The quintessential Christmas, home and home celebrations are approaching in this latitude of the globe, but during this month we have seen an unusual boom in certain gastronomic products that are not so common in these parts.
Kangaroo meat, zebra steaks, camel haburgers and even fried grasshoppers are beginning to take their place on restaurant menus.
International cuisine is increasingly rooted in the main Spanish cities and it is no longer so strange to visit a Mexican restaurant where they not only serve tacos, insects are a highly appreciated delicacy in the Central American country and fried grasshoppers delight their guests. , leaving the sphericals for the end of the menu escamoles (ant eggs), specialty of the state of Guanajuato, recently elected Ibero-American capital of gastronomy.
Another current trend is the taste for the oriental. Which Marco Polo, chefs go to the fusion of Asian gastronomy to surprise and dress their creations avant-garde, but what we could not imagine is that behind the sashimi (raw fish) could arrive the jellyfish or duck tongue.
Sushi, cous cous, ceviche, tartar, are already part of our gastronomy regardless of whether it is prepared by the most tendentious of international restaurants, ours, already merge and choose these preparations to compete with the so hackneyed cooked, broken eggs, fabadas or lentils.
We do not want to belittle our dishes but it is true that the traditional has its place and never disappears, but times of crisis have refreshed the ingenuity of culinary artists and the best way to get ahead has been specialization and differentiation …
In addition, the exotic “creates a trend.”
Risky proposals begin to be transformed into a safe value to achieve success, that if with good creation, innovation and a lot of dedication.
The breeding of oxen no longer sounds like a joke to us “kobe” and its special diet and treatment wellness of their massaged loins. Tradition contemplates it that way.
Local highlights of the country already show among their delicacies and delicacies, antelopes, marsupials from the antipodes and fast birds with huge eggs that just by naming them gives us an idea of how “good they look”.
Madrilenians Burger Lab, Broken Plates and Latitude, the barcelonians The Sanctuary, La Cova del Masnou, the hand Black Orkidea of Zaragoza o The Asador Almansa from the capital of Seville are a good example of this and their menus are among the most exclusive in exotic meats.
Going back to the invertebrates, le Faalapotopotoga o Taumafa ma Faatoaga a Malo Aufaatasi (FAO) launched more than a year ago a recommendation for culinary consumption of these animals, known as insects, as a measure to help fight hunger.
In our latitudes, they were used as bait for fishing, as children’s entertainment observing them through a jar of jam or as traveling companions in country camping, but as food they are not part of our culture.
Now its intake is really common in other continents that reach almost the 80% of the world’s population, mataupu o
Asia, Africa and South America,
having them as a great food and nutritionally speaking as one of the best protein contributions.
Finding raw material in Spain is difficult, not because there is none, but because what is consumed are species from other latitudes, although there are two locations, the one so acclaimed lately Madrid MX Point y The Machito canteen in Barcelona, where you can taste some escamoles and very surprising 6-legged delicacies called “chapulines”
It will be fashion, trend but this culinary avant-garde, traditional in its origins, has come to stay, and it is not uncommon to see sea urchin roe or sturgeon roe on our tables, as long as the domestic economy allows it and for the moment its price is high, but we always have the Chatka de Surimi ma lumpus roe to give color and flavor to Christmas preparations.
Merry Christmas and enjoy the culinary celebrations!