Tortilla de patatas: A Classic Spanish Dish

If you haven't already visited her blog, Chic Soufflé regularly posts some delicious recipes there. It'll make you hungry to read it! They are mostly sweets and desserts, but there are also some savories and drinks recipes, too. (I'm still licking my lips over her recent "Caramelized Garlic Tart"! Mmm, garlic! And some say, "¡España huele a ajo!") There are few things more Spanish than the Spanish omelette, so I've invited her to share her recipe here along with tips and thoughts on this quintessentially Spanish dish.

"I <3 tortilla de patatas" via Kukuxumusu

Tortilla de patatas, tortilla española, Spanish omelette… different names for such a delicious and humble dish, and yet somehow this simple staple of Spanish cuisine often gets misrepresented in US recipes. It’s as if they want to make what is essentially a super easy combination of—a very few—ingredients into something complicated. But the truth is that a Spanish omelette does not need to be a complicated affair, and that’s the beauty of it. This is no paella. This is a dish you can make pretty much in ANY country, anytime, easily, and with very few basic ingredients. You don’t even need olive oil (that’s right, I said it!) Finding potatoes, eggs, and onion (optional) shouldn’t be hard in most parts of the world, and you only need a decent nonstick pan to cook it.

Now, just like with every classic staple recipe in any cuisine, everyone has a different take on it. I mean, I learned my tortilla de patatas from my mom, and our versions don’t even taste that similar! If you have eaten it in Spain and are a fan of this potato-rich goodness, you’ll certainly have noticed the differences. More or less gooey interior, smaller or bigger diced potatoes, onion or no onion, fatter or thinner…I love them all.

On the recommendation of a friend and fellow blogger,
we tried these enormous, delicious tortillas at Bar Santos, Córdoba

Despite being a simple dish, there are a few things you MUST know to perfect a classic tortilla de patatas:

• First of all, you do not need to waste a “quart of olive oil” to cook it. Many people make it with sunflower oil (great for deep-frying and used often in Spain—it’s our canola oil), and if you do use nice olive oil, know that after you remove the fried potatoes you shouldn’t discard it. It is totally fine to reuse it, and it will be infused with a nice potato flavor.

• Pick the right potato. Those flavorless potatoes you find in some supermarkets do not do it justice. You want tasty potatoes (Russet works great), because it is the main ingredient, after all.

• There’s a great trick for turning the tortilla that always works. You just need two dinner plates that are a little bigger than the pan you’re using. The rest is not that complicated (see below.)

• Thicker and smaller is better than thin and big. In my experience, it’s always better two use a smaller pan and make a thick tortilla (but no more than 2 inches, or it gets complicated). A thicker tortilla tastes better, looks better, and is easier to handle.

• The way the potatoes are chopped is probably the biggest difference you’ll find among recipes. Some people like it in small cubes, small pieces, little sticks, big chunks…we all have our favorite style. 

• The texture of the tortilla can be quite different depending on where you try it, but it should never be dry! I noticed that in Madrid (in my opinion, one of the best cities to eat tortilla) they like it very, very gooey in the middle. In Valencia, however, they usually cook it thoroughly until the middle is set. The way I make it is leaving it a little gooey on the inside, but not runny. It’s a matter of how long you cook it, so you can experiment with that and see what you prefer.

• It’s a well-know fact that tortilla de patatas tastes awesome leftover, so don’t be afraid to make too much! :)

¿Qué es para usted una tortilla? In our house, we eat both types of homemade tortillas!

Ready to make a tortilla de patatas?

Here’s my recipe, which I have been using for over 10 years. Whenever I’ve made variations, I’ve always come back to the basics because it tasted better. With tortilla de patatas it’s just best to keep it simple!

Ingredients

1 big potato

3 or 4 eggs

half an onion (optional)

sunflower or canola oil for frying (or olive oil, which you can reuse)

a pinch of salt

1. Peel and chop the potato. This is what I like to do: I grab a small slicing knife and cut uneven chunks while rotating the potato. I feel these bigger chunks give it a more interesting texture, but you can cut it differently and just adjust the cooking depending on the size. If you choose to add onion, chop it thinly.

2. Fill an 8-inch pan (20 cm) with oil (enough to cover the potatoes.) Heat up until the oil is very hot and add the potatoes. If you’re using onion, add it now as well. Cover with a lid to avoid splatter mess. Fry until the potatoes are cooked through, but not crunchy. They should look pale. Remember, they will cook a bit longer with the egg.

