Thursday, February 20, 2025
What a STRANGE day for American football, but we'll get to that a bit later.
After the usual morning work time on the computer, I was hungry but where to go?
Suddenly, I recalled that while riding the #1 bus to practice last week that I had noticed a Cuban cuisine restaurant along the route.
I opted to walk a bit before boarding the #1 bus to have some real "home cooking."
At this medical center they cover
most of your body's potential ills
I felt artsy just before boarding the bus . . .
. . . to the Guajiro Gastrobar Cubano
In Cuban Spanish, a guajiro is an farm worker.
I decided to go with the
Menu del Día
I'm not quite sure if all of
these direction arrows are correct
These also looked to be suspect
My waiter was definitely Cuban, outgoing and fun loving from the get-go.
He told me that the entire wait staff hailed from La Habana, Cuba where my Mother was born and raised.
He further went on to tell me that the owner/chef was from Camagüey, Cuba. That is the city where my Father was born and spent much of his youth.
Small world or as they say in these parts, "El mundo es un pañuelo."
"The world is a handkerchief."
What's up, dude?
Cuban Spanish slang strikes again.
Honestly, I had never heard this expression before but my waiter has both happy and proud to show this sign to me.
I will use this new phrase in the future more than likely.
After ordering the Menu del Día, my waiter asked what I wanted to drink. I responded, red wine please as it was included in the price of the meal.
I expected a glass.
I was served a FULL BOTTLE!
Danger lurks where you least expect it.
The wine was hearty and half
a bottle did me in for some time
Nothing is more Cuban than
black beans and white rice
This is usually referred to in Cuba as Moros y Cristianos.
Moors and Christians?
Draw your own Reconquista historical conclusions.
The tasty main dish was highlighted by
those four sweet platanos maduros fritos
in the upper left
Asturias and Cuba mix well together!
Boys from Camagüey love their machetes
Seen on the much needed walk
after lunch to work off that red wine
This griffin has been guarding
this building since 1905
If you recall, yesterday I had a rather convoluted trek to visit my sixth of Gijón's eight free museums/historical sites.
On this stroll home, I easily visited the seventh one found in the heart of the old city.
This one highlights a typical worker's
group family living quarters
It is a partially restored set of buildings that functioned for 101 years to provide extremely basic living accommodations for both commercial fishermen, boat building and factory workers and their families.
It was but one of several similar facilities throughout Gijón back in the day.
I liked the leafless tree in the distance
Many buildings once stood here
A typical family that would have lived
here in the late 19th/early 20th century
The one fully restored building
101 years of service to working families
I entered the restored building to view what was considered to be a typical set up of one of these mimi-apartments for the workers.
The Last Supper on the dining
room wall is an absolute MUST!
A bed and crib in one room
The Master Bedroom perhaps
The wash basin
Old water buckets
I saw no evidence of running water or of any bathroom facilities.
There must have been some sort of communal toilets and showers somewhere in the complex I'm guessing/hoping.
Kitchen utensils
A simple wood stove
An artist's rendition of what the
original complex looked like
Overview of that family apartment
that I had just visited
The effects of the red wine now all but completely worked off, I proceeded home.
My Grandfather's Suitcase
Definitely not either of my Grandfathers' heritage though.
A big Gijón gourmet whoop-de-do
coming up soon at some of our city's
finest dining spots it would seem
In the evening, it was time for practice so I headed back to the #1 bus line stop for the journey.
Along the way . . .
. . . I saw men playing cards at one
of my favorite local bars . . .
. . . desserts to die for . . .
. . . a lit up church tower . . .
. . . and a beautiful evening sky
When I arrived at practice, our Head Coach Nacho Valdés informed the team that the wonderful world of NIL/the Transfer Portal had finally hit us.
Our import DB/WR was opting
out at mid-season
A team in China had offered him more money to break his contract, leaving after only four of our eight regular season games had been played to become a player/coach for their team and to also teach English.
All of this came just two days before Saturday's key game for the Mariners (1-3) against the Coslada Camioneros (2-2) in Madrid.
A resilient group, our Mariners soldiered on and had a solid practice.
It started calmly but . . .
. . . it escalated quickly
It was a Thursday practice, my favorite of every week because afterward I again joined Team President Kike and former Offensive Line Coach Edu for a late night meal.
It was back to WOW!
WOW! is the bohemian pizza shop in the oldest part of the city where we dined a few weeks ago on a night that Edu could not join us.
Thus the do over.
No complaints here.
We shared these two solid pizzas
The one on the left with gorgonzola and picadillo (chorizo) was the better of the two in my culinary opinion.
NIL and the Transfer Portal, smh . . .
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