Food shopping near UAB (Barcelona) campus

While in Barcelona I am staying in the Vila 2 residence of the Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona (UAB) campus. I have a very nice furnished room with a kitchen. 

I have found four good places to shop for food nearby. The two nearest are the Supermercat de la Vila (left below) in the main student residence area. This has most of what you need and has good hours. There is a laundromat in this area as well. The other direction, along the back road through the underpass under the train tracks in Bellaterra village is the Condis supermarket (right). This has a larger selection and good fresh fruit, vegetables and meat. 

If you reached Condis then you know where the Bellaterra train station is. The S2 train (and the S55 in rush hours) stop here. Both take you Placa Catalunya in the centre of tourist Barcelona (maybe it's considered the centre for locals as well, I don't know). If you go 3 stops towards Barcelona you get to Sant Cugat (this is a one zone trip from Bellaterra). There is a nice bar (Bar Catalunya) in the square right at the train station. From this square starts a pedestrian shopping area that is quite nice. In this area (you'll want to google a map to get specific directions) you'll find Mercadona (picture left below), a higher quality food place with some organic and specialty foods. When you take the train back to Bellaterra make sure to get on the S2 (Sabadell) or S55 (UAB) trains. The S1 and S5 also stop here but won't get you home. 

Starting at Bellaterra if you take the S2 train the other way (Sabadell train) two stops to Sant Quirze you'll find the big box store, Alcampo (shown right below). Note that the S55 won't take you far enough. From the Sant Quirze platform go up the ramp to the exit, turn right, cross the parking lot and go in under the "Flunch" sign. The Alcampo store is to your right inside. It's a cross between Walmart, Costco and Superstore. There are some good things here, prices are good, and you can find other things you might need (towels, cooking equipment, electronics, etc.). Coming back take the S2 (Placa Catalunya) on the other side two stops back to "home".

Brian's Culinary Finds in Spain

I have eaten well here, in restaurants and also my own cooking. I have made dinner for myself more often than I would have otherwise because the locals eat meals so late. The few times I have gone out to dinner in a group, it was 8:30 cocktails and 10:00 or so before we ate. That's late for me and it doesn't feel healthy, although I am sure I'd figure out how to make it work if I were here in the long term (the locals do and are a pretty slim and healthy bunch).

I am not going to talk about specific dishes here (like paella) but list the top 5 basic ingredients I "discovered" while here.

1. "Queso Tierno". Queso is Spanish for cheese and for a long time I thought Tierno was a kind of cheese but it is a more general descriptor that means "soft" or "tender". This is a kind of soft, unripe cheese that is really good.

2. Anchovies. Well, loads of people like anchovies but I never did before coming here. Mild anchovies served whole in appetizers, stronger ones minced in any kind of sauce or even an omelette. Beauty!

3. Gaspacho soup. I have had this before, but here you find loads of kinds in every supermarket sold in milk cartons. A great way to get vegetables into your system with no preparation work!

4. Persimmons. This has got to be one of the world's most perfect fruits. They grow them locally and you can get them ripe in the stores. It is like a cross between a mango and an apple. Talking with other people I hear they don't travel well, which is maybe why I never heard them described in glowing terms before. 

5. Red wine. Loads of it, very nice and not expensive. Look at that one below, from La Mancha with a windmill picture on it. I had to get that one, although it wasn't the best...

I also had some gin while I as here. Cheap spanish gin on the left below ($10 a litre and not bad at all) and some fancier gin from France. 

And a couple of things below that have nothing to do with Spain. I learned to make a French style omelette while I was here (I have a cast iron omelette pan at home that is more Italian style). Also, some of the best cidre I have ever had while visiting my friend in London last weekend. 

Trip to Bilbao

During this stay in Spain I was also able to visit Bilbao for a few days. Bilbao is a smaller city in the Basque country in the North on the Atlantic side. I visited the Basque Centre for Applied Mathematics (BCAM), a new research centre that seems to be very active - there were a lot of good students and PDFs there as well as some permanent staff. The current location was in an industrial park outside the city but I understand they are moving to a building in the city centre soon. They have opportunities for longer term visitors - that would be fun to do. I gave a couple of seminars there that seemed to go well (or they were just polite). In Bilbao there is a kind of snack food called "Pintxos", little cold appetizers of various kinds you can get in bars with a beer. Very fun! 

Below are some pictures of Plaza Moyua and some flowers (in November!)

