When Starbucks started selling what it called the "Mallorcan Sweet Bread" in its US coffee houses in 2010, there was an outcry among ensaimada traditionalists. The bun was coiled in the wrong direction. It should be clockwise. Starbucks had turned the clock back.
If only the ensaimada could also turn the clock back. Symbolic it is for Mallorcan gastronomy, albeit in a pork lard style that runs counter to generally accepted principles of the Mediterranean diet, but its recent history has not been a notable one. Economic crisis, inevitably, took its toll, but just as serious has been the loss of production of ingredients on the island which threaten its PGI (protected geographical identification) status, while there has also been a loss of sales to tourists, the result of all-inclusives, airline reluctance to allow the boxed ensaimada on board and cruise ship prohibition of food stuffs being taken onto ships. The traditional ensaimada has, therefore, been in decline for several years. There are now only twenty producers left; there had once been six times this number.
These problems have led to the dissolution of the regulatory council for ensaimada PGI and to the island's Association of Bakers and Confectioners assuming responsibility. This council didn't ask for much, but when it went in search of some official support, as it did in 2010, it was knocked back. Its president asked the government's director-general for agriculture for the grand sum of 18,000 euros to cover costs pertaining to the laying-off of two staff. This was apparently agreed to, but the promise was not met.
So, in addition to all its other troubles, the ensaimada was being treated with a degree of official indifference, and this despite the fact that it is of course revered as part of a Mallorcan gastronomy which supposedly offers an alternative tourist product.
Against this background, the ensaimada has, however, been emerging elsewhere. It isn't the Mallorcan ensaimada, but it is essentially the same, even if its coil is backwards. But might this be of benefit to the Mallorcan producers? Starbucks, when it launched its pastry, did explain on its website that the sweet bread was "called ensaimada in Spanish" (and the word is the same in Spanish, albeit that it doesn't have the umlaut over the "i" that the Catalan word has). The fact that Starbucks was describing it as "Mallorcan" might have been thought to be advantageous, but it would be stretching the imagination to believe that a direct benefit might accrue.
Now, the ensaimada is heading to Japan, but this journey has nothing to do with Mallorcan producers. A bakery concern in Madrid, which has traded as Pastelerias Mallorca since 1931 and which has fifteen outlets in the capital, is moving into the Japanese market and taking its version of the ensaimada with it, and it is perfectly entitled to do so as long as it doesn't call it Mallorcan (which would be a breach of the PGI rules). The Japanese, say the company, are big on artisan-style food products and their traditions as well as pastries, so the ensaimada fits the bill, even if it isn't the real thing.
Reaction to this in Mallorca has been to suggest that this will create confusion, but if the Japanese are unaware of the origins of the ensaimada, it is hard to see how they will be confused. There is also a recognition that it is a pity that no Mallorcan business has had the foresight to have done something similar. But without assistance for the ensaimada, it would be impossible. Or so it is said.
While the Japanese connection may not bring about any benefit for the Mallorcan ensaimada, it could, if someone took the initiative, have a benefit for Mallorca as a whole. If the pastry were to become popular, then it could act as a stimulus for Japanese tourism, of which there is very little at present. With this in mind, the PGI, it might be said, acts in a negative fashion. If Pastelerias Mallorca could actually brand it with the Mallorcan title, then who knows, maybe loads of Japanese, their curiosity piqued, would suddenly want to come to the island of the pastry's origin.
But it would be unlikely that this would happen, even though the PGI is in any event threatened because of access to locally produced ingredients. The "Mallorca" tag is jealously guarded as there are other ensaimadas across the globe, not least in the town of San Pedro in Argentina where an historical link with Mallorca and the ensaimada goes back to the nineteenth century. So strong is this link that the ensaimada is the town's symbol, and the town organises the annual national day of the Argentinian ensaimada, an occasion replete with ball de bot folk dance and other Mallorcan food. How very odd that no one has thought to do the same here.
Showing posts with label Japan. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Japan. Show all posts
Tuesday, April 14, 2015
Saturday, January 25, 2014
Miró And The Japanese Connection
This is a story which starts a long way from Mallorca in the land of the rising sun, a land from which Mallorca might hope one day to attract tourists, who are said to be particularly interested in Mallorcan footwear, according at least to some mad buggers in Inca who seem to think they can create a flourishing tourism industry in the town. That's another story, though, as this one, indirectly, begins with a Japanese artist called Ito Shinsui (real name Ito Hajime). If you don't know who Shinsui was, you will almost certainly be familiar with his work. He was one of the great names in the shin-hanga art movement in Japan, one that was typified by those paintings of geisha girls and landscapes which consisted of lots of creams, whites, some blacks and splashes of colour here and there (you might sense that I'm not exactly an art critic or reviewer).
