Real Madrid 1 FC Barcelona 3 while menu planning

I decided to invite 10 of the biggest supporters of the dinner/concert series over for a meal.  And i promised to blog every time Real Madrid lost this season. Well, they won their last 15 games; all 6 European champions league games and all 9 la liga games since they got beaten by poor boys, Levante.   I am not sure i believe in the idea of Satan and evil incarnate but if such a thing exists, Satan's minions are quite obvious; the republican party, Monsanto, Burger King, Microsoft and of course, Real Madrid. But yesterday, they lost and lost bad in front of their home crowd to a team that represents a very different world than the fascist agenda of what was once General Franco's team. Yeah, the Madristas, once again were embarrased by FC Barcelona!

Sunday's dinner is a  small token of a way of saying thanks to those people who have been incredibly supportive of a small aspect of my business, the 6 year running dinner/concert series. In this absurd economy, not many people can afford or are willing to splurge on excellent food and music, so on Sunday, we are offering a small token of appreciation to those who continue to come back to many many of the dinner/concerts that In the Mood for Food present. Although the quality of food and internationally renowned musicians are an amazing deal for the prices we offer, we still exist in the Bush-Obama economy, where most of the people are downwardly sliding and thus have to watch their spending.

 A fairly simple, mostly family style meal so that Cori and i can also sit and join the rest of the guests.

Meanwhile, The biggest club rivalry in professional sports is between FC Barcelona and Real Madrid.  Besides being the 2 finest futbol teams in Spain for many decades, they represent far opposing political and social viewpoints and when it comes down to it, this rivalry has little to do with futbol. Real Madrid represents Spanish fascim and nowhere is this more apparent than in Catalonia. During General Franco's dictatorship, this rivalry grew rather brutal and intense with smoke filled stadiums becoming the norm. And the Catalans are still pissed, rightfully so. The collectivization of workers in Barcelona and throughout Catalonia was a success till Franco's military from Madrid came in and well, Real Madrid represent this dictatorship....STILL. Any good hearted anarchist knows this team represents the worst in humanity, making Manchester United seem like friendly ol' chaps.

For the last few years, let us face it, FC Barcelona, under coach Pep Guardiola has beaten the living crap out of Real Madrid on and off the field with victories last year 5-0, and 2-6, the year before. No competition as the current, anarchist collective approach of the Catalans simply devours the selfish, superstar, Ayn Rand inspired Madristas who, on the field appear to be all out for personal glory and riches.  The Barcelona passing game simply overwhelms the egomaniacs.  (Note: workers in collectives work harder than heirarchical structured work environments) The most dispicable person in the sport today, Real's coach,  JosenMaurinho, smugster extraordinaire, sort of reminds one of Dick Cheney or Karl Rove, in a way. The kinda guy who makes a non violent person want to walk up to him and bitch slap him upside his ugly pretentious head. And no matter what tactics this fascist coach comes up with, the Catalans run him through the dirt. And once again, yesterday, well Barcelona ripped Real Madrid apart in front of 90,000 Madrid fans.
Started off rather bizarre with a really awful pass from goalkeeper Valdes that ended up with a Madrid goal only 24 seconds into the game. And that was it for goals for the right wing team, appropriately dressed in all white uniforms. 20 minutes later, Messi did his magic and let through an unreal pass to Alexis, who put it past Casillas to tie it up.  A rather funny goal from Xavi in the second half followed by Fabregas' first goal in his first game againts Madrid back in a Barc uniform (he looks good in red and blue, far better than in his all red arsenal jersey of days gone by). And damn, what a goal it was, coming on a header off a great cross from Dani Alves, who was constantly raising trouble with his runs down the right.
On defense, Puyol and Abidal were unbreakable. El Capitan Puyol, now 33 is slowing down after recent injuries. He no longer turns the way he used to and has lost some of hte balance but the drive and technique are still able to stop any attack from Ronaldo or Kaka or Ozil that came his way.

So what does this mean? Well, Barcelona is back in 1st place which is a good thing since that means Real Madrid is now in second. And symbolically, the team that represents fascism losing is a good thing, especially to a team that once represented anarchists. In a time when a quasi anarchist uprising is taking place in the US and elsewhere with these rather "interesting" so called occupations, well, any good symbol of hope for the destruction of the current global capitalist fiasco is a good thing.
The ports of the west coast will be shut down tomorrow, so any encouraging symbolic gesture from Spanish futbol is appreciated. Besides it was an entertaining game and once again watching coach Pep celebrate while coach Maurinho looked ready to commit seppuku was a joy.  Someone hand Jose a short sword and let him out himself out of his misery, please.

So tonight we celebrate with some good food and drink.

Menu for tonight
appetizers
socca with hummous and olive tapenade
homemade potato chips with sage-rosemary-salt
knishes (pumpkin dough stuffed with potato/celery root/parsnip/leek/sweet potato mash)

soup
lentil pumpkin

entree
chickpea-wildrice loaf with sundried tomato-miso glaze
roasted brussel sprouts with hickory smoked maple marinated tofu
cranberry yuzu sauce
brocolli baked with cashew sauce
maple roasted fennel and carrots
beet salad
homemade mutli grain rolls

dessert
pumpkin pie
apple almond tart
pecan pie
cranberry walnut sorbet
vanilla ice "cream"