by Liv | Oct 22, 2010
I brought back a lot of photos from Spain as I promised before I went to Spain. In total I took 575 photos but as you can imagine it’s taken me some time to sort and edit everything. In this blog post there are some of the photos we took in Granada, Spain, but in the next blog I will share photos we took in Madrid.
This was my first time been to Spain and we absolutely loved Granada. The weather there is awesome and the tapas are amazing, especially as they are free! I read Granada is not famous for food but it’s the only city in Spain that still serves tapas for free. Most of the tapas bar sell small size beers for 1 to 2 euros but the bar man will service tapas and each round of tapas is different. But it’s all tasty. You can use a little bit of money to plan a “tapas trip” in Granada. Try every tapas bar and decide which one is the best tapas bar to you.
This is my favorite tapas bar in Granada, “Cerveceria La Boveda”. The bar man who serviced us was really nice but the food was really really tasty.
Except the tapas bars, Arabic style tea houses are another cool and chic choice for your holiday. We went to this Arabic tea house to have afternoon tea to refresh and avoid the high temperatures outside. The temperature in the afternoons often approached 30 degrees, which doesn’t sound hot but we live in Edinburgh which although beautiful is often cold, windy and/or wet. I ordered a liquorice tea which cost 3 euro and Chris ordered a Vanilla smoothie for 2.5 euro.
These photos are about local Spanish people who live in Granada. I feel life in Granada is so relaxing. Every shop and restaurant close at 4 pm and city is empty at 4pm.
This is the best kebab I had in my life. I bought it from a random kebab shop on the street in Granada. It cost me 3 euro but it’s so so so tasty. I’ve never been Turkey, Egypt or Greece that part of world so I only can compare with the kebabs one can buy in the UK. Maybe because Granada was the last city to be occupied by the Arabs but the Arabian culture and architecture is quite prominent in Granada so we were treated to great middle eastern kebabs as well as teas.
This is “Basilica De Ntra Sra De Las Angustias”. A very beautiful church in the city centre of Granada. The outside of this church looks very ordinary. But the inside of the church looks amazing. The decorations are gorgeous, it’s not hard to tell that Spanish people are very religious from the gorgeous decorations of the church. This church is very popular and it’s always full of people.
I think this church open at morning and close around 1:00 afternoon and reopen again after 6 pm. I can’t tell you if this information is right because this church didn’t have any English information about opening times and I asked random local Spanish people when the church will open again today. A lady used her fingers to indicate “6” to me. Then she just talked a lot of Spanish to me but I only can understand uno, dos in Spanish…lol This is another big problem about travel in Spain. It’s not very easy to travel in Spain if you don’t understand Spainish. A lot of Spanish people can’t speak English or they don’t want to help you if you speak English. But what’s the point for a tourist like me who only go to Spain for 1 week to learn a lot of Spanish? I probably won’t use it again in the future. (Come on Spanish people please learn more English. I’m a just a tourist and don’t know a lot of Spanish, please help me when I travel to spain.)
This church’s roof is so pretty. Every corner of this church is well decorated. It even has a beautiful angel stature beside the roof window.
One of our main reasons for going to Granada was to see my best friend Lorenzo who lives in Granada. He was my colleague while I worked at Sheraton Hotel. He is also an excellent Italian chef who travels and works around Europe. We stayed at his place with his lovely Spanish friend Jorge. They helped us a lot when we travel around Granada. Thank you guys so much. xoxoxo 😀
We had this “Mariscal Platter” in the “Mariscal Delicatessen” as our second day’s breakfast. From the top of the plater are Jamon, Spanish black pudding, Chorizo, morcellr, Pork terrine, salami and Salchichon. It tasted wonderful and cost 7.50 euro.
This is the other side of Mariscal Delicatessen. One side of the shop is bar and restaurant and the other side they sell a lot of meat and vegetable products. You can see a lot of local people, grandmas and housewives doing their daily food shopping there. The bar man at Mariscal delicatessen was really friendly and helpful and thank god for us he could speak English.
This is Granada Cathedral. We didn’t go inside of this cathedral. The reason we didn’t want to go inside was because we had to pay but most importantly we weren’t allowed to take photos. We like church architecture but neither of us are Catholic/Christian so there’s not a lot of point going in. Beside this cathedral there are a lot of shops. You can buy a lot of gifts for friends and family.
Tasty “Churros” with amazing hot chocolate. We went to Cafe Futbol to have this amazing dessert- “churros”. Churros taste a little bit savory and because it’s been deep fried the pastries texture is a bit crispy on the outside but soft inside. The chocolate was surprisingly thick and not too sweet too. Churros with Hot chocolate is a really great dessert. 3.30 euro for churros and hot chocolate.
Tasty fried seafood platter – 22 euro and the tapas we got. Beer- 2 euro. The waiter can speak English and also very helpful. I like the service here and also the food.
First photo is St. Nicolas Church on Albacin. The second photo is the view from Albacin. You can see the Alhambra from Albacin. I deeply feel the best way to travel around Granada is by foot. We walked around Granada most of the time which allows us to stop and take a lot of photos. It’s really easy to walk around Granada. However you do need to have pair of iron legs. lol There also have bus that you can take from Granada cathedral. The bus number is 32. Single ticket per person is 1.20 euro and the bus drive can give you the change which is so convenient.
On the way walked to Albacin we saw so many cute pets. The brilliant weather not only makes people happier but also the animals. The cat was having his siesta and didn’t want to lift his head for anything while the dogs barked at anything that moved.
