{"id":4497,"date":"2024-12-13T16:25:06","date_gmt":"2024-12-13T15:25:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.fotocycle.dk\/paws\/?page_id=4497"},"modified":"2024-12-13T17:22:46","modified_gmt":"2024-12-13T16:22:46","slug":"week-47-thanksgiving-in-alicante-my-son-comes-to-visit","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"http:\/\/www.fotocycle.dk\/paws\/?page_id=4497","title":{"rendered":"Week 47: Thanksgiving in Alicante, my son comes to visit"},"content":{"rendered":"

My son lives in New Jersey with his wife and their dog and two cats. For a variety of reasons, I have not seen him since I was in New York in June 2023 to see him receive his MBA diploma from Columbia University. So his visit here in late November was the highlight of the year, I think. It coincided with Thanksgiving, a holiday that my wife insists on celebrating by inviting our closest friends for dinner–and she insists on doing it on the actual Thanksgiving Day even though it is not particularly convenient, since it is a normal working day here, as is the following day. But our Spanish friends still are happy to come and enjoy the exotic meal even if it means going to work on Friday with a headache. <\/p>\n

47_1<\/strong>
\nThe first morning of my son’s visit. The two siblings are reunited:
\n\"DSF2706\"<\/p>\n

47_2<\/strong>
\nMy son and I share a passion for cycling (perhaps he got it from me), and so we went for a ride on the second day of his visit, to Aigues, to get him used to climbing–where he lives in New Jersey there are not many hills:
\n\"1040576\"<\/p>\n

47_3<\/strong>
\nAfter our ride, my wife made paella for the family. It was a seafood paella since my daughter does not eat meat. First the shellfish are saut\u00c3\u00a9ed on the paellera<\/em>:
\n\"DSF2710\"<\/p>\n

47_4<\/strong>
\nThen the caldo<\/em> (broth) is added, and then the rice:
\n\"DSF2714\"<\/p>\n

47_5<\/strong>
\nThe traditional cross pattern of the rice has no religious significance as far as I know. It’s just the way it is done:
\n\"DSF2715\"<\/p>\n

47_6<\/strong>
\nReady to enjoy:
\n\"DSF2717\"<\/p>\n

47_7<\/strong>
\nMeanwhile, the other ingredients of a perfect lunch–salad, wine and football:
\n\"DSF2718\"<\/p>\n

47_8<\/strong>
\nMy son arrived in Spain on Saturday the 23rd, but sadly his suitcase somehow did not navigate the transfer in Brussels (in the end, it arrived on Wednesday). Fortunately, we have more or less the same size, so Moses could use my clothes in the meantime. But by Tuesday it was time to go shopping for clothes in the local Massimo Dutti store (and later send the bill to the airline):
\n\"DSF2730\"<\/p>\n

47_9<\/strong>
\nAfterwards, we stopped for a drink at a bar in the centre that Monica wanted to try:
\n\"DSF2731\"<\/p>\n

47_10<\/strong>
\nOn Thursday, my economics team went for lunch at Hostal Maruja, the last such outing of 2024 (they close for vacation in December):
\n\"DSF2740\"<\/p>\n

47_11<\/strong>
\nWe also invited Francisco, who now works in another department but we are still friends:
\n\"DSF2736\"<\/p>\n

47_12<\/strong>
\nCarolina takes a sip:
\n\"DSF2734\"<\/p>\n

47_13<\/strong>
\nOur new trainee Tinatin, from Georgia. Trips to Hostal Maruja is an important element in the traineeship experience:
\n\"DSF2732\"<\/p>\n

47_14<\/strong>
\nOne of my favourites at Hostal Maruja, boquerones fritos<\/em> (fried anchovies):
\n\"DSF2739\"<\/p>\n

47_15<\/strong>
\nPulpo a la gallega<\/em>:
\n\"DSF2741\"<\/p>\n

47_16<\/strong>
\nTaking an order from another table. This waitress has been at Hostal Maruja for several years:
\n\"DSF2744\"<\/p>\n

47_17<\/strong>
\nThen Thursday arrived. I had taken the day off to help prepare for the evening’s feast, but as always I started the day with a bike ride, this time to Busot. At the start of the ride, the landscape was cloudy and misty:
\n\"1040581\"<\/p>\n

47_18<\/strong>
\nBy the time I was approaching Busot, the sun had done away with the mist, and the town’s colours looked quite vibrant:
\n\"1040585\"<\/p>\n

47_19<\/strong>
\nBack home, my wife started working at the turkey that had been stored in brine in my beer fridge for a couple of days:
\n\"DSF2747\"<\/p>\n