Anyway, Shinsui became so ultra famous and important that he was honoured with being a Living National Treasure in Japan and with receiving the Order of the Rising Sun. He also became very rich. His son, and this is where the story begins to move closer to Mallorca and Spain, is someone by the name of Kazumasa Katsuta, and he is one of the world's leading art collectors. To give a flavour of how much he has tended to collect, in 1991 he bought 530 works at Sotheby's. They were all by the one artist, the Barcelona born but mainly Mallorcan resident Joan Miró.
Putting an exact figure on Miró's total artistic output is difficult. Approximately though, he was responsible for 2,000 oil paintings, 500 sculptures, 400 ceramics and 5,000 various drawings and collages. Whatever the precise number, in 1991 roughly 7% of the entire Miró ouevre was scooped up at one bid by Shinsui's son.
Not all of Miró's work was done in Mallorca as he didn't finally settle on the island until 1956, though he had periods when he had been living here prior to this; his wife and mother were both Mallorcan. But a great deal of his work was created on the island. Miró is inextricably linked to Mallorca as much as he is linked to the city of his birth, Barcelona, and nowadays the Miró Foundation has premises in both Palma and Barcelona.
Though the foundation is the keeper of the greatest number of Miró's works, Katsuta is probably the keeper of the largest private collection, but he hasn't sought to keep them under lock and key somewhere in Japan. He has sent some of the works to Barcelona. In 2000 the foundation received 25 works to mark the 25th anniversary of its founding. In 2005, by which time Katsuta's total stock of Mirós was said to have increased to 780, some important landscape paintings from the mid-1920s were ceded to the foundation. Five years later, ten more pieces arrived. By now, Katsuta was also a patron of the foundation, and in 2011 he was made an honorary citizen of Barcelona in recognition of his collaboration with the foundation and, by extension, with the city.
So, Katsuta has been a very important figure in the Miró story and in supporting the foundation in Barcelona and Palma. But into this story we must now add Portugal. And why? In order to answer this, one has to go back to 2006. In that year the Banco Português de Negócios (BPN) bought 85 works by Miró from Katsuta. They are said to be worth 35 million euros but could fetch at least double this at auction.
BPN bought the works solely as an investment. They have never been exhibited in Portugal, though the bank did once consider exhibiting them. This was before its former president was arrested on corruption charges. BPN was a victim of economic crisis and of less than scrupulous behaviour. It collapsed in 2008, the Portuguese Government nationalised it and acquired, into the bargain, the 85 Mirós. It still has them, sitting in a vault somewhere, but it is planning to sell them at auction. They are not a priority, and the government says it doesn't have the spare cash to acquire them, a line of argument which doesn't wash with a number of critics. What is there to acquire, if the government and so therefore the state already owns them?
Putting the Mirós up for auction has caused a storm of protest, opponents saying that they belong to Portugal and should be exhibited and enjoyed by the Portuguese people. The government seems unmoved. Though 70-odd million euros would come in handy, in the scale of things (national debt), it isn't really a lot. But, auction it will doubtless be. Whether Kazumasa Katsuta will be one of the bidders would probably be unlikely. Why would he buy them for a second time? Wherever they end up though, the chances are that, like the works that Katsuta owns, they might find their way back, if only to be exhibited. Not, one imagines, to Portugal, but to Miró's lands - Barcelona and Mallorca.
Anyway, Shinsui became so ultra famous and important that he was honoured with being a Living National Treasure in Japan and with receiving the Order of the Rising Sun. He also became very rich. His son, and this is where the story begins to move closer to Mallorca and Spain, is someone by the name of Kazumasa Katsuta, and he is one of the world's leading art collectors. To give a flavour of how much he has tended to collect, in 1991 he bought 530 works at Sotheby's. They were all by the one artist, the Barcelona born but mainly Mallorcan resident Joan Miró.
Putting an exact figure on Miró's total artistic output is difficult. Approximately though, he was responsible for 2,000 oil paintings, 500 sculptures, 400 ceramics and 5,000 various drawings and collages. Whatever the precise number, in 1991 roughly 7% of the entire Miró ouevre was scooped up at one bid by Shinsui's son.
Not all of Miró's work was done in Mallorca as he didn't finally settle on the island until 1956, though he had periods when he had been living here prior to this; his wife and mother were both Mallorcan. But a great deal of his work was created on the island. Miró is inextricably linked to Mallorca as much as he is linked to the city of his birth, Barcelona, and nowadays the Miró Foundation has premises in both Palma and Barcelona.
