La versión en español está después de la versión en inglés.
Fish or cut bait. Or eat bait! Do you remember the fake baby eels called gula that I told you about? Real eels are anguila. Well, one of our neighborhood cafes, Casa Colón, has several egg dishes for lunch. One is a scramble with gula and baby shrimp on a bed of potatoes. I decided to be brave and order it. San Geraldo at first couldn’t look at it. And I must admit that visually it is a bit off-putting. But it was truly delicious and I quickly learned if I pretended I was eating spaghetti, I had no problem at all. Feeling smug, I suddenly remembered that I ate and enjoyed gula last year in Fuengirola. Click here. They use dye to give them the markings of real baby eels. But you can tell they’re not because they don’t give them eyes. For that, I’m grateful.
San Geraldo is finishing assembly of the new kitchen island. It’s looking great. The cats find it fascinating. SG laid a throw on the kitchen floor so he would have a safe workspace. Dudo, however, kept rearranging the throw. Finally, that bored him and he chased phantoms from his cat tree.
“Pesca o corta el cebo” es una expresión estadounidense que no creo que se use en español. Simplemente significa “decídete ya”. O comer cebo! ¿Recuerdas las falsas anguilas llamadas gula? Bueno, uno de los cafés de nuestro barrio, Casa Colón, tiene varios platos de huevos para el almuerzo. Uno es huevos rotos con gula y camarones bebé sobre una cama de papas. Decidí ser valiente y pedirlo. San Geraldo al principio no lo podía ver. Y debo admitir que visualmente es un poco desagradable. Pero estaba realmente delicioso y rápidamente aprendí que si fingía que estaba comiendo espaguetis, no tenía ningún problema. Sintiéndome orgulloso, de repente recordé que comí y disfruté gula el año pasado en Fuengirola. Haz clic aquí. Usan tinte para darles las marcas de las verdaderas anguilas bebés. Pero se puede decir que no lo son porque no les ponen ojos. Por eso, estoy agradecido.
San Geraldo está terminando de armar la nueva isla de cocina. Se ve genial. A los gatos les parece fascinante. SG colocó una manta en el piso de la cocina para tener un espacio de trabajo seguro. Dudo, sin embargo, siguió reordenando la manta. La palabra estadounidense para este tipo de manta es “throw”, que significa “tirar”. San Geraldo colocaba cuidadosamente el “throw” y luego Dudo la tiraba. Finalmente, eso lo aburrió y persiguió fantasmas desde su árbol para gatos.
• Tira
• Tiró
• Tira
• Tiró
Looks like Dudo has a lot of pent-up energy!
Debra:
Dudo is still like a kitten. No wonder he doesn’t put on weight.
Looks like a wonderful complex set of flavors, piled high on a small plate. I would try that. Dudo is probably trying to figure out who has eel breath.
It LOOKS like pasta but I’d KNOW it’s not pasta so I might pass!
Dudo is quite the elegant cat; the way he moves reminds me of The Great Tuxedo.
Bob:
Dudo rarely stops. He still runs around like a kitten — and chases invisible things.
Hmm. Off-putting is the word. However, I like fish, I eat whitebait and boquerones (which have eyes, as do unshelled prawns), and you have explained that basically all they are is the equivalent of crab-sticks, just softer and stringier, so I’d give ’em a try… Jx
Jon:
And in the mouth the gula are not at all stringy. Given your love for fish, I think you’d enjoy it.
I had to scroll quickly past the food.. What was dudo checking, I wonder? Making sure no new cats had come in the box for the island?
Boud
Boud:
We think we hear Dudo at times say “I see dead people.” He clearly sees things we don’t see. Sorry about the food! (No I’m not really. I had fun.)
I’m glad you were brave enough (both times!) to eat this…ummm…scrumptious looking dish 😉 I would probably like it, but I’m not sure I’d want to try. Ha!
I think you’ve said, but I don’t recall: is the flooring in the kitchen tile? or is it the new “luxury plank vinyl” that all of the HGTV type shows talk about? It makes such a difference that it is colorful!
In French, the word for an island that is in the ocean, is une île, but in the kitchen, it’s un îlot central. What about backsplash? And countertop? I learned these from watching French real estate hunting shows, and it’s a good thing, because neither word was evident from my dictionary searching, back in the day. backsplash is la crédence (like a credenza, that we say in English, for a side board), and countertop in a kitchen, is le plan de travail (like, the area for working). However, the say, le comptoir when it’s a countertop at a bar or a shop (and, for years, I taught that wrong word to my students, for the household countertop… oops!).
