Pintxos, no paella

Accomplishments of today:

• Achieved wifi access on campus (through my cunning wit and Katniss-level strength, no doubt)
• Deposited money in my new Spanish bank account (it's really sad how the number shrinks when you give them US dollars)
• Found salsa in the grocery store! (in the tiny "Mexican" section across from the coffee and spices, if you're interested)

Which leads me to what I actually want to write about: the food culture I've observed so far.

• Observation #1: No paella. This was a very sad observation. They simply don't have it here in the north part of the country.
• Observation #2: So much egg. Everywhere you go you can find an dish they call tortilla that's like a crustless pie made of eggs (does not include actual tortilla). The varieties include: patata (potato), a variety of meat options, and occasionally a vegetarian one made with red pepper and sometimes mushroom. I see myself consuming a lot of tortilla patata in the future, as it's often the only veg option. I actually wouldn't survive as a vegan.
• Observation #3: Pintxos: what tapas are called here in the north. At cheap places pintxos consist of three or four kinds of tortilla, and at fancier places it's all kinds of crazy appetizer-sized things — from tomato and mozzarella on a skewer to eel and shrimp swimming together in a saucer to a long, thin sausage poking out of a french baguette. On certain nights bars have specials where one caña (beer on tap) plus one pintxo is two euros or something like that.

The grocery store offers tiny quail eggs right next to the chicken eggs, so I'm about to crack a couple open and see what that's all about.

quail eggs