Though the foundation is the keeper of the greatest number of Miró's works, Katsuta is probably the keeper of the largest private collection, but he hasn't sought to keep them under lock and key somewhere in Japan. He has sent some of the works to Barcelona. In 2000 the foundation received 25 works to mark the 25th anniversary of its founding. In 2005, by which time Katsuta's total stock of Mirós was said to have increased to 780, some important landscape paintings from the mid-1920s were ceded to the foundation. Five years later, ten more pieces arrived. By now, Katsuta was also a patron of the foundation, and in 2011 he was made an honorary citizen of Barcelona in recognition of his collaboration with the foundation and, by extension, with the city.
So, Katsuta has been a very important figure in the Miró story and in supporting the foundation in Barcelona and Palma. But into this story we must now add Portugal. And why? In order to answer this, one has to go back to 2006. In that year the Banco Português de Negócios (BPN) bought 85 works by Miró from Katsuta. They are said to be worth 35 million euros but could fetch at least double this at auction.
BPN bought the works solely as an investment. They have never been exhibited in Portugal, though the bank did once consider exhibiting them. This was before its former president was arrested on corruption charges. BPN was a victim of economic crisis and of less than scrupulous behaviour. It collapsed in 2008, the Portuguese Government nationalised it and acquired, into the bargain, the 85 Mirós. It still has them, sitting in a vault somewhere, but it is planning to sell them at auction. They are not a priority, and the government says it doesn't have the spare cash to acquire them, a line of argument which doesn't wash with a number of critics. What is there to acquire, if the government and so therefore the state already owns them?
Putting the Mirós up for auction has caused a storm of protest, opponents saying that they belong to Portugal and should be exhibited and enjoyed by the Portuguese people. The government seems unmoved. Though 70-odd million euros would come in handy, in the scale of things (national debt), it isn't really a lot. But, auction it will doubtless be. Whether Kazumasa Katsuta will be one of the bidders would probably be unlikely. Why would he buy them for a second time? Wherever they end up though, the chances are that, like the works that Katsuta owns, they might find their way back, if only to be exhibited. Not, one imagines, to Portugal, but to Miró's lands - Barcelona and Mallorca.
Friday, September 28, 2012
Mallorca: Big In Japan?
The first time I went to Haworth in West Yorkshire I discovered that signs were all in Japanese. The signs were of course there for Japanese tourists. Thousands of them flock to Haworth as it is at the heart of Brontë country. What I hadn't appreciated was that the Brontës are central to English teaching in Japan, hence students and others who came in search of Heathcliff or perhaps Kate Bush.
Mallorca doesn't have any Brontës. It doesn't have any historical literary greats or any that anyone outside of Mallorca will have ever heard of. Ramon Llull might just qualify, but an obscure thirteenth century novel ("Blanquerna") written in Catalan is not the stuff of promoting huge tourist interest, be the tourist Japanese or from any other country, while the plot - a hermit who becomes pope - doesn't have quite the same power as Catherine and Heathcliff's passion.
It's a pity that Mallorca doesn't have a few Brontës, Shakespeares or Dickens lurking in its past. Imagine what even one of them would do for winter tourism. In the absence of any giants from the world of literature, it really would help if they could get a move on and prove once and for all that Columbus was from Porto Colom, especially as the Ibizans are currently trying to steal the Columbus thunder. As Mallorca has, in addition to no literary figures of any great importance, no legends from history, it can't get the Japanese (or anyone else for that matter) flocking to the island in winter. (And please for God's sake don't mention Chopin.)
Despite the slight drawback of being unable to boast of any characters from the past who would be meaningful to an international traveller, Mallorca is nonetheless hopeful of attracting more Japanese tourists. And top of the list of reasons why the Japanese would come (possibly) are shoes. According to the Japanese ambassador to Spain, Mallorcan footwear is very popular in Japan. Which will doubtless be welcome news to Camper and other footwear manufacturers on the island. It might even prove to be a boost to Inca's footwear museum which, when last heard of, was a footwear museum without much by way of footwear.
"Very bright" is how the ambassador has described the island's footwear companies' future. But there is a slight snag. The shoes may be popular or even very popular, but once the Japanese have schlepped as far as Spain they tend to stick with the mainland cities. More promotion is needed to get the Japanese tourist to eschew Barcelona in favour of Palma and hopefully other parts of the island. Shoes, by themselves, are not enough.
There is, his excellency has added, plenty to attract his fellow countrymen and women. Culture, history, the landscapes. Which sounds all quite novel. I can't think that these have ever been highlighted as potential attractions to tourists from other countries. Like China, for example.
