Fried Milk at the Ascencion fair

Fair’s fair Originally uploaded by itsjustanalias.

This weekend there are a few bits and pieces going on thanks to it being the ascension. In the cathedral square there has been an invasion from the countryside. There are stalls selling leather, silver, rides on donkeys and horses. There are cows being milked, horseshoes being forged, the sound of the pipes all over the place. All of the stallholders seem to be in traditional dress (which includes studded clogs: wooden ones with four great big studs like pillars… I saw someone in a field wearing them when I went to Quiros climbing with Jorge, studs are a good idea in the mud I guess). I wandered around with my camera, bumped into one of my students who was very pleased to tell me that now I had to speak spanish.

In the next plaza there were more stalls, only this time food. I wandered around trying all the stuff that my Asturias guidebook had mentioned, like the Buckwheat ‘escanda’ bread, frixuelos (pancakes), chorizos and cheeses from lots of different valleys. I ended up getting some lovely creamy cows milk cheese called uno de los caserinos and a boar chorizo which has a fine kick. I also tried something I’d seen mentioned in a couple of places, leche frita, fried milk. It’s sort of a set milk (like a custard but without vanilla) that’s then battered and fried with a sweet crunchy batter with cinnamon. It was one of those things you know you have to eat when you see it and it was lovely, soft and creamy and bad for the teeth, I had to wash it down with some sidra dulce (apple juice as far as I can tell).

Up above the railway station there was another big group of marquees, one of which was full of cheese sellers, and another which was put up by the Brotherhood of cheesemakers (I want an application form, they have cloaks and stuff). There was a lot of chorizo, a lot of cabrales cheese and some anchovy specialists looking out of place (I bought some, it was so nice, without being salty).

According to the guidebook there are seventy or so food festivals, which, as the mathematically astute will know, works out to more than one a week. Next week, for example, in Santoloaya de Cabranes they’re having the 24th festival of Arroz con Leche; that would be rice pudding… Not only that, it’s a three dayer, starting on Friday. There’s a €200 prize for the best pud, this is not Ambrosia country here… (have a look at www.cabranes.es if you like). It’s not just food, there’s a five day gold panning competition in July among other things.