Lunchester Podcast

SCRIPT

- Laura Vecino Benjumea: Hello Shaffi, my name is Laura Vecino and I would like to ask you…could you explain the main differences in civic behavior between British and Spanish, especially on public transport and other things?

- Shaffi: Ok..ammm…the main difference is… I think is that British, oh well, real, I am from London and, so, London has a whole different kind of behavior on public transport , right , on bus, I think they don't look people in their eyes, they do not talk to them, they pretend to be completely alone. Right, here, nice people elects… wearing about making eyes contact…and they are generally more okay, standing close to the people…so, interesting…and….I do not know…the main civic differences… I think that has been amazing …personal states that come out other things as well… yeah…

- Laura Vecino Benjumea: Ok, thank you, Shaffi.

- Cristina Sánchez: Hi Shaffi, I´m Cristina and, could you please tell us the name of the most famous Spanish dishes in Britain?

- Shaffi: Mmmm, ok....it has to be paella or...churros con chocolate? But probably the formal, yeah, paella.

- Cristina Sánchez: Ok, thanks.

- Ángel Rodríguez: Hello Shaffi, my name is Ángel Rodríguez and I'd like to ask you what is your favourite Christmas dish

- Shaffi: Favourite christmas dish... Well, I have an interesting cultural background, so my mother is from Côte d'Ivoire and my dad is from Nigeria, so anything that I like traditionally is like to be African but if you are talking about british like, then.. I.. At Christmas. What´s suppossed to be traditional?.. Is like the big roasted, so have a roasted duck or as we in my family we always make duck and Parsnip.. I really like those and..I don't really like Christmas pudding that much, is strange. But yeah.. parsnips and roast duck

- Ángel Rodríguez: And what about the African?

- Shaffi: African... well we tend to mix we just.. we do something traditionally african so.. chicken, with lots and lots of spices and flavouring chili, lots and lots of chilly. I love the Chilli, its good and something called jellofry it´s rice dish traditionaly west african and has tomatoes and onion and when you cook it altogether, the rice absorves the color so is orange when you are done, and that´s awesome.

- Ángel Rodríguez: Sounds delicious, thank you.

- Isabel Moirón: Hi Shafy, my name is Isabel and I would like to ask you if you have found any interesting or shocking difference between British table manners and Spanish ones.

- Shaffi: Amm...so far I don't actually think so... I think the only big difference is the bread with every meal and therefore that you eat the bread with your hands every meal but personally I don't have problems with eating with my hands, I know traditional English type dinning is a knife and fork for for everything so...that is that.

- Isabel Moirón: OK, thank you very much.

- Cartita Mihaela Corina: Hello Shaffi! My name is Mihaela and I would like to ask you if you could tell us which is your favourite Spanish dessert?

- Shaffi: Mmmm....... I don't know , I think maybe the yellow....is it yellow one, is it flan? Yaaahhh.... the yellow one, flan. Oh... yaaahhh, I don't really I do like flan but I remember I went to Bilbao and a really, really, really good flan there, so ya, I like.

- Cartita Mihaela Corina: Thank you very much!

- Mª José González: Hello, my name is Mª José González and I would like to ask you... Could you tell us something about the daily meals?

- Shaffi: Ok. Breakfast, lunch, dinner. Breakfast is the main meal of the day and I think generally people have cereals, toasts, something not too heavy over occasionally you have something colder for English which should be sausages, eggs, bacon, beans, fried bread, toasts and mushrooms, a little should be. Lunch is around twelve, twelve thirty, nothing like the two o'clock lunch time here and dinner there will be like six o'clock, so on at that time, I think... I think a main that you find, potatoes, potatoes are a big thing in British, so a lot of potatoes, that's the dinner, all of you perhaps like pasta and become a whole european influence.

- Mª José González: Ok, thank you.

- Elisabeth Sánchez: Hello Shaffi! My name is Elisabeth and I would like to know your opinion about Spanish eating habits. Do you think they are different from British ones?

- Shaffi: Yes, very different. Hmmm...I think the breakfast thing, I thought I hadn´t quite got my head round ... so,yeah, ok, fine, that´s not too different.

But then, dinner at like nine-ten o´clock... ( laughter). Some of my friends came to visit me and I was convinced that they would ... because I got used to having dinner at ten o´clock but they come straight from England, so...it´s like six o´clock...yeah, well, we´re all hungry now! let´s dinner! So, yeah, very very different!

Oh yeah, and how many hours for lunch? Good God! A lot of time!

- Elisabeth Sánchez: Ok, thank you Shaffi.

Did you know....???

Did you know that the famous "American sauce" was created by a French chef, Pierre Fraisse, who had worked for a long time in United States. So, he decided to give American origin to the name of his sauce in order to remember his past time in United States where he learned a lot of thing about cuisine. However it was a very delicated theme when this sauce was created, because French people did not understand why Pierre Fraisse decided give this name instead of giving Frech origin in order to promote France's popularity

More than a wine

I am talking about Port wine. Though it is not produced in the UK, it is historically regarded as a British drink. Many of the leading brands were originally British and some producers still are. The country has embraced Port since the 17th century but most Brits buy only one bottle a year, at Christmas!

