Day 10 through 13 of the Camino of Santiago

Entering Leon

This Wednesday will mark two weeks of walking for these two peregrinas. 

Jess and I have made it to Leon, the next major city after Burgos. We have walked 6 days over the plains of Spain and now we feel like professional pilgrims. Most of our blisters have ghealed and our backpacks no longer feel like leaden weights.

Looking out on the meseta

Iglesia de la Trinidad converted to an albergue

We have had a few notable experiences in the last week. We stayed at a convent in Carrion de los Condes where we were greeted and escorted around the place by very enthusiastic nuns. Two days later in Sahagùn, we stayed in a church that was converted to an albergue .

Jess occupying herself with the ukulele at the albergue on a rainy day

So far on the camino, we have experienced two acts of kindness. On our way to Carrion, Jess and I were suffering serious hunger pangs when an old man stopped us on the street to tell us not to take the modern pilgrims' path along the road, but to take the ancient, shaded one along the river. The old man was kind enough to give us a piece of candy, some crackers, and two handfuls of almonds in their shells. Both Jess and I temporarily thought of the age old lesson of not accepting candy from strangers, but then we thought, who would want to poison 2 lovely girls on the camino. So we ate the candy, crackers, and saved the almonds for lunch because we had to use a rock to crack the shells. 

A few almonds from the old Spaniard

The second act of kindness happened yesterday. We lost our opinel pocket knife at the albergue in Sahagùn. The pocket knife is the only utensil we carry, and without it, the usually peaceful lunch of cheese and chorizo sandwiches would be reduced to passing back and forth the cheese, chorizo, and bread to tear off hunks with our teeth. Yesterday we had a long, cold, windy 32km walk. I think this description will explain the extent of the cold: Even though Jess and I were already dressed in ALL our clothing, we put wool socks on our hands, and even then we were still freezing. There are no pictures of sockhands, but it´s the only way to explain that we were freezing even after walking 10km at a brisk pace. 

 After 14km we stopped at the only cafe along the way to warm up and drink cafe con leche. While I was paying for our coffee I asked the owner if he knew where we could buy a pocket knife. He responded that the closest place was Leon, 50km away. I must have looked concerned because he gave me my change and walked over to a drawer, dug around and pulled out a pocket knife. He simply handed it to me and said that we needed it more than him. 

Many storks in northen Spain

The storks only nest on church rooftops

The main door of the cathedral in Leon

Day 6,7,8 of the Camino

Jess with cows at 7am: leaving San Juan Ortega

 It has been a long few days without any internet. Jess and I have entered very, very rural Spain where there are no shops, only one computer per town, and really the pilgrims are the only things moving at all quickly. We stopped in Burgos and stayed all afternoon to sightsee, then we walked 10km to the neighboring town. We consider this our rest day. We have now traveled another 50 km, not all in one day of course, to Boadilla del Camino. We are on the Spanish meseta, which is wheat, wheat, and more wheat everywhere. It is mostly flat plains, with a few hills because this is Europe and not Nebraska.  Most pilgrims bus across the meseta because it lacks interesting landscape and the next big city is Leon. Jess and I have been living in Texas for a year, so we consider the ample, verdant landscape interesting enough. We are doing lots of soul searching...whatever that means. This post is short because there are five people lined up behind me to use the one laptop in the town. Important updates so far: Jess and I have successfully eaten 1kg of chorizo and we will probably have eat 2kg by the time the week ends. Jess has also invested in silicon earplugs to block out the loud snores of old men. Last important update, I turned 24 yesterday on the camino. Jess bought me a piece of cake, bought all of my coffee and beer for the day, and wished me happy birthday early in the morning. I couldn´t have had a better day. I really proved my 24 years by walking 20km on the actual day and then waking up and walking 30km the next day. Life is quite wonderful.

View of Burgos from the hill with the Castle: this sight seeing was done before any of the cafes had opened in Burgos.

Eating Sopa Castellana to warm up in Burgos.

Walking to Hontana, entering the plains

Afternoon in Hontana

More wandering in Hontana

Walking on the meseta

After lunch at St. Nicholas Hermitage. A lovely old albergue surrounded by rosemary

This picture is for the lover of all things bikes.

Day 4 of the Camino de Santiago

What happened today: We walked 24.5km or 15 miles. Jess had the camera so more pictures of Jacqueline today. Today was a trudge. Especially the 12km walk from small unnamed mountain town to San Juan de Ortega, who was a disciple of Santo Domingo. We barely made it. Jess and I took two breaks along the 12km path and we both managed to sit in ant piles. However we made it to a traditional albergue that is attached to a church that was constructed in the 12 century, added on throughout the 13th, 14th, and 15th centuries. It is simple and Gothic.

