Saturday, March 28, 2009

Best Pintxo of the Year

And here it is!! this is THE best pintxo of the year, looks incredible and tasted even better. You can find it in Niza bar in Pamplona. The name "Porky Porky".

It´s all pork, part bacon, fat and meat, all cooked together to form a compact piece of meat, cooked on the grill until crispy and golden brown. Taste like smoked bacon-ham, so imagine!
No regrets at all, it is a tiny portion to think on health issues, so just enjoy.
Check on the potato cookie that decorates the top, has written the name of the pintxo. And the little piece on the side, is a bit of the same but much more crunchy, the perfect bite.



Wednesday, March 18, 2009

Pintxo Bar

What if you go out for drinks and find this:


and these:

sitting in the bar..it´s pretty fun & funny. These are called PINXTOS and the Basque Country is famous for them. Although not all of them are similar, or even close, this one bar, Niza, is kind of modern, so the style to show up their beautiful bites is very "modernO" too.


There are different preparations, and it´s very hard to decide what you´re having.
They have in show: artichoke with gold power (very fancy), varieties of tempura (seafood, veggies, pork, etc) and red bell pepper stuffed, which we got.

It was crusty on the outside, and smooth on the inside, this Piquillo pepper is quite similar to red bell pepper, which has been stuffed with some kind of meat preparation like bolognese sauce, and then all fried in tempura.
How do they manage to do it, no idea, but it was very delicious.



Friday, March 13, 2009

Good & Easy

After months of rain and snow, today the sun shine and I really felt like going out for a walk. As so, there was no time to waste preparing lunch, but I didn´t want to sacrifice flavour, of course, so the option taken was a big toasted bread, scallions, and eggs, so easy and sooo good.

A couple of eggs are just fine for me. The result, eaten in 10 minutes, while preparing myself for the walk. And of course, no regrets!





Monday, March 9, 2009

Monday Lunch

As usual, Mondays I don´t get very lucky..it seems like forever all day long, even at lunch hour, which is always one of the best parts of my day, but today I had to eat out, choose this:
In my always interest to try new things I choose fried sardines, have heard they were good, so why doubt?
The thing is, they tasted good, not great, but oh my, so many bones, even when there are many you can just bite, but I ended up eating almost nothing, leaving a LOT of bones around..and decided to keep going as today is Monday..tomorrow will be a better day!!!


Sunday, March 8, 2009

New Me

Spring is almost here and there is a little bit of a pressure to start eating nothing else but salads. Although I love salads, I like to eat them because I want to, and not because I have to. In all my life I´ve been on diets, everyday thinking about calories, fat, fiber, etc. And I´ve realize that when I have been relaxed about it, I have lost more weight eating all kind of foods than when I´m on a strict diet. So I guess our body is wise enough to make us happy.
Eating is such an important part of my life that being on a constant diet, hasn´t help at all. Yesterday I decided to change my mind, I will start eating what I want but really enjoying those moments, at least if you are putting calories in your mouth make them worth it.
So I started, Pizza way.


Whole wheat dough, (made it because I had this kind of flour, not because it is healthier, that is it) good mozzarella, Raff tomatoes, fresh garlic sprouts, olive oil and Parmesan cheese.
Made and eat it conscientiously and with a lot of care. Have to tell that in a normal Pizza night I would have eaten all of it watching TV, this time I had half of it, taste is slowly, relaxed and enjoying every single bite. Love it, as the Pizza was great, but love it more, seeing half of it still in the baking sheet.


Monday, March 2, 2009

A healthy snack



Spring is almost here, we`ve been having a warm and sunny week, but for sure it is not something to be too confident about, there´s still a big chance of some cold cold days ahead. But even so, felling the warm sun around makes you feel healthier and lighter, so even when it was big game night, I decided to go veggie, and make vegetables in tempura. It is super easy, healthy and really delicious.
You can use just any kind of vegetable you like, with hard texture so they can be easy to grab with your hands. I use bell peppers, red and green, carrots and fresh garlic. But for sure we could have added some asparagus, small corns, mushrooms, etc.
The tempura is just flour, salt and cold water. I always start putting the vegetables one at a time in the batter and then in the hot oil, but after the first batch I pour the whole thing in..just being careful to move them in the fryer so they don´t get stuck together and fried in a bunch.
Drizzle some soy sauce over and put a big amount of this delicious tempura in a huge plate in the center, so everyone can grab a piece of this healthy and super delicious snack.
It is not to stay fit, but its the idea to eat as much vegetables as possible, and this is a good choice, I truly recommend it.