In "Rivers of Gold", Hugh Thomas's epic study of the rise of the Spanish Empire, the author paints a picture of court life at Santa Fe prior to the siege of Granada in 1491. He describes the advisers to the monarchs and asks his readers to "imagine all these men dining together daily ... over biscuits, stews, fortified wine and chickpeas".
The humble chickpea. It has been a staple of the Spanish diet for centuries. Along with other legumes, it remains so. The Mediterranean diet, listed by Unesco last year as an aspect of "intangible cultural heritage of humanity", includes legumes as one of its principal characteristics.
Legumes, lentils in particular, used to be something of a joke food in the UK. They were associated with the wacky-baccy, vegetarian brigade; the lentil's comedic value was no better expressed than by hippy Neil in "The Young Ones". I myself had, on more than one occasion, to nod in earnest approval as a supper of nut roast and lentil bake was served to a group of us sitting cross-legged on a living-room floor while the Incredible String Band plinkety-plonked from the record-player. "Yea, really nice" would be intoned as thoughts turned to pie and chips. It took the importing of culinary culture, and the likes therefore of tarka dal and humous, to make the lentil and the chickpea be seen as not just representative of alternative lifestyles.
In Mallorca and Spain, the lentil and other legumes never suffered such a reputation for alternativism. Yet for all that the legume has been in the mainstream for so long, there is conflicting evidence as to its enduring appeal.
The Spanish market for legumes is said to be the largest anywhere in Europe. So great would the demand appear to be that domestic production can't cope; they are imported from Canada, Turkey, Argentina, the US and Australia. However, and despite the legume's place in the Mediterranean diet, it fell out of fashion to such an extent that it was being said that it had become the "forgotten" element of the diet.
Recently, fears had been expressed as to the decline in the consumption of legumes and to a consequently less healthy diet. In truth though, the decline had been occurring since the late 60s. The years of economic bonanza had changed eating habits, and the peasant style of the legume didn't fit with a more aspirational and eventually fast-food society. Menus of the day, and their traditional provision of square and balanced meals, were singled out for failing to include legumes.
This, though, was before the crisis took hold. Legume consumption suddenly shot up. In 2009 it was reported that an increase in the sale of legumes was the highest for 50 years; it was up by 10%. Though consumption per person - 4.2 kilograms a year - was not back to the levels of the sixties, it was not difficult to understand why there was a revival in the legume's popularity. Go into any supermarket and you'll find jars of lentils, chickpeas and beans - all at dirt-cheap prices. But the renewed popularity hasn't been distributed evenly across Spain; Mallorca and the Balearics have one of the lowest levels of consumption.
Despite this, legumes remain an important crop for Mallorca's farmers. Apart from legumes being the source of high protein, legume plants are highly valued by farmers for their capacity to replenish soil thanks to their production of nitrogen and the reduction in the cost of fertiliser. They play a significant role in the management of agricultural land. And for this reason, the fact that this winter's weather has been generally benign is good news. Moderate rainfalls and only a couple of light frosts have not disrupted more or less perfect conditions for sowing.
Current optimism for the legume harvest may yet turn along with the weather; and it has been ominously benign. Concerns as to what the weather might yet bring have been expressed in press reports about not only legume production, but also the potato crops. This reporting is one of the, if you like, quainter features of Mallorca. It comes in the wake of the strange story about artichokes being stolen from fincas in Sa Pobla and Muro, and reflects a world that is far removed from the tourist image of the island and indeed from the image that many who live in Mallorca have of the island. But it also reflects the enduring importance of agriculture.
How long the legume will endure is another matter. Its crisis-driven re-emergence has not been as strong in Mallorca as it has been in other parts of Spain, and in Mallorca the shift towards different types of food has been more marked than in much of the country. Mallorca shares with Madrid, Catalonia and other more cosmopolitan areas a greater liking for fast food, one that doesn't sit easily with the legume.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Showing posts with label Diet. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Diet. Show all posts
Wednesday, January 05, 2011
Sunday, October 26, 2008
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.
(PLEASE REPLY TO andrew@thealcudiaguide.com AND NOT VIA THE COMMENTS THINGY HERE.)
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.
(PLEASE REPLY TO andrew@thealcudiaguide.com AND NOT VIA THE COMMENTS THINGY HERE.)
Sunday, September 09, 2007
Finding Nothing But Warmth At Fig Tree Bay
Do I give a fig? I do. Figs. Higos. The fig of memory was a dried part of the range of to-be-avoided Christmas fare alongside sprouts, Stone’s ginger wine and Turkish delight. The fresh fig of the present is a to-be-coveted complex nectar. The other day I was given a tray of figs from a finca close by Santa Margalida. Delicious, they are a small meal in themselves. They are just one of the fruits or, in the case of figs, false fruits that grow here, along with the pulses, cereals and vegetables.
