Drive 8.7 km (5.4 miles) west of
the municipality of Roses in Catalonia, Spain, and you'll get to
the gates of the renowned avant-garde restaurant,
El Bulli. Run by Ferran Adrià since 1987,
the restaurant closed in 2012 due to Adrià and his partner Juli Soler
losing a half million Euros a year on the restaurant and Adrià's cooking workshop in Barcelona. Slate's Noreen Malone wrote an article on
the history of the "I Ate at El Bulli" piece, giving an overview of tropes that you could expect in an IAaEB piece, and you can
browse images tagged "elbulli" on Flickr for snapshots of personal experiences. But for an extended look into what went into making the ever-changing
35-course taster's menu,
El Bulli: Cooking in Progress (Trailer on YT and
Vimeo) is
a 109 minute documentary on the preparation and implementation of the 2008/9 season, an "
extreme fly-on-the-wall vérité, with only the barest context provided." If you're looking for recipes,
Molecular Recipes has a few listed under
the El Bulli tag.
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posted by filthy light thief
on Jun 4, 2012 -
26 comments
Júzcar is a little Spanish village that voted to stay blue, but their buildings weren't always that hue. In fact, if you view the
Google maps, you'll see the traditional whitewashed walls, as you'd expect for one of the (former)
White Towns of Andalusia. It happened in advance of
Global Smurfs Day, to celebrate the birthday of
Peyo (25 June 1928 – 24 December 1992), the Belgian creator of the Smurfs comics. The town was chosen by Sony as
the site for the international debut of its new Smurfs movie, who offered to pay for the town to become temporarily blue.
The citizens unanimously voted to accept the offer. In September,
the 221 residents voted to keep the town blue, as the media coverage was huge, and tourism was boosted from 300 summer tourists to thousands.
More photos.
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posted by filthy light thief
on Jan 12, 2012 -
21 comments
Yesterday, July 6th, was the first day of
San Fermín or Sanfermines in Pamplona, in celebration of
Saint Fermín. As is tradition,
it starts with a rocket, and turns into
a giant, joyous, drunken party in the streets. The
events to follow have changed over the centuries, with the addition of Riau Riau in 1914 (
actual singing,
words and lyrics,
Spanish Wiki page with lyrics) in 1914, and most recently,
leaving of candles and red bandanas at
the Church of San Lorenzo, following the singing of
Pobre de Mi. Oh, and there's
the running of the bulls (
route,
photos from yesterday's run,
previously).
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posted by filthy light thief
on Jul 7, 2011 -
9 comments
The building of
Castells, or human towers, is a tradition from Catalonia, going back to the end of the 18th century, starting in
Valls. About a month ago,
the annual Concurs de Castells took place in Tarragona, with
groups of castellers competing to make taller and more complex towers.
This video is a well-shot glimpse at the tower building, deconstruction, and some tumbles, possibly from the 2010 gathering.
Via Kuriositas, which has more photos.
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posted by filthy light thief
on Nov 8, 2010 -
26 comments
