London

I've just realized I didn't talk about London. I went a couple of times and spent just 3 or 4 days there. But I loved it so much. It's an incredible city and I'd like to go again, hopefully we'll spend a weekend soon if I can manage for keeping our low budget.

It was last January when I first saw London, it was not too cold, it didn't rain and I had my camera with me all the time. I was so impressed that I couldn't stop taking pics of everything. I love the details on the buildings and street lights. It's a cliché that "London is expensive", but I didn't expend much. You can just see the free buildings and walking around, eating sandwich and soup and walk everywhere and that's all, ha ha!

Did I ever tell you I have a doors collection? When I see a door I like I take a pic and I have many of them classified by places and dates. In London though, I didn't find many doors for my collection.

I was thinking of paying the 8 pounds for the tickets to visit Sherlock Holmes museum. But, when I saw the HUGE queue outdoors, I changed my mind. We came into the shop, which is also very cute, and I bought a couple of souvenirs and a pen (of course). It was a really comfortable place and I took many many photos.

We went to Minamoto Kitchoan and I bought some delicious Japanese desserts. Gosh, I want to eat them all again. The shop was like a little Japan spot in the city center of London. Quite expensive, but worth it. 

I'll better write some more posts about London, because this one could be enormous! I have so many photos and places I want to share with you. Anyway, the best thing for me and Mr Glass was walking along the Thames. We saw a nicely decorated boat-restaurant called Hispaniola with all the coloured lights on with the London Eye in the background. There were also some lovely benches for you to take a breath watching the beautiful Thames. 

Spanish foodies

When I was in Nottingham , I realized we have really good food in Spain. What I missed the most was jamón serrano, which was something rare because I don't used to eat much jamón when I'm at home.

The other things I missed were basics like chocolate or cookies. In UK I ate really good cookies (my favourite ones were choc chip & hazelnut Maryland), but I missed a lot the Artinata from Spanish brand Artiach.

They are made with wafer and cream, lemon, chocolate, coconut or nougat. I've tried the nougat and lemon, but the cream ones are my favorites!! The lemon ones are good too, but the other's are too sweet for my taste. 

The other thing, the chocolate, could seem silly to you, but here we have a really good brand for a good price. Of course you can find really good chocolate in many places, if you pay the price. But the brand Valor is not expensive and the quality is very very good. With the confectionery is not very good in my opinion, but the chocolate bars are supreme! I always buy the chocolate with milk and almonds. They have many more, without milk, with hazelnut, without sugar... 

I didn't find with milk, so this is puro, which means pure, you'd say dark or black chocolate

For Christmas we eat turrón (nougat), it's really sweet, so I didn't miss it because I don't like it too much. And also... marzipan! How did you guess? But, this marzipan we eat in Christmas is sweeter than the other we eat in "Tots Sants" or "Sant Dionís", so I don't eat too much. Mr Glass favourite turrón is the almond and sugar one, and it's the most tipical here. 

Photo source here

Another sweet (really sweet) that we eat in Christmas at home is Marrón Glacé. It's expensive, but it worths every cent. Well, the ones I buy are expensive, but they're so good that I don't even think of buying a cheaper ones. I think it's the only "super-sweet" thing I love, and it's simple, just a confited chestnut. Last year I saw they also have chestnuts with xocolate and two or three more varieties, but I think the normal one it's sweet enough, and if you add other flavours it wouldn't have that chestnut flavour which I love. In conclusion, if you love chestnuts, you'll love Marrón Glacé.

If you're one of my snail mail friends and you want to try something, just let me know. I'm planning to send an special mail for Christmas (nothing big, don't panic) and I'd like to know if you're interested in trying some Spanish food. Feel free for asking something else if you want anything special.

About bones, bonies and huesitos

Here we don't have a proper Halloween celebration. Just the restaurants, pubs, clubs and such places have a Halloween decoration, but we don't place any carved pumpkin out of the house or children ask for sweets door by door. Young people (not me) usually put their fancy dresses on and go to parties, and shops sell sweets and decorations, but I don't like them at all. It's like a fake and bad imitation of the true celebration. So I don't celebrate it.

In fact, we have our own celebration. Here in Valencia we call it "Tots Sants" (All Saints), and it's about visit the cemetery to honour the family member whom are not with you any longer, and it's on 1st November. That day we eat "ossets de tots sants" (all saints' bonies) and talk about the member we miss and remember how they used to make us laugh, so we laugh again thanks to the memories. On 31st October we also tell scary stories and my grandma used to tell me on that day you can see the spirits of the dead people if you're not a good child.

The "ossets de tots sants" are made by marzipan, pine nuts and sometimes chocolate. I think we eat a lot of marzipan here, well, we have so many almonds, lucky me! Normally, they have the size of a small meatball. And they're really good. I can't wait for eating them, it's something that you can find only when it's "Tots Sants".

Photo source here

But I also like the good and well done Halloween. Well, I love sweets, why don't tell the truth? I'd like to be in Korea right now, just for visiting this monster cafe where they do these amazing cupcakes. And then, immediately teletransport to another place, like Whitney's door, and ask her for sweets.

Photo source here

And talking about bones, do you know this chocolate bar? It's a Spanish one!! For me, it's the best ever and I love it. The name is Huesitos, it means "bonies" and it comes from the surname of the inventor, Hueso. Now you can find them as Cadbury and Milka brand, because the owner sold the factory. I don't eat Huesitos since I was a child, but I'll buy some day again, and I hope they kept the orinigal recipe.