Chinese tourism to Spain apparently grew by 30% in the first quarter of this year, and it would seem that Chinese tour operators consider it their duty to support European tourist economies, which is mightily altruistic of them. This sudden spurt in Chinese tourism hasn't, however, meant a great deal to Mallorca. There certainly haven't been hordes of Chinese on the local beaches this summer, though as the Chinese, as we have previously been told, don't really go in for beach tourism, their absence from the beaches wouldn't have been that surprising. Maybe they were hiding themselves away in Palma Cathedral instead.
The Japanese, on the other hand, are apparently pretty keen on beach tourism, which would make them more of an all-round option as a developing tourism market. With their love of footwear, a whole new opportunity - for upmarket flip-flops - beckons.
Potential tourism from the Far East is very much flavour of the month. The South Korean ambassador was recently in Mallorca and he spoke with President Bauzá about the possibility of a delegation going to Korea to help strengthen tourist ties with the Balearics. One says strengthen, but as none of the 100,000 or so Korean tourists who come to Spain currently venture as far as Mallorca, it would be more a case of establishing tourist ties, though were a delegation to head off to Seoul, there would be an outcry about the expense.
But this is the sort of effort that needs to be made and needs to be paid for. It's all well and good talking about markets like Japan, China or Korea, but they need cultivating, and this takes time and money. If Mallorca is to ever be big in Japan, some big investment is going to be required.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Mallorca doesn't have any Brontës. It doesn't have any historical literary greats or any that anyone outside of Mallorca will have ever heard of. Ramon Llull might just qualify, but an obscure thirteenth century novel ("Blanquerna") written in Catalan is not the stuff of promoting huge tourist interest, be the tourist Japanese or from any other country, while the plot - a hermit who becomes pope - doesn't have quite the same power as Catherine and Heathcliff's passion.
It's a pity that Mallorca doesn't have a few Brontës, Shakespeares or Dickens lurking in its past. Imagine what even one of them would do for winter tourism. In the absence of any giants from the world of literature, it really would help if they could get a move on and prove once and for all that Columbus was from Porto Colom, especially as the Ibizans are currently trying to steal the Columbus thunder. As Mallorca has, in addition to no literary figures of any great importance, no legends from history, it can't get the Japanese (or anyone else for that matter) flocking to the island in winter. (And please for God's sake don't mention Chopin.)
Despite the slight drawback of being unable to boast of any characters from the past who would be meaningful to an international traveller, Mallorca is nonetheless hopeful of attracting more Japanese tourists. And top of the list of reasons why the Japanese would come (possibly) are shoes. According to the Japanese ambassador to Spain, Mallorcan footwear is very popular in Japan. Which will doubtless be welcome news to Camper and other footwear manufacturers on the island. It might even prove to be a boost to Inca's footwear museum which, when last heard of, was a footwear museum without much by way of footwear.
"Very bright" is how the ambassador has described the island's footwear companies' future. But there is a slight snag. The shoes may be popular or even very popular, but once the Japanese have schlepped as far as Spain they tend to stick with the mainland cities. More promotion is needed to get the Japanese tourist to eschew Barcelona in favour of Palma and hopefully other parts of the island. Shoes, by themselves, are not enough.
There is, his excellency has added, plenty to attract his fellow countrymen and women. Culture, history, the landscapes. Which sounds all quite novel. I can't think that these have ever been highlighted as potential attractions to tourists from other countries. Like China, for example.
Chinese tourism to Spain apparently grew by 30% in the first quarter of this year, and it would seem that Chinese tour operators consider it their duty to support European tourist economies, which is mightily altruistic of them. This sudden spurt in Chinese tourism hasn't, however, meant a great deal to Mallorca. There certainly haven't been hordes of Chinese on the local beaches this summer, though as the Chinese, as we have previously been told, don't really go in for beach tourism, their absence from the beaches wouldn't have been that surprising. Maybe they were hiding themselves away in Palma Cathedral instead.
The Japanese, on the other hand, are apparently pretty keen on beach tourism, which would make them more of an all-round option as a developing tourism market. With their love of footwear, a whole new opportunity - for upmarket flip-flops - beckons.
Potential tourism from the Far East is very much flavour of the month. The South Korean ambassador was recently in Mallorca and he spoke with President Bauzá about the possibility of a delegation going to Korea to help strengthen tourist ties with the Balearics. One says strengthen, but as none of the 100,000 or so Korean tourists who come to Spain currently venture as far as Mallorca, it would be more a case of establishing tourist ties, though were a delegation to head off to Seoul, there would be an outcry about the expense.
But this is the sort of effort that needs to be made and needs to be paid for. It's all well and good talking about markets like Japan, China or Korea, but they need cultivating, and this takes time and money. If Mallorca is to ever be big in Japan, some big investment is going to be required.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
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