47_20<\/strong>
\nAfter a few hours of hard work and inevitable anxiety, the carcass in the previous image was transformed into this:
\n\"DSF2768\"<\/p>\n

47_21<\/strong>
\nOf course, the turkey was accompanied by a host of fixins, some of them pictured here:
\n\"DSF2762\"<\/p>\n

47_22<\/strong>
\nThen evening arrived, and with it our friends. Normally people bring additional dishes to parties, but not on Thanksgiving. Instead, they invested in wine and champagne:
\n\"DSF2757\"<\/p>\n

47_23<\/strong>
\nThe big moment arrived, and I stopped taking pictures and started eating:
\n\"DSF2769\"<\/p>\n

47_24<\/strong>
\nOn Friday, we had my department’s Christmas lunch, in a restaurant a couple of km from my house. So I invited my son and daughter to join us. It was nice for them to meet my colleagues, many of whom are not much older than they are. We waited outside the restaurant for the latecomers:
\n\"DSF2771\"<\/p>\n

47_25<\/strong>
\nOne of the members of my new department, Marta:
\n\"DSF2775\"<\/p>\n

47_26<\/strong>
\nInside the restaurant:
\n\"DSF2783\"<\/p>\n

47_27<\/strong>
\nMy son conversing with one of my collaborators:
\n\"DSF2782\"<\/p>\n

47_28<\/strong>
\nOn Saturday, Moses and I did our big ride of his visit, an 82 km ride that included a climb to the Puerto de la Carrasqueta. We stopped for a break in Busot, in front of my favourite mural there:
\n\"1040590\"<\/p>\n

47_29<\/strong>
\nThe second break was at Venta Teresa, the roadside restaurant about 6.5 km from the pass:
\n\"1040593\"<\/p>\n

47_30<\/strong>
\nFinally, we arrived at the pass, and it gave us enormous pleasure to make this selfie:
\n\"Moses<\/p>\n

47_31<\/strong>
\nMoses taking pictures of the view:
\n\"1040594\"<\/p>\n

47_32<\/strong>
\nThis is the view he was photographing:
\n\"1040595\"<\/p>\n

47_33<\/strong>
\nThat evening, our reward was a dinner at one of Alicante’s best restaurants, Tabula Rasa. It is located in an unfashionable part of town, well away from the touristy areas, and therefore is quite inexpensive given the quality of the food. We had a 7-course dinner for 46 Euro (excluding the wine), a steal for this kind of food. The first dish was called Anchoa de Santo\u00c3\u00b1a<\/em>, their take on anchovy:
\n\"R000676\"<\/p>\n

47_34<\/strong>
\nThe second dish was Pulpo con almedras<\/em> (octopus with almonds):
\n\"R000677\"<\/p>\n

47_35<\/strong>
\nThe third dish was Coca de sardina con queso y espinaca<\/em> (sardine on a fine crust with cheese and spinach):
\n\"R000678\"<\/p>\n

47_36<\/strong>
\nThe fourth dish was Papada ib\u00c3\u00a9rica con patata y setas de temporada<\/em> (pork cheek with potatoes and wild mushrooms):
\n\"R000679\"<\/p>\n

47_37<\/strong>
\nThe fifth dish was Corvina, chiriv\u00c3\u00ada y guiso de manitas de cerdo<\/em> (croaker fish with parsnip and pork sauce):
\n\"R000680\"<\/p>\n

47_38<\/strong>
\nThe sixth dish was the dessert, Biscuit de turr\u00c3\u00b3n, crema de caf\u00c3\u00a9 y cacao<\/em> (turr\u00c3\u00b3n with cream of coffee and cocoa):
\n\"R000681\"<\/p>\n

47_39<\/strong>
\nTo finish us off, a selection of sweets was offered:
\n\"R000682\"<\/p>\n

Then we drove home, satisfied and happy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

My son lives in New Jersey with his wife and their dog and two cats. For a variety of reasons, I have not seen him since I was in New York in June 2023 to see him receive his MBA diploma from Columbia University. So his visit here in late November was the highlight of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":4205,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.fotocycle.dk\/paws\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/4497"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.fotocycle.dk\/paws\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.fotocycle.dk\/paws\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.fotocycle.dk\/paws\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.fotocycle.dk\/paws\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4497"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"http:\/\/www.fotocycle.dk\/paws\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/4497\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4505,"href":"http:\/\/www.fotocycle.dk\/paws\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/4497\/revisions\/4505"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.fotocycle.dk\/paws\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/4205"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.fotocycle.dk\/paws\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4497"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}