3. While the potatoes are frying, crack the eggs in a medium bowl and beat with a fork. Add a pinch of salt.

4. Using a slotted spoon, remove the potatoes (and onion) and put them in the bowl with the egg. Mix with the fork.

5. Unless you’re using olive oil, discard most of the oil from the pan, leaving only about one spoonful to cook the tortilla. Turn the heat to medium-low and add the egg and potato mix. Cover with the lid. When the tortilla is set around the edges but still gooey in the middle, it’s time to do “the plate trick”. Slide the tortilla onto one of the plates (carefully detaching the sides with a spatula, if needed). Put the other plate on top to cover (the plates must match sizes) and quickly flip the plates. Now your tortilla is flipped and you can slide it onto the pan with the help of a spatula to drag any potato pieces left behind.

The "transfer" doesn't have to be seamless to lead to a shapely final product.

6. Cook uncovered for a few more minutes, only until the bottom settles. If you like it gooey in the middle, then it won’t take very long to cook, but it will always depends on the thickness of the tortilla, so just watch out to get that perfect texture. Whatever you like will be the best recipe you can always use. :)

Where did you try your favorite tortilla de patatas? Have any cooking tips of 

your own to add? Post your comments here. They are welcome!

—Chic Soufflé

What I Think About When I Talk About Running Or, Why It is Okay to Set Goals You Don’t Meet

Life is not a sprint.
— English aphorism

Yo soy la meta.
— Slogan for Valencia’s
2013 Half Marathon

I once heard Jim Yong Kim, a co-founder of Partners in Health, give a speech about his work in HIV/AIDS activism. He talked about the “3X5 initiative” he helped to spearhead through the WHO to increase the number of HIV patients in Africa receiving treatment by some improbable goal, to 3 million by 2005. Kim noted that everyone criticized him for being too ambitious, for setting an unobtainable goal that would certainly fail, and then make the campaign look bad. In fact, the campaign did fall short of its stated goal, only reaching the goal two years later in 2007. Was this a failure?

Kim argued no. And what he argued in that speech has stuck with me ever since. Kim said that, had they aimed for a lower goal, they would have hit lower. The ambitious goal is what motivated them, and it is not a failure if you set out to aim high, and, while not achieving that goal, you still reach higher than you ever have before. I lump this into what I think of as a philosophy of “hope without optimism” – believing in something cannot hurt you, can only help you, so long as you don’t come to expect it. It’s a delicate balance. But this is why I think it is okay to set goals that you don’t end up achieving, if setting goals helps you to improve yourself and develop yourself further.

I lived in Boston for five years, and had a ritual of watching the Patriot's Day
Boston Marathon on TV. In fact, I'd partly credit watching the marathon runners
for inspiring me to take up distance running in the first place.
Which was why the bombing this year was hard to follow.
Boston, Stay Strong and Keep Running!

Okay, what does all of this have to do with running, you might be asking. Well last year I set two personal goals: 1) to run, on average, every other day (for a total of 183 runs in the year), and 2) to run a marathon. I didn’t accomplish either of them. But along the way I think I accomplished so much more. I ran 166 times in 2013, for an estimated total of 750 kilometers, more than I have ever run before in a calendar year. (Particularly impressive given that I had two full months “out of commission”, when I didn’t run due to traveling.) And in October I finished a half marathon, the first time I have ever run one. Let me tell you, now that I’ve run a half marathon, I’m more than proud that I’ve run a half marathon, even falling short of a full one. (I could not agree more with this runner, who argues that the half marathon should be named something else, so that people stop thinking of it as anything less than an achievement in its own right… what would you call it?) Running has been a much needed reboot; not just a way to let off steam, but something to work towards, to advance, that is not high stakes but instead a simple pleasure.

On the day of the big race!

It's good to have role models, and I'm a huge fan of
Kara Goucher. She regularly runs the Boston Marathon,
and is pretty nice in her interviews... Okay, okay,
she is also just pretty, which is not common among
long distance runners.