The Mediterranean diet, of which Mallorcan food forms a part, has long been recognised as being one of the most healthy. In addition to its benefits in warding off heart disesase, the diet is now also being promoted as a means of limiting the debilitating effects of arthritis. The fibre-and-calcium-rich fig, high in antioxidants, is also believed to be helpful in preventing cancers, something it shares with the equally remarkable pomegranate (“granada”).
Medical care grows and is processed all around you in Mallorca. To the likes of the fig and pomegranate, add, for instance, the olive oil and the cholesterol-busting almond and chick pea, the latter a staple of the Spanish diet for centuries. Why do they go and mess it all up with something as downright health-malevolent as the ensaimada? Probably for the same reason as I, having gone more or less native with diet, still get a full English down my neck now and then.
CRUISES
Cruise holidays are growing in popularity, there having been a 25% increase in the number of passengers coming in and out of Balearic ports, Palma being by far the most popular. There has been talk knocking around of Alcúdia being a port of call for cruises. Notwithstanding the fact that it would probably necessitate some upgrading of the commercial port, it doesn’t somehow have the same ring (or should I say vista) to it as does Palma. There you are confronted by the vast marina and the splendour of the cathedral. In Alcúdia, the journey in by sea reveals the chimneys of the old power station. But I suppose if Lord Rogers gets to build Millennium Dome II on the site, that journey might be more impressive.
Of course one thing that is impressive is Alcúdia’s beach and bay. A few years back it was voted the best on the BBC’s Holiday programme. The Ultima Hora newspaper does this series entitled “Vamos a la playa” (let’s go to the beach) in which reporters check out beaches around the island. Today they report on Álcúdia, and quote some mainland Spanish tourists. The verdict: there is no other beach that equals Alcúdia in Spain.
And talking of beaches. My bit is distinctly quieter, especially for a Sunday. Gone are the local families who picnic on the beach on a Sunday. It’s not the sun, that’s still belting, but the breeze now has a slight edge to it. A fickle chap your local. Fairweather beachgoers. You can carry on going till November.
QUIZ
Last time - Tears For Fears. Today’s title?
(PLEASE REPLY TO andrew@thealcudiaguide.com AND NOT VIA THE COMMENTS THINGY HERE.)
The Mediterranean diet, of which Mallorcan food forms a part, has long been recognised as being one of the most healthy. In addition to its benefits in warding off heart disesase, the diet is now also being promoted as a means of limiting the debilitating effects of arthritis. The fibre-and-calcium-rich fig, high in antioxidants, is also believed to be helpful in preventing cancers, something it shares with the equally remarkable pomegranate (“granada”).
Medical care grows and is processed all around you in Mallorca. To the likes of the fig and pomegranate, add, for instance, the olive oil and the cholesterol-busting almond and chick pea, the latter a staple of the Spanish diet for centuries. Why do they go and mess it all up with something as downright health-malevolent as the ensaimada? Probably for the same reason as I, having gone more or less native with diet, still get a full English down my neck now and then.
CRUISES
Cruise holidays are growing in popularity, there having been a 25% increase in the number of passengers coming in and out of Balearic ports, Palma being by far the most popular. There has been talk knocking around of Alcúdia being a port of call for cruises. Notwithstanding the fact that it would probably necessitate some upgrading of the commercial port, it doesn’t somehow have the same ring (or should I say vista) to it as does Palma. There you are confronted by the vast marina and the splendour of the cathedral. In Alcúdia, the journey in by sea reveals the chimneys of the old power station. But I suppose if Lord Rogers gets to build Millennium Dome II on the site, that journey might be more impressive.
Of course one thing that is impressive is Alcúdia’s beach and bay. A few years back it was voted the best on the BBC’s Holiday programme. The Ultima Hora newspaper does this series entitled “Vamos a la playa” (let’s go to the beach) in which reporters check out beaches around the island. Today they report on Álcúdia, and quote some mainland Spanish tourists. The verdict: there is no other beach that equals Alcúdia in Spain.
And talking of beaches. My bit is distinctly quieter, especially for a Sunday. Gone are the local families who picnic on the beach on a Sunday. It’s not the sun, that’s still belting, but the breeze now has a slight edge to it. A fickle chap your local. Fairweather beachgoers. You can carry on going till November.
QUIZ
Last time - Tears For Fears. Today’s title?
(PLEASE REPLY TO andrew@thealcudiaguide.com AND NOT VIA THE COMMENTS THINGY HERE.)
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