Sports Nutrition and the Mediterranean Diet / May 21th: 1st visit to the IES Heliopolis School (Culinary School)

Originally we were supposed to meet with the Helioplis culinary students at 10am, but they decided to push it back to 12. I believe in Spain plans change a lot and get pushed back because people are flexible and like to sleep in! We were told to meet at GoFit gym at 11am. Hanna woke up at 8 and left to go get Café Con Leche and walk around before meeting the group. The GoFit gym was on the other side of our apartment than Santa Cruz (where the palace and cathedral are) so we hadn’t seen the area yet. It was a lot newer, still beautiful but no ancient buildings. While drinking coffee we acted as the Spanish do and sat there for about an hour just talking and relaxing. All the servers I’ve encountered in Spain let you sit for as long as you want and don’t bring you your bill until you ask for it. My prediction is that the Spanish believe it would be rude for them to bring the bill before we ask for it because that would be as if they were kicking out of the restaurant. Also, Spain simply has a much slower, relaxed culture that the U.S does where we are always rushing from place to place. After coffee, we walked around a beautiful park! It had so many flowers and so many people with dogs! I think everyone in Sevilla has a dog and they are allowed in shops and near restaurants! Many of them aren’t on leashes but they are all very well behaved. We checked out the GoFit gym, it had a pool and 2 outdoor futbal (soccer) fields. We also stopped at a fruit stand and each got an orange. Maria said that it’s illegal to bring fresh produce to other countries, otherwise I would try to bring some home! At 11am we met with the rest of the group. Unfortunately, we saw that Sean was on crutches! He sprained his ankle playing Futbal last night! Que triste! From the GoFit gym, we walked to the bus station where we hopped on the bus and took a 30 min bus ride to the Helioplis Culinary school. We met with the students and the head chef. They gave us disposable chef coats, hair nets and covers to go over our shoes so the kitchen was kept sanitary. We, the Viterbo students were put into groups of about 5 with at least one Viterbo Spanish speaker, one dietetics student and one culinary student in each! None of the culinary students spoke English. Griffin was in my group so he translated what the chef told us to do! In exchange, I taught him how to peel and mince Garlic! Cooking with these culinary students was an experience I will never forget. I was expecting young students, like us. These were seasoned chefs. They were of all ages and really knew their stuff about cooking. They moved so fast, watching them cook was like watching an artist. And the best part was, they guided us so we got to cook the meal! I felt like I was in the kitchen of a 5 star restaurant! First we prepared Boquerones (white anchovies) we filleted these by pinching their heads, sliding our thumb starting near the tail, going towards the head to split the fish in 2 sides, and gently pulling the head towards the tail. If done right, the head stays connected to the spine, heart and other fish guts so you can debone and gut the fish it in one easy pull! After 3 tries that ended with 3 mutilated fish, I was able to do it correctly! We soaked the fillets in ice water, and then laid them on a pan. We covered them in vinegar, minced garlic, olive oil and cilantro. Supposedly, the vinegar “cooked” the fish but they still looked raw when they were done even though the Head Chef said the were supposed to look the way they did. Next, we made Spanish tortillas. They were nothing like Mexican tortillas. They are made with potatoes cooked soft in olive oil and eggs. The egg/potatoes mixture was cooked in olive oil on a pan and flipped once, like a pancake. They were almost like an omelet or frittata.
 

Next, we made pork with whisky garlic sauce. The pork was cut into 1 inch slices then hit with the side of a chefs knife to flatten them a bit. It was cooked for a short time on each side in olive oil in a pan on high heat to create a nice sear so that the juice would not seep out. The garlic sauce was made by cooking whole garlic cloves, still in the peel, in a pan in olive oil. Once the garlic was soft, whisky was poured on it and set on fire (like the flaming cheese at a Greek restaurant)! One of the culinary students lit one batch of the garlic to show us how, then I was allowed to do it! Lighting that garlic aflame was thrilling! The garlic was poured over the pork. Next, we made vegetables: Red, orange, yellow bell peppers and onion cut into Julian strips and cooked in olive oil. Finally, we made 2 types of Gazpacho (cold tomato soup). The traditional gazpacho had tomatoes, jalapeño, onion, salt, pepper, garlic chucks of baguette, and olive oil. The Strawberry Gazpacho had all of the same ingredients except strawberries instead of baguette. Finally, we cubed toppings for the gazpacho: Hardboiled eggs, onions, tomatoes, cucumber, and ham. We also sliced baguettes to eat with the meal. When all the food was done, it was about 3pm. We set everything on a long table and filled our plates! We ate with the culinary students and employees! My thoughts on the meal: Boquernes-To be honest, they just tasted like vinegar, I’m not a fan but they were better on bread. Tortilla- absolutely delicious! Veggies- a little bland but good! I live the olive oil taste. Gazpacho- I thought I would like the strawberry one better but I didn’t! The traditional gazpacho was so good, could drink it! One of the culinary school employees said when she was a kid, her mom kept a pitcher of gazpacho in the fridge during the summer, even some restaurants have it listed under drinks! I will try to recreate it at home. Pork: I just tried a little bit of the pork, it was ok. I’m definitely going back to vegetarian (or at least pescatarian) after this trip. But I LOVED the whole garlic cloves on top of the pork. After eating it was about 4:30. When we walked out of the culinary school, the streets were dead because the normal siesta time! There was a shoe store by the bus stop Hanna and I were going to go to after cooking, but it was closed for siesta. Most of the stores were closed, this is a practice very unique from the US. However, the grocery store was open! It was pretty empty. Only one cashier working, because everyone was on siesta. I LOVED the grocery store! They had little baskets on wheels to pull your food in, a huge isle for olive oil, whole frozen octopus, whole fish and shellfish, and my favorite: an orange juicing machine! It had different sizes of empty bottles you could put under the spout, pull a lever and the machine would juice whole oranges right in front of you! After the grocery store we stopped at home to drop off out backpacks and met at SAIIE to go on a tour of an interesting district of Sevilla with old and new architecture. We saw statues of Hercules and Caesar that were gifts from ancient Rome. We saw a new, modern structure that spread over the walkway and a plaza. We saw what looked like an acting class practicing in a courtyard. After the tour, Hanna and I did a little shopping in downtown Sevilla. At 9:30 we headed home and had dinner at 10pm.