Judy C:
I’m pretty sure the kitchen floor is porcelain flooring. There’s porcelain flooring on the terrace that looks like wood. I know it’s porcelain because we have some spare planks for repairs. Backsplash can be a very catchy phrase here: protector contra salpicaduras. Countertop is more compact: encimera. I also THINK bartop is usually: barra de bar. I like that one.
I will pass on the baby eels thank you. But am happy they tasted good for you.
It is a HUGE industry here in Nova Scotia in the spring and they are exported to Asia…….there you have it!
Jim:
Is the industry there the imitation eels? A great invention.
No, it is the real McCoy.
When I saw the picture of the gula, I thought, “Well, if I pretended it was pasta…”
And that is what you did.
Throw. Threw. Through. Does Dudo do that rabbity thing to rearrange the throw to his satisfaction?
You have ghosts. Obviously. Dudo’s cat eyes can see them even if your human eyes cannot.
Ms. Moon
Ms. Moon:
We have often commented when Dudo does his loonies, “I see dead people.” Dudo just likes to spin around on the throw and slide across it.
I’m not so sure Dudo is chasing phantoms or seeing what we can’t see with our human eyes. I won’t be taking that apartment on your floor. It might be haunted.
Shirley:
We do often wonder what Dudo is seeing. And dead people regularly come up as a possibility.
Is Dudo reacting to sounds, maybe?
I’m impressed at your adventurousness with the fake eels. I’m not sure I could do it. Guess it would depend on how hungry I was!
Steve:
We think Dudo sees dead people. Whatever he reacts to, we can’t see or hear it. I’m used to be so much more finicky about foods. I’ve gotten just a bit more adventurous in my O#D age.
.., in Sicily the baby eels are called neonata , and they are fried in small frittatas!!!
Anon (Babba?):
Newborns! Creepy! Are they real baby eels or the processed fish like gula?
If it was doused with Ragu I might try it.
Kirk:
Now THAT sounds awful.
That looks pretty sickening but I felt better when I watched Dudo. The dogs would do the same thing to whatever I put on the floor. If the area rug didn’t have furniture on it, it would be a scrunched up mess. ¿Cuándo podremos ver más del apartamento?
Love,
Janie
janiejunebug:
Cuando el apartamento no es un desastre.
Are the fake eels actually pasta or are they some other fish product (like surimi)?
Walt the Fourth:
From my first post about gula in 2011: “Anguilas, 2-inch-long (5cm) baby eels are a traditional Basque dish. Six families are the principal suppliers in the world. These baby eels, also known as elvers (a crossword puzzle staple) in English, are rare and very expensive (more than $40 a pound) and in the 1980s were so hard to find that the price was up to $120 a pound. So, one of the Basque family companies came up with a less expensive imitation. They work with Japanese technology to convert surimi (fish from Alaskan waters pressed fresh into blocks on factory ships) into pseudo-elvers, which they call “gulas,” by forcing the material out, spaghetti-like, into the shape of elvers. A touch of squid ink is then added to tint the backs dark. What makes it obvious these are fakes is that there are no eyes.”
Walt the Fourth: I just looked up the current price of baby eels in the United States. They’re up to $2,000 a pound! Ridiculous.
They have been so over-fished that several species, including the European eel, have become critically endangered species. It stands to reason – take tons and tons of babies from fresh water before they reach the sea, where they mature, means there are fewer adults to return to the rivers to breed. Greed. Jx
Jon:
And it keeps getting worse. Baby eels are now up to $2,000 a pound in Maine.
I had to look up Gula……took a while but finally I found that it is ” pressed fish” Looks as if it might be slimy?
Frances
Frances:
Yes, in a previous post (about Mercado Victoria) I gave a link to my first post about gula, in 2011, which explained it. Sorry I didn’t link it again.
I studied parasitology in college; no thank you on that meal
The cat is up to no good that’s certain.
Urspo:
No parasites, as far as I know. I just told Dudo what you said and he skulked out of the room. (Actually he skulked because he was demanding more treats and I told him no. Oh, never mind. He’s back.)
OMG!!!!!!!!! I need a brown paper bag to……….
Mistress Borghese:
To cut bait?