Finkin' Delicious.
Today, I finally ate at La Finca de Susana. This was my third attempt to do so in as many weeks. Last week's attempt was interrupted by the fact that my bicycle was finally done being built, and the previous week's by the restaurant's having been full for the rest of the evening (granted, we did get there at 10:00.
I ate caramelized duck with plums and mushrooms, served with couscous. For dessert, I had the postre de Timbaon, which my brother had recommended that I have. The postre is a slice of nougat-flavored ice cream with crema catalana on top of it. The crema is caramelized on top, and the whole thing is served in a pool of chocolate sauce. Delicious.
This all came out to a couple of Euro cents over 13 Euros, after taxes. Delightful.
Before that, I spent a few not-so-quality hours at the Biblioteca Nacional. I looked at one manuscript and one printed text. The printed text was a complaint letter to the king about the regressive taxation for silk production imposed upon post-expulsion (morisco, not Jewish expulsion) Granada, that pointed out that the trade restrictions being imposed upon the Kingdom (they weren't allowed to trade silk with anyone at that point. Not even Castille) were, causing the entire population to suffer. While pre-expulsion Granada had 15,000 people engaged in silk production and trading, few were left afterwards. Anyhow, this did of course cause quality and price to suffer, and whatnot. If I had found something exciting on where all of this activity had been housed for example, and how that changed, this would have been a very exciting text. But as it was, eh. But at least I understood what it was saying.
The manuscript I looked at, I may have been looking at it upside-down, for all I know. The digital record claims that it was a "carta ejecutoria de cristianos viejos" (um, I forget what the rest of the title was; I have it on file somewhere) from Granada in 1611. I figured that since my thesis consists of my looking at the urban effects of the 1609-1614 morisco expulsion from Granada, I should look at this document (cristianos viejos being the opposite of moriscos.) All I can say about the text is this: it is on parchment, with a neat cover that closes by means of a leather toggle. And I think that I might know how to tell p from y. I think I may have seen a d or two in there as well. I also think that I managed to read the word "magestad" at some point in the first two lines of the text. And that's it. If the thing had a title, I couldn't find it. I looked through it for, you know, maybe a list of some sort so that I could maybe tell what was going on, but no such luck.
I'm going to Toledo tomorrow with a bunch of Fulbright folks, and I should get some sleep.
Today, I finally ate at La Finca de Susana. This was my third attempt to do so in as many weeks. Last week's attempt was interrupted by the fact that my bicycle was finally done being built, and the previous week's by the restaurant's having been full for the rest of the evening (granted, we did get there at 10:00.
I ate caramelized duck with plums and mushrooms, served with couscous. For dessert, I had the postre de Timbaon, which my brother had recommended that I have. The postre is a slice of nougat-flavored ice cream with crema catalana on top of it. The crema is caramelized on top, and the whole thing is served in a pool of chocolate sauce. Delicious.
This all came out to a couple of Euro cents over 13 Euros, after taxes. Delightful.
Before that, I spent a few not-so-quality hours at the Biblioteca Nacional. I looked at one manuscript and one printed text. The printed text was a complaint letter to the king about the regressive taxation for silk production imposed upon post-expulsion (morisco, not Jewish expulsion) Granada, that pointed out that the trade restrictions being imposed upon the Kingdom (they weren't allowed to trade silk with anyone at that point. Not even Castille) were, causing the entire population to suffer. While pre-expulsion Granada had 15,000 people engaged in silk production and trading, few were left afterwards. Anyhow, this did of course cause quality and price to suffer, and whatnot. If I had found something exciting on where all of this activity had been housed for example, and how that changed, this would have been a very exciting text. But as it was, eh. But at least I understood what it was saying.
The manuscript I looked at, I may have been looking at it upside-down, for all I know. The digital record claims that it was a "carta ejecutoria de cristianos viejos" (um, I forget what the rest of the title was; I have it on file somewhere) from Granada in 1611. I figured that since my thesis consists of my looking at the urban effects of the 1609-1614 morisco expulsion from Granada, I should look at this document (cristianos viejos being the opposite of moriscos.) All I can say about the text is this: it is on parchment, with a neat cover that closes by means of a leather toggle. And I think that I might know how to tell p from y. I think I may have seen a d or two in there as well. I also think that I managed to read the word "magestad" at some point in the first two lines of the text. And that's it. If the thing had a title, I couldn't find it. I looked through it for, you know, maybe a list of some sort so that I could maybe tell what was going on, but no such luck.
I'm going to Toledo tomorrow with a bunch of Fulbright folks, and I should get some sleep.
posted by AV at 5:10 PM
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