Jamon Jamon!

Last Monday Pablo went grocery shopping by himself because I had to work. This is not usually a good thing because he likes to buy a lot of things and usually a lot of sweet things. When we go together I can put a stop to a lot of unnecessary purchases but now that I'm a working girl I can't do it all.
So when he came home with all the shopping bags we had a big assortment of goodies- peanut butter (which I crave these days so its ok), Nutella, chocolate cereal, 5 different kinds of cheeses, vodka, and liquors. I guess its all the stuff I want to buy but never do.
But the big surprise of the day was what was siting on the kitchen counter, one part in a bag, the other part sticking out. I walked in the kitchen and was like, "What is that? There is a foot on my counter."

The leg and the foot on the counter

A pig's foot to be exact. Pablo had bought us a Spanish Ham leg. Aka a pig leg that hangs from the ceilings in a lot of bars and restaurants around these parts!
To all the Americans that come to visit it is usually a shock and then confusion then they are grossed out and then they get use to it. And when they spot one it usually means cute bar and in turn it becomes very spanish and very cool. A lot of Spanish families buy hams every year to keep in their house so that they always have ham whenever its needed. It is very traditional and when I told all my students we got a ham they all told me how much they love ham.

Alkie loves his new friend Mr. Pig

The boys

I like ham but not as much as the Spanish love their ham. I think it is very chewy and if it becomes too chewy I have to spit it out. Sometimes the smell gets to me as well but luckily this one doesn't bother me too much. There is a wide range of hams and qualities and prices that I'm only starting to learn about and may not ever completely understand. I think it's like wine! All I know is the good stuff is very, very expensive. Our ham is average and actually tastes good. It has some chewy parts and its hard to cut with your teeth when you try to take a bite, but I'm learning.

Our homage to Spain

Pablo is very proud of his ham and the big knife that goes along with it to cut the very fine strips. I guess we can say we are now an official Spanish family!

Pablo, his ham, his knife