the sea when it was built in the eighteenth century.” Pete McCarthy).

The next day we got on a city tour bus and got off at the Irish Butter Museum (Cork led the world in butter exports back then). It was interesting but we thought the 3 euro entry fee a bit high. The rain finally stopped and we walked to a nice café for dinner.

Saturday we walked to the quay area of Cork City. We found the Crawford Art Museum and enjoyed the beautiful paintings of Irish life. There were several paintings there by a man named Charles Lamb and we were particularly interested in them.




After a late lunch in the Crawford Café, we walked around the quay area. Lots of people were out on the Saturday afternoon and many of them were in costume. Halloween is celebrated in a huge way in Ireland. We left Cork on the late train and got back to Dublin after midnight and everything was closed down in Hueston Station. Thankfully a taxi came by and we flagged it down and got safely back to Bill and Sharon’s apartment. We did lots of walking in Cork and were glad we were somewhat “in shape” from the time spent at the gym in El Dorado.

A Day of Ruins

On the October Bank Holiday Monday, we set out from Graignamanagh and drove a few miles to St. Mullins, a monastical site on the River Barrow founded in the 7th century by St. Moling. The lovely site includes a medieval church ruin, the base of a round tower, a former Church of Ireland church built in 1811 and a graveyard with both Protestant and Catholic graves.




From St. Mullins, we drove to Jerpoint Abbey. Bill and I visited this terrific site last summer and wanted to bring Mom and Dad to see the excellent carvings and lovely courtyard. After roaming the Abbey grounds we stopped by Jerpoint Glass Studio and saw a bit of glass blowing in action. All Jerpoint glass is handmade and I own several pieces, including a vase with red and orange flame licks of color that called to me during this visit.

Our favorite stop of the day was Kells Priory, an Augustine priory founded on the King's River in the 12th Century. There's no visitor center here, and we even had to
climb a fence to enter the three acre site. Kells Priory includes both fortification features, including a wall of tower houses, and monastic ruins. Parts of the site are closed off by scaffolding, but there were plenty of places to explore in the misty dusk.






























































If you're wondering about the difference between a monastery, convent, abbey and priory, I have the answer: either a monastery or convent would be an abbey if lead by an abbot/abbess and likewise, a priory lead by a prior/prioress.

Autumn is When the Parents Come

My parents are are back in Eldo after their 35-day tour of Ireland and Germany. This was Mom and Dad's third annual visit to Ireland. They prefer to travel in the Autumn, as the days grow short and the leaves start to fall (along with travel prices). There is much to report from their visit, but I'll start at the beginning--with the loads of American goods they kindly brought to us.

Mom and Dad stuck close to Raheny for the first few days (as I recall--been a while now! checking my tweets to recreate chronology), but adjusted pretty well to the time change. On Sunday we drove to Freshford in County Kilkenny for a stop by the Irish Conker Championships. Bill and I attended this small fest two years ago and caught conker fever!

We spent the night in Graignamanagh at the Waterside Guesthouse and enjoyed a nice dinner at Boat's Bistro (located across the river in County Carlow). We spent most of our time being unable to pronounce the name of the town, but Bill mastered it and with some practice I got it too--Greg-na-man-ah. Graignamanagh is on the River Barrow which travels through some lovely Irish countryside. The bridge in Graignamanagh, built in 1765, was partially destroyed in 1798 by Crown Forces. (Pic by Dad.)


Monday morning (October 26) we visited a 13th century Cistercian abbey in Graignamanagh, Duiske Abbey. Still a working church, the abbey has a section where you can view the original painted tile floor.

But this was just the start to a day of ruins.