1,000 Foods To Eat Before You Die: A Food Lover's Life List (69 page)

Throughout Spain, arguments about the origins of tapas are common. Some say they came into existence when the thirteenth-century Castilian Alfonso X El Sabio (The Learned) was instructed by his doctor to eat several meals a day with wine. Cervantes, in his seventeenth-century classic
Don Quixote
, refers to
llamativos
, or “lures”—tidbits of food designed to arouse hunger or thirst. The most accepted theory is that tapas appeared in Andalusia in the nineteenth century, when tiny morsels on small saucers were set over wineglasses to keep the wine aroma in and the flies out. Lore has it that a savvy entrepreneur figured out that complementary salty morsels would increase thirst and, thereby, bar revenues. Apparently it worked—though today tapas are rarely free—and there are more than a thousand varieties of these small bites.

Every Spanish region, city, and bar has specialties of its own, from baked scallops in Galicia to stuffed peppers in San Sebastián, to cod with bitter-orange juice in Sanlúcar de Barrameda. Traditional
tapeos
do share a similar serving system, however: Very few have printed menus, and dishes are displayed on the bar.
Tapeadors
(
tapeo
-goers) indicate choice
banderillas
(morsels), and small plates are handed around. The libation of choice is sherry; the two types that tend to pair best with most tapas are fino (pale dry sherry from Jerez, served chilled and good with fried seafood) and manzanilla (very dry, delicate, faintly salty sherry produced only in Sanlúcar de Barrameda).
Caña
(draft beer, never served bottled or canned) and
vino
(usually interpreted as house red wine) are other acceptable accompaniments.

Where:
In Barcelona
, Cal Pep, tel 34/93-310-79-61,
calpep.com
;
in Jerez, Spain
, Bar Juanito, tel 34/956-33-48-38,
bar-juanito.com
;
in Galicia, Spain
, Café Cervantes, tel 34/881-98-46-79;
in New York
, Tertulia, tel 646-559-9909,
tertulianyc.com
; El Quinto Pino, tel 212-206-6900,
elquintopinonyc.com
;
in Washington, DC
, Jaleo, tel 202-628-7949,
jaleo.com
;
in Miami
, Casa Juancho, tel 305-642-2452,
casajuancho.com
;
in Los Angeles
, The Bazaar by José Andrés, tel 310-246-5555,
sbe.com/restaurants/brands/thebazaar
.
Further information and recipes:
Tapas: The Little Dishes of Spain
by Penelope Casas (2007);
Tapas: A Taste of Spain in America
by José Andrés and Richard Wolffe (2005);
saveur.com
(search spanish tapas).

To say Spanish omelet to the average American is to summon up the image of a thin, coffee-shop egg omelet folded over and perhaps topped with a mushy sauce of tomato, green pepper, and onion. But to Spaniards and those familiar with their cuisine,
tortilla española
refers to the iconic pancake omelet—thick, round, golden brown, and bolstered with sautéed sliced or diced potatoes. Also know as
truita de patata
, this is Spain’s go-to comfort food, as much loved in thin wedges or squares as part of the tapas ritual (see
), as it is as an appetizer or light main course, especially at brunch and lunch.

The combination of sautéed potatoes and eggs, lightly salted and peppered and redolent of the best olive oil, results in a soul-warming dish with an almost innocent flavor based on its simple, homey, top-quality ingredients. Those who find it too simple sauté finely diced or sliced onion with the potatoes or add flecks of Spain’s incomparable cured hams (see
listing
). And many a frugal cook tosses in leftover cooked vegetables such as peas or dicings of roasted piquillo peppers. Apparently, Spaniards have a particular love of potato and egg pairings, not only in this tortilla but in
huevos estrellados
(see
listing
).

Where:
In Barcelona
, Cal Pep, tel 34/93-310-7961,
calpep.com
;
in Miami
, Casa Juancho, tel 305-642-2452,
casajuancho.com
;
in Washington, DC
, Taberna Del Alabardero, tel 202-429-2200,
alabardero.com
.
Retail and mail order:
In Manhattan, Queens, and Princeton, NJ
, Despaña,
despanabrandfoods.com
.
Further information and recipes:
Catalan Cuisine
by Colman Andrews (1988);
saveur.com
(search tortilla espanola)
Tip:
If flipping the omelet proves difficult, try this: When the underside is cooked and the top is still a bit runny, slide the pan under the broiler for about five minutes, until the top is set solid and a light golden brown. The flavors are best appreciated when the tortilla is served at room temperature, about thirty minutes after it has been cooked.

Sometimes we eat for history or tradition as well as for pleasure or health. But if we’re lucky, all of these attributes can be contained in a single food. A case in point can be found in fresh, authentically crafted Portuguese sugarplums,
the lovely-sounding Christmas confections many of us would struggle to define. Originally created in Portugal as
bombos de figo
(fig bombes, or rounds) and first recorded in the sixteenth or seventeenth century, these brightly wrapped sweets (also much loved in England as comfits) are formed of dried figs or prunes.(In England sugarplums, also known as comfits, are made from fruits, nuts, or seeds coated and preserved with sugar.) Slowly steamed to luscious, syrupy softness, the dried fruit is ground and seasoned with cinnamon, cloves, and red wine or brandy, then formed into balls with a roasted almond pressed into the center. Finally, they are rolled in white sugar and wrapped in bright, colorful paper.

The Byzantine variety of sugarplum is chunkier—a fragrant, chewy blend of chopped, dried, and softened dates, figs, raisins, currants, walnuts, and pistachios. Accented with the nice, astringent sting of crystallized ginger, orange zest, brandy, or red wine (or lemon juice, for the abstemious), the confections are sprinkled with powdered cloves and cinnamon before being snowballed in confectioners’ sugar and wrapped in paper. The result are sweetmeats with a flavor similar to that of plum pudding. The Portuguese love of both chocolate and almonds manifests in an especially rich version of sugarplums: dried figs steamed open and stuffed with a paste of dark, semisweet chocolate and pounded roasted almonds. These can either be served at room temperature or warmed by a brief baking that melts the chocolate to silky richness.

But for sheer opulence, Portugal takes a backseat to nineteenth-century Czarist Russia. There, so-called sugarplums were very large, whole walnuts with intact shells, brushed with beaten egg whites and then veneered with gold or silver leaf. Matching metallic threads were tied on to permit hanging on Christmas trees. There’s no record of anyone having eaten one, but why would you? A golden walnut is forever.

Mail order:
For candied greengage plums, Zingermans, tel 888-636-8162,
zingermans.com
.
Further information and recipes:
Visions of Sugarplums
by Mimi Sheraton (1981);
Sugar-Plums and Sherbet: The Prehistory of Sweets
by Laura Mason (2004);
foodtimeline.org/christmasfood.html
(click Sugarplums);
saveur.com
(search sugarplums).

Take a hint from the Portuguese and satisfy your lust for gold by way of dessert. The national penchant for the luxurious color is said to have been acquired from the Moors, when they held sway from the eighth to the fifteenth centuries on the Iberian Peninsula. In desserts, the hue is generally arrived at by a combination of egg yolks and sugar, a concoction usually used as a starting point for cake icing and sun-gold custards. But for Christmas, the egg yolk is turned into slim, shiny threads in a dish that bears similarities to the delicacies of many Asian countries, most especially Thailand—part of a Portuguese culinary legacy left by trade and colonization. Boiled into angel hair in a silky, sweet syrup scented with rose or orange flower water, the eggy strands are cooled to a gently
chewy state. With its sweetness and its intense egg flavor, the dessert requires a follow-up of unsweetened black coffee or a sharp liqueur.

Fios de ovos
is also popular in Brazil, as well as in Spain, where it is known as
huevo hilado
. And this same tantalizingly gooey egg yolk and sugar mixture is transformed by nuns in a Seville convent into individual peaked cones called
yemas de San Leandro
. The mixture is also the basis for the cinnamon-and lemon-accented
yemas de Santa Teresa
, which are shaped into yolklike circles.

Fairly complicated to prepare, golden threads, whether as fios de ovos or yemas, are usually purchased in pastry shops or from convents. But if you’re handy at candy making, they are worth a try.

Serves 6

16 extra-large egg yolks, the freshest you can find

2 extra-large eggs

8 cups sugar

1 teaspoon rose water or orange flower water

Big bowl of ice water, as a water bath

1.
Combine the egg yolks and eggs in a medium bowl and stir gently with a wooden spoon. Do not beat. Strain the eggs through a sieve to remove any white threads and “eyes.”

2.
Combine the sugar and flower water with 2 cups of water in a deep, heavy 2-quart saucepan over medium-low heat and let simmer gently until the sugar syrup forms threads when dropped into cold water or reaches 220°F on a candy thermometer.

3.
Remove 1 cup of the sugar syrup from the saucepan and stir it into the bowl of ice water. Bring the remaining syrup to a low boil.

4.
Working in batches, pour the egg yolk mixture through a funnel, holding your finger over most of the spout to let a very thin, threadlike stream flow slowly into the boiling syrup. Pour only enough to form a thin, single layer of yolk.

5.
Using a slotted spoon, remove cooked threads of yolk as they float to the surface, after 2 to 3 minutes, and place them directly in the sugared ice water for about 5 minutes. Drain the cooled yolk threads in a colander. Repeat until all of the yolk mixture has been cooked and drained.

6.
Lightly pack the yolk threads into 6 individual 1-cup custard cups or small ramekins, or into one 6-cup soufflé dish, and cover and refrigerate overnight. They should be served within 24 hours.

7.
Just before serving, invert and unmold the yolk threads onto individual dessert plates, or onto a serving platter if the threads were placed in a soufflé dish.

Where:
In Newark, NJ
, Suissa Bakery & Coffee Shop, tel 973-589-1927; A&J Seabra Supermarket (bakery section; order in advance), tel 973-589-8606.
Further information and additional recipe:
The Foods & Wines of Spain
by Penelope Casas (1982).

Fresh malasadas served on a ti leaf in Hawaii.

Hotly crisp on the outside, nurturingly eggy and spongy within, cinnamon-and sugar-flavored
malasadas
are yet further proof that all the world loves a doughnut (even one without a hole). The origin of these yeasty round puffs,
whether smooth or free-formed and knobby, is credited to the Portuguese islands of Madeira and the Azores, where they are a featured treat on the day known as Terça-Feira Gorda—the American Fat Tuesday or Mardi Gras. As with other crullers made in celebration of that rowdy day, they are meant to use up leftover frying fat or oil and sugar before the abstemious days of Lent set in.

But anything that tastes so irresistibly delicious cannot be relegated to a single day, or even a season, so malasadas (also spelled malassadas, meaning lightly roasted) are year-round treats wherever Portuguese émigrés have settled. That includes Hawaii, where workers from Madeira and the Azores went to harvest the sugarcane fields in the late nineteenth century—and where Fat Tuesday is officially called Malasada Day. Other Portuguese immigrants, most notably fishermen, settled in Rhode Island, southeastern Massachusetts, and New Jersey. In Freetown, Massachusetts, malasadas are one of the biggest attractions of the annual Lakeside Family Festival.

Retail bakeries in Hawaii known for their malasadas often sprout lines of not-so-patient devotees waiting for crullers just emerged from the fryer. Glazed with cinnamon-sugar, they are eaten out of hand, a feat true cognoscenti can accomplish without burning fingers or lips. But they are also elegantly served at breakfast at some of Hawaii’s most luxurious hotels: The lovely Mauna Lani Bay Hotel on the Big Island serves them accompanied by cups of rich and lusty Kona coffee laced with bubbling hot milk.