Bean ice cream

Looking through my phone's camera roll, I realize I have not shared the images of the day my mom and I ate BEAN ice-cream. Yes, that's a thing and opinions vastly differ when it comes to what it tastes like. My mom says it's quite alright. I say it's quite awful.

August 17, 2023. We started the day by visiting the "Chinatown" of Valencia (right next to the Estació del Nord train station). I had made the biggest advertisement of the neighbourhood, claiming it was full of great restaurants and shops with their signs written in Chinese, and my mom was left thinking it was something akin to the Liberdade in São Paulo or Chinatown in NYC.

To make a long story short, it was a letdown. The "chinatown" is only a couple of streets around Carrer Pelai, a region also known as Convento Jerusalén. Most restaurants are pretty average when it comes to google maps' ratings, most shops are just the classic money-laundering mobile shops, with one or another hairdresser/manicurist here and there. I feel the government has abandoned this neighbourhood, which is a shame and a lack of foresight. The "chinatown" could definitely use some investment to attract tourists, boost business, and make people proud of their culture and their city.

But I digress.

After walking around, we entered a huge Asian supermarket, stocked with a million ingredients and products I've never seen before. Weird plants, different mushrooms, moon cakes. And then, the assorted variety of ice-creams, with flavours such as red kidney beans, soya beans and black beans with tapioca pearls — like bubble tea on a frozen stick! As usual, a picture is worth more than a thousand words, and a series of pictures tells a story.

After that, we walked to Ruzafa, a neighbourhood my mom still didn't know, even though this was her third visit to Valencia.