Non-Stop Eating Till Christmas

The calendar is lying to me. It says we're entering the latter part of October, but the supermarkets are telling me December has just begun. All the Christmas goodies have been set out, begging you to buy them and start eating them. Why wait two more months to get fat on a two- or four-day sweets binge? Start now!

That's how Christmas begins here. With the sweets. Right after that we'll start to see some tinsel in other stores. But it always begins with the displays of sweets in the supermarkets. You can take your pick on how to gain a few kilos. There's turrón (nougat) to begin. This sweet is shared with the Italians, who also make it, only theirs is chewy. I remember my mother sometimes buying it in an Italian grocery store in Boston's North End when I was a little girl. The truth is, it's common to most Mediterranean countries. The Italian versions are older than the Roman Empire. Ours originated with the Moors who brought it from other countries in North Africa, but its origins are probably lost in time. Our two original turróns are either hard (break-it-over-your-head hard) or soft (moist, crumble-in-your-fingers-watch-out-for-the-stain-on-your-clothes soft). They are made with almonds, honey, egg whites, and sugar. The soft version also has oil. You can imagine the calories. And now there are different, modern versions that have nothing to do with the historic ones. All sweet, most involving chocolate, and none to be eaten on a diet.

There are also mantecados and polvoróns. These can be bought by the box or you can choose your own by kilo. Polvoróns are called that because they generally crumble into powder (polvo) in your hand just as you're about to bite them. These are made with pork fat, flour, sugar, and almonds as the main ingredients. Mantecados are much the same, except they don't have almonds, but they do have egg whites, which is supposed to give them more consistency, but that's a myth. They crumble as you open the paper they're each wrapped in. They are flavored with different things, from cinnamon, to lemon, to chocolate. You can choose your fat-filled bomb. Both were introduced by the Moors. The pork fat was introduced by the Inquisition. It was a ruse to see who made them with pork fat and who made them with oil. The ones who used oil were supposedly undercover Moors and were then tortured to save their souls.

There are also bags of dragées, or Jordan almonds, known here as peladillas. Ours, however, are white. The pastel colored dragées aren't common here. These probably came to Spain with the Romans and Greeks, because they were originally made around the area of Valencia, settled in antiquity by both. There are also candy-covered pine nuts, piñones, that are less expensive.  

Another favorite is marzipan, mazapán, whose origins are possibly in ancient Persia and then brought to all of Europe by the Arabs. Because marzipan is pan-European. You can find it almost everywhere. In some places it is shaped and colored like fruit. I remember begging my mother when I was little to buy me a piece of marzipan fruit at the Italian grocer's. She wasn't always willing to spend twenty-five cents for two minutes of enjoyment, though. (It was when twenty-five cents could buy you a bus fare.) In Toledo they shape it into animals and put sugared, beaten egg yolks in the center. In Cádiz it's shaped into a loaf and is known as Pan de Cádiz. It's everywhere at Christmas. And, with almond paste and plenty of sugar, it's designed to keep you warm in winter with plenty of extra calories to burn. 

If you feel like imbibing your wine in a non-alcoholic form, there are roscos de vino. These look like little hard doughnuts. They're made with flour, wine, sugar, olive oil, lemon peel, and sesame seeds. I suppose these are the least fattening Christmas objects, mostly like cookies. I have seen that they are of Moorish origin, like so many Spanish sweets, but I tend to think they've been modified, just like the mantecados. Either that, or there was an excess of wine one year and someone decided to experiment. 

Along with these you will now find all kinds of pastries from different regions, chocolates, especially with coconut (I don't know why coconut is considered Christmasy.), cookies, nuts of all kinds, dried fruits (especially figs), and fresh pineapples. I suppose because pineapples are an exotic fruit that was once prohibitively expensive enough to be eaten only once a year on a special occasion.

At any rate, if anybody is tempted to go on a diet now, good luck!