Año nuevo, vida nueva - A fresh start for the New Year

The last weeks of the year brought some time to look back and see how the Pantagruel’s project was going, and more important, where it should head to. As a Spaniard, I have several examples of fellow countrymen that went down the same road, but the ones that pop more often in my head are those of singers that began in English only to return to Spanish a few albums later. People that once passed the uncertain beginnings, found their channel but discovered that there was more added value embracing their origins (or mother tongue in this case). Pantagrueljourneys project will evolve to be closer to its roots (what a plot twist!) and to the environment where the experiences take place, but will keep open a bilingual door. Let’s see how it goes! (Best wishes for 2017!)

Las últimas semanas del año trajeron consigo tiempo para mirar atrás y reflexionar sobre cómo el proyecto de Pantagrueljourneys había ido, y más importante, hacia donde debía caminarse. Como español, tengo varios ejemplos de paisanos que pasaron ya por esta senda, pero el que más a menudo recuerdo es el de aquellos grupos musicales que iniciaron su trayectoria en inglés para regresar al español algunos discos después. Gente que una vez superada la incertidumbre de los inicios, encontraron su canal y descubrieron que podían aportar un mayor valor agregado volviendo a sus raíces (o lengua materna en este caso). Pantagrueljourneys evolucionará entonces para estar más próximo a sus orígenes (¡interesante giro en la trama!) y sobre todo al entorno en el que se desarrolla y donde las experiencias tienen lugar, pero manteniendo abierta una puerta al exterior a través del bilingüismo. ¡Veamos cómo se da eso! (Y los mejores deseos para el 2017)

“Guadalupe-Reyes Marathon”

There’s often said that in Mexico you can find a diversity of religious beliefs (o lack of it), but even in that heterogeneity, most of them will tell that they’ll always follow “Our Lady of Guadalupe”, who is feasted in December 12th. That day, almost two weeks before Christmas, is taken as the beginning of the longest and funniest marathon of the year, which last until January 6th of the next year, on Magi’s day. Any excuse is good in order to pay a tribute to this tradition: friend’s congregations, the office party, “posadas”, family meetings… you name it!

As several celebration link together, productivity drops, and people find themselves in gargantuan parties in concatenation. So if this is your first year in Mexico in this season, get ready to enjoy one of the most excessive and exquisite local traditions. As Pantagruel you may image that there's no season that I could love more! So start warming your engines towards the longest festivity of the winter, that in the same move closes and opens the year, what a moment! we've been waiting for you!

Mexican Bread of the Dead

Those previous days leading to the Day of the Dead (November 2^nd) are –as it’s happening with other holidays- expanding until several weeks upfront. When it comes to Halloween, which is just a couple of days before the day of the dead, you can start seeing costumes and all types of “merchandising” around last days of September.

In the Day of the Dead, “papel picado” (a decorative craft made out of paper cut into elaborate designs) or commemorative altars (filled with the things that the deceased loved in life) are placed in the houses and the cemeteries. But several days before that, you can find all over the city the “Bread of the Dead”, a sweet soft bread baked like a bun and decorated with crunchy “bone-shaped phalanges” on top of it. This contrast of sponginess and crunch, the sugar cover-up, and its orange aftertaste, are usually the most recognizable signatures in a classic bread of the dead.

The original recipe includes orange zest, orange juice or “orange blossom water”, and sometimes even anise or cumin seed. By-products of that recipe may add some ingredients like rosemary, chocolate or nuts. Enhance some quality, like the citric flavor with lemon or grapefruit zest, and small pieces of candied orange. Stuffing it with different toppings like sweet cream. Or revisiting the recipe in more original ways, like a popsicle of bread of the dead soaked in chocolate milk.

Last year, some friends and I worked together in a sweet quest: finding the best bread of the dead in Mexico City. Posting in Instagram with the hashtag #enbuscadelmejorpandemuerto2015 , we began to report every version of this tasty bun we could find, adding some tasting notes or directly supporting or banning it from this peculiar race. Close to the day of the dead, we all met bringing our favorites, punctuating them, ending up with a “top 3” list and having the hell of an evening.

2016 is here, day of the dead is around the corner, so jump in and join us in this year's amazing new quest #enbuscadelmejorpandemuerto2016 !

The king is dead, long live the king!

"Life's to be eaten in a continuous feast, in a huge table, and a never-ending after-dinner conversation. Foodie in Mexico City and where my hunger goes"

That's at least how this idea that is “Pantagruel Journeys” is introduced to all of you through its different versions (Instagram, Facebook and Blogger). And the concept is easy, to record in my personal way all the experiences had or to be have regarding the world of a nowadays Pantagruel.

And who is Pantagruel you may ask? The original, the one after who’s inspired this blog, is Gargantua’s son, as told in the novels written by François Rabelais in the 16^th century, and they –son and father- both voracious giants, like to live their lives in the most excessive way, and this applies of course to the food among others. That’s why gargantuan or pantagruelic have passed to posterity as synonymous of “massive, gigantic, tremendous, colossal, etc, etc”. And is commonly used in sentences as “a gargantuan task” or “a gargantuan meal”. While Gargantua remained as the representative of this concept in the English language, his son Pantagruel was adopted for the same matter in the Spanish terminology. In a strange mix of wording between English and Spanish, and maybe a language disorder of this blog’s writer, Pantagruel takes his father’s seat in order to show you tremendous amounts of amazing food, found most of the times in the Mexican environment, and wherever myself have the luck to travel with him.

It wouldn’t be fair if in this introduction I wouldn’t name the predecessors that led the way that took me here today. “Puro Albur Güerito” was my first blog –written in Spanish- explaining my experiences as I landed years ago in Mexico City. Most of these episodes where conceived around incredible dishes of Mexican food, and it was of huge (even maybe gargantuan) help to explain those friends and family back home, how this rewarding experience of living abroad was evolving. Regarding Instagram, my personal account has collected several of the pictures that you may find in @pantagrueljourneys.

But it was time to focus in the amazing food, gather around specific concepts, and try to keep polishing my English while expanding the limits of the idea I’m willing to share. So prepare to follow Pantagruel in his tasty quest, full of continuous feasts, huge overflowing tables, and never-ending after-dinner conversations.

I hope that you’ll enjoy it as much as I will!