One of the main attractions of the town is the Guggenheim Museum there by the river

In the museum were two things I thought were fantastic. A large piece by Richard Serra called "The Matter of Time" and a later painting by Pollock called "Ocean Greyness" that was a bit different from the paintings I know of his. The pictures below are taken from the internet - no photography was allowed in the museum

Sagrada Familia

This is a church in Barcelona designed by Gaudi, still under construction. We visited it a couple of years ago on our family trip here but since then it has progressed a lot. The interior is useable now and I was also able to go up the elevator to the spires for the view. It is an impressive place - somehow it has very different design but still retains the feel of ancient cathedrals. It is an artistic and engineering marvel.

More tourism in Barcelona: Transbordador Aeri

This week I took the Transbordador Aeri, a cable car that goes across the port area, from Barceloneta to Montjuic. This is something we didn't do on our family trip here a couple of years ago. The views were great! Below you can see one of the towers in the distance and one of the cars. Then I hiked back to the station through Ravel, got home and soaked my foot in cold water - it was a bit too far of a walk for it. I forgot my camera so these are pictures taken with my iPod - not bad resolution, actually.

If you are going to do this, I would suggest doing it in the other direction: hike up to the Miramar lookout on Montjuic (there was a restaurant there with a great view) and do the route to Barceloneta. The waiting lines were much shorter that direction (in the afternoon in late October...). 

Possibly the greatest CD playlist ever

I amuse myself putting together playlists in iTunes that can be burned onto a regular CD, so with duration of about 75 minutes. Of course, being away from home with no family or work administrative duties, I have a lot of time for this kind of thing. This week I came up with an especially good one.

I (not me personally) was on drugs when I wrote this song CD:

1. Lucy in the sky with diamonds, the Beatles
2. Can't get it out of my head, ELO
3. Lucid dreams, Franz Ferdinand
4. Rest my chemistry, Interpol
5. In-a-gadda-da-vida, Iron Butterfly
6. Purple haze, Jimmy Hendrix
7. The dreaming, Kate Bush
8. The court of the crimson king, King Crimson
9. Snowblind, Black Sabbath
10. Julia dream, Pink Floyd
11. Mad surfer, Asai Kenichi
12. Bohemian rhapsody, Queen
13. Sister sleep, Rasuputina
14. Bang a gong (get it on), T. Rex
15. Space oddity, David Bowie
16. White Room, Cream 

There were so many songs that could have made the cut, I have a longer, non-CD sized playlist full of other wonders. 

Other playlists I am working on are "Inspiring CD", "Songs from Someone's Youth CD" (well, my youth) and possibly another great one, "Gaming Songs CD". 

What am I doing in Barcelona in Fall, 2011?

Well, I am still on sabbatical leave and for October and November I am visiting Barcelona. I am actually in the suburbs at the Universita Autonoma Barcelona, at the CRM (a math institute) here: http://www.crm.es/. My host here is Tim Myers, who is an expert in thin film flows with phase change. He has had many collaborative projects with Industry. I have picked up a couple of things working with his group: 2D computational modelling of freezing in micro channels and models of solidification into undercooled liquids.

Barcelona is a pretty exciting place. We were here on a Summer family trip a couple of years ago. We saw many of the sights then, some of which I feel like I need to revisit. I wrecked my foot somehow before I came, so my mobility is somewhat limited, but I am still trying to be a tourist at least once a week. Today, I revisited la Pedrera, an apartment building designed by Gaudi. Some pictures below:

Finding a vegetable near Snyder Hall, MSU

May and June, 2011 I visited MSU, staying at Snyder Hall in one of their VIP rooms, apartments with cooking facilities. I like to cook, so looked around for places to buy groceries. Within easy walking distance there is a seven-eleven, a quality dairy (boasting the lowest prices on hard liquor allowable by county law), bruegger's bagels, and cv's (a drug store with some groceries). This could get you going, but the only vegetables there are in tins, and the only fruit is lemons (to put in your cheap booze). To get a fresh vegetable I had to go further afield. The places below are all a long walk from Snyder Hall (30 minutes +) but easy to get to by bicycle. The Eastern options below are on the bus routes down Grand River. 

West: Across campus (a nice bike ride) from Snyder Hall is Goodrich's Shop Rite (http://www.goodrichshoprite.com/). This place has everything. They have great produce and meat (not cheap but reasonable for the quality). They have an interesting selections of chocolate, wine, beer, cider and pop. You can get all kinds of hard liquor here. Did I say they have everything? No tonic to go with your gin anywhere I could find! Otherwise, you can get everything you need here.

East: Going East you will first come to Oriental Mart (2800 E Grand River Ave). This place has some good, inexpensive produce and separate aisles for every Asian nationality it seems. This place is definitely worth a visit. Get their Rosewood White Tofu - the nicest tofu I have ever had (and I was not expecting to find that in East Lansing). 

Continuing on you will come to a couple of organic health food places frequented by granolas, old and young (but few in between except me). There is Foods for Living  (http://www.foodsforliving.com/) and the East Lansing Food Co-op (http://www.elfco.coop/). Some good stuff at these places, not cheap.  