So why do I run? The easy answer is definitely partly true: vanity, the great health motivator! But I don’t think the returns on running are so quick that vanity alone could explain the appeal. More than vanity, or even health, it is the feeling of healthiness you get outside of running. Running is so similar to other activities you do daily, that within weeks you notice a bounce in your step that is great. But even if this is what gets out running in the beginning, when you start to become “a runner”, I think it is something else that keeps you doing it.

I never thought of myself as “a runner” before… It’s not like I love the feeling of running. I suspect many, if not most runners also feel miserable while they do it. (We’re a bunch of masochists!) I’ve certainly never been a “natural runner”, quite the contrary. I’m big, bulky and top-heavy. But what I like about running long distances (what I also love about swimming long distance, but running is much more convenient), is the time it gives you for contemplation… I’m not talking thinking. Hell no!, am I able to hold a coherent thought while my body is complaining about what my mind is forcing it to do. I’m talking about the sense of interiority, the flashes of thoughts and associations, the odd realizations… the “being there” that ubiquitous computing and constant connectivity tends to kill. (If you think such a love affair with disconnecting is new, just reread Thoreau’s Walden, or any other “pastoral” ideal.) What I’ve lacked in running legs, I’ve always more than made up for with my head. (Long distance anything is always a mental game, after all.) I'm a pro at tuning out, and thus ignoring the aches and pains.

For me, a big personal accomplishment this year was completing the Rio Turia
loop of 16 kilometers on May 8th. It wasn't a race, but it was an amazing way
to experience this gem of Valencian parks.

I’m sharing all this with you because it is a brand new year and I know many of you, especially you Americans, will be making New Year’s resolutions… This is my way of saying, “Go for it!” Often the effort to attempt a goal can be almost as rewarding as the goal itself. Or, as long as we’re slinging a bunch of aphorisms around here: the journey is the destination. So go ahead, set that wild goal for 2014. And who cares if you do or don’t achieve it, so long as you have fun trying!

Random digression: I'm always telling my EFL students that there is no good direct translation for the English word "challenge" (which can be "reto" or "dificultad" depending on context), a word that is loaded with peculiarly Anglosaxon cultural significances of self-improvement and aspirational living (think "Protestant ethic").

Here you can see the video of the minute when I crossed the finish line

at the Valencia Half Marathon in October. You'll recognize me as the

only person too tired to celebrate the moment.

For those of you who’ve chosen running as one of your resolutions, let me offer you some tips I’ve picked up along the way. 

1) Buy good equipment, and by good I don’t just mean practical, I also mean equipment that you look good in. If you don’t feel attractive while you’re running, you’re not going to be as motivated to do it. 

2) Set a running challenge to train for. This doesn’t have to be a race. My wife loves races. She loves the way they’re social events, the camaraderie, the opportunity to see a city from the avenues without the cars. And the sense of accomplishment of finishing them. But I, personally, found it just as rewarding to run the full 16km loop of the Rio Turia park back in May, when there was no other equal distance, meaningful race to challenge me that season. If you can pick a decent challenge, then you can find a workout routine to follow, which means you have a schedule and some external markers by which to measure your progress. 

3) Subscribe to some online runner’s news source: I subscribed through Facebook to Runner’s World and Valencia Runner, which are great because they’re constantly sharing news and tips about running in my feed, which is both useful but also motivating. We are social creatures, and it is easier to be excited about something if we surround ourselves (virtually or not) with others who are excited about it. 

4) Invest in helpful distractions, namely an MP3 player. I bought the ipod shuffle, and I have to tell you that having music to listen to while I run completely transforms otherwise painful, monotonous runs. It was worth every cent I paid for it! I have friends who uses the Nike chip to monitor her runs. This kind of external measure probably also works for keeping at it during a tough run. 

5) This was my brother’s excellent tip to me, don’t be afraid to skip the short runs, if you’re not feeling up to it. You don’t want to start thinking of running as a chore. Some days your heart is not into it, and that is okay. So long as you can stick to running the weekly long runs, skipping the shorter ones throughout the week is no big deal. 

6) What ever floats your boat, do it. I have friends who measure their heart rate while they run, and swear that it improves it. I’m skeptical, but I also respect that, for them, it might really work. There is also the long-haul trucker’s trick: pick another runner at your pace, and stay with them, or slowly try to pass them. I confess, sometimes when I’m dying from a long, hot run, I simply check out other runners (sorry ladies!) and that stupid distraction reminds me that I’m still able to ignore the pain and power through it. Or I think of the Boston Marathon runners, and think, “What’s another 100 more meters by comparison?” (I use a similar psychological trick, when I listen to certain songs, like “Me llaman calle” and “Clandestino”, about more serious kinds of suffering, which make my pain pale in comparison.) Everyone has their own tricks for keeping at it, most regular runners have dozens of them. You’ve got to use what you’ve got! 

