The invitation was extended personally by the Tourism Counselor of the Embassy of Spain Enriquez de Lara last May 16. So many tourists visited Spain last year; in fact, there were more tourists (59.2 million) than the total number of Spaniards living in Spain (45.2 million). On the average, each tourist spent 94 Euros daily and that’s a total of about, excuse me, 50 billion Euros (very generous, these 16 million tourists from Britain and 10 million Germans).
Very pale in comparison for the Philippine tourism industry, with only 3.09 million tourists while the Philippine population is now 88.5 million. A large portion of tourists also comes from a country that practices a “No Tipping policy.”
Filipinos have a slight advantage when they go to Spain. There are 20,000 Spanish words in the Filipino language and this is the reason why your favorite food columnist cannot understand why he got only a grade of “3” in Spanish 1 and 2. Also very familiar to our eardrums are the places to visit in Spain. How can you get lost when the destinations are Toledo, Asturias, Santander, Cordoba, Valladolid, Lugo, Guadalajara, Valencia …etc.?
The Iberians, Celts and the Basques were the original settlers of Spain. Then the Phoenicians, the Greeks and the Carthaginians followed in 1100 BC. A unique feature of Spanish history is the number of Islamic states that lasted for over 800 years.
Spain is divided into 13 regions with 47 provinces and the boundaries correspond to borders of its ancient kingdoms and ethnic regions. These regions, according to TIME-LIFE Books, The Cooking of Spain and Portugal were: Andalusia, Aragon, Asturias, Basque Provinces, Catalonia, Extremadura, Galicia, Leon, Murcia, Navarre, New Castile (where the capital, Madrid, is located), Old Castile, and Valencia. And my beloved readers know that Granada, the Muslim kingdom founded in the 13th century (gone in 1492) is now part of Andalusia.
In May, 1983, the regions were renamed comunidades autónomas (autonomous communities) and there are 17: Andalusia, Asturias, Aragon, Balearic Islands, Basque Country, Canary Islands, Cantabria, Castile y León, Castile-La Mancha, Catalonia, Extremadura, Galicia, Madrid, Murcia, Navarre, La Rioja, and Valencia.
Cuisine is one of Spain’s greatest attractions and Iberian cooking is simply a sum of all the regional cuisines. My latest addition to my humble library, the Culinaria Spain, follows this classification with 488 pages and over 1,200 illustrations that has awaken my desire to discover Spain with its extensive panorama of cultural and culinary traditions.
And your favorite food columnist loves the traditional working hours in Spain. It starts at 9:00-9:30 until 1:30-2:00 p.m. Then you have a three hour break for lunch and siesta! Back to work 4:30-5:00 until 7:30-8:00 p.m. If Filipinos would follow this, it would be very expensive because we love innovations and the schedule would be lunch, siesta, then merienda, before going back to work!
During the summer months, however, many businesses adopt the horario intensivo whereby employees work non-stop from 8:00-9:00 until 5:00. If you plan a business trip in August, that is the worst time to visit Spain because employees are in a holiday mood for the whole month.
The greatest legacy Spain left in the Philippines is Christianity and its accompanying culture, including the celebration of fiestas. It has become a tradition of expressing not only Christian values but also to mimic the culture of the table of the Spaniards, not adopted outright but adopted and later adjusted to fit to the native taste. And when you talk about food, your favourite food columnist is never far behind.
“Spain on your Palate” was the theme of a dinner hosted by the Embassy of Spain at the Casino Español de Cebu, Inc. It was an eight-course dinner which began with an Aperativo, the Escalera de Verdures a la Plancha con Solomillo de Cerdo Escabechado (layer of marinated grilled vegetables, pork tenderloin in escabeche sauce).
Spanish cuisine is so easy to understand and escabeche seems to be part of our dialect (from the verb escabechar meaning “to pickle”). Studying Spanish culture was made easier by drinking wine, of course, Spanish wine gyud, the Viña Mocen Verdejo Special Selection.
Salad was served, the Migas de Bacalao Sobre una Cama de Algas, Tomato Confitado y Uvas de Mar (shredded cod fish in a bed of lettuce, seaweed, confit of tomato) and with it an enrichment of my Spanish because our humble “lato” has a very nice name, “Uvas de Mar.”
The soup was delicious – Sopa de Maricos (Traditional Seafood Soup) followed by a sorbet, the Sorbete de Cava (Champagne Sherbet).
For the main course (Plato Principal), we had the Pescado en Salsa Verde (Fish Fillet in Green Parsley Sauce) and the Chuletillas de Cordero (Slow Roasted Rack of Lamb, with Potato Terrine in Red Wine Reduction). I ate my share of the medium-rare roasted lamb with unaduterated enjoyment because my palate had been acclimatized to an Italian version of this type of roasting (Region of Romano) and with the gentle assistance of a great red wine, the Rondan Crainza.
This special dinner ended with the Natillas (traditional Spanish Custard) and Praline with coffee.
About 20,000 Filipinos visit Spain and the Tourism Counselor of the Embassy of Spain Enriquez de Lara aims to increase tourist arrivals by inviting four million Filipinos who have the financial resources to travel abroad.
My luggage is always ready and I have my own culinary itinerary like the Sobrino de Botin (Calle de Cuchilleros 17, 28005 Madrid, Spain) a restaurant established in 1725. It is listed in the Guinness Book of Records as the oldest restaurant in the world. House specialty is cochinillo asado (roast suckling pig) and cochifrito (lamb) and the “pigs are not allowed to live more than three weeks and the lamb, no more than 40 days. Botin looks like it has always existed and as if Adam and Eve had eaten from there.”
And now the search for the elusive Euros begin and pwede pud dollars!
