{"id":806,"date":"2017-12-01T02:24:01","date_gmt":"2017-12-01T02:24:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/adhc.lib.ua.edu\/site\/globalfoodways\/?p=806"},"modified":"2017-12-01T02:24:01","modified_gmt":"2017-12-01T02:24:01","slug":"oral-interview-with-xabier-granja","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/adhc.lib.ua.edu\/globalfoodways\/oral-interview-with-xabier-granja\/","title":{"rendered":"Oral Interview with Xabier Granja"},"content":{"rendered":"

I was able to sit down with Xabier Granja to speak about Spanish national cuisine and some cultural differences he\u2019s experienced from his home in Spain and his home here in America. He is a professor at the University of Alabama who first immigrated to America on August 16, 2007. He came here for his Masters and as he said, \u201cLife happened and I\u2019m still here.\u201d He is originally from the city of Algorta located near Bilbao in Spain. He also runs a food and technology blog<\/a> in his free time.<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Is there a national cuisine in Spain? <\/strong><\/p>\n

Absolutely. It tends to have that flavorful usually tends to be more moist dishes. Nothing is very dry and soft flavors that blend well. But nothing in Spanish cuisine likes to be aggressive and of course I\u2019m ignoring modern cuisine where they\u2019ll do crazy things. Soft flavors that blend. Nothing like tabasco or hot sauce.<\/p>\n

Spanish food is very different regionally supposedly. Can you speak to those differences and how much they contrast each other? <\/strong><\/p>\n

Regionally it\u2019s very different because of the geography. The lower 2\/3 are very dry and they\u2019re hotter. The top part, where I\u2019m from, the Basque area, is very wet and colder. There\u2019s a reason why when the Moors invaded all of Spain and they took over most of the country, they never bothered to do the North. There\u2019s a giant line of mountains that are really hard and rocky to climb. They thought \u2018oh, just leave it there\u2019 so we never got that influence from the Arabic world whereas most of Spain did and that\u2019s already creating differences culturally, geographically, and culinary.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s also a lot of herbs where I\u2019m from. A lot of parsley used which you don\u2019t see very often in many countries and most of Spain doesn\u2019t use much. Most of Spain makes fried things and uses oil. In the North, we do much more saut\u00e9ing and boiling or stewing, but there\u2019s not that much use of oil and there\u2019s are more herbs used. And of course seafood because we live right there. Seafood is everywhere.<\/p>\n

How many regions are there in Spain distinctly? <\/strong><\/p>\n

Northern area- anything seafood-y related. Then I would tell you the lower coast which is seafood and a lot of fried stuff and tapas. Tapas, you can get them everywhere in the country. The north does their own versions of tapas which are much more elaborate tapas. Tapas might just be some potatoes with some tapa flavoring, but in the north you\u2019ll have a pizza with something cooked in a specific way with this bread and a garnish of some kind. That\u2019s a whole- mega tapa. Towards the east side of the country you\u2019re going to see a lot of northern seafood fish and foods and towards the middle of the country I would say there\u2019s much more of drier foods. Meats and cereals. So about 4, in very big strokes of course<\/p>\n

Do you have a favorite food memory? <\/strong><\/p>\n

Lentils. It\u2019s one of the things that I miss here. I don\u2019t miss much of the food because it\u2019s a globalized world and I can get access to many ingredients. As long as I learn how to cook them I can make it or a similar thing, but lentils is something that I really miss. They\u2019re very different here than in Spain and I mean, everything is different. Even the lettuce tastes completely different. It\u2019s not better or worse; it\u2019s just different and for some reason lentils is something that I just really miss because it\u2019s something that my mom used to make. She always does it perfect. That\u2019s the standard. That\u2019s what everybody wants. It took me many years to actually get somewhat close to making good lentils in that way and that\u2019s something that I miss very much. And when I have it here, when I cook it, it\u2019s good, but every time I go back, that\u2019s the thing I want. And it\u2019s not complicated to make, but you have to have a good measure. You have to know exactly how the timing and its practice. It\u2019s an art.<\/p>\n

I also want to try and cook garbanzo beans with codfish and spinach, but it\u2019s too hard for me. I\u2019m overwhelmed by it. My mother can do it. It takes hours.<\/p>\n

What makes it so difficult? <\/strong><\/p>\n

It\u2019s getting the flavors to blend right and it\u2019s not easy because you have garbanzo, a legume, you have fish, and you have herbs. Those flavors react very differently so to get that mix right, I don\u2019t have the ability to do it. I don\u2019t know how.<\/p>\n

Any family recipes? <\/strong><\/p>\n

Definitely lentils. Definitely garbanzo beans with codfish and spinach. We have the typical fish soup. There\u2019s a specific fish called rape. It is a type of red fish that when you cook it, will get very fibrous so you can erode it into threads of fish. When you cook them, mixed with some clams for example, it creates a super flavorful soup. You get the taste of the sea and the fibers and it\u2019s all delicious, but that takes easily 7 to 8 hours. When my mother does that I feel bad because I know she\u2019s going to spend all day in the kitchen.<\/p>\n

