If The Summer Changed To Winter

The season is closing with the worst of weather; it's a shame for the last-dreg tourists who might have hoped to have caught a bit of decent sun. They are more likely to catch a cold. The shifts in weather in autumn are the originators of sniffles and sore throats; I should know, I had to get some antibiotics from the chemist yesterday. And resistance is lessened when sleep is disturbed, as it was two nights ago by a storm that came and then went on through most of the night and which deposited industrial quantities of rain. The forecast says it will get cold during the week. Snow (on the mountain tops) is not unusual this early; I mentioned such around the start of November last year.

The change in the weather brings with it a whole change in diet. Gone are the salads of summer, replaced by the "winter-warmers". It is possible to eat well and cheaply in winter if one opts for the staples of a Spanish diet that are often overlooked by the Brits. The chickpea, for instance, is an ancient part of Spanish cuisine. Go back to historical accounts around the time of the start of empire in the late fifteenth century, and you will discover that the nobility was eating chickpeas. While these and white beans and lentils can all be prepared, the easier route is the jar. They are dirt cheap; 60 centimos or so for a good-sized one. Chickpeas or beans or both with some pieces of local sausage or pork in a stew with stock or gravy, serve with some veg and you can even dispense with potatoes or rice, it's that filling. And it all costs very little. There may be a bit of a bowel attack later, but what the heck.

One thing you can get here easily is Bisto in its various flavours. This is a godsend. The alternatives - the Spanish or German gravies/stocks are either tasteless or are akin to eating your way through a salt mine. A cracking mix for taste is to add "tomate frito", a sort of halfway between a tomato sauce and a purée, and which is usually piled high in supermarkets. Without overdoing it, it is an excellent addition to most sauces or gravies. Cooking up a pea or pulse stew with the likes of broccoli or green beans (which can be quite dear at times) is about as healthy as it gets, except maybe the local sausage; broccoli and green beans, for instance, both rated 100 out of 100 in a recent listing of the most nutritious of food stuffs. Something else recent was a look at the Spanish menú del día by the equivalent of the Consumers' Association. It said that the menú was too heavily loaded in favour of carbs, if not necessarily of the legume variety. Hard for me to say, I've not had many, but when I have, they have usually always been good. One such at Bon Profit in Puerto Pollensa, to which I was taken by José at Bony, was difficult to get past the first course - the sopa mallorquina - which was that filling. Another goodie, as recommended by Seamus at No Frills, is Alhambra in Puerto Alcúdia. One of the most popular of all menús is that at Celler El Moli in Pollensa - a barn of a converted mill that is always full. These menús are never expensive, even if they are experiencing a bit of a slump just at the moment. I did, however, once have a menú which featured, as the main course, the local favourite of pork and cabbage. It was truly disgusting, unless, that is, you like pork with merely a hint of meat and cabbage that has been cooked into a yellow mush. "It's good for preventing cancer," said the lady owner who I know well and am very fond of and, for which reason, I am not going to mention the restaurant in question. Maybe so, but I can probably find other ways of avoiding it.

And as winter beckons, so there is something of a winter of discontent in the political ranks of the island. Following on from the sacking of the Unió Mallorquina's tourism minister from the Balearic Government, there are now not one, but two ministers involved with court cases involving alleged frauds. Of the three main parties, the only one that seems unaffected is the PSOE socialists (who lead the Balearic Government); the scandals relate to the nationalists and the Partido Popular. There is talk of an early election, as a consequence of these cases, but the president, Francesc Antich, is saying no - at the moment. An opinion poll suggests that, were there to be a snap election, the socialists would increase their representation. There is also talk of local rule being taken away and handed over to Madrid. I don't know how this could possibly be done; it would be a major constitutional crisis were it to be. Regional autonomy is enshrined in Spain's democracy; one disrupts it at one's peril, and it is most unlikely that it would happen. Yet, for all that, local democracy becomes imperilled by the accusations of corruption; they cut away at the basis of trust. But in truth, trust is not something that one can easily apply here. Scratch beneath the surface, and one fears that there is always something not quite right. Partly, one suspects, this is a hangover from the Franco days. Then, for instance, rules were there for the breaking, not least when it came to tax liabilities of the wealthy and powerful. There is also the incestuousness of an island community - the "networks" that existed and probably still do. Corrupt practices take time to be eradicated, especially when they were part of the fabric of public life. One might say, well it's been over 30 years. True, but attitudes can take a longer time to change than institutions or the law. There will be more cases, but they won't be a reason for centralising total political control on a remote part of mainland Spain.


QUIZ
Yesterday's title - The Specials, "Ghost Town" (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RZ2oXzrnti4). Today's title - a line from a monster "prog" band; affirmative.

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