Essential long distance running
equipment, an mp3 player.

Running in Valencia has been a real joy. I probably wouldn’t have gotten into it if it weren’t so darn convenient here. The Rio Turia park is an incredible race track, the opportunity to run in a natural setting, no traffic, for kilometers and kilometers. And Valencian weather —sun most all year long, never too cold, and only occasionally too hot— gives the runner no excuse not to run. Running in Spain has become quite popular in the last decade. Race inscriptions have been steadily rising. Running calendar highlights in Valencia: May - Volta a Peu 8K, October - Half Marathon 21K, November - Marathon 42K (and 10K), December - San Silvestre 5K. This year Valencia was one of many cities across the globe to experience the “Holi Run”, which strikes me more as a stunt than a real race, but I’ll take it if it gets people out there running. All of these races have a festive atmosphere and help you to feel a part of something bigger, a community of runners in the region.

Instagramers comment regularly on my account about how lucky I am to have this splendid
backdrop for my running. All I can say is that I agree, and I do my best not only
to appreciate it, but to take as full advantage of it every (other) day.

My iPod playlist. I owe a lot to these songs, which have been excellent
for keeping up the pace while I run, all of them in different ways!

Returning to the question of goals, and making and breaking them. What people often don’t understand is that running the marathon the day of is not, in fact, the most difficult aspect of preparing for a marathon. (Okay, I’m not speaking from direct experience here, but supposition… what I’m saying is at least true for me and the half marathon.) It takes months and months of training (minimum four months), hours and hours of time invested in it weekly (some long runs might take you 2-3 hours!), before you are in condition to run a marathon. (Believe, simply getting into gear and out the door every day is more than half the challenge. There are always dozens of reasons not to run, and fewer to do it.) By the time you arrive there, if you’ve trained well, the marathon is a capstone for that hard work. You keep running it because you know how much you’ve already invested in it. (This also why the friends and family of marathon runners are so supportive; they’ve had to live firsthand all that time invested in it, and seen the daily toil.) The 42+ kilometers of a marathon are a mere fraction at the end of hundreds, perhaps thousands of kilometers you ran to get there.

Running a marathon, the new sign of a mid-life crisis?
I saw this tweet a while back and thought it was hilarious.

I’ve been reading Murakami’s book, What I Talk About When I Talk About Running. (I know, it’s a bit unconventional to bring this up at the end of a story, but what good is blogging if one can’t enjoy unconventional narrative?) It is an excellent read for those of you getting into running! (I confess I’m reading it at a slow, leisurely pace… not racing to the end, so to speak.) In it he opens by notes, paraphrasing Somerset Maugham, that, “No matter how mundane some action might appear, keep at it long enough and it becomes a contemplative, even meditative act.” I.e. it becomes a kind of philosophy. I relate to Murakami’s philosophy of running for a variety of reasons. He is humble about running. So many serious runners turn it into a pissing contest kind of hubris, as if their motivation is to merely be better than others. Murakami, on the other hand, describes his running as a constant struggle. He dispels the mystique that runners somehow never have doubts about running, or lazy days. (This from a man who runs an average of 36 miles a week!) However, he also says that running is not merely about “willpower”, something with which I agree up to a point. There has to be something about running that suits you, to keep at it. Other interesting observations he makes that I can relate to – he describes his thoughts while running as a “void”. Our minds, so he writes, can’t become a complete blank, so running creates the distracting space in which we cannot think and thereby better notice thoughts or impressions in isolation.

Possible title for a sequel: "Zen and the Art of Marathon Running".

But most significantly Murakami explores running as “both exercise and a metaphor”, and the following passage nicely illustrates the metaphor: 

I’m no great runner […] But that’s not the point. The point is whether or not I improved over yesterday. In long-distance running the only opponent you have to beat is yourself.

