Spanish Foods

Professor Cross was talking today about how we need to do research for our stories, and I definitely spent a good week looking up different Spanish foods. I did eat gazpacho, paella, and tortilla in Spain (and not to ruin the story for you, but I actually don't care for rice and raw tomatoes hurt my stomach, so I avoided gazpacho and paella most of the time), but I never had alfajor (the Moroccan Christmas cookie), jamon serrano, rice pudding, or of course Sangria. Hence, a large part of the story was based on research. I intentionally picked foods that are common in Andalucia, the autonomous community (Spain's version of states or provinces) that takes up all of Spain's southern coast and goes pretty far inland as well. Part of this was because it's the region I'm familiar with, but another part was because there is a lot of food that is specific to Andalucia, and there are Moroccan influences and unique aspects of the culture that you don't find in Madrid or Barcelona. So here are the dishes from a more American standpoint:
Gazpacho: a tomato-based sort of soup served cold. Claire interpreted it as a guacamole, which concerned me because I did say that it was peach colored, but it's also a different texture. I've only seen it served in cups or mugs, and in that light it's more of a vegetable juice than a soup, though I think of a juice as something refreshing and thirst quenching, and gazpacho is much more significant for its flavor than for any sort of relief from the heat. It's served cold because it would be silly to heat it up in Spain, but not because it is a refreshment. Gazpacho varies a ton in different regions and the one I described was a more Andalucian variety, though some aspects were more typical of Valencia or other parts of Spain. It did, however, surprise me that gazpacho was made of so many different ingredients, and that something made entirely of fresh vegetables (or less-than-fresh tomatoes and bread) would be that texture.

Alfajor: I did not have alfajor in Spain (partially because I was not around for Christmas), but my host family was good friends with quite a few Moroccan families and I got plenty of other Moroccan breads and cookies. There is a tremendous Moroccan influence on Andalucia and I felt I would be doing an injustice to the culture if I failed to mention any Moroccan food in my story.

Arroz con leche (rice pudding): This is the one I have the least explanation for; it is also a Christmas dish and a food common in Andalucia, and I thought I'd be overdoing it with metaphors if every food I included had some symbolism to it. I initially had the pudding splatter on mama's painting, but that created unnecessary conflict (conflict? Or just messynessss) so I cut it and then... there wasn't any reason to change rice pudding to another food and I thought it was mundane enough that the reader would not be overwhelmed with foodyness, but it was still Spanish.

Jamon serrano: Braised ham? Is that the English word? Braised? Spain has delicious meats and they are especially good with pork, which is surprising because Morocco has such a strong influence on their cuisine and Muslims don't eat pork. My host family actually went to a Moroccan butcher so I never had jamon, but I felt I ought to include some kind of a meat. Now that I look at it, though, it seems silly to have included it because it is in a scene that already has tortilla and it doesn't add anything to the scene. *Cuts from story*

Tortilla: It is simple. Lourdes doesn't like to cook, and this is meant to show Mama as someone who really enjoyed cooking, not just that all Spanish people cook delicious meals all the time. [Nearly] anyone can make an omlette, and this is a food that is different enough to make it distinctly Spanish and something she remembers, but it's also a basic egg and potato dish that tastes good without being a ton of work.

Sangria: Because of my vast knowledge of wines (yeah, you think I'm kidding) and the significance of various alcoholic drinks in Spanish culture, I thought I ought to include something alcoholic. However, Monica went to Boston for college and by the time she was old enough to have been drinking alcohol on any sort of a regular basis (around thirteen, I was surprised by how young this was but maybe I'm a naive prism child and there are people in the US who do the same thing), her mom had Parkinson's. In any case, it wouldn't have made sense to write a flashback about drinking wine with her mother, but Sangria is very Spanish and alcohol is a pretty significant part of Spanish culture, so the fact that Monica is unwilling to touch it after talking to Lourdes (a point that I don't think I emphasized as much as I would have liked to) is both a part of her avoiding Spanish culture and on a more personal level an attempt to avoid her parents' mistakes.

Paella: Pie-eh-yuh. Double L is a y sound, like in tortilla. I definitely have a lot more memories of paella than I do of gazpacho. As in the story, Sunday is paella day for quite a bit of Southern Spain. It does tend to have seafood-- ours had mostly shrimp and snail but it varies-- and it does take all day to cook. I was surprised to find that I initially liked paella despite not liking rice, and it was because of the mixture of flavors and because it didn't really taste like rice. I did eventually get annoyed with the peppers and the fact that shrimp retained their eyes when cooked, but it is a dish for which I can find no equivalent and it's a huge part of Andalucian cuisine.