 The landscape changed from wheat fields to mountainous, with lots of pine trees, and scrubby bushes. Some with flowers, some with brilliant green leaves. The path was either red dirt or white gravel.

Bunk beds in our albergue. 

 I think it is also worth mentioning that last night we ran into another ukulele player at our albergue. It was a mid-30s German man who works in Singapore, where apparently the ukulele is quite popular and they offer lessons in many music schools. The three of us put on a short concert for the other pilgrims, so now we are known for our ukulele by some of the pilgrims. Jess and I sang our classic: Unchained Melody and also Stand by Me. Also worth mentioning, last night was the first night that either of us slept properly for more than 5 hours. Jess picked our albergue and managed to choose the one with the least amount of snoring. Thankfully we both have earplugs, and the snoring was at just the right frequency to be blocked by our foam earplugs.  The snoring in most albergues is INTOLERABLE. Many of the pilgrims are large men and older women. They all snore, the men snore especially loudly and if you wake up in the middle of the night to use the bathroom, then all bets are off when it comes to falling back to sleep because by 3am the snores are at their loudest and by 5:30am the most ambitious of the pilgrims are staring to wake, use the bathroom, pack their bags and hit the camino. Those pilgrims who wake up at 5:30am may think they are being quiet, but in a dorms style rooms the first people who wake up act as the alarm clock for all of us. Thus Jess and I have been waking up by 6am and start our walk between 6:30 or 7am.

El Camino de Santiago-End of Day 2 and Day 3

Yesterday after writing my last blog post, I turned the internet over to Jess and went outside to the main plot of grass to play ukulele and rest my feet. Jess and I arrived in Santo Domingo del Calzado on his feast day and thus the first day of a five day party. The albergue where we stayed is run by the Cofradia de Santo Domingo. I sat at the table in front of the kitchens of the albergue, and started to strum my ukulele. From the kitchen a man called out to me: Oye, señorita. I looked up, made the "who, me?" gesture. ¨"Si, tu. Ven acqui."

                                                                              I entered the kitchen and 7 of 8 men were hacking away and butchering 4 pigs (carneros). As I walked in I was asked if I like cheese. The answer is obviously, yes. I was given a triangle of a fresh, silky cheese that is a combination of sheep and cow milk. It is called queso de burgos. I was also offered homemade chorizo and rioja, both red and claret, from a carafe. The men were so happy to see me. They asked me to play a song, so I sang the only Spanish song I know well enough to sing in public: Guantanamera. I sang 3 verses and we all sang the chorus about 5 times. They were very happy with the entertainment.


The back story of the  men: Santo Domingo was a monk who established a monastery to minister to pilgrims. He did such an excellent job taking care of peregrinos, that pilgrims would walk further south just to stop at his monastery and albergue. Because so many people came south, the Camino Frances itself shifted south and the path that all pilgrims walk now, was established because of his influence. The tradition is that on his feast day, the kitchen of the albergue makes a pork and garbanzo stew (potaje) to feed pilgrims and the entire town. This is apparently an tradition more than 1000 years old. The men  had butchered 4 massive pigs and were soaking fifteen 10 gallon tubs of garbanzo beans.


I had to go get my camera to document this occasion, so I ran upstairs to fetch my camera and Jess. Thus the two peregrinos had an intimate celebration of
  Santo Domingo´s feast day!

Jess in a wheat field

We just completed day 3 of our camino. We walked 27 kilometers, and we both have massive blisters, but the walk continues.                      

Approaching another deserted Spanish pueblo

The feet of a bench in the main plaza of Grañado

Second day of the Camino

Today Jess and I walked 30km. We had only planned on walking 24km, but there was no albergue in Circueña, so we had to walk to Santo Domingo. I´m so tired I cannot write, so I´m posting pictures instead. I will say that as Jess and I finally entered the town where we were to stay, she turned to me and said: Jacqueline, this is the farthest I´ve ever walked.

I think that´s a hell of a compliment coming from Jess. So here are some pictures and a video of the desserted town where we spent an hour resting by washing our feet in freezing cold water, eating chocolate, taking an NSAID to keep down inflammation and playing some ukelele.

Also, we´ve both had to leave behind a pair of pants and some toiletries. I don´t know what will come next because our bags are too heavy to carry every day for 30 km. For you all of you out there still on miles, 30km is 20 miles.

