Prepared fresh and dairy products

My host dad likes to point out how healthy the Spanish way of life is compared to the American way of life.  I'm in total agreement with him but it gets annoying after the after the 2nd or 19th time hearing the same statement, especially since I consider myself in pretty good shape.  But there are some undeniable facts about the food and eating habits I've seen here that must contribute to Spain having less than half the obesity rate of the United States.  Now this actually isn't an amazing accomplishment considering 90% of the countries in the world have an excess chubby rate less than half of the United States because we are rated the Number 1 country in the world.  That's right, we win!  Let's run a Victory Lap to celebrate...oh. right...  Let's eat some Victory Hotdogs and drink Victory Beer.  Victory beer, almost as good as Freedom Beer and no fewer calories!

First I'm going to talk about the school.  Now last post I was pretty tough on the school, and I'm not done, but food is one place where they stand a clear mile above my high school back home.  The food is prepared in ovens and stoves here!  That last sentance may not seem so amazing to anyone who graduated from highschool ten or more years ago, but for the younger generation the staple "cooking" tools in a highschool are a microwave and a blender.  I used to bring my lunch in the United States, but here no one brings because there is absolutly no need.  Unlike the United States we can also watch our food through all stages of prepareation without losing our appetite.  If we were to have mashed potatoes here I bet the potatoes would be peeled, cooked, mashed, and seasoned.  If you have not been to high school in ten years you might be asking, 'Is there any other way to prepare mashed potatoes?'  Let me tell you how Fairport prepared their "Mashed Potatoes," they would open up a plain white plastic package, pour dry white flakes into blender, add water to blender, blend, put on hot plate, serve with equally questionable gravy.

About a week after arriving here the school served calamari.  Since I had been raised in a state that throws whatever cafateria food it can together as cheap as possible I was extremly suspicious.  Calamari in Fairport would have meant, meat product that turned out too chewy to be used even as sloppy joe.  After covering the fried squid in lemon juice (from an acutal piece of fruit) I cautiously took a single bite.  My standards were pretty low, but the calamari was good and I finished all that I had been served.  After the meal I was full but some kids were eating far longer than me and had almost three times as much food.  This is because of another great accomplishment made by my school in the field of nutrition.  There are no vending machines in the school, but you can purchase snacks from the dining room where they make small sandwhiches of nutella or ham or cheese, crazy european things like that.  Lunches are provided by the school, there is fresh bread, as much as you can eat, and you are allowed to request more of every entree.  Now at some point they do cut you off, but just the knowledge that seconds are free is a great feeling of freedom that I was unused to.  Besides just meals at school another part of Spanish culture I've been enjoying has been the dairy products, for the most part.

In the United States I did not enjoy cheese much outside of the highly salty 'American' or Chedder varieties.  I also shunned cheesecake in the United States, but not so much for the cheese part, more because tasted abnormally sweet, like pixie dust and unicorn blood, not like good old natural twinkes, grown right in America's gutters.  But here I have found a type of hard sheep cheese that I eat everytime it is brought to the table, but I believe that once I return to the U.S and my speical sheep dairy is gone I will return to my former, cheese neglecting, ways.  In addition when I return to the U.S I will start to guzzling milk again like it has a ridiculously fast experation date.  Because it does, in America, but here the milk is a mutant form that can sit out for weeks without any form of refrigeration.  There are of course many advantages to this.  Milk can be bought in bulk, saving trips to the supermarket.  It saves energy since milk can just sit in drawers or shelves and doesn't require industrial sized fridges.  It helps hobos get the proper amount of nutrition. It is a common sight in San Sebastian to see a pair of men sharing a liter box of milk thus ensureing them strong bones instead of hangovers.  However there is one major drawback to this liquid dairy product, it tastes like the demon spawn that it is.  I can eat it on my morning cereal, but drinking it straight up is nearly impossible.  It may have won the Spanish over with it's ease of use, but I hope that the FDA has some sort of flavor standards.  What kind of world would it be where children dip their cookies into luke warm mutant milk?  Certainly a world I want no part of.  I'd almost rather have all my meals provided via microwave... almost.