Torrevieja: the Boardwalk and Chinese food

Sunshade device along the boardwalk

Naomi and I took a day trip to Torrevieja today. I was looking for a Barclays ATM so I could withdraw cash without paying any fees. We wanted to see the salt museum too, but it was closed.

Above is a sunshade. It's an awesome cantilelever, but it doesn't provide much protection from the sun, especially at high noon.

There's no beach in Torrevieja--that's why they have a boardwalk. It's all huge rocks, and the waves crash hard against them. We walked pretty far out. There are a variety of stalls that line the boardwalk, as well as restaurants and shops. It's a huge tourist area--there are even people climbing the rocks to touch the water and feel the spray.

Rocks, no beach

Torrevieja is known as a more international city--which might just mean that there are more Chinese people here. It's a bigger city than Guardamar and more British people live and have their holidays here. Chinese cuisine is rather popular among the British. I mean, who doesn't like Chinese food?!

Most restaurants in Spain offer a "Menu of the Day," which is similar to the lunches at the Pension: bread, first course, second course, a drink, and dessert and/or coffee. It was no different at the Chinese restaurant.

It was cheaper than other restaurants and the familiar flavor was comforting. Back in the US, I never really ate out at Chinese restaurants because the food is Americanized. When I did have Chinese food in a restaurant, I was always with my parents, who knew how to order healthier fare off the Chinese menu. The waitress at this restaurant in Torrevieja offered me the Chinese menu but I couldn't read it--and it was cheaper and simpler to order the Menu of the Day. I had to get Naomi to help me decide on what was safe to order. I got a salad with Asian-style dressing, chow mien, chicken chop suey, and a coffee. I even had leftovers to enjoy for later!

We found a Chinese grocery store near the bus station. There were so many foods--bok choy, tofu, salted duck eggs, mung beans, frozen pot stickers, spices, sauces... I ended up going on a mini shopping spree and getting bok choy, tofu, a barley soup mix that my mom has made before, the salted duck eggs, and umbrella cookies. Yum! (That's a photo of Banlangen, a drink powder that makes a tea good for drinking when you are about to get sick or have a fever.)

Banlangen at the Chinese food store

All in all, it was a successful trip!

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12: Bring Snacks to Studio

Cacahuetes bañados en chocolate

Studio is from 10AM-2PM. Lunch/siesta is from 2PM-5PM. Studio happens again from 5PM-8PM. Lately, though, we've been ending around 8:30-9PM. The sun is still out at 9PM so it doesn't feel like the day is over, and since we've been in studio for so long, we just want to keep going...

Meal timing to ensure I don't starve has been a challenge but I think I've got it down now. I wake up early--6AM to be exact--and run to the beach at 6:30AM (I'll write a post about exercise later!). At 6AM I eat a couple crackers so I have some energy for running. I eat breakfast around 7:30AM. By 11AM, I need a snack, because lunch is still a few hours away! At 2PM I eat lunch at the Pencion. By 6PM though, I need another snack. At 8 or 9PM, I eat dinner, which is usually a salad with leftovers from lunch.

Notice that both my snack times fall during studio hours (and are around meal times that I am used to!). So what do I bring? The building in which we hold studio is two blocks away from the Mercadona, the supermarket, so if I forget to bring snacks I can hop on over, but I usually bring my own. I fill a little Tupperware container with a combination of fruit from the market (lately it's been apricots, peaches, or plums), nuts (I'm addicted to peanuts), hard-boiled egg (pre-peeled), crackers (the same ones I eat before running), spreadable cheese (similar to Laughing Cow), and/or candy (today I had a honey hard candy that was yummy!). The yummiest snack ever are peanuts bathed in chocolate, as pictured above. I also drink a lot of water and hope to stay not-too-hungry until I can eat again back at the Pension.

There's also a cafe across the street that lets us bring our coffee cups to the studio. Another cafe around the corner has tostadas with cheese for .80 euro. Lots of options, but I like to bring my own snacks.

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8: Get Used to Siesta

View from the 2nd floor

The famous 3-hour midday break known as siesta is sometimes everything you want it to be, and sometimes not. It really depends.

Studio ends at 14:00 (2PM) and lunch at the Pension is served. Lunch is a one- to two-hour affair, though, depending on the speed of the kitchen.* You get a first course (popular dishes are paella, cold meats with potato salad, vegetable omelette, tomato and grilled cheese, pasta) and a second course (I ate a lot of roast chicken, grilled salmon, Spanish kebab, and pork chops)--not to mention the salad, bread, garlic alioli before the first course. And the dessert or coffee afterwards (or dessert coffee in the form of cafe bombon, which is a shot of espresso poured over condensed milk). Don't eat all of it, though, because you might burst, and you need to save food for dinner! Everyone has Tupperware containers.

So by the time lunch is over, you have anywhere from two full hours to only an hour left to chill because studio resumes at 17:00 (5PM). You have to decide--should I drink this coffee now? Will it get cold in this Spanish midday heat? Do I have enough time to take a nap and not wake up groggy? If I don't take a nap, do I have enough time to do work? Or what? Or what?!

Yeah, that's the big important decision I've been making every day lately.

And it's true. It gets so hot here that it's absolutely exhausting. When I run in the morning at 6:30AM, it's already 25 degrees Celsius, which is 77 degrees Fahrenheit. Back in Berkeley, it hits 77F around midday, and you would not catch me trying to run down College Avenue. In Guardamar, it hits 98F around midday and the heat lasts well past 18:00 (6PM). So that is why the siesta exists here. Most shops close and no one is walking in the streets. It's best to just lie down, don't move, and let the ceiling fan blow air over you for a few hours.

*Edit August 27, 2012: Looking back, we went through so many different ways of ordering food! We went from everyone writing a tick mark next to their desired dishes, to family style (think large pans of 15 roast chicken legs and a huge pan of paella for everyone to share), to trying to number the tables and ordering by table... oh man.


- lunch at the Pension (pacing yourself, what to take to go)
- taking a break
- the heat!

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7: Food While Traveling

Tuna in sunflower oil

When traveling, it's not the best idea for your wallet or your health to eat out for every meal. And when you're walking around all day and constantly freaking out about beautiful architecture, three meals a day isn't enough.

I try to stick by what my former fitness teacher used to preach: eat complex carbohydrates, protein, and healthy fats at every meal or snack. Unfortunately, it's not that easy. You'll be limited by how much space you'll have in your bag or backpack, as well as lack of refrigeration. And you'll want to try the local cuisine too!

So here's my strategy: keep it cheap, easy, filling, and nutrient dense. Make use of all resources.

Because most hostels will have a kitchen with a stove, water, pots, a microwave, and a fridge, I make a stop at the local grocery store at my destination to buy food for breakfast. I stick to my wheat bran (for fiber) and yogurt with muesli, sometimes hard boiled eggs as well. For snacks, I am addicted to peanuts. For lunch or dinner, it's always cheap to get a loaf of bread or a baguette and eat it with tuna, cheese, or ham.

Where are the vegetables? Yeah, I'd like to know too!

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