We no eat Americano

Week 2 in Alicante has just ended and a fiercer craving for barbecue ribs I have never experienced. This is going to be a long couple of months. They don't even have ribs for sale here. Chicken heart, yes. Pork ribs, no. Something is wrong here.

Tommy and I discussed the idea of making dinner for his roommates -- a native Spaniard named Juanjo and his Italian girlfriend Claudia and another student, Luisa, from Germany -- and decided that we wanted to make a classic American dinner. This brainwave turned out to be more difficult than we initially expected. As I have discussed before, American food is mostly a melange of other cultures and there are very few things that are specifically ours. Meatloaf was nixed early on, as were burgers and hot dogs (both easily available throughout Alicante). Eventually we settled on oven fried chicken and potato salad.

The oven fried chicken was the same recipe I used for my friend Bernie's birthday back in April but came out even better this time because I actually crushed up the toast/cereal coating finely enough so that it stuck.

Oh by the way, the oven in Tommy's apartment where we were cooking is gas. Like you have to light it manually. And it shoots flames out in your face. And the chicken that took about 40 minutes to cook in my oven at school cooked in about 25 minutes in this apartment. Terrifying.

The potato salad we made was a slightly adapted version of pretty classic potato salad but with a little less mayo and the addition of apple cider vinegar which makes it a lot lighter and tangy in a good way. This recipe makes a ton, enough to feed about 8 people, but it will keep in the fridge, tightly covered, for a few days.

Also if you were wondering, it's very difficult to take an attractive picture of potato salad.

With that said, 'MURICA.

Ingredients:

6 eggs, hard boiled
12-15 small yellow or red potatoes
4 stalks of celery, finely chopped
1 small onion, finely chopped
3/4 c. Mayo
Scant 1/4 c. Dijon mustard
1 tbs. apple cider vinegar
Kosher salt, cracked black pepper to taste



1. Boil the potatoes in lightly salted water for about 12-15 minutes until soft. Remove from heat and run under cool water.
2. While the potatoes are cooling, roughly chop the hard boiled eggs and in a large bowl, combine them with the celery and onion.
3. Quarter each potato (or divide into eighths if the pieces seem too big) and add to the egg/vegetable mixture. Add the mayo and the Dijon and mix well with a large spatula until all the pieces are evenly coated.

4. Sprinkle the cider vinegar across the top and mix again. Season to taste with the kosher salt and pepper.