As I watch the rise of the Spanish ultra-right in the Castilla y León regional elections, held last Sunday (13), I think about the democratic character of the bread with chocolate spanish.
It was at lunch with the in-laws. By the way, on the same Sunday. At dessert time, the family asks for the chocolate bread. The restaurant is an old rural house (called here masia), renovated with an elegant but understated deco.
Chocolate Bread (PCC): dessert from the time of abuela*.
Or rather, the tatatatatatatarabuela: there are records that, as early as the 17th century, the Spanish cocoa-lover spirit was so potent that it infected the lands dominated by the Iberian Empire.
In the Netherlands, for example, under Spanish influence, locals started eating bread with chocolate pakacete and never stopped.
Today, the Dutch are among the Masters of Universal Chocolate Bread. One of the most popular recipes is Hagelslag, with chocolate chips (or chocolate chips) sprinkled on slices of bread. Interpretation #1470150894759 of the CCP, which also exists in 321098 versions in countries like France and Austria, other CCP lovers.
(@Hagelswag, Dutch company that sells these chocolate chips and more)
***
In Masía, an hour from Barcelona, the Nazorean wind blows, blowing echoes of the mountains and pine trees that surround us. The pandemic is still living in Spanish lands, we still prefer to sit outside – even when it is cold.
The CCP comes flying in the deft hand of the young waiter, on one of those heavy white-blue tile instant-gentrificent-style tablets, and I look at it and find it funny.
Note: there is pain au chocolat, chocolate croissant, chocolate-filled brioche, bread with nutella, whatever you want, but bread-and-chocolate is. other. stop. Almost a non-revenue.
I’ll try to describe it, simple Brazilian that I am: imagine that you buy a baguette at the bakery. Cut into slices, put in the oven. Melts a chocolate bar and pours it on top, trying to make some gourmet designs to move the diners. Next, and here comes the fundamentals of the Spanish version, sprinkle with salt and (much) olive oil before serving. FIN.
In this case, the finishing/personalization included some frôzinha and physalis, that wedding candy fruit that costs a lot of money.
bread with chocolate accepts high and low, grandma and glamú. It lives in the children’s lunch and in the most blublublu Michelin restaurant you can imagine in architectural emulsified atomized versions.
So, I would like to register here my absolute wonder at something as simple, universal and direct as this dessert, which can sound like improvised gruel during a munchies like that, but could also be interpreted as an ode to the spontaneity of living. He knows.
***
Tradition is a funny business. People think they agree until they start arguing.
I once witnessed a debate between a capixaba and a Bahian about moquecas. I don’t remember the debate, I just know that they couldn’t reach an agreement. About the correct clay pot, about the amount of coriander, about WHAT CAZZO CE IS TELLING ME THAT HE HAD A CAPIXABA MOQUECA WITH COCONUT MILK?!
(PCC version of @LittleSpain, market-restaurant-boutique by chefs José Andrés and brothers Albert and Ferran Adrià in NY)
Descendant of Japanese, I also got tired of seeing sushizistic liberalities. I think sushi has become bread and chocolate: public domain, invent your own.
When I was little, I had blackberry trees close to my house. At snack time, sometimes we were given French bread and sugar, and stuffed with frutiñas.
There. It has no secret, and yet – [insert olhar nostálgico]
In case of bread with chocolate, there are as many versions as hearts and provisions. With thin carpaccio-style toast, with bread glass, with hot-cold-ice cream-cream-bar; with frufru decoration and complements such as orange zest; or straight chat, like a tablet melted between two slices of Panco (here, Bimbo).
All that said and proven, I still prefer to eat the components separately. Bread on one side, chocolate on the other.
“But it’s boring, huh” – a Spanish friend told me. I do not know. I prefer bread with blackberries, but I support the CCP the most.
***
Hours after the aforementioned Sunday lunch, there we are all stuffed and gathered watching on TV the vote count in Castilla y León (also called CYL around here).
There is a certain distress in the air.
My mother-in-law is from León, but our interest transcends that connection. Elections are regional but attract national attention. Some consider the event a preview of the 2023 generals.
The Popular Party (PP), the largest center-right party in the country, has ruled the province for 35 years. Its national leader, Pablo Casado, is from the land. The party ended the election in first place, with the highest number of “escaños” or “procuradores” (as the deputies in the region are called): 31.
However, the result was less than expected. In order to be a majority and form an Executive, the PP now only has two exits, and none to its liking.
One, to ally with the big phenomenon of the time: Vox, the far-right party of family-friend Bolsonaro Santiago Abascal, which won 13 seats in the regional parliament (a 1200% increase, as it previously had only one representative). ) and became the third most voted party in the region, behind only the socialist PSOE, which governs Spain and lost 5 seats in CYL, taking 28.
The second option – having the support of the PSOE, its archenemy of the polls – does not excite the PP either.
Faced with the situation, which has been metonymically analyzed as a kind of crystal ball for the post-pandemic political directions of a recovering Spain, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, of the PSOE, said, in a session in the Senate: “the time has come for the truth”.
“It is necessary to decide if [o PP] will rule with the far right or not. (…) If they believe that the far right is a danger, maybe we can understand each other”. strategic like Madrid.
What Vox thinks of all this, it’s hard to know precisely. They veto the participation of non-sympathetic press agencies in their press conferences.
Founded in 2014, this fascist-inspired party began to gain political expression some 4 years ago, winning over the Spanish electorate identified with nationalist and ultra-conservative values – among them, former PP voters. The wave of independence in Catalonia and the migratory movements added fuel to the fire, favoring the expansion of Abascal y Cia.
Abascal was in Brazil a few months ago, posing hugging Bolsonaro. He and the delegation stayed at Palácio da Alvorada. Meetings etc. Let’s take over the world, like. On the official Vox page, the news about the meeting has the following title: “Abascal and Jair Bolsonaro join forces in Brazil against the height of globalism and communism”.
(try to find the CCP in this photo above)
It’s very -ism together. The future is uncertain, but this has been known for a long time. Only the bread with chocolate saves. Or with love. Invent yours.
* abuela: grandma! :)