Further on, across the bridge, is a Meijer (http://www.meijer.com/), a big box store with a good selection of produce. It has a good selection of food (including tonic!). It has a lot of other things as well (clothes, toys, etc.). You could make this your one-stop shopping place, but it is further away than Goodrich and not as interesting.

What am I doing here?

I came to work at MSU with my old friend and colleague, Keith Promislow. I worked with Keith when he was in Vancouver at SFU for many years on a fuel cell modelling project. I have also had a chance to get to know Andrew Christlieb, another professor here who like me is a numerical analyst but who seems to know all the things I don't so I have learned a lot. I have also had a chance to get to know two of their post-docs, Nir Gavesh and Zhengfu Xu who are very bright guys.

I brought a bunch of projects with me, things I thought I could make progress on with the kind of uninterrupted time I have here. I started one of those yesterday and did something useful (I think) but I have mainly spent time working on numerical methods for a problem they are looking at here, modelling structure formation in functionalized polymers. These materials have nanoscale structures that influence their performance in things like fuel cells and solar cells. Predicting their structure based on their chemistry and how they are processed would be a major contribution and the group here has made some real progress. I have been looking at numerical approaches (for easy but related problems) that might be useful as they look at more complicated chemistry.

Actually the point of this post was going to be to show the movies of the computations I have done on the test models (they are kind of cool, mesmerizing like a lava lamp - in shades of blue to red, my favourite). This blog host doesn't seem to want to let me upload the movies, so you'll have to look at some stills from two of the models I have working.

Cider in the US, Spring 2011 experiences

I came to East Lansing from Vancouver to spend May and June working at MSU. My first stop picking up supplies was a drug store - which had two rows of beer in it (unusual for a Canadian). They also had some cider (in the US, "hard cider") which I enjoy more than beer so I thought I would try it out.

My first choice was Woodchuck Amber which is nice, very similar to Grower's cider made in BC. At an organic grocery store, I found "JK's solstice hard cider" which is really fantastic (like that cloudy apple juice you get with a bit of spice in it and a smooth kick - it is sweet so avoid it if you don't like that) but a bit expensive. With two successes I tried out some others. Hornsby's was barely potable but I managed to choke it down. "Woodchuck Spring" was so terrible I can't finish it. Imagine someone adding a large dollop of Aunt Jemima's syrup to your cider... I shudder just to think of it. I will leave the rest it in my room when I leave with a warning that it tastes foul, only to be opened in an emergency. 

Next group was a pair of Crispin's. The first was their artisanal reserve with honey. It is a scrumpy (cloudy) and although probably too sweet for many, I liked it. It reminded me of the "neuer wein" I had in Neustadt while living in Germany (many years ago). This one was nice over ice. The one on the right above is their basic style I guess, billed as "traditional dry English cider". It was similar in taste to Strongbow but less dry and darker in colour - I liked it better. And who is that attractive child in the middle? Must be adopted...

The last selection for this trip is shown above. I added Strongbow just to see how it compared to Crispin above. Actually, they are basically the same and also the Magners above. These English/Irish ciders are all quite nice. Then I tried the "special" Crispin on the right, aged in Tennessee whiskey casks. That small bottle was $9. I guess I was expecting it to be fantastic - but frankly if it were that good it would be bad news, because I would go broke buying it. Luckily it was actually pretty foul (maybe my palate is not refined enough?) and I am happy enough with that. 

Brunch in East Lansing, Spring 2011

I am visiting East Lansing, Michigan, for work for May and June. I am staying on the Michigan State (MSU) campus in Snyder Hall residence, working in the Mathematics Department. I decided to go to brunch every week while I am here on Sundays, trying a different place each time. I am rating the places out of 15 with the following point system:

• 10 points for food 
• 3 points for coffee
• 2 points for atmosphere and service

I am on my own, sending reports and pictures back to my friend, Trent, at home in Vancouver so in the last category I am giving 1 for wireless internet access and 1 for the rest. 

If anyone wants to join me (but probably no one is reading this) I leave from Snyder Hall around 10:00am Sundays. Contact me at bwetton@me.com. I would like to keep the event within walking (or at least biking) distance but if someone had a car that would open up some options. I'd buy your breakfast if you drove. 

