Esporles. What do we know of the place? It is home to La Granja, it has a sweets fair every October and Mick of the Council was its mayor for ten years. Since ascending to the presidential throne at the Council, Mick and his cultural vice-presidential compadre Frank (Miralles) have been bigging up the island's fiestas. They are a means for tourists to get to know the real Mallorca, the authentic Mallorca. Not, therefore, the Mallorca with roads with all-summer-long jams, with every last piece of the streets of old Palma crammed with visitors, with locals ejected from their dwellings by Airbnb, with youthful tourists leaving trails of vomit between Magalluf and Playa de Palma. No, this is the authentic Mallorca with tranquil village squares cooled by Tramuntana breezes and where visitors can engage in cultural exchange with the locals and discover the limitless joys of bread with oil and tomato and of ball de bot, little-jumping folk dancers.
Esporles does have tourists. Not huge numbers but numbers nonetheless. They are swelled by cyclists overrunning the tranquil squares in springtime and excursion trips to La Granja. The right sort of place, in general though, for the Mick'n'Frank vision of touristic cultural harmony and appreciation of the rich and long history of the Island of Calm to flourish. However.
There are two bits to Esporles: the old bit and the new bit. The latter of these, Vilanova, has had its fiestas. Jolly little affairs, they will be more of an occasion for the indigenous population of the new bit than for outsiders. Which may be as well. Each year, the fiestas use a mascot for promotion. This mascot is the Boc, a goat. The poster took the word Boc and came up with "OverBOCking". How clever. Then there was a game to be played. Was this in the style of the "jocs tradicionals" that feature so heavily in village fiestas and can allow visitors to understand the traditions of jewel races and spinning tops? Well, it depends what you mean by tradition. There is a new tradition. A new craze. Everyone seems to be playing it. And so in the new bit there was "hunt the guiri".
The guiri of the poster didn't, it has to be said, look like a typical tourist. Certainly not one along Punta Ballena. He was an Inspector Poirot type of character carrying a rolled-up beach umbrella (not that you really need a beach umbrella in Esporles). Anyway, if the guiris could be hunted down, there would be a free supper for the winner. Goodness, they know how to make their own fun in the new bit.
No, it wasn't xenophobic, which had been a criticism. It was all a spot of humour with an ironic touch, said the organising committee, that took "massification" and holiday rentals as its themes. And humorous it no doubt was. Absolutely no offence was meant or indeed caused. It was all just a variation on a "joc tradicional" that isn't necessarily one here in Mallorca. Pin the tail on the donkey, with a tourist as the substitute. Mick'n'Frank, as far as one is aware, haven't commented.
Showing posts with label Esporles. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Esporles. Show all posts
Sunday, August 13, 2017
Sunday, October 04, 2015
The Giant Sweet Shop Of The Tramuntana
There is, as far as I can make out, no particularly good reason why a village in the Tramuntana has insisted on turning itself into the centre of sheer unbridled confectionery fantasy. All they need are some toys as well, and this would be kiddie heaven. As it is, it gets close enough to the divine by converting itself on one day a year - today - into a giant sweet shop and a magician's bakery. Sugar, cream, chocolate, custards, this is a wonderland conjured up by some candy wizard. This is Esporles on the first Sunday in October: Mallorca's tribute to all our yesterdays of the pick 'n' mix and the corner shop with its penny-costing flying saucers and pink shrimps.
They've been holding the sweets fair since 2005. Maybe it was all the doing of he who is now president of the Council of Mallorca, Miquel Ensenyat. 2005 was when he became mayor. Invent a fair and make it one with a theme that nowhere else has. What could be simpler than sweets?
It has of course branched out since the early days. There is now all manner of gluttony to indulge in - savouries, sobrassada sausage, pa amb olis - on a day when elsewhere in Mallorca, Sant Joan, they're going mad over the butifarró (aka botifarron), the sort of black pudding except when it isn't black. At least in Sant Joan one can detect a history, that of the enthusiasts of the local motoring club who came up with the idea for a boti-barbecue in 1966. In Esporles, the reason for the sweet treats can probably be put down to no more than they could, and so have. Otherwise, it would be a fair similar to many others: Esporles is about farming and livestock, a textile industry that pretty much died out decades ago, La Granja and so some tourism of a heritage and ethnological nature.
The fair, despite having only been going since 2005, has of course acquired the adjective "traditional". In itself it isn't traditional, but much of what is on offer is, and last year they made a concerted effort to sell more sweets by putting on a special promotion for the rosaries of sweeties that are given out for All Saints (which is less than a month away). As this tradition has apparently been experiencing some decline, then what better than reminding grandparents, godparents and others of times past and of the need to buy some choccy rosaries in the present?
