Not So Fast, 9. Fairness.

When I was a little girl Sunday dinner was important. It was then that my mother would make a big meal, almost always something Spanish, like empanada, a type of meat or fish calzone typical of Galicia. Other Sundays, especially on cold Sundays, caldo, a stew of potatoes, cabbage, navy beans and salt pork that has a dozen variations depending on which town in Galicia you visit. Any important event was also celebrated with food. My First Communion had my mother making food practically all morning and early afternoon.

I suppose it's something Mediterranean. All the movies with the good Italian and Greek families show them sitting together at a table strewn with plates and platters of food. But I think my mother and most women her age always went a little overboard with food. After a festival such as Christmas there would be leftovers for a week in the fridge. My mother had a fetish about not letting anyone go hungry. If someone wanted seconds or even thirds, she made sure there would still be food on the platter. And her typical ration was a plate with a mountain of food on it.

To be sure, there must be an explanation beyond simple culture. Both my mother and my father grew up in the 30's and 40's, after the Spanish Civil War, when the country suffered a famine. The famine came about because of all the farmland torn up by battles, machinery destroyed and men killed. That was joined by the beginning of World War II. Since Franco became Hitler's ally and even sent Spanish soldiers to help in the fighting on the Russian front, the División Azul, the Allies punished Spain by denying grain and other food shipments. The only country that sent help was Argentina, also on the Axis side.

That made penury and hunger the norm, even in the villages where the land was still being worked. Since there was no money, almost all the produce was sold. Enough was kept to feed the few chickens that produced eggs, the cow, and the pig kept for slaughter. My mother remembered eating a thin soup of caldo made only with a potato or two and some strands of cabbage. A piece of salt pork was kept for two or three pots before being eaten to give the soup some flavor. My father, who began working at 9 nine years of age to help the family, remembers taking with him a piece of bread to work, where it would be all he would eat until he came back home at night.

I suppose that is also the explanation for the excess of diabetes and heart conditions older people are suffering now. When food became bountiful again, either because they emigrated or the country slowly overcame poverty, everyone started eating. A favorite saying at doctors' offices is "When I was young I couldn't eat because there wasn't anything to eat, now I can't eat because the doctor forbids it!" Because now hearty eating is practically part of the culture. To go to a wedding in Galicia is an experience someone with a big stomach will enjoy. I've been told that nowhere else in Spain are there wedding banquets like ours. At a wedding I attended years ago some Americans were among the guests. They didn't eat half the dishes that came to the table. They couldn't. A typical wedding has: Appetizers of all kinds, almost a meal in themselves, while everyone waits for the bride and groom to finish the photo shoot; Shellfish - this could fill a book, clams, prawns, shrimp, lobster, scallops, crab, king crab, and sometimes, oysters; Fish, of which there are always two types, with their accompaniments and a salad; Meat, of which there are also two types and sometimes even three, again with their accompaniments; Desserts, the wedding cake, ice cream, and pastries. Of course wine is present from the beginning through the end. And, needless to say, you sit down around three and don't get up again until around eight or nine. A wedding is even considered poor if the guests end up eating a late supper. No one is supposed to go away hungry. That is a mortal sin.

Christmas Eve supper is something similar, but on a more modest and intimate scale. Rare is the house where there isn't at least one dish of shellfish, one fish, and one meat. And a desert table with samplings of everything the season has to offer. The economic crisis has trimmed back the excesses and now families are not as lavish as before, though they keep a front and talk about deciding between lobster and scallops or about how crowded the markets are and that all the king crab has been sold out.

Patron saints' festivals are another reason for eating. If a festival lasts more than one day (almost all of them) the organizers make sure one of those days is Sunday. Why? So that everyone can sit around a dinner table without taking off to go to work and enjoy a meal with extended family. Those Sundays will have various cars parked at almost every house where family have gathered to sit all afternoon at the table, from the appetizers to the coffee.

And now, if you'll excuse me, it's time to go make lunch.