As Carmen Ortiz García affirms, in Party and feast. Festive eating in Spain“in Spain there is a huge number of foods and specific culinary forms linked to the traditional festive cycle and which are still considered practically obligatory consumption today”.
November 1, All Saints Day, a national holiday solemnized by Pope Gregory IV in the middle of the 9th century, is approaching. Around this celebration, on the peninsular tables there is no shortage of fritters or saint’s bones, among other sweets and typical dishes.
Popular classics in Spain
The first dictionary of the RAE (dictionary of authorities1726-39) defines the fritters as “a more or less large ball (most commonly the size of a walnut) of massa, well prepared, which, thrown into boiling oil, is formed in this way and figure, and after being well fried it is eaten with honey, or without she. There are several genres, such as geringa fritters, and wind fritters. Already in the Art of cooking (1611) by Martínez Montiño, cook for Felipe III and Felipe IV, included three recipes for buñuelos de viento.
The Bones of saints, however, they began to be recorded in the academic dictionary published in 1936 as “Pastries made with flour and eggs, fried in oil”. From 1970 we find a more approximate characterization of its shape and composition: “Almond paste roll, stuffed with angel hair, sweet potato powder or another sweet”.
In the Catalan and Levantine area they eat panellets, word referring to spherical sweets with marzipan and wrapped in pine nuts, recorded in the press of the first half of the 19th century. For example, you can see in the newspaper the balearic (Palma de Mallorca), on October 27, 1854, in an advertisement for the Frasquet Confectionery announcing that “marzipan panellets like those from Barcelona will be sold there on All Saints’ Day”.
In the south, the typical gruel based on flour, matalahúva, sugar with a touch of cinnamon and croutons on top – in Seville, Huelva and Cádiz they are called pulleys–. Gruel already included from dictionary of authorities (1726-39) of the Royal Spanish Academy as “a genre of food made up of flour and honey, mixed with water, and cooked on fire. Some add oil, rice, fried garlic, or other things, according to the taste of each one.
Traditions in Ecuador and Guatemala
But what is eaten in the rest of the Spanish-speaking countries on this anniversary? Thanks to the help of Dr. José Luis Ramírez Luengo and the generosity of colleagues and friends from different American countries, we have been able to verify the characteristic foods of, for example, Ecuador, Guatemala or Mexico. Many of these plates or saucers are collected in the Dictionary of Americanismsfrom the Association of Academies of the Spanish Language, a lexical repertoire that aims to compile all the words of Latin American Spanish.
On the one hand, in Ecuador, both the purple wash –a “sweet drink with a thick consistency that is made with black corn flour or only with starch, blackberries, mortiños, naranjillas, pineapple and babaco, and that is consumed especially around the time close to the day of the dead”– as the bread bus –also documented in Bolivia–: “Bread made in the shape of a child and painted in different colors; It is served to accompany the colada morada on the day of the dead”, according to the Dictionary of Americanisms.
These are dishes whose origin dates back to pre-Hispanic times. Specifically, chef Miguel Burneo, research professor at the School of Gastronomy of the University of the Americas (UDLA), explains the symbolism of these preparations: the bread bus represents the deceased, while the purple wash is the blood: “In some cases, there is even a ritual of throwing a little laundry on the ground to feed the Pachamama, because there is a belief that the bread represents the deceased, but the laundry is what gives it lifetime”.
On the other hand, in Guatemala, the stiff It is the national dish made with a mixture of different pickled vegetables, sausages and meats. It is served cold, hence its name. In this country, among other delicacies, it is consumed squash in honeya term also documented in Honduras, El Salvador and Nicaragua. squash comes from Nahuatl ayotliwhich means “pumpkin”.
Around the Mexican Day of the Dead
Finally, in the case of Mexico, the dead bread: “Sweet bread with a rounded shape, covered with a layer of sugar; It is usually prepared and consumed to celebrate the day of the dead.
In the country’s homes, altars are erected where their favorite stews and foods are offered to deceased relatives. These preparations vary depending on the regions.
For example, in Yucatan, the gdp –traditional food of the Mayan communities that was made at the beginning of the harvest, although nowadays it is prepared around the Day of the Dead–, also called Hanal Pixan (“food of the souls”). It is a kind of tamale in a round or square shape that is prepared with corn dough, tomato, lard, chili, onion, epazote (“aromatic plant”) and xpelón (“new and tender beans”). The gdp it is wrapped in banana leaves and placed in a hole covered with leaves and earth, where it cooks for about two hours. Also called mucbipollo either mukbil chicken –the Mayan word mukbil means “something that must be buried” – as well as pipipolloa term that includes the Dictionary of Americanisms.
In short, food is a fundamental piece in the culture and identity of each country, as well as in the preservation of its heritage. In this context, the lexicon becomes an expression of culture, a key component for the transmission, decoding and interpretation of names of dishes and recipes that are cooked from generation to generation upon arrival, in this specific case, on All Day. the Saints. (YO)
Source: Eluniverso
Paul is a talented author and journalist with a passion for entertainment and general news. He currently works as a writer at the 247 News Agency, where he has established herself as a respected voice in the industry.
