The Ensaimada Is Turning Japanese

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.

Not The Same: Ensaïmadas

Say sweetbreads to me and I'll come out in a cold sweat. It's all to do with the memory of a meal in the Dordogne. The dish looked appetising enough, until I was told what "ris de veau" actually meant. I had mistaken the "ris" bit to be rice. Tucking into pancreas isn't at the top of my list of culinary experiences to be repeated. Nor, come to that, is sweet bread.

Sweet bread is making an appearance in the US. The separation of bread from sweet presumably overcomes the connotation with offal, making it more a waffle, or maybe the Americans don't know what sweetbreads are. Whatever. Sweet bread is available in Starbucks. Mallorcan Sweet Bread, aka the ensaïmada (so long as the aka is not used, it would seem). The Americans can lard their asses even more, courtesy of Mallorcan lard. Or can they?

The key ingredient of the ensaïmada is pork lard - "saïm". The word is derived from the Latin for fat. An unfathomable peculiarity of an otherwise healthy Mallorcan Mediterranean diet is that they go and wreck it by shovelling lard and sugar down their necks. What on earth are they thinking of?

The reverence shown to the ensaïmada baffles me. It has its own "day". It gets hauled off in boxes by passengers from the airport, intent on inflicting it on unsuspecting relatives and friends on the mainland. It has been 15 metres in diameter, such as at Inca's Dijous Bo a couple of years back. It has been, according to a press reader survey in February 2009, the seventh wonder of Mallorca (at least it wasn't the first).

The ensaïmada has also been a victim of recession and of rival Mallorcan products. Production and sales have fallen.

According to Starbucks' US website, one of its Mallorca Sweet Breads contains a mere 60% of your daily saturated fat intake; indeed it has 39% of total fat intake for the day. The site bigs up the bun by saying that (in Mallorca) "one wouldn't dream of starting the day without a coffee and this traditional sweet bread". Ah yes, you wake up and the first thing that comes to mind is to get off to the bakers or the local café and give yourself a sugary moustache.

Going through the lengthy list of the sweet bread's ingredients on the website, there seems to be no mention of "saïm". Maybe the pork lard is covered by something else, but if not, then it isn't, strictly speaking, the saïm thing. Were it to be, then who knows how high the fat content would be.

The Mallorcan ensaïmada is a registered "brand", but the president of the ensaïmada regulatory council, which has faced its own financing issues, reckons that there isn't a lot to prevent Starbucks from promoting the bread. It is promotion, after all. But the name "ensaïmada" isn't actually being used, albeit that the website gives a brief background to what is "called ensaïmada in Spanish". The president also points out - most important this - that the Starbucks' bread has been coiled in the wrong direction. And yes, there is a right direction. To the right. Clockwise.

The ensaïmada isn't only to be found in Mallorca. It is not uncommon in, say, the Philippines or Latin America, but the pork lard ingredient is what makes it distinctively Mallorcan. It would be telling porkies to claim that the ensaïmadas of the world, without a dash of pig, are really ensaïmadas.

As for my own personal less than great regard for the ensaïmada, don't take this as some holier-than-thou health assault on pastry or cake in general. Not at all. I can have my cake and eat it, too. Many times over, thanks very much. Just that the ensaïmada, rather like another hugely over-rated breakfast bread, the croissant, is terminally dull. And it confirms that the Mallorcans, like the French, don't understand breakfast. Mind you, neither are as mad as the Dutch who put chocolate bits on bread and butter.

No, it's nothing to do with health or the presence of pork lard. It's everything to do with breakfast. Bacon and sausages a-sizzling. And an egg being fried. Preferably in lard. The ensaïmada? Doesn't even get near.


Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.