The art of tapas
Although someone from Santander will never miss the same thing as someone from Mojácar, or someone whose new destination is Norway as someone who lives in Australia, there are a series of basic common elements that will mean that if you read us from your new destination, you can't wait to pack your suitcase and sing "Come back home come back".
1) THE HAM!
It goes between exclamations but should be written in Impact font size 72 . Neither your grandmother's bean stew, nor your mother's croquettes, nor your father's paella; ham is number one, Valhalla, the non plus ultra of homesickness. Half of the inquiries received by airline operators in Spain are related to being able to take ham on trips and its semi-prohibition in certain countries means that vacuum-packed packs circulate like bottles of distillates circulated during the dry law. So if you have a bit of ham nearby, hold it up to the light, smell it, bow to it and taste it to the fullest. He deserves it.
Live!
2)THE SHUTTERS
How annoying we Spanish are complaining about the lack of blinds when we go there. You are right. Basic invention that regulates light, protects from wind and prying eyes, Calvinist-influenced countries are completely unaware of its existence and every day we wonder how they can live without them.
3) THE BARS OF OLD CUTRES
Before and after they were taken over by hipsters, seedy bars with chopsticks and napkins on the floor, a Formica bar and an '82 World Cup plaque are part of the DNA of anyone who has lived in Spain. Knowing that you could find one around the corner open at odd hours and run by a man with a talkative mustache gave you a security in the world and in life in general which you now lack. Sometimes you also miss rude waiters and bad service. That's how tricky nostalgia is.
4) THE SUN
Those in the northernmost parts of the peninsula don't miss him so much because he isn't a guest of everyday life, but those who take him for granted won't know how important he is until they find themselves in rain for three consecutive weeks. Not seeing the blue sky for months three months or spending that same time surrounded by snow manages to explain why all ancient peoples worshiped the sun as the supreme God. In the coldest countries you will fully understand why people go crazy when spring comes, you will go crazy too and participate in the merriment.
5)COMPUTER KEYBOARDS
The ticks. the eñe It's not necessary to say anything else .
bars, what places
6) LIDS
There is no other option than to wear cañí, topical and repellent, but yes, the potato omelette, the sausages, the octopus, the fried fish, the sausages, go for pinchos , eat tapas, all those things, you love and long for each and every one of them. When you leave, don't forget to say “Anchovy stuffed olives, I'll miss you more than anyone”.
7) IMPROVISE
Leaving work with colleagues and going for a drink without having to meet days in advance, square agendas and reserve a place. That having a drink without more becomes a dinner, and dinner, a night of revelry. Leaving home one afternoon to run an errand and coming back at three in the morning tired, a little drunk and happy.
Without the cap, the cane doesn't make (so much) sense
8) THE MOPS
East, one of the few Spanish inventions on the list of world contributions , has not yet been adopted by all the countries of the globe and we do not understand why. Try to solve a flood caused by a breakdown in the washing machine without a mop. Yes, exactly, now you're Cinderella.
9) THE CLOTHS
Continuing with the field of cleaning and home, you never suspected that an absorbent cloth could become an object of desire. The shower gel in a large container is an entelechy to go on a pilgrimage and the “normal” sponges you have in mind and the ones you find for sale come from different worlds.
10) THE TABLE
Being able to prolong lunch/dinner/coffee with chatter, intimacies, swearing and plans to solve the world without the waiters looking at you badly, without closing the doors or without the rest of the diners having to leave in a hurry.
11) LIFE ON THE STREET
The simplest becomes a privilege. Being on a terrace having a drink in the sun can be an entelechy in your new life. Say goodbye to children playing in the parks or on the street, to wandering aimlessly through something other than a mall, and to full stores at nine o'clock at night. Crowded streets well into the early summer mornings, goodbye.
12) THE FRIED TOMATO
First major purchase in your new home. You go to the supermarket looking for fried tomato because you take it for granted that it is everywhere, you arrive and find that **there isn't, and if there is, it's not the same ("it's not the same" is going to become a very repeated in your life) **. From now on, crazy jokes like “buddy, here's a tomato” will make you shed a tear.
In Spain we do not know what agoraphobia is: life is done on the street
13) COLACAO
With his old politically incorrect ads, the iconic image of him, its lumps, its pilgrim inventions of each summer … no matter how good the milk chocolate products are, you won't find anything like it.
14)NOT HAVING TO DRIVE
A sensitive topic for those who live outside Europe . Being able to go anywhere without having to get in the car and onto four-lane highways, or even being able to get to work by public transport (as limping as it may be) is the typical thing you will remember nostalgically when you drive past the wheel of a hulking third of your time.
15) THE SCHEDULES
The crazy Spanish schedules have horrible things like the split day and getting home to work at eight in the afternoon (or at eleven at night), but at the same time that same split day allows some privileged people to take a SIESTA (it was already taking going out) and gives rise to habits that are harder to break than it seems, such as being able to eat at three in the afternoon! dinner at ten o'clock at night! Magical.
16) THE SENSE OF HUMOR
So difficult to define and so definitive, humor is one of the most specific things and capable of demonstrating the connection with another person, with another culture or another country. From getting the jokes, using irony or drop phrases from Chiquito or the APM in your daily conversations as if nothing had happened , sharing it causes a priceless sense of belonging.
When the waiter of the typical 'old man's bar' is missing... something dies in the soul
17) THE COFFEE
If you are not in Italy, Venezuela or Colombia, it is very likely that you are at the top of the things you long for. Each country has its particular way of preparing it and this leads us to the watery coffees, those with grounds, the monstrosities with instant powders … not to mention the gibberish of the different ways around the world to order a coffee with milk or a cut in a cup or glass of cane. A whole world of coffee varieties and unequal experiences awaits you until you find the version of coffee that is most satisfying for you. Until the end I may find you looking at a Starbucks with eyes of desire.
18)OLIVE OIL
Olive oil at a good price, of good quality and that is not sold in the delicatessen section as Italian oil (even if it is Spanish). You love butter and you are convinced of its benefits, but once again let's repeat the mantra "it's not the same".
19) THE BREAD: OH, THE GOOD BREAD
Bread that is not mold, that is not a reheated baguette, that is not prefrozen. Although the quality of the bread in many areas of Spain is enough to cry sourdough and, for example, in France the difference is for the better, if you live in England or in an Asian country that has not been colonized by the French you will know what we are talking about.
**20) THE NOUGAT (SPECIAL MENTION FOR SUCHARD'S) **
Woe to those who have to spend Christmas away from home. The dates of nostalgia par excellence are fertile ground to remember everything with supreme emotion. If the Italians have made panettone easily available in supermarkets around the world, the diffusing work of nougat is far from comparable. Even the hard and yolk , which only grandparents like, you will find yourself remembering at your Christmas dinners.
21) THE RUFFLES WITH HAM
Of course you love ham but, admit it, also the Ruffles that have very little of ham. Here we profess devotion to them and we know how hard it can be to spend many months without noticing that feeling that your tongue stays like esparto grass after devouring the contents of a bag.
22) PIPES
Faithful companions of adolescents who peel the kettle and on Sundays with soccer games, who was going to tell you that you could miss so much a product so simple, so dirty and so omnipresent in Spanish newsstands. Salted or unsalted, its click would drive you crazy and we all know that it doesn't, pumpkin seeds don't even have a point of comparison.