JW

JP

Wheat, wheat, and more wheat surrounding us.

Jess and Jacqueline in a deserted Spanish town.

Weight of the Nation

This is a public service announcement instead of a cooking post. I am in medical school now and will be a part of the generation of doctors who will be treating that 17% of children who are obese now, when they are adolescents and adults. This is a problem that affects us all because the fate of many of those children is to end up chronic health conditions like Type 2 diabetes, hypertension, coronary artery disease, and various other conditions that are linked to being overweight and obese. Health care costs in the United States will only continue to rise, if more and more of our population is affected by these diseases. Think of these chronic conditions in terms of their worst case scenarios: unmanaged type 2 diabetes can lead to kidney failure and the need for dialysis OR to decreased blood flow and innervation in the extremities and eventually limb amputation. Hypertension can lead to a heart attack, stroke and just like type 2 diabetes, it can lead to kidney failure.

I know that I'm using scare tactics by presenting what are considered "normal" health conditions in these dire terms.  I call them normal because we all know someone with hypertension, diabetes, high cholesterol, etc. Since I've started medical school, I have seen patients who have pushed their bodies to the brink both out of ignorance of what it means to have these chronic conditions and/or inability to treat and manage them due to lack of access to health care.  The statistics of childhood obesity are especially pertinent to me as I attend medical school in Texas, where the CDC estimates that 15-20% of children here are obese.

The desire to write this post, was sparked by reading a this Frank Bruni article that linked to the upcoming HBO documentary: Weight of the Nation.  Watch the trailer here and if you're feeling like a community organizer, apply to host a screening and HBO might send you a copy of the 4 part series. The documentary is a collaboration of HBO and the Institute of Medicine, in association with the Centers for Disease Control, Kaiser Permanente, the National Institutes of Health, and the Michael and Susan Dell Foundation. I know it's just a documentary, and it takes more action than watching a film to change the trend of obesity.  However,  I think a collaboration between HBO and these health organizations signals magnitude of the obesity problem in America. It's not just health-care workers and your mother telling you that you're getting fat, it's HBO!  

So watch the trailer and try to catch the documentary in May if you have HBO. It  is supposed to be screened other places online, so I will try to post the links when I find them.

                                           



Oysters: Two Ways

Four months later I return to blog about medical-related-food.....Christmas is a time of bounty with gifts from neighbors, and if you're my father, gifts from patients. He receives lovely gifts like delicious baked goods, jams, and wine, but some food gifts are really special like a bucket of oysters! I spent my early childhood near the South Texas coast and grew up eating oysters in all their forms. If you love oysters like my family the indispensable tool for their preparation is a small fryer or as it is known in our house the "FryDaddy." Tonight we had so many oysters that we prepared them two ways, fried and scalloped, and served the oysters with a green salad.

 Scalloped Oysters
(From Rockport Collection: Fish, Game, Fine Art, a copy of this book was given to my parents when they bought a house in Rockport, TX)

Ingredients:
2 cups of oysters, drained
8 tbs butter
1 1/2 cup of Italian bread crumbs
1 tbs of chopped chives, sprig of Oregano
juice from one lemon
3 tbs Parmesan cheese mixed with 1 tbs bread crumbs

1. Preheat oven to 350 °F.
2. Melt 4 tablespoons of butter. In a bowl, coat the crumbs with butter until a paste is formed.
Spread a half inch thick layer on the bottom of a flat baking dish. Arrange the oysters over the crumbs.
3. Melt the remaining 4 tablespoons of butter in a glass measuring cup. Combine and mix the melted butter, lemon juice, chives, oregano, salt and pepper. Pour the mixture over the oysters, then sprinkle the oysters with Parmesan cheese and bread crumbs.
4. Bake the gratin for 30 minutes until it is brown and bubbling at the edges.

Fried Oysters:
Oysters drained and dried until damp
Zatarain's garlic fish fry powder
cayenne pepper
bottle of vegetable oil
small fryer

1. Heat the oil in the fryer. 
2. Pour the fry powder in a plastic bag, spike it with cayenne pepper and mix well.  Dredge oysters through the batter and lay them out on a cookie sheet. Put the coated oysters in the freezer until you are ready to fry.
3. Fry the oysters and pull them out of the fryer when they float to the top.
4. Serve the oysters with tartar sauce, ketchup, or salsa golf (which is Argentinian secret sauce made of mayonnaise and ketchup)