Where it comes from

The wine comes from the hillsides of the Douro valley in Portugal and takes its name from Oporto which lies at the mouth of the Douro river. But the true home to Port is Vila Nova de Gaia, which is dominated by the Port wine lodges with over fifty wine companies.

History

No one knows exactly when Port appeared. One of the stories tells that a wine merchant in Liverpool sent his sons to Portugal in 1678 to find a wine source. There, they found a monastery in Lamego (Douro Valley) and realized that the abbot was adding brandy to the wine before fermentation, producing a port-type wine. In this way, sometime during the end of the 1600´s or beginning of the 1700´s, someone came up with the idea of stopping the fermentation with brandy while the wine was still sweet, fruity and strong.

Port and Food

Port is traditionally consumed as an accompaniment to cheeses, with desserts or as a digestif. It is not a wine for fast drinking.

Styles of Port

-White: Served in a tall glass with crushed ice, tonic water, a sprig of fre

sh mint and a twist of lemon.

-Ruby: Simple and fruity, used in cocktails, mixers or for cooking.

-Tawny: Barrel/cask-aged ruby port. The aging causes the colour to change from purple to tawny brown.

-Colheita: Aged tawny from a single vintage.

-Vintage: The best wine made with the best grapes from a single harvest. Aged for only two years in wood before bottling, these wines develop slowly over a long period (20 to 60 years).

-LBV-Late Bottled Vintage: Designed to be in a vintage port style but co

nsumed much earlier because of the late bottling process.

-Single quinta: Made from a single estate ( quinta) . Single quinta is made in the same way as vintage port but comes from grapes originating from only one farm.

-Crusted: A blend of different years, bottled young and developing like a vintage port.

Curiosities

* In the past, British men would stay behind to have a glass of port while the women went into another room.

Great British Food

I would like to give you a piece of advice if you want to learn things about British cuisine because I discovered that the most famous British magazine is ‘Great British Food’. It was founded in 2007 and in four years of existence the magazine becomes number one in Britain just because if focuses 100% on British seasonal food and drink. In fact, Great British Food has all the inspiration you need in order to become a great cooker! So, if you want to impress your friends you should buy it!

Do you like it?

It's sweet and most of people love it. I'm talking about chocolate, a mixture of sugar and cacao. It's very typical to eat it on these dates.

The word chocolate entered the English language from Spanish. there are several explanations about how this word came into Spanish. One of them says that chocolate cames from the language of the Aztecs, from the word chocolātl derived from xocolātl , from xococ 'sour' or 'bitter' and ātl 'water' or drink'. It refers to "a foaming drink made of cacao".

Chocolate has a very good taste, so probably you eat it very often and this isn't very healthy. Although if you eat it with moderation it has beneficial effects over your health.

Chocolate is considered one of the best gift for a woman. If you don't have a good present for your lover, enclose chocolate with a bunch and you will be right, the chocolate is related with pleasure.

Food and videogames or Virtual Micology 101

whether you like videogames or not, It cannot be denied that videogames are as well part of our culture.  Any blog relating culture, language and food cannot simply skip the relationship between videogames and food.

Probably the most iconic symbol of food in videogames would be the mushrooms in the videogame “Super Mario”. In case you have never played any Mario game, here is a brief guide about some of the most important mushrooms and their impact into the gameplay.

1-Up Mushrooms are green Mushrooms that give whoever eats one an Extra Life, and are usually the rarest to be found.  They are usually found in hidden blocks or in risky places for the player. They always grant the player a positive effect when acquired.

A Super Mushroom is a red Mushroom that serves a particular function depending on the game in which it is found. Its first and most common effect is causing Mario or Luigi to double in size and strength, allowing them to smash through bricks and take an extra hit from enemies.  An opposite can be considered as the  Poison Mushroom, a Mushroom that hurts the player.

The Mega Mushroom is a rare variety of mushroom found in the Mushroom kingdomWhen eaten, they grow their consumer to a massive size, allowing them to walk over and destroy everything in their path, including the biggest and meanest enemies. It has  bulbous, orange and red-spotted caps.

The Mini Mushroom is a variety of Mushrooms found in the Mushroom Kingdom. Whoever uses it will shrink greatly in size and will be capable of sneaking into smaller areas. The Mini Mushroom's appearance varies from game to game, but they all have the same effect.

So far with this course on virtual Micology. Please bear it in mind next time you pay a visit to the Mushromm Kingdom.

 

Sugar house?

Can you imagine? You should not imagine because sugar houses exist!.

Yes, It is right! Although the real sugar house is not like the photo before, but it is like this photo:

It is considered a sugar house a farms that made up the famous maple syrup. If you have no idea about what I am talking...keep on reading because I will explain to you.

A maple syrup is a kind of dessert made of extracting the sap from the maples! But not all trees are useful to extract their sap, but the most "sweet" which are the sugar maple and the black maple.

Those trees are found in North America, especially in New England and New York.

But how is it extracted? it is extracted from the tree? Yes, It is! look this photo:

After extracting maples'sap it must be boiled in order to evaporate water mixed with this sap

After evaporation of water, the sap must be filtered in order to remove any solids and generate a clear syrup

This process is done in sugar houses and of course, thoses houses have a great opening in the ceiling in order to let off vapors of this process.

And the result of this process is the sweet maple syrup which can be used in toast or crepes