I hope I don’t have to spell it out for you here too much, but this is also true in life. If you spend too much time comparing yourself to others, you’ll forget that you’re the only one who can live your life. That, I suppose, is the philosophy I am trying to share with you here about setting goals for the new year. Life is not a sprint, and you are the finish line. And to bring back in my opening point, we are all unfinished products, and that is okay. Even better than okay, that is what makes us who we are.

In 2013 you could have followed my running progress on Instagram,
since I made it a personal thing to post a picture with every run.
I'm not sure I'll bother to do that in 2014. Gotta focus on the running!

Oh, and, yeah, if you’re wondering, running a marathon is back on my list of New Year’s resolutions for 2014. Maybe it will be my white whale, but it’s the challenge that keeps me out there trying!

Post script: Alright, when the New Year’s hangover fully passes and I reread this entry, I might have to write a second, more cynical entry to counterbalance all the sap and sentiment in this one. Until then, for those of you who like sentiment and affirmation, eat it up!

2013 as the Instayear: A look back on my year on Instagram

One thing I try to avoid is taking "selfies",
though when I do I try to have fun with it.

This is the year of Instagram! In September this humble social media platform passed Twitter (the previous social media phenom) for having more daily active users on mobiles. “Selfie” —“a photograph that one has taken of oneself, typically one taken with a smartphone or webcam and uploaded to a social media website”— was dubbed the Oxford Dictionaries’ 2013 Word of the Year. And Instagram has given birth to, or at least accelerated all kinds of bizarre social behaviors, such as “Simon Says” styled self-photographing: #fromwhereIstand, #lookup, #followmeto… I can feel my attention-span getting shorter... Everyone is doing it, even President Obama!

What can I say? In this respect I’m no different from anyone else. Looking back, 2013 was the year I got hooked on Instagram, too. (Go ahead! Check out my account.) So I thought I would do a wrap-up blog entry about it, recapping the year as seen through my Instagram posts. Below I share some visuals on recurrent themes of my posts, feature some posts from each month throughout the year, and, finally, end with the Top Ten Posts of 2013. Along the way I'll share a few tips of what I think helped improve my photos, though I'm n expert and welcome your thoughts and experiences in comments below. (Certainly, a glance at this page's list of top filters, tags, and Instagramers will depress help you.)

This video, which parodies Instagrammers, had me nailed. 

It's worth a look, especially if you're hooked on Instagram.

Some significant technical clarifications: I got a new cell phone in August, greatly improving the quality of pics I take with it on-the-go. And many of the pictures I take with my Nikon J1 fancy-cam, and then transfer to the mobile for uploading.

Digression: It’s funny how everyone has their own ad-hoc rules and opinions about what’s “natural” for posting on Instagram… pictures taken _only_ with the mobile, or _only_ _in the moment_… or, more polemical, pictures that are _only mine_. Since I don’t want to waste money on data plans, I usually try to aim to post pictures the same day, upon getting wifi access. Or, if posted later, I aim to make them relevant to the moment when I am posting. Otherwise I put the #latergram tag on them.

Valenciagram's photo of the Instawalkers
in front of the North Station on Nov. 11th

As with all of these social media experiments, part of the interest in it for me has been discovering new communities and new modes of social interaction. On April 6th, and then again on November 11th, I joined the Valencia Instawalks organized by Valenciagram. (There's another Instameet this Saturday January 4th in Benimaclet, this time organized by Igersvalencia.) The people I met were great, and have been wonderful, active followers on Instagram (and also useful guides for me in finding photographic inspirations). If I had any complaints, it’s that many of them don’t see past my photos. That is, I continue to be amazed with how rare it is for them to actually go from my Instagram account to my blog… many didn’t even know I had a blog! (So Instagram has limited value if your goal is to get people to visit your blog, since there is no easy linkback feature on captions and comments.)

April 6th Instawalk, a view of the participants taken from the Torres de Serranos

The Mercado de Colón, one of many stops on the November 9th Instawalk

I’ve gone through my pictures to see what were the most popular, and what themes the most common. I had to adjust for one major shift on my account: my year on Instagram was marked by a dramatic growth in followers, from less than 100 followers at the start of the year to over 550 by the end. Needless to say, this skewed the popularity of new posts over old ones. For that reason I thought I would first share with you a portfolio of my instapics before delivering the most popular ten...