The prevailing smell of the day of sweets that hangs over Esporles is, though, that of the "bunyol", the doughnut (or fritter with a hole), being fried, and it comes very much into its own at Allhallowtide as well. It can also lay claim to being part of a long local tradition. But the sweet, or pastry, or cake that beats them all in the traditional stakes is our old friend the ensaimada, which will find pride of place next to the dolly mixtures and what have you.
The history of the ensaimada is shrouded in some mystery. Legend has it that its shape comes from an Arabic turban, and that it was the Muslim invaders of the early tenth century who were responsible for its introduction. The word itself does derive from the Arabic "saim", but as this means lard it is most unlikely - for religious dietary reasons - that the Muslims were making their pastry with it. The saim element was to come later but, so it is believed, grafted onto a different pastry, a snail-shaped thing called the bulema that the Arabs produced but which used butter from sheep's milk instead of lard. There is a further claim that, following the conquest, King Jaume I was presented with an ensaimada by a Jewish baker, but again this wouldn't have had lard. Quite when this was first used as an ingredient isn't known, but the bulema explanation - from both Arabic and Jewish cuisine of the times - would appear to hold the key to the later development using lard and so what is now one of Mallorca's most obvious symbols.
So the Esporles fair, only in its eleventh edition, may not have its own tradition, but it will be exhibiting it. The giant sweet shop will be open at ten o'clock, so plenty of time to chomp your way through all the goodies before getting over to Sant Joan and the one o'clock kick-off of the boti-barby. Whoever said Mediterranean diet?
They've been holding the sweets fair since 2005. Maybe it was all the doing of he who is now president of the Council of Mallorca, Miquel Ensenyat. 2005 was when he became mayor. Invent a fair and make it one with a theme that nowhere else has. What could be simpler than sweets?
It has of course branched out since the early days. There is now all manner of gluttony to indulge in - savouries, sobrassada sausage, pa amb olis - on a day when elsewhere in Mallorca, Sant Joan, they're going mad over the butifarró (aka botifarron), the sort of black pudding except when it isn't black. At least in Sant Joan one can detect a history, that of the enthusiasts of the local motoring club who came up with the idea for a boti-barbecue in 1966. In Esporles, the reason for the sweet treats can probably be put down to no more than they could, and so have. Otherwise, it would be a fair similar to many others: Esporles is about farming and livestock, a textile industry that pretty much died out decades ago, La Granja and so some tourism of a heritage and ethnological nature.
The fair, despite having only been going since 2005, has of course acquired the adjective "traditional". In itself it isn't traditional, but much of what is on offer is, and last year they made a concerted effort to sell more sweets by putting on a special promotion for the rosaries of sweeties that are given out for All Saints (which is less than a month away). As this tradition has apparently been experiencing some decline, then what better than reminding grandparents, godparents and others of times past and of the need to buy some choccy rosaries in the present?
The prevailing smell of the day of sweets that hangs over Esporles is, though, that of the "bunyol", the doughnut (or fritter with a hole), being fried, and it comes very much into its own at Allhallowtide as well. It can also lay claim to being part of a long local tradition. But the sweet, or pastry, or cake that beats them all in the traditional stakes is our old friend the ensaimada, which will find pride of place next to the dolly mixtures and what have you.
The history of the ensaimada is shrouded in some mystery. Legend has it that its shape comes from an Arabic turban, and that it was the Muslim invaders of the early tenth century who were responsible for its introduction. The word itself does derive from the Arabic "saim", but as this means lard it is most unlikely - for religious dietary reasons - that the Muslims were making their pastry with it. The saim element was to come later but, so it is believed, grafted onto a different pastry, a snail-shaped thing called the bulema that the Arabs produced but which used butter from sheep's milk instead of lard. There is a further claim that, following the conquest, King Jaume I was presented with an ensaimada by a Jewish baker, but again this wouldn't have had lard. Quite when this was first used as an ingredient isn't known, but the bulema explanation - from both Arabic and Jewish cuisine of the times - would appear to hold the key to the later development using lard and so what is now one of Mallorca's most obvious symbols.
So the Esporles fair, only in its eleventh edition, may not have its own tradition, but it will be exhibiting it. The giant sweet shop will be open at ten o'clock, so plenty of time to chomp your way through all the goodies before getting over to Sant Joan and the one o'clock kick-off of the boti-barby. Whoever said Mediterranean diet?
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