Is a lot of food that labor intensive to cook? <\/strong><\/p>\n

In the North, definitely. I think with Spanish cuisine in general, there\u2019s a lot of attention to detail for food. There\u2019s not a lot of efficiency, but that\u2019s just starting to change now in the modern world. There are no more siestas. People have the same 8 to 5 work schedule. That didn\u2019t used to happen before so there was a lot of time for cooking. Now food quality is going down in the sense that most people just don\u2019t have time. They cook faster, simpler. There\u2019s still a level of quality that Spaniards expect, so it\u2019s still not that bad, but food used to take longer because you assume you have the time and Spaniards, in general, enjoy cooking.<\/p>\n

Have you ever worked professionally with food? I know you have a food blog, but do you have any other experience? <\/strong><\/p>\n

Yes, but\u2026 I hesitate to say I worked in the food industry because my experience is McDonalds. Which is not food. When I was 18 I would work every summer there to save up for my license which in Spain is about $1,500. It\u2019s such an urbanized country that driving is a luxury.<\/p>\n

So is McDonald\u2019s\u2026? <\/strong><\/p>\n

Gross. Yes. Ever since I worked there I have never been to one again. I\u2019ve seen enough things to know. (Laughter)<\/p>\n

I meant is McDonalds different there from here? <\/strong><\/p>\n

They\u2019re mostly the same. There are some regional differences I haven\u2019t been in so long that I honestly don\u2019t know what they sell anymore. There used to be the same exact products: Big Mac, quarter pounder, fish.<\/p>\n

What was the first thing you ate when you come to America? <\/strong><\/p>\n

So when I got here, I was completely alone. I rented an apartment in Chicago from Spain. It was hard in the beginning. My landlord had a small restaurant in the building and this sounds so stupid to say, but I think I first had a burger and fries. It wasn\u2019t a chain or anything. It was this mom and pop shop. Very good burger. Decent burger. Very good fries. I remember this woman and I remember her being so excited and saying \u2018Oh! The European arrived! You look hungry. Let\u2019s make you something. You like burgers? I\u2019ll make you a burger!\u2019<\/p>\n

Was there any shock when you got here?
\n<\/strong>Size. I\u2019m used to it now, but when I got here it was crazy. The buildings are huge; parks are huge; cars are huge; food portions are huge. I wish everything was 1\/3 less price and 1\/3 less food.<\/p>\n

Are there any stereotypes of Spanish food that you\u2019ve encountered?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Hot food. No! That\u2019s Mexico. People assume that \u2018You guys speak Spanish! You must be like Mexico, Argentina, Spain!\u2019 but those are all completely different cuisines. People will meet me and say they made something extra spicy for me. I\u2019ll eat it because I don\u2019t want to be rude, but I\u2019m dying every time I do.<\/p>\n

Are there any foods here that you absolutely love that you can\u2019t find in Spain? <\/strong><\/p>\n

There\u2019s not one food. There\u2019s a variety of food. You cannot find that in Spain. Variety now in Spain counts as different parts of Spain, Mexican, Japanese sushi, Chinese (Spanish Chinese- a Spanish version of Americanized Chinese). That\u2019s my favorite thing. I wish that were there. Things are starting to get there since we\u2019re globalizing more, but not yet.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s surprising considering Spain is in Western Europe. There aren\u2019t a lot of French or German restaurants? <\/strong><\/p>\n

You would think so, but it would cost you 40 bucks to fly to Paris. Why not just make it a weekend? We have some things, parts of their culture like baguettes, but there\u2019s not much point since a lot of it is even within driving distance.<\/p>\n

How much does food influence the culture in Spain? <\/strong><\/p>\n

It\u2019s a food based culture for sure. Food as in flavors and experiences. Not on eating. I don\u2019t want to say the culture in Spain is all about food, but things run around food. Family and friends. Festivals. Chorizo, bread, seafood. So many festivals. Food is especially a social thing. But I feel like that\u2019s not very different than it is here in the states.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I was able to sit down with Xabier Granja to speak about Spanish national cuisine and some cultural differences he\u2019s experienced from his home in Spain and his home here in America. He is a professor at the University of Alabama who first immigrated to America on August 16, 2007. He came here for his […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false},"categories":[6,20],"tags":[],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/adhc.lib.ua.edu\/globalfoodways\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/806"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/adhc.lib.ua.edu\/globalfoodways\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/adhc.lib.ua.edu\/globalfoodways\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adhc.lib.ua.edu\/globalfoodways\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adhc.lib.ua.edu\/globalfoodways\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=806"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/adhc.lib.ua.edu\/globalfoodways\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/806\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":808,"href":"https:\/\/adhc.lib.ua.edu\/globalfoodways\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/806\/revisions\/808"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/adhc.lib.ua.edu\/globalfoodways\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=806"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adhc.lib.ua.edu\/globalfoodways\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=806"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adhc.lib.ua.edu\/globalfoodways\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=806"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}