RECURRENT THEMES IN MY 2013 PHOTOGRAPHY

It would be no surprise that Valencia features prominently in my Instagram pictures. It's where I live, it's a beautiful city, and, aw heck, I'm totally smitten. Blogging about it already incentivized going out and seeing the city, but Instagram has added a visual element to that obsession motivation. Perhaps the coolest thing about posting daily pictures of what I'm about in the city is how it creates a visual documentation over time, changes in seasons, weather, and so forth.

One of the more interesting Instagram experiments I did was to photograph Valencia's
Viveros park rose garden from the same angle at one month intervals.
The results was you could see the advance of the seasons, up to the blossom in May

It is fun to see the marking of seasonal changes as you look back over your year of photos.
Valencia in the rain, roses blooming, fall colors, oranges on the trees...

But in addition to the hometown, there are some other themes that pop up repeatedly throughout the year, and are worth a bit of explanation...

• Running

Aside from Instagramming, 2013 for me will be the year of running. One of my personal motivation techniques for running was to post a picture after each run, which is why the Rio Turia and Viviros parks feature so prominently on my feed. Social media is all about naval-gazing sharing your lifestyle with others, right?

My main running accomplishments in 2013 were: 1) running the full 16KM loop of the
Rio Turia park in May, 2) running a half-marathon in October, and... well, running more times
in a year than I've ever run before. Thus, the pics of all the running bling.

• Travel

Instagram of Plaza Mayor in Salamanca.

My other big lifestyle tendency is to travel, which also dominates my Instagram feed from time to time. There were short trips to Sevilla, Istanbul, Sierra de Francia, and the Spanish Pyrenees, and two month-long trips: Vienna (and Salzburg) in June and the #USARoadTrip2013 driving down the west coast in early Fall. No real surprise that iconic landmarks get lots of likes. (People don’t get tired of seeing the Golden Gate Bridge or Eiffel Tower… as if liking it is a way to say, “I’ve been there!”) Some my most popular Valencia pics are of that most iconic of Valencia sights, the City of Arts and Sciences. Still, it is nice to know that a breathtaking view can also win you Likes (for example, hikes in the Redwood Forests), since I’m a nature lover. As a personal rule, I always try to take pictures of the less obvious charms of a place, or its quirky attractions. But it’s a poor rule for getting votes.

Some of the most popular pics from my June in Vienna: the steps of the Albertina,
puddle reflection of the Riesenrad, and the facade of one of Otto Wagner's buildings.

The most popular pictures from the West Coast road trip I did in September and October:
Crater Lake, the Chandelier Drive-Thru tree, and sunset on Pfeiffer Beach.

• Street art

In the beginning, Valencia street art was the subject for which I garnered the most likes on Instagram, and also the most valuable responses… other street art enthusiasts would comment to identify who were the artists I posted, and where else I could find their works. Instagram is a boon to street art enthusiasm. The “Insta” in Instagram celebrates the ephemeral, and street art is the height of ephemeral art. (One personal tip: in my opinion the “Lo-Fi” filter is best for street art and any other cartoon-like images. It helps bring out the contrast in lines and colors.)

A composite of a small number of the many, many Instagrams I took this year.

• "Cloudporn"

Talking about ephemeral, there are also all those cloud posts. The hashtag, #Cloudporn, for purdy cloud pictures, can turn you into a bit of an idiot… staring up at the sky snapping photos as you're rushing from one place to another. But it has the merit of being one of the most egalitarian subjects. Anyone can find a pretty cloud to photograph. Some tricks I’ve picked up while taking cloudporn pics: 1) backlit clouds make for very resplendent images, 2) everyone loves a good, fortiutous contrail shot (the cloud stream left by a plane), and 3) people are suckers for palm trees outlining your shot (nothing says paradise quite like a palm tree).

Me with my head in the clouds.

• Cats

I’m not as crazy a cat picture poster as some people, but I do love cats. I have a cat, I foster kittens (PEOPLE, PLEASE ADOPT!), and I see cats all the time in the Rio Turia and Vivero parks. If I see a good cat picture, I’m gonna take it, and some of those pictures show up on my Instagram account. They’re sure to get a fair number of Likes, though very few of them ever get a huge number. The exception was this picture, taken in the Rio Turia Riverbed park around sunset. I think the yellow hue (not a filter!) and the serene look of the cat, instantly won people over.

