We talk to Xavier Benavent, philologist by profession and alma mater of tasting it from here, A project that touches us closely because it has been cooked in the stoves ofUrban agenda. What began as a section of our magazine to recover Valencian recipes and products is now a website full of information on land elaborations and traditional crops that invites you all to participate. We have hit a bite with Xavier to absorb a little of his gastronomic wisdom and think we have achieved it. You want to know what makes the Vila Joiosa pumpkin special or how to prepare a good pericana? Tastaldaci.com reveals the Valencian gustatory universe with passion, Delivery and rigor.
What is to taste it from here? What can we find on the website you have put into operation?
Tasting this is a project that began in this house, Urban Agenda, he 2012, As a result of a vindication to find Valencian product in our trade. At that time we found it interesting to promote small initiatives that did a great environmental work and a local product. Without leaving that way we observed that the Valencians also needed to strengthen our gastronomic culture by fleeing clichés and clichés. Much of our recipe book has disappeared from the table of many houses and the products used, therefore, They also fade.
Give us examples of recipes that you will upload so that everyone can cook and savor.
The website we also want to cook it on loose fire, that is to say, We love to talk more with knowledge of what we publish not to do much content without juice. This involves study and time. For now, We have developed a series of content to show our readers what we want to express and recover. Of an interview talking to the star Rosita Amores about her taste memory, to a section of traditional varieties that we can buy or plant at home, through a handful of recipes we thought could be a good cover letter of the project: the humility of a fast -burning rice, The medieval reminiscence of a almond dinner or atavic kitchen recipes like a boil with onion are, others, those that you can find at present on the web.
One of Marta Aleo's illustrations with which you rewarded the donations made to crowdfunding to launch the website was dedicated to baked rice with raisins. Many of us surprised this combination, d’on ve?
Sweet or bittersweet combination has not traditionally been heritage of Asian kitchens, As you might think today. In the kitchens of Europe it was a very standardized event until the 19th century. Valencian cuisine has many alive samples of this mixture, like rice you mention or sweet balls put on some preparations theoretically salads. The vision of the kitchen has changed and will change very much over time and we will try here we would like to follow the thread of the recipes in that sense: as a part of our story.
Over the years you have been rescuing Valencian products and elaborations that have been forgotten or cornered. Like the Rocafull, The Reis Casca, the corn cakes, the albard figs, the oats water, the rockets with rice or the napkin cheese. Talk to us in a little.
Each has a very peculiar story behind. We often start from the fact that we did not know them or us! An anecdote that we always explain from the Casca de Reis is that when we made the article for Au Agenda Urbana we achieved more than twenty Valencian bakeries and bakeries where they still made it. It happened to us that in some places where they made the hous, sometimes, The people who attended did not know what it was when we asked for it. And they had it in the counter! Of our point of view, This type of situations alarmed us and show us that we need re-Know our products and promote them. We always say the same, It seems great for us that people buy a - now ubiquitous - panettone per Nadal, But that the jar is also present in the ovens and tables of the Valencians. We do not set aside your own product.
Some elaborations, Like the buns, We associate them with other places (in this case, a catalunya), But you have discovered that they are typically Valencian and the Balearic Islands. Why does this happen? We do not know the Valencians to defend and spread that ours?
There are many dishes that we have done and we do the Valencians that we share with other kitchens. Valencian gazpacho are brothers cousins of the La Mancha, for example. In the case of panellets, In Catalonia they have been fortunate to vindicate them for All Saints and have almost managed to make them fashionable beyond their borders. In the Valencian case, the texts, some very contemporary, We are told that they were very common in the Valencian tables, but for some reason of life modern perdre gas. Anyway we would not associate this with the fact that the Valencians do not know how to defend what is ours. For example, In Catalonia they have traditionally cooked baked rice that are now almost unknown to the Catalans and here in Valencia they enjoy indubitable popularity. At this time we think we need to build on positive, Because the Valencians from the north to the south are self -confused and reunited with the roots of their cuisine with values of sustainability and balance in the middle of the 21st century. This is where to taste it from here you want to be able to contribute something.
We also have the opposite case, the one of "traditions" that have revived and exploit them to the extent. We spend heavy with breakfast?
The case you comment on has also caught our attention. We really like breakfast as time to share with friends and family, But it is true that he has suffered a lot of decontextualization. Would be long to explain here, But the fact is that these pantagruic banquets that occur in some cases under the nameBreakfast They were very strange not too long ago, since not even workers who made a day from sun to sun, for example, they could afford it every day (by economic and time issues). The most common in our gastronomic culture was to have a bite at breakfast because traditionally nothing was eaten just to rise: to evils a coffee from sock (chicory) or a glass of milk for children (I do not always). Very often laborers made a brandy before leaving the work as a stimulant and for comforting the body at those morning. then, hitting a bite before lunch was essential for not fail. From here to some current breakfasts there are, as we said, certain decontextualization.
The "traditional" concept is conflicting for not being established when in time has to take root something for us to consider it traditional. In Valencia we have traditional crops that are not so much, as for example, Our orange emblematic. As has become a Valencian symbol? If it's not the orange, What is truly “traditional” in the Valencian Country?
The orange equal like other products, Like cocoa - of which we speak on the web at the entrance of cocoa coquettes -, These are products that have not been so well known at some point, not even emblematic, in the Valencian Country. This does not mean that they are not traditional - and well loved - for us, Valencians of the 21st century. If the medieval Valencians could travel to the 2020 Or we in the Middle Ages clearly see that the way of feeling and identifying themselves as Valencians the 1300 or the 2020 It depends on many factors that have changed over time. And here is our gustatory universe. He 2020, We have the weight of a shared story that has been adding references from the Tirant the White a Calatrava, passing through the Canyamel, the raisins, cocoa or orange or the most modern khaki. And the richness that has passed from generation to generation and has remained over time, and that can give us positive things, culturally speaking and as a society, is the one we think we need to make known and safeguard.
It is being done to recover and spread the Valencian gastronomic culture? Who is helping in the work?
There are many particular initiatives, premises and regional ones that invigorate and help spread our gastronomic culture. We find, But, some lack in public scope where, While it is true that some performances are performed, They focus too much on empty slogans and not on the effective and legal promotion of the entire value chain of the Valencian product: of the person who produces it to the experience or taste memory that we adopt as a society. Many small Valencian producers and means are helpless by regulations that always favor the big, which never usually count on this more environmentally and culturally involved local production. It is to these people to taste it from here they want to give voice, already is an independent, an entrepreneur or a member of an association, who already work to give value to the Valencian product and bringing excellence to Valencian gastronomy. We want to bridge each other, Place the initiatives in a practical taste map so that it is easy and constructive for the people of the street to enjoy and reuse the way of understanding the Valencian culture of a taste., sustainable and fun. For that, We invite all ideas, suggestions and collaborations to participate in www.tastaldaci.com.
