All about Spanish for finder » Healthy

Ajo (Garlic)

Webmaster — Sun, 25 May 2008 08:55:00 +0000

These sauces came to Spain with the Romans. Soldiers, peasants, fishermen and farmers combined olive oil with chopped garlic and parsley, maybe a squeeze of lemon juice or dash of vinegar. In this guise it’s called aliño. It basically amounts to salad dressing, and of course is used as such. It is also used to baste fish and means, or to drizzle on bread.

Herbs and Spices

Webmaster — Sat, 24 May 2008 01:27:31 +0000

Walk into the Corte Ingles, or any other large supermarket. Visit La Boquería. Stop in a family-run grocery store. And look for the spice rack. You may have trouble finding it. And when you do, you’ll be surprised at how small it is. This is nor a land of curries. Despite the common language with Mexico, this is not a land of chillies. Here you’ll find sugar and nice, but very little spice. To the Spaniard a food should taste of what it is, and it should not burn the tongue. You may find yourself longing for a little hint of spice now and then, and hope to satisfy it by stepping into one of the foreign restaurants in the major cities. And when you do you’ll find the Mexican fare doused of its characteristic flame; the Indian reduced to blandness; the Chinese robbed of its Chineseness. Spicy barbccue? Nah. Your avenge Spanish recipe doesn’t even call for black pepper, and you won’t normally see it in restaurants.

FOR THE LOVE OF GUTS

Webmaster — Sat, 24 May 2008 01:24:29 +0000

Do you like beef heart? Does tripe hold no dread for you? Veal brains Sound good? Ahh, how about a dish of kid’s lungs, known in English as ‘lights’. Or, on the other hand, does your stomach turn when you think of chittening, fried rings of pig’s intestine? (They look a bit like calamari ring.) If you were confronted with the grinning skull of a baby lamp, its skin removed, would your skin crawl? Do you blanche at the thought of eating a hoof or a tail, a cow’s udder or a calf’s head? Blood doesn’t float your boat? Welcome to Spain,

Aceite de Oliva (Olive Oil)

Webmaster — Tue, 20 May 2008 15:32:21 +0000

Spain grows 262 varieties of olive, 90% of the produce of which is sent to the presses for their oil. At an annual production of over 600,000 metric tons Spain is the world’s largest producer, and consumer, of olive oil.

Indeed it is anointed, sturated, awash and delightfully drowning in the most flavourful golden fluid under the Mediterranean sun. Olive oil isn’t just salad dressing. It doesn’t stop at the saute pan. In Spain this is the cooking medium par excellence. The Spanish use it to make desserts; to cook patatas fritas (potato chips); to keep their skin smooth; and we will leave you to imagine its more romantic applications.