Astorga
So, there were the Spanish soldiers, there, fighting against the French, and they sat down to dinner, had their soup and all of a sudden the alarm is sounded and off they go to defend the town, hungry. The same thing happens a couple of times more and then some bright spark decides he’s had enough of this so the next time he sits down to dinner he gets them to give him his meat course first, then chickpeas, finally the soup. This revolutionary idea meets with the approval of the hungry soldiers in his neck of the woods and so is born a regional speciality called cocido maragato.
We had a non-walking trip with the walking group to Astorga, a pretty little city high on the plain in León. It’s cold there in winter, blazing hot in summer, but it’s famous for its buttery cakes and pastries and this backwards menu. We wandered, looked at Roman ruins, had a glass of wine and generally ambled around. Then we got on the bus to head to a village called Castrillo de los Polvazares, all red sandstone and cobbled streets.
The first dish was then meat (basically all your boiled meats… beef, ribs, lamb, salty ham and the gelatinous stuff… ) then chickpeas with cabbage and finally soup, although I was a bit disappointed that the old Spanish soldiers didn’t go the whole hog and start with coffee and a spirit.
I have now digested the meat… although it did take a couple of days.
Tags: astorga, food, leon
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