Calcots Day

I can't wait to tell you about my interesting weekend! :) More Catalan traditions....

First on Saturday, it was partying with my good friends in BCN -- my UK and USA teachers :). It was also a little temporary goodbye for my bro who needs to visit motherland. BTW the apartment is so empty without him....It's deadly quiet (no DJ music until the early hours of the morning) and the stove and oven are taking a big vacation. I have to make sure to wipe the spider nets from time to time :). Kidding of course but it is true that they will be in use only a few times...

Decorations on the main plaza

So Sunday was an organized day to visit a town nearby and participate in a Catalunian tradition. It was through one of the meetup groups and I was debating until the last minute to go or not because I had to get up at 7:30am! Now that hasn't happened to me in Spain at all, let alone on a Sunday! Especially when the night before I went to bed around 1:30am.... It's good I had prepaid; otherwise I'd have missed it.

Our guide explaining how to drink the wine

Managed to get to the bus station on time and it turned out that many people had done the same. Our group was about 40 people. Now you are supposed to mingle around and meet people but it's close to impossible and as usual I gravitated around some Americans. Very cool people from San Francisco ;).

One of the plazas with calcots (that smoke was lovely!)

Getting to Valls was fast and easy. From there we had a lovely local guy (head of the tourist office :) who seemed to be making friends with everyone, especially the girls. So what are calcots?! Basically that's griled green onion. That's it. The big secret is revealed! The calcots are thicker and bigger that regular green onion and they are eaten with special sauce called romesco. 

Tons of calcots

Grilling the calcots!

The way you eat a calcot is: be prepared for messiness and black hands; hold the calcots straight and peel down the first layer which is burnt and comes off fairly easily; dip the calcot in romesco and ...bite. Follow with wine. People don't usually use glasses but drink from a glass container with a long pouring outlet (please look the picture with the guide; this is too complicated to explain....). So you hold it high in front of you and pour into your mouth with touching the container. The trick is when you let go to not spill anything on yourself. :)

Making fresh romesco :)

We also tried fresh romesco. Made of tomatoes, garlic, olive oil, parsley, almonds and some spices -- all grinded into a delicious sauce. There was the contest about the most beautiful calcots (apparently they have to be green and straight and some other things known only to the judges), who can eat the most calcots in 45 minutes (285 -- believe it or not), the castellers and the dances -- Sardana is close to "horo" but much slower with easier steps.

Sardana dancing

The contest (won by the big guy #1 on the left)

Castellers

We had to line up to get our bag of goodies -- 12-14 calcots (didn't count them), romesco, wine, orange, bread and a big bib. The line was impressive but moved fairly quickly. The only negative experience that day was the freezing weather, especially when you stand in one place! Oh and the fact that on the way back the train broke, we had to wait for 2 hours and as a result was in BCN around 9pm instead of 6pm....But that's normal here. Getting used to it. 

A small portion of the line

My calcots bag :)

The orange is the traditional dessert after the calcots. I have to admit that it was pretty good. The wine is also special and supposedly 14% alcohol. Good that people had brought wet wipes otherwise there is no way you can clean your black hands with just paper napkins. Sitting in the sun felt great and the calcots are actually not that bad. Apparently their season in only now through beg of March because it is still cold and they can't develop some regular ingredients that later develop in onions when the weather gets warm. I think that's what the guide said. All in Spanish. I hope you were able to get for only a few minutes with me here in Catalunya and experience calcots!

The bottle of a good size

The proof -- I ate calcots!