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This morning, with my cup of piping hot coffee in hand, I was scanning through my feedreader when I came across an interesting article on the way in which American health scientists tend to perceive overly extracted, fabricated and altered food as a permanent part of the American diet. Rather than being a human constructed consumable, it is looked upon as an integral part of our daily diet that cannot be changed or altered. The irony is that it can, simply by committing to the slow food movement. But rather than encourage critical thinking, and good choices, health scientists seem more like pharmacists, suggesting new pills that will counter the consequences of fast food.

I feel like the message is: “Don’t help people change their attitudes or choices, just make them down a pill to counteract the consequences of their last poor choice, which will then need another pill to counteract the side-effects from the last pill, and so on and so forth”.

Sound familiar?

So imagine my surprise walking into the Boqueria for the first time and seeing aisles upon aisles of fresh fruits and vegetables. Big round gorgeous oranges sat next to funky looking passion fruits. Enormous bowls of dried fruits such as toasted almonds, hazelnuts, pine nuts cozied up to smaller bows of fresh dates, raisins, dried apricots and glimmering, sweet dried figs. Walk deeper into this gargantuous market and you’ll encounter stand after stand of fresh salmon, tuna, octopus, squid, shrimp, crayfish, barnacles, stingray, monkfish and cod (Bacalao) tossed over shimmering chips of ice. You’ll smell rich yeasty aromas drifting out of a stone oven with loaves of crusty brown bread, and two Peruvian women cutting recently butchered meat to be placed along pig snouts, pig ears, cow tongue and sheep’s brain. On the busy edges of the market lie Mexican stands cooking up burritos with hot tortillas made that morning, rolls of sushi displayed among strips of freshly cut sashimi, and little tiendas dedicated solely to dry, aromatic tea leaves taken directly from the surrounding area.

Spain has a rich and colorful culinary tradition of eating fresh ingredients tossed together in very simple, yet flavorful ways. Forget the complexity of French cuisine, or the intricacy of Japanese cuisine, we’re talking a plate filled with potatoes dug up from the soil of a local farm, served with nice piece of meat (sans hormone injections) and a side of fresh red tomatoes which have been tossed in local virgin olive oil with a dash of salt. Oh, and let’s not forget the basket of bread baked in the bread shop that morning, nor the local wine that has most likely been produced in the region.

Now, to be fair, we should also mention the enormous rate of obesity hitting Spanish children due to processed foods, and the fact that the EU still doesn’t have a strict labeling law requiring all packaged products to list the key ingredients such a trans fats. Spain clearly has some issues it has to contend with these days, but fresh produce and meat is still a staple in their everyday cuisine. Daily excursions to your local market, not supermarket, are common, and with any luck, it will be a cultural norm that will never disappear.

The irony of it all is that the Spaniards are savvy to the fact that putting together a simple meal of fresh ingredients not only takes less time and money, but has the long term benefits of making us feel better. If you’re interested in learning more about Spanish food and wine, check out some of these fun articles:

• Boquerones (White Anchovies) and Albarino
• Lomo of Guijuelo
• Shrimp and Mushroom Risotto with 2005 Barrel Fermented Alma de Tobia White Wine

Is there a favorite Spanish food, or meal, that you enjoy?

Saludos,

Gabriella Opaz

www.catavino.net

Tags: boqueria, spanish food, spanish labelling laws, spanish obesity, spanish recipes, spanish wine

This entry was posted on Domingo, Agosto 17th, 2008 at 6:30 pm
by gabriella and is filed under living in spain. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.