Tag: ham

Off To Visit the Baby, Madrid 2025 Day#2. “We Get to See a Celebrity Today”

by reissmd, posted in Madrid

Any of you parents out there will be able understand why today was so wonderful.  Erica met us at the hotel after breakfast and then it was off to visit the Irish Embassy where she works as the Executive Assistant to the Irish Ambassador to Spain.   And if you don’t know how much I enjoyed writing that sentence or telling it to anyone who will listen then you definitely are not a parent.   When we planned this trip I asked Erica if we could meet the Ambassador and she said definitely.  I asked, how she could be so sure and her answer was “I make his schedule.  Hmmm, Friday December 5th, 11:00 AM: Meet my parents.  There, it’s done”.  If you don’t think that put me in parent ecstasy you are out of touch with reality.   

Meeting Ambassador Brian Glynn was a real treat.  As expected this career diplomat was very diplomatic and said all the things we wanted to hear about our daughter.  We also spoke about world affairs.  He had viewpoints about Ireland, Britain, and the United States that were spell-binding. In addition he gave me a chance to show him a few of my magic tricks.  I was amazed by how much time he devoted to us.  Mr. Glynn is a very impressive person who speaks 6 languages.  That reminds me of a joke you’ve probably already heard.  A person who speaks 3 languages is “trilingual”, someone who speaks 2 languages is “bilingual” and someone who speaks one language is of course an “American”.  

Irish Ambassador to Spain, Brian Glynn, yours truly (aka Proud Papa), Patrice (aka Proud Mama), and Erica (Executive Assistant to the Ambassador).

After leaving the ambassador we stopped for a quick snack.  I was feeling a bit guilty about not exercising so I decided to work out while eating.  See below.  

I guess I was lying when I vowed to never get on a bike again.

We bought our treats at a local market. Here are a couple of pictures from the market.

Poor little piggies hanging in the market.

If that isn’t enough to make you give up meat try looking at this picture.

Poor little piglets.

Then it was off to meet a celebrity.  Wait, did you think I meant Brian Glynn when I wrote about meeting a celebrity?   Absolutely not!  A very prominent and respected software engineer has been in London working on a project and is traveling through Madrid on his way home.   Yes, our son, David made it to Spain.   How lucky we are.  We met David at the airport and cautioned him to try hard to carry on his luggage and avoid the problem we had.  The 1500 steps to baggage claim is another matter but some exercise is actually a good thing.  Unfortunately David was not allowed to carry on his small bag but luckily his wait at baggage claim was a lot shorter than ours.

It was great having 2 of our 3 children with us.  We visited the Museo Arqueológico Nacional and saw some fascinating  exhibits some dating back to about 500-600 BC. 

Patrice and me with 2 of our 3 wonderful children.

That is going to have to be enough for now because we are off to dinner.

Adiós

Europe 2022 Day #3 “How About Some Bologna and Cheese?”  Parma and Bologna, Italy 10/8/2022

by reissmd, posted in Bologna, Italy, Parma

We arose early this morning to meet our driver (ironically named Roberto) for our 90-minute drive to Parma.  There we were taken to a cheese factory to learn how to make cheese. This was very timely because Patrice and I are thinking of buying some farmland in Wisconsin and producing cheese during our twilight years.  It took me a while to catch on but we went to Parma for cheese making because of Parmesan cheese.  Apparently, the city is also known for its ham.  Hmmm ham and cheese, I wonder if anyone has ever tried to combine them?  Maybe a sandwich?

The tour of the cheese factory was amazing.  We got to see the large vats in which all the ingredients (milk and the enzyme rennet is all there is).  Watch this video and observe the cheese makers touching the cheese with their hands.  These people apparently never ever touch any of their body parts and wash their hands at least once a week.  Remember this video the next time you decide to eat any cheese.  https://youtube.com/shorts/FJKDdt_KgBE

After the cheese balls are made the master cheese cutter “cuts the cheese”.  When I was 12 years old that sentence would have cracked me up.  Patrice can attest that when I just wrote this section I couldn’t stop laughing.  I guess I still am a 12-year-old at heart.  Speaking of saying funny things on my blog, my friend, Mike, might be getting blocked from the blog site.  He has once again broken the blog rule prohibiting anyone from being funnier than me. Please see his comment about The Last Supper, it made me laugh out loud. 

Back to the guy cutting the cheese (I am embarrassed to admit it but I am still giggling).  After that, they put the cheese in molds and bathed it in salt water to help preserve the product.  The cheese needs to be flipped on a regular basis in order to make sure that the salt is distributed evenly.  Watch this video where our spectacular guide Elizabeth demonstrates how the cheese is flipped. https://youtube.com/shorts/LEvhZVHkTfI

The cheese is stored for a minimum of 12 months prior to being sold.  We were told that the cheese can remain like this forever without the need for refrigeration.   This is what they look like prior to being further sliced for distribution. 

Big cheese.
Lots of cheese

Prior to entering the cheese factory, they try to prevent you from taking photos by making you dress up like total geeks in front of the cheese.  Obviously, they didn’t know how dedicated I am to my blog followers, see below.

Who looks more like a geek? I think I win easily.

After the cheese factory, we went to a place where they make balsamic vinegar.  This was informative but since we didn’t see any of the actual work it was not as interesting.   We then went to a prosciutto-making factory.  It too was closed but we did get to see the hams in their various stages of aging.  

After the final tour, we were treated to a lunch of (you guessed it) prosciutto and cheese.  Very yummy indeed.  Everyone had a great time at lunch except for the pigs.

After lunch, we were driven to Bologna.  We are going to chill for a while. See you tomorrow.

Ciao