It surprised me how tasty Spanish ice cream can be. All the ice cream shops have so many different kinds of flavors. All the ice cream tastes a little bit the same when you buy it in the UK but you can taste all the different ingredients in the ice cream when you buy it in Spain. I had pine seed and caramel ice cream in this shop and the ice cream can actually taste the toasted pine seed flavor with the real caramel taste. I’m not a sweet tooth at all but I love the ice cream here.
These photos were taken inside of Alhambra. Unfortunately we went to Alhambra too late so all the tickets to the main palace were sold out. Prices were 6 euros for a ticket to the gardens and 12 euros for a ticket which allows access to everywhere. Alhambra is the most popular tourist spot in Granada and rightfully so, it’s absolutely beautiful but I suggest if you want to see Alhambra properly get there early and don’t end up like us!
In the end of my Granada travel blog, I shared with you Chris’s panoramic view of Granada City. I hope you will enjoy my blog and think about traveling to Granada for your next trip. Granada is a beautiful city with tasty food and people there are generally friendly and helpful. We had a lot of fun there and I hope you will too. My next blog will be my trip in Madrid.
by Liv | Sep 19, 2010
Ideas Behind This Blog
In February 2010 I decided I wanted to start a food blog with a view to meeting and sharing recipes with other food bloggers from all over the world. I come from a very cosmopolitan country and have met a number of different people in different situations but I’ve never had an opportunity to share recipes before now.
To explain why I haven’t been able to share before let me explain my background. I come from Taiwan and was born in Taipei where I lived for the first 25 years of my life. I studied at one of the top food colleges in the country but the chef scene in Taiwan is very male dominated. Essentially, if you’re a woman, you won’t be a chef. Although I am highly trained in Western cuisine, I simply can’t go anywhere working as a chef in Taiwan.
There are three main reasons behind my blog:
1. To meet people.
I love meeting people, to share people’s experiences, to learn and care about people
2. To share recipes.
Taiwan has a very diverse food culture which many people are completely unaware of. A lot of our cuisine originates from China but over the decades a lot of these dishes have evolved.
3. To prove that authentic Eastern food can be cooked at home.
There are many so called expert Chinese or Taiwanese chefs on the TV but often their food has no relation to the original dish. I watch chefs cook drunken chicken soaked in Shaoshing rice wine or a Taiwanese night market duck dish being prepared. Yes we have drunken chicken but it is served as a dry dish (ie without the soup) and we don’t have a Taiwanese night market duck dish.
About Me
Let me give you an explanation of where I come from and my background. My life started in Taipei, Taiwan in 1981 and my childhood was really miserable. My first memory of cooking was when I was two years old and my mother was passed out cold on the bed after gambling all night and I was hungry, so I tried to make myself a chocolate milk drink. My father and mother weren’t around for long periods of time for various reasons and I lived with my grandfather for a number of years before he sadly passed away from cancer.
Grandpa
However, the really great thing about my childhood was living with my grandfather. I absolutely loved him and he could cook really really well (in fact a lot of recipes on this blog are influenced by what he cooked for me when I was a child).
I remember the first time I met my grandfather was after my parents broke up. My mother moved to Japan and my father was busy doing his own things and I saw him in the kitchen. The first thing he said to me was “are you hungry?”. I just nodded as I was a little confused about who he was and I watched him cutting and preparing the food for me and suddenly felt really warm and secure. He made me a bowl of rice with steamed sliced pork and vegetables and it was simply the best meal I have ever ate in my life. I’ve eaten in Michelin star restaurants in different countries which were tasty, but grandpa’s food was divine.
When he passed away from cancer my life was at an all time low and I couldn’t figure out what to do. Reminiscing about my grandfather, I thought about all of the tasty dishes he cooked me and also how he taught me how to cook properly, both of which brought me huge amounts of happiness. So I decided I wanted to be a chef.
When I left high school, I enrolled at one of the top cooking colleges in the country and studied Western cooking for several years. I attended college in Kaohsiung and learned about Western cuisine and my fascination with the West ended up with me marrying an Englishman.
Moving to the UK
In 2007 I moved to the UK, wanting a break from my life in Taiwan but also to try living in a different culture, assuming that I would be able to buy decent Chinese or Taiwanese food but it was impossible. In Taiwan we have the awesome night markets where you can pick up many local delicacies but in the UK we have nothing. There are a few so called celebrity Chinese/Taiwanese chefs on the TV but their food is nothing like what I eat in my culture. I became and am still dismayed about it
These so called Eastern chefs say their dishes are prepared as they are because one can’t buy the right ingredients in this country but you really can. I live in Edinburgh and have done so for two years but the recipes throughout my blog are 99% authentic and everything was bought from Sainsburys/Asda and my local Chinese supermarket (which is a really basic Chinese supermarket).
Purpose
So, the purpose of this blog is to prove that one can make truly authentic Eastern food at home. I love storytelling and in Eastern cuisine many dishes have a story behind them. Whether it’s Donpo pork, Coffin Bread or Donkey Rolling on the Ground, everything has history. And as I will keep emphasising, I spent 25 years eating these dishes in the local markets in Taiwan, where people speak virtually no English, yet I can make them here.
I believe that because I can source ingredients to make truly authentic eastern dishes, which are fun to read and look at but most importantly incredibly tasty, I believe I can win food blog as I’m passionate food and it has really helped my life. I went from a really bad childhood to working in one of the top restaurants in beautiful Edinburgh and I hope my blog can be used to inspire people.