• Food & Coffee

And then there were all those Sunday paella posts. You guys never got tired of those. (Neither did I!) Yep, I'm guilty of posting pictures of my food. I had a friend who didn't know about this blog, who was making fun of people who take pictures of their food to share on social media. I didn't have the courage to fess up to it. The shame! But I make no apologies. It all tasted better than it looked. (Food photo tip: make sure to photograph food where the main light is to the side of the food, to cast a shadow that is appetizing; and if the light is too low to get the food in focus, you should probably just not post that pic, no matter how good the food tasted.)

I try to justify my food picture posting in the name of sharing culture...
but who am I kidding? It all just looks so delicious!!!

And COFFEE would probably come in a close third for central themes of 2013. Turkish coffee, Viennese coffee, third-wave Portland coffee. This blog post was powered by coffee!

For some reason, people who can give you a lot of flack about posting food pictures
are perfectly happy with you posting coffee pictures. Huh, funny that.

THE INSTAYEAR ACCORDING TO CALENDAR MONTHS

Here are the pictures with the highest number of likes for each month, minus those selected for the top ten list (see below). I’m doing this because I noticed that there was a major shift in my quantity of Likes for photos from June onwards due to the higher number of followers I had. Before July, getting anything over 30 Likes was a miracle. By this fall it was common for many of my posts to get that, and the better photos to get twice that.

So this gives you a sample of the kinds of photos people have liked throughout the year…

- - - January - - -

L'Albufera on January 27th

- - - February - - -

Raised passageway behind Valencia's Cathedral, on February 10th

Honorable mention:

This cute ninot fallera was a close second

- - - March - - -

The Maiden's Tower, Istanbul on a foggy March 29th

Honorable mention:

The March 7th Mascletà on Valencia's Plaza de Ayuntamiento

- - - April - - -

The Palau de les Arts seen from the Rio Turia rose garden on April 30th

- - - May - - -

The Ágora on May 5th, seen on a 8km loop run

- - - June - - -

The Hundertwasserhaus in Vienna on June 9th

- - - July - - -

Palau de les Arts on a 4th of July Picnic

- - - August - - -

Beach umbrella, protection from the sun at Cala Granadella on August 5th

- - - September - - -

Pont del Mar, seen on a run on September 1st

- - - October - - -

Jamón and cheese dinner with wine, on October 16th

- - - November - - -

L'Hemisféric on November 15th (posted November 22nd)

- - - December - - -

"December" by Escif, posted December 1st

THE 2013 TOP TEN INSTAGRAMS

These are the top ten pictures on my Instagram account for 2013, in reverse order. As you can see, half of them were taken almost within a week of each other in mid November, which either means that month I was an amazing photographer or, more likely, that there are some trends or outside factors that determine a photo’s popularity… a mystery to be solved in 2014…

(10) 73 likes… Cat in El Carmen on September 18th (10)

(9) 73 likes… Sunset over Viveros walking to work on November 11th (9)

(8) 74 likes… Cala Granadella (Denia) on August 5th (8)

(7) 74 likes… San Francisco Golden Gate Bridge on October 4th (7)

(6) 75 likes… Palau de les Arts with wild clouds on November 14th (6)

(5) 75 likes… La Peineta bridge on November 19th (5)

(4) 77 likes… Rio Turia, Poseidon and Palau de les Arts on August 21st (4)

(3) 78 likes… Plaza de la Reina as the sun sets on November 23rd (3)

(2) 80 likes… Honey Street Art on December 27th (2)

... and the winner is... 

(1) 81 likes… Escif - Futuro mural on November 14th (1)

A nice way to end the year, no? I imagine that in twenty years some street artist will be painting a mural using Instagram as an emblem of the past, a retro platform, an old acquaintance long forgot. What have I learned from all this? Mostly it has just been very entertaining, though it has expanded my virtual social network some. Perhaps the most beneficial aspect of it, in a less superficial dimension, is that it has increased my interest in photography. After posting around a 1000 photos to Instagram this year, Santa Claus very wisely thought to bring me gifts relating to photography (a new lens!) and books to help me in my quest to discover new photographic subjects relating to my expat immigrant fascination with discovering Spain.

Still, one can get a little carried away with it. Likely New Year’s Resolution for 2014: aim to improve quality over quantity of Instagram posts!

Got these gifts for Christmas and what did I do, Instagrammed it!