1. May 15, 2011. I went to Beggar's Banquet (http://www.beggarsbanquet.com/Index.htm). I had eggs benedict (5/10 just OK). The coffee was terrible, like they used cheap coffee and then used it the second time to make my cup (0/3). The service was good and they had wireless (2/2). This gives a total score of 7/15. By the way, I had lunch there and it was really very good, much better than that breakfast I had. I went back the next week to get a picture, but the East Lansing art exhibition was on and I couldn't get a good shot. I'll add one when I get a chance (done now). 
2. May 22, 2011. I went to the Wanderer's Tea House (http://www.wanderersteahouse.com/). I had a berry crepe which was quite good (6/10). I am trying to be generous here because crepes are not my favourite, but that is their specialty. Coffee was weak but bitter 1/3. Service scored my easy 2/2 for a total 9/15. Pics below. 
3. May 29, 2011. I went to Hanna's Koney Island (http://www.yelp.com/biz/hannahs-koney-island-east-lansing) as a last minute change in plans. I had the breakfast special with hash browns, poached eggs, sausages and toast. It was diner fare, but very well done. The poached eggs were perfectly cooked 8/10. Coffee was weak but tasted good - I even had more than one cup 2/3. Service was the best I have had so far with internet access 2/2, for a total of 12/15.  Not high end, but very enjoyable. 
4. June 7, 2011. I ended up cycling with my host and his family all the way down the river trail into Lansing city on Sunday. This is an excellent cycling route and we had a great lunch there at Pablo's Old Town restaurant. They have a good breakfast menu so on a nice Sunday I will try and get there again for brunch. Having missed Sunday brunch, I just delayed it to today. With limited options I knew that some of the counter service places near campus would have to make the list. I chose the nearby Bruegger's Bagels (http://www.brueggers.com/) today. I got a breakfast bagel, which was nice 5/10. The staff were fine, but counter service doesn't get a point and although they advertised free internet it was not up while I was there 0/2. The coffee was weak and uninteresting 1/3, for a total of 6/15. The place is perfectly fine, just gets a low score for the kind of brunch experience I am looking for. The bagel was not bad, I will go back and get a bag of them tomorrow for lunches. 
5. June 12, 2011. I went to the State Room (http://stateroomrestaurant.com/) at the Kellogg Centre for their brunch buffet. I actually planned to go there two weeks ago, but it was closed without notice (due to the long weekend?) and then planned to go last weekend but ended up not being free on Sunday morning. I finally made it this week. I think the campus maintains this hotel and restaurant at some expense just to have somewhere in town of this quality for visitors - family and alumni who they want to impress. There was some sort of parent orientation event going on when I was there. I am quite happy to be subsidized for my $15 all inclusive upscale brunch. I had three courses - breakfast stuff which was good but standard (eggs, sausage, bacon), then there was savoury lunch stuff, followed by the dessert table. Food was great 9/10, coffee was good as well 3/3 and they brought a carafe of it for me. Service was not great for that kind of place, but ekes out that point. They had the same campus internet I have available in my room but for some reason I could not connect there 1/2. This gives a total of 13/15. One small warning - the place is populated with the nouveau riche who imagine it is OK to go to a place like that in their pyjamas and baseball caps and act like they are at home with their families. 
6. June 19, 2011. I couldn't face the crowds for Fathers' Day brunch, so this week I decided to make breakfast for myself. I had a cheese omelette - made just the way I like :) People who know me will confirm that I love my own cooking! 8/10. At other places I gave higher scores for worse coffee, but it is harder to lie about your own brew 2/3. I had internet but the service sucked - I had to get my own coffee and wash the dishes afterward! 1/2. I give myself a total of 11/15. 
7. June 25, 2011. In my residence, there is cafeteria called The Gallery (http://eatatstate.com/menus/gallery) you can pay to use as well as get meal plans. A couple of people recommended it to me, but it is a disappointment as a brunch spot, food 3/10, coffee 1/3, service 1/2 (internet but counter service). Could be good for other meals, though. It is set up as a food court, with different stations, most of which are not open at breakfast. Anyway, I am here on Saturday because I am out with my host and his family tomorrow. Total 5/15.

Possibilites for next time I visit: Coral Gables (http://coralgablesrestaurant.com/); Pablo's Panaderia (http://pablosoldtown.com/) in Lansing, Sawyer's Gourmet Pancake House in Lansing; Golden Harvest Restaurant in Lansing; International Restaurant & Tuba Museum (http://www.travelerstuba.com/) in Okemos. 

Just in case you think I am some kind of Canadian coffee snob that is impossible to please, Espresso Royale (http://www.espressoroyale.com/) scores a coffee 3/3. This place has muffins and so on but not enough breakfast items to be a potential brunch location (unless I run out of other options).

Week#1 Beggar's Banquet

Week #2 Wanderer's Tea House 

Week #3 Hanna's Koney Island

Week #4 Bruegger's Bagels

Week #5 The State Room in the Kellogg Centre

Week #6 In my apartment in Snyder Hall

The Gallery, Cafeteria in Snyder Hall

 Best Coffee in East Lansing