The One About FOOD 3: Cakes and Sweets - and Christmas

There’s no doubt about it: Spain has a sweet tooth. We first suspected this when we saw the incredibly sugary and fatty things Spaniards eat for breakfast – ‘cruasanes’ (sticky sugary croissants), ‘torrijas’ (eggy bread), ‘leche frita’ (fried custard!), etc. We then noticed how the little bags of sugar they give you with your coffee are twice as big as anywhere else. Then we were introduced to ‘chocolate con churros’. A picture was emerging.

So let’s start with ‘chocolate con churros’. This is the ultimate comfort food, the national sugary fatty vice: a glass of thick, thick, hot chocolate served with deep-fried batter-sticks – a bit like crunchy pancakes. Apparently usually eaten for breakfast or late at night, but patently ideal for any time of day when you might be feeling peckish and/or bedraggled. (Note the picture below in which the cafe proudly announces that it is available all day - 'todo el dia'.)We have found it particularly good on the way home from some expedition on a damp autumn or winter evening, (or even summer, for that matter: we have yet to test the spring).

‘Leche frita’ is fantastic too. It’s a toast-shaped slice of set custard rolled in flour, egg and cinnamon, and fried. Yum.

And now to cakes.... sold in ‘pastelerias’ (cake shops). These are some of the local specialities:

• The ‘carolina’ is particular to Bilbao, apparently. It’s a cone-shaped soft meringue with a chocolate and egg coating on a pastry base:

·      The ‘pastel de arroz’ is basically a custard tart and oddly doesn’t have any rice in it despite being called a ‘rice cake’:

·      The ‘pastel vasco’ (basque cake) has a light creamy-custardy filling:

·      The ‘tarta di Santiago’ – actually from around Santiago de Compostela (Galicia) – but apparently also popular here in Bilbao (which after all is a stop on the Camino de Santiago) – is a delicious soft almond tart with icing sugar dusting over a stencil of the Cross of Saint James:

• Jesuita cakes (below left) are not local to here but are very popular: puff pastry and meringue... and various other puff-pastry type things like this apple tart - 'tarta de manzana' (below left):
  

Then there is a category of nutty sugary things that are not quite cakes and not quite sweets, and which apparently come mostly from Andalucia, where the almonds come from (literary types – hope you spotted the Charley’s Aunt reference.) 

The most famous one is ‘turron’ – which we might call nougat or nut crunch or nut paste, depending on what kind of ‘turron’ it is. Turron is big at Christmas – you eat it after the big Christmas meal, which takes place on Christmas Eve rather than Christmas Day. Round the corner from us is a quaint old ‘turroneria’ which sells it – Turroneria Ivanez:

Turroneria Ivanez has been in the family for 5 generations and has wonderful old pictures in the shop:

Marzipan is also very popular at this time of year. Huge marzipan cakes (bought by the slice) have started to appear in the cake shops (below), and bags of little marzipan dogs (‘perritos de mazapan’) are popular. (Dogs are another national obsession, by the way).

More intriguing (though less attractive) are ‘polvorones’ and ‘mantecados’, of which I had never heard before. I am still not at all certain what the difference between them is. The name ‘polvoron’ comes from the word ‘polvo’ meaning ‘dust’ (cf English ‘pulverise’), and the sweet itself is a compacted ‘dust’ of flour, sugar and nuts, which crumbles into powder when broken. They come in dozens of different varieties and flavours, often with cinnamon, and are wrapped in traditional wrappers in many colours, a bit like Italian ‘amaretti’. Again, they are particularly popular at Christmas, and currently seem to be being sold in greengrocers!

The Spanish version of Christmas cake has also started to appear in the shops. It’s called ‘roscon de los reyes’ – the ring of the kings. (Jan 6th – twelfth night – is here called ‘dia de los reyes’ – the day of the kings – and is apparently as big a celebration as Christmas itself, with children even getting a second round of presents!)

And finally - ice cream. Oddly, ice cream does not seem to be as big a deal in Spain as it is in Italy (when did you last come across a Spanish ice cream shop?). In fact, in Barcelona we noticed that all the ice cream shops sold themselves as purveyors of ‘Helados Italianos’. In Bilbao, though, there are three very good ice cream parlours dangerously close to our flat. (Not that we ever go to any of them, of course...).

Of the three, the most extraordinary one – apparently generally seen as the best in Bilbao – is called ‘Nossi-Be’, and it is extraordinary because in addition to all the normal flavours, you can have ‘bacalao al pil-pil’ (salted cod) ice cream and ‘txipirones en su tinta’ (squid in its black ink) ice cream. This is Heston Blumenthal territory, methinks. But I have never seen anyone eating either of them.

I can, however, recommend their ‘chocolate and chilli’ ice cream, and their ‘Idiazabal cheese with membrillo and walnuts’.

Next time... Olentzero, the Basque Father Christmas....