Riiiing! Yeah, It's Sunday, but we set the alarm clock because today we have to find Pedro well, of The clochinists, who has promised to teach us the culture of the Valencian clotxina in Cabanyal and Canyamelar. pants, t-shirt, house claus. We hurry by bicycle along the long Avenida del Port, one of the old glories of Valencia, in low hours. we are late.
The history of the consumption of clochina is lost in the background of history. In the Mediterranean, there are two Paleolithic caves called Cueva de los Mejillones, both in Murcia, where remains of the consumption of cloche and fishing tools were found. We also know that the Romans grew them in artificial breeders. Superscripts, in the 1st century AD, I made them with long, garlic capolate leek, I ate, I saw panses, sajloida, wine and water. But mussel culture in Valencia, as we know it today, the 20th century began. Around the 1920, Valencia already had 16 platform platforms.
We arrive at Carrer de la Reina, 231, where Pedro is waiting for us at Emilio shoes, one of the companies with its own cloche nursery (they have four clothiers), with more output from Valencia. There we talk with Cristina, one of the properties of the company with tilers in the city of Valencia and Sagunto. Between customers - they arrive one after the other - we talk about the canonical season of the Valencian clotxina (from the last waxing moon in May to the last waning moon in August), of the purification of the clotches (they have their own machines that purify the clotches in just a few hours).
The child, the set of cubs of the clotxina, is another hot topic on the table. Cristina and Pedro tell us about the problems with shellfish on the rocks and the competent authorities. This, they tell us between laughs, has given rise to anecdotes and legends of clochina collectors in the garjola for a few hours, but without softening all the child that had retracted. Let's go through the controversy, sometimes a little malicious, of the lack of breeding for temperature and environmental issues. But they do note the few studies that are done to improve the viability of this product, what is Valencian Community Quality Mark for the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries of the 2007 on.
We leave the road to go towards the street of Josep Benlliure. Passem davant of the famous Mountain House, on cada any, the clotxina season is inaugurated by the Business Association and Group of Clotxiners of the Port of Valencia and Sagunto. We get to the number 60, where there is a building of traditional Valencian architecture, and we ask for tanda, we found a long line of people waiting to be served. We have reached the point of sale Nursery beds Germans Maria, a business, too, with nursery of own production. Pedro makes us notice that there is a chair on the door jamb. "In all the houses where cloches are sold - he tells us - you will find a chair by the door. This means they have a lot to sell. It is an ancient custom, when the matriarch stood on the door jamb waiting for the clientele. When someone came, stick two colps on the portal or on the ground, and the children let the sacks of clothes that the mother needed fall down a wooden structure on the stairs". In addition to this, Pedro tells us how these houses had to be restructured, traditional family homes, in businesses with a demanding health and hygiene record to sell live produce. "That's why they often have a narrow and strange entrance" - he points out.
"I have the cloche very good!» – shouts Maria, accompanied by his brother Fernando. A cry that brings us back to the present. And the popular atmosphere that exists between the Maria Brothers and the clientele makes you feel at home. smiles, Family and direct service in an environment decorated with dried octopus for sale and other delicacies from the sea. "This is another peculiarity of the clothing culture of Valencia - says Pedro -, as you will always find, to clothin band, other products such as tellins, sea snails or dried octopus for sale». "In addition, with the kilo of clotxina they always give you a lime and garlic to make it. Even here, a Germans Maria, - he tells us excitedly - they give a medal of Our Lady of Mount Carmel".
With Maria and Fernando we talk about seafaring language. They explain to us that the platforms where the cloche are grown are called, quite simply, clotxiners, which are actually roaches (or other types of barges) what, when they got a little old, they settled in the port with poles and ropes to cultivate the mollusk. "Our barge - says Maria - was scrapped with 125 years, there by 1994". the word Bataa, that they use in Galicia to cultivate the Galician clotxina, it is not the same structure as ours. Fernando also tells us about the location of the clotxiners and the old island of La Gità, now converted into a part of the wharf of the port of Valencia.
We continue towards Carrer del Pintor Ferrandis, 16 (and we find another chair at the door!). La Rogeta clothespins it is also located at a lifetime low. Isabel i Amparo run the business, which is presided over, an everything, for the photos and press news about Isabel Iranzo Mestre, the pool of them. "My mother would have done it this year 55 years in the business" Amparo tells us, faded.
The business of La Rogeta (sometimes written La Rocheta) it also has a small fish shop where you can find gills, let's go, dried octopus and other delicacies from the sea. Ens diu Pedro, that the bad name of rogeta, it didn't come because of mom's red hair, but because the man, who was at sea all day, His skin was red from the sun. Things from bad names.
In the same street, right in front, we find the point of sale of Valerie (one of the two they have, the other is on Avinguda dels Tarongers). There, Pedro criticizes the new 'fashion' of selling clean clots. "Actually, the clotxina is a product that is sold alive. If the byssus is removed with a machine, the pellets that the bivalve has, sometimes they tear off a piece of meat and this makes the cloche lose liveliness and freshness».
Fervorosos of the Valencian clotxina, The clochinists, with Pedro at the helm, they are a group that meets from time to time to promote the culture of the Valencian clotxina. They have been the drivers, others, from the Clòtxina entrance to the Cabanyal market this May 2018, with clotxines from the empesa Stamp (at the Cabanyal market). We take advantage of these lines to thank Pedro all the clotxiculture you have taught us, teacher!
In front of a white wine, let's finish our route talking about this unknown world for most of the Valencians of Cape Town and Casal. Of this food that is so ours and that Pedro compared to the popular character of Fellini's cinema. From this quarter, through whose veins, sailor blood runs. The character of our popular culture and the importance of preserving and enhancing it.
If you have reached the end of the article and have an unstoppable desire to taste the Valencian clotxineta, below we leave you a list of recommendations where to eat the good Valencian clotxina, good and three very simple recipes to make at home! Take advantage of the fact that we will only have it for a few months!
XAVIER BENAVENT
PLACES TO EAT A GOOD VALