Coronavirus Lockdown Spain Blog Day 1: Vegan food supplies
Written by Rupert O.
In this video, Venus reports from her unmade bed. Basically, she doesn’t have anything else to do. She lives in Barcelona, Spain. It’s currently on lockdown because of Coronavirus. Spanish residents are only permitted to leave the house to get food and urgent medical supplies.
As a consequence, Venus will be inside her flat for the next few weeks and she fully intends to make the most of it. It will be turned into ‘an art experience’. If not, she might well go crazy.
So, this video will enable Venus to display all the food that she’s bought. She’s vegan and mostly organic. It’s going to be hard to survive the situation, she thinks. When she went to the Spanish supermarkets, she noticed that the majority of the meat and dairy products had already gone. That was of no importance to her, though. There was no shortage of the items that she required.
The toilet roll situation is far from easy. But the smaller independent retailers still have sufficient supplies. A bigger concern for her is that the local supermarkets are almost out of bottled water. Venus is finding that the atmosphere in the bigger shops and stores is becoming very tense. It seems as though they might be the most dangerous place to be, going forward. Some customers wear masks and some don’t. Getting your stuff and then getting out as fast as you can is certainly a scramble.
Having said all that, Venus has yet to see anyone pushing a shopping trolley that’s absolutely overloaded ‘with pointless stuff’ yet. Social media has been quick to show locals loading up on both toilet tissue and yoghurt. She must admit though, that in her location, it hasn’t yet been quite so bad. The queues of people waiting to pay have been a lot less than they might have been given Spain’s current situation. Of course, the time you choose to go out and shop might well be an important factor when it comes to the ease, or difficulty, of getting groceries.
This morning, when she got up, the environment around her was ‘absolutely quiet. La Barceloneta, in Barcelona, is usually a ‘very vibrant place, no matter the time of day.’ It was nice to have it quiet anyway, she confesses. The only real distractions that she’s suffered so far, have been barking dogs and someone who insists on playing loud music with lots of bass. Despite this, Venus was able to sleep very well last night.
If they are lucky, Venus and the fellow residents of Barcelona might only have to hide themselves away for 2 weeks. Any longer than that, she says, ‘would be terrible.’ She has got some very good books to read, but that will be a subject for a forthcoming video.
Venus goes into her kitchen to show us the extent of her fruit supply. It’s arranged on the table prior to being used to fill up her fruit bowl. The attractive array comprises: organic pink grapefruit, avocados, sweet potatoes, organic apples, oranges and lemons. She makes a point of displaying her bottled water.
Next, she reviews her grains and carbs. There are the ‘toasted thingies’ that she has for breakfast and gluten-free rice bread. Venus pauses her voice-over as the offending dog – or dogs, resume the noise. Venus displays her brown rice, Jasmine rice, quinoa, millet, bulgur wheat mix and lentil mix. She hopes that she’ll have an adequate variety to see her through the lockdown period.
For protein, she relies upon green lentils, red lentils, hemp seeds, flax seed, a mixture of different seeds and some walnuts. She has a selection of yoghurts. Alpro vegan yoghurts get her recommendation because they are so very creamy. Soya-based yoghurts are fine but adding in the occasional oat-based one adds some much needed variety.
Green olive tapenade and hummus will feature in many an orgasmic breakfast, as will Hellman’s vegan mayonnaise, which definitely gets her seal of approval. Venus makes a point of displaying the rest of the contents of her fridge. They are: bags of rocket, organic lettuce, carrots, onions, celery, cucumber, broccoli and sprouts (alfalfa and rocket varieties). Tomatoes and strawberries are much in evidence.
The distant dogs begin to bark again. Venus tries to remain calm as she assesses her collection of teas. She thinks that Yogi tea is great. The individual tea bag envelopes come with an auspicious spiritual message printed on them. Venus thinks that they’re all very inspiring – especially ‘Relax’. ‘Relax, relax,’ she repeats, just as the dogs resume their noise. The turmeric chai is almost certainly her favourite. Although Venus isn’t a great fan of black tea, she does favour several examples from ‘Palais des Thés’.
Finally, there’s a bag of coffee and a matching bag of ‘Panela’. She doesn’t have sugar normally, except in her coffee. And, she only has 1 cup a day, that’s usually half an hour after her breakfast. She might even eliminate it completely. She’s certainly thinking about it.
Then, Venus decides to put her lunch together. Today, it will include: rocket, bulgar wheat, avocado, cherry tomatoes, cucumber, broccoli sprouts, ground flax seed and some walnuts. We watch as she prepares the food in a time-lapse sequence. It ends up looking delicious.