Fast Food Wisdom

Fast Food = cooked food that you buy in some kiosk to be eaten on your way... (My own Irene's definition).

1) In St. Petersburg, in Koroblestroyteley Street, they have the best kebabs (Shaorma) in the world... Maybe because those where the first ones I tried, when I was 19 (b.G.: before Globalization), and were eaten with appetite and in good company.

2) In the Netherlands you can insert a coin in a machine and get a Coke, a coin in another one and get a chocolate bar, and then a last coin in a third machine and get a hot hamburguer... Not very tasty, by the way, with some Dutch "touch" in the sauce that didn't convince me at all. I would advice to get three chocolate bars instead and wait to reach some place and get a proper meal.

3) In Britain Fish&Chips' fish is too greasy and quite disgusting... Chips fried in that same oil, I don't know why, taste very good, though, specially after pub crawling (half pub crawling in my case)! And, by the way, kebabs are much spicier than in other places in Europe I've been in... The Indian/Pakistani/Bangladeshi influence, I suppose.

4) In Italy you can get a piece of pizza in every corner, Pizza al Taglio, and it costs differently depending on its weight. On kebab local specificities, I'm afraid, I don't know... But food at an Etiopian cafe is worth trying! (Although it's not fast food in that case...).

5) In Romania fried chips are served INSIDE the kebab, all together with the meat, vegetables and sauce.

6) I would need some outer look at Spanish Fast Food context to detect local specificities... Help on that :) But yeah, I do have one (a Madrid one, in fact): we get huge sandwiches filled with fried squids!! ("Bocata de Calamares")

PostScriptum: Kebab is my favorite kind of fast food, just in case this fact passed unnoticed for any of you...

Cinema Paradiso

Today I closed my laptop at 18.30, decided that my working day was over and headed to the cinema, to a "Cinemateca" near my house, Cinema Union, a small cinema where the films are shown only if there's at least 6 people, where one day they show 1922's Nosferatu, and the next 2007's Juno. Sometimes it's a DVD screening, which is deceiving, but I like this place anyway because it's just around the corner, and because the athmosfere is quite easy-going, kind of nice family business treatment for us clients. And besides, money-is-money, films cost 10 lei (2,5 euro) and I've been told that Fridays are free (I have to check that. But it might be, because the other day, a Friday, I thought I skipped into the other Cinemateca -felt a little guilty- but maybe it was free -it was crowded, so it sounds reasonable-).

Anyway, let's focus on my story: I was going to watch, this time, Michael Clayton, at 7 pm. Nothing rare, nothing surprising. A mainstream film that I didn't get to watch in Madrid, and most of you, I'm sure, have downloaded from the Internet. They had been showing it a couple of months around here in distant Malls, so I didn't feel like going by myself. Film distribution is like that, here, most of films are firstly released in modern cinemas at the Malls (with its high prices, 5-6 euros -think on Romanian medium income, not in mine or yours- and far too talkative audience), then disappear a couple of weeks and come up again, if you're lucky (I''m still waiting for some, don't lose hope), this time in some shabby-looking 2-euro movie theatre in the city centre... The city centre, where I live, and where I'd like to go to the cinema anyway, no matter where I'd live.

Hey me! Behave! Don't loose your focus... So I arrived Cinema Union. It was a rainy Monday: even students stay at home on Mondays. That's why I wasn't really surprised when the man at the door told me that there was no film at 19 pm, I just thought, "damn it, there's not even 6 people today...". But no, he explained further: the film couldn't be shown because it hadn't arrived on time from Cluj (a Transilvanian town) ! He told me to call next dayto check if the film will be on (as I told you, it seems a family business, sometimes).

So here I am, coming back home in a 21st-century European capital, full of lights, cars and shops, and somehow feeling inside the 1950s' Cinema Paradiso, that film by Giuseppe Tornatore where a man had to sprint its bike through Sicilian roads to deliver in time a rudely censored love movie, or some Western, to an expectant population...

But I must come to see Michael Clayton this week. I must. Because I'm really curious, I want to check one thing: will it be a DVD copy? Finding out is worth 2 euros! It would be completely absurd but I sort of have a hunch... Isn't Romania Ionesco's home country for a reason?

Hummer-travelling

Cuando estaba en Moscú pensaba que no podía haber más Hummer en ninguna otra ciudad del mundo; otras personas me han dicho lo mismo de México DF, por ejemplo. No puedo comparar, no he estado. También lo dicen de Bucarest, aunque aquí yo no he visto tantos, me da que hay menos que en Moscú...

Para quien no lo sepa, el Hummer es un jeep basado en un modelo militar americano, con el guardabarros más alto del universo y al que, ciertamente, parece faltarle la metralleta en el techo. Bueno, pues no sé si en Bucarest hay muchos o pocos, pero estaba mirando páginas web para alquilar un coche para una excursión de fin de semana y ¡aquí puedes alquilar uno! Por 290 euros por día puedes conducir un vehículo merecedor de salir en Terminator.

Me han dicho que las carreteras aquí son terribles, todavía no lo he comprobado por mí misma, pero creo que de todas formas alquilaré algún coche más humano. Este Hummer, además, no es rojo, y ya se sabe, para mí los coches son o bien rojos o bien de colores. Como los árboles, dos clases: pinos, y todos los demás. No es que me sienta orgullosa, pero nunca he conseguido prestar la suficiente atención ni a la mecánica ni a la botánica...


When I was in Moscow, I thought I couldn´t possibly see as many Hummers as I saw there by the streets (for those who don't know, it's a tough-looking civilian version of an US military jeep). I was told the same thing on Mexico DF the other day, and some people I know here comment they have seen quite many in Bucharest (although there's less than there were in Moscow, I think).

Anyway, I was looking for a car to rent for a weekend, and I found out you can rent a Hummer here!!! 290 euros per day and you can drive a Terminator vehicle. I've been told that roads are quite a mess around here, but I think I'll stick to a small affordable car anyway. Which brand? Don´t know, cars for me are of two types, red ones and the rest. Like trees: pines or non-pines. It's not that I feel proud of my ignorance, I'm just unable to pay attention to either motors or botany....

Frases memorables / Unforgettable sentences

Voy a clases de rumano, y tenemos una profesora maja que habla mucho, cuenta anécdotas (muchas sobre comida), nos cuenta las cosas que le han sorprendido en el pasado de sus alumnos, que. ccomo lleva al menos 20 años dando clase, a veces son de lo más curiosas. Pero los que me dejan pensando de verdad son algunos comentarios que hace de pasada, sin darse cuenta, que me hacen plantearme las extrañas maneras en las que se interioriza el cambio. Aquí van las tres que más me gustan:
- "Vamos a repasar los verbos más importantes: a fi -ser-, a avea -tener-, a cumpara -comprar-"...
- "En Rumania comemos en media hora o no comemos siquiera, porque no es como antes, ahora tenemos capitalismo y hay que trabajar, no hay tiempo que perder".
- (Sobre el prosciutto) "Sobre gustos no hay nada escrito, y a mí me parece soso; de todas formas, ahora que estamos en Europa debemos adoptar los sabores europeos".

Esta última frase es toda una gran contradicción mental, ¿verdad?, de esas que tenemos todos... Tal vez sea como se siente una persona que vive el cambio, lo disfruta, pero lo sufre al mismo tiempo: una gran contradicción mental. Un pueblo con un inmenso dolor de cabeza.

I'm taking Romanian lessons. Our teacher is very nice, and she tells a lot of anecdotes (many on food, by the way), and stories on previous students: she's been teaching for at least 20 years, so you can imagine there's some interesting stuff. But it's not to that anecdotes to what I have given more than a thought, but to some small comments she makes without noticing, as stating a generally agreed truth. I picked some examples:
- Let´s review the most important verbs in life: "a fi" (to be) "a avea" (to have) "a cumpara" (to buy)...
- In Romania now we eat in just half an hour or don't even eat, because now it's capitalism, and we can't waste time, must work.
- [On Italian ham-prosciutto-] Every people has its taste and we think that prosciutto is not much tasty; however, now that we are in Europe we must enjoy European flavours.

This last sentence is contradictory, isn´t it? Free liking vs. being compelled to like... A contradiction like the ones we all have. But maybe that's how change is incorporated by a person that enjoys it, while suffering it at the same time... A big contradiction, a mental mess. One whole people with a huge headache...