"The Three Kings Cake"

In Christmas time in Spain is very typical to buy the famous “The Three Kings Cake” or what it is called in Spanish “Roscón de Reyes”. Spanish people celebrate every sixth of January, Epiphany, by eating each family this dessert after having lunch. I find very interesting to look for the origin of this famous custom and I find so interesting things that surprised me.

I have been researching for the first creation of the first cake. It is rooted in a Christian celebration in the eleventh century known as the “King of the bean”. This celebration consists on the choice of one among the poorest children in a village to crown king of the Epiphany and present him with gifts, clothes and dishes.

This popular festival also was celebrated in family homes, at the same day. In their homes there was a “sweet thread” in which they introduced a surprise inside: a coin or a little doll, often a small plastic baby, said to represent Baby Jesus. The person who gets the piece of cake with the trinket was crowned king and he was the head of the table that day. But also this person has the obligation of buying the cake for the next celebration and I must confess that in my family we never carry out this last rule; my mother every year buy the cake despite getting the surprise or not.

I think that this tradition of make this sweetest cake is only a popular custom in Spain but with my deep research I realize that in France, Belgium, Quebec, Switzerland, (which is called galette or gâteau des Rois), in Portugal (wich is called bolo rei), in Spanish America (roscón o rosca de reyes and tortell in California), in Greece and Cyprus (vasilopita) and finally in Bulgaria (banitsa) are so well known as in Spain are.

The pomegranate

We know this fruit called “granada” in Spanish, which I confess to love and to eat it very often in Summer. I have always thought that its name may have came from the name of an Andalusian city, Granada, that is, I thought that that fruit would be very famous there and thus its name, but I was wrong. The pomegranate, as it is called in English, has Asian origins, its history goes back several centuries before Christ. It was traditionally regarded as a symbol of love and fertility. The Arabians were the ones who introduced it to Spain. Gonzalo de Berceo cites it in his poems (thirteenth centur), in which he calls it the “thousand grains” or “la mil granos” and from that expression emerged its name. Then, the pomegranate was taken by the Spanish in America, where that fruit now occupies large areas, especially in the Pacific coastal areas from California to Chile. Finally, the Arabians christened with its name the wonderful city of Granada in Spain.

Almost never or...

  

If an English-speaker hears the expression “ de higos a brevas” he/she may think we are talking about something else when we are actually talking about how often we do something. This Spanish expression, in English 'from figs to plum jobs', comes from the real time that a fig tree spends on giving figs. The first fruit of the year that this tree gives is the plumb job that appears in more or less a year but the second or last fruit that the fig tree gives is the fig that is a more ripe one. So since the fig tree gives a plomb job to the time that it gives figs it spends a year. The expression, which refers to do something from year to year, does not restricts its meaning to just a year but it means that you do something one day and you spends many time to do the same thing.

Walkers or Lay's ?

Walkers is a English brand of fried chips and snacks which is present in Great Britain and Ireland; this brand was founded in 1948 and is still working on today. I focus myself on this brand of chips because the logotype called upon my attention since the first time I saw it. When I was in Great Britain last year I saw several times those snacks packs and I realized myself that they looked like the snacks packs called “Lay's”in Spain.

My first thought was that maybe they could be the English version of Lay's but I was looking for some information on internet and I found that the chips are not the same but another different brand of chips, because of that they became famous. “Walkers” adopted the sternal image of “Lay's” which is actually a widespread brand of chips around many countries, but this last brand offers to the consumer a greater variety of flavours though it has its typical ones like onion or chips with vinegar...

I think that should be a more recognized brand because of that variety of flavours and for the length of the branch in the world of business but it is just the opposite, Walkers are only sold in Great Britain and Ireland while Lay's are sold in a great amount of countries around the world.

Through that information I reach the conclusion that a product has to have a especial image to be well sold and to become recognized in many countries like “Lay's”, which is a very famous brand of chips. Who does not know that brand? I think nobody does it. !!

Coca-Cola Light vs. Diet Coke

  All of you know or have tasted Coca-Cola Light or Diet Coke. This is a kind of Coca-Cola that uses aspartame, a sweetener based on synthetic phenylalanine, in order to reduce the sugar content in the drink. So why do we have two names for the same product?. As you may have noticed, we only have the Coca-Cola Light version in our country, but if you have travelled abroad, especially to a English-speaker country, you may have noticed as well that the version that is sold there is called “Diet Coke”. As I only have seen Coca-Cola Light in Spain I made a research looking for the countries that use that name for that drink and to my surprise I found that specification: “Coca-Cola Light is used in almost all non-Anglospeaking countries” and “Diet Coke generaly used in Anglo-speaker countries, as well as in former British colonies”. Don't you ask yourself why do we use an English name to a product that is sold in countries that does not speak that language? And if we do so, why do not we use the existing name for that drink?. Obviously, the answer of the first question, at least as I see it, is that nowadays the most dominant and international language in all fields (publicity, TV, bussiness...) is English. But I also have noticed that when we use an English name we sound more sofisticated and even if we have already the same expression in Spanish, we usually use the English one. An example of this may be the word “fiambrera”. In my case, nobody that surrounds me use that word, intead they use the “English term” (as it is actually a very famous brand) “tupperware”. I do not want to highlight here themes as if we should be afraid of being loossing our own language or something like that becasuse I think our language is as alive as us so it must change, it has no other way. The second question that I have made is the one that I actually ignore the answer but I think I can imagine the reason. In my opinion, we use the word “light” in our everyday life, everybody knows the meaning of that word even if he/she does not know a word in English, so I think this was an important point to have in mind for publicists who choose the proper name of the products to sell them easily. I also think that “light” seems to be an attractive name here, at least in Spain. Everybody that wants to slim down search for that word in all the food products that that person buys. So the reason of calling it that way may be that it catches your eye and that way the product is sold better. Anyway, I ignore the truth so if any body can tell us the real reason it could be interesting!

THE SPANISH SAVOURIES TRIUMPH IN CALIFORNIA

Those who think that "spanish savouries" are one of the greatest preasures offered by our cuisine are right.
That is, internationally recognized chefs not only agree with us, but try to spread the culture of "spanish savouries" wherever they go or trip around the world. They recently had a chance to prove luxury.

The 12th. edition international conference "Frontiers of Flavor: World Street Food, World Comfort Food" which took place from 12 to 14 of November of 2009 in Napa Vally, California.
The Worlds of Flavor International Conference is universally recognized as one of the most influential platform in the world gastronomy aimed at professional food-service sector dollars.
This unique event, trends that what will dictate the U.S. food industry and it seems that the Spanish savouries is considered as one of the most promising.
The Americans exported the burguer to the rest of the world and now the Spanish accept the challenge and began to export one of our typical products. And in the current scenario of global economic crisis, social habits and ways of eating are changing in the U.S. and in the contemporary world, characterized by an accelerated pace of life.

A total of 7 papers and seminars have been devoted to Spain, its wines and cuisine undoubtedly have left with their mouths open, never better said, to the most selected audience in the United States. Such audience ,among whom, were chefs and executives from companies such as Sodexo, Nestle, Unilever, McDonald's, Pizza Hut, Campbell Soup, Safeway, among hundreds of other chefs and executives from hospitals, casinos, restaurants, gourmet shops and several journalists.

The "enjoyment" of today's teenagers

Parents are always worried about the good health of their children by eating vegetables, fruits... or what is more relevant in Spain by doing the “Mediterranean Diet”, but what about alcoholic drinks? Are they concerned about their children's habits outside home?

Nowadays alcohol is widely used by young people even younger than previous years. Teenagers over the age of 14 years have tried alcohol at least once. From my point of view this is a serious problem that we have to think about and we must try to stop it. It’s difficult to prevent teenagers from experimenting with alcohol, but parents can encourage sensible drinking habits and also it is important to be aware of the laws about serving alcohol to minors. Most parents believe alcohol is less dangerous than other drugs, but this is not true. Alcohol is as bad as other kind of drugs. Young people are more likely to take risks when drinking. Alcohol is a factor to take risky situations even drinking alcohol can affected how the brain develops in early ages so that this prevents the brain from working properly.

We all know that adolescence is typically a time of experimentation but we have to think about the enjoyment of our parents’ time and see that there are other ways to enjoy with friends and not making the famous “Binge Drinking” that is the term commonly used to describe drinking heavily over a short period of time with the intention of becoming intoxicated or what it is the same the “nowadays enjoyment of teenagers” that also can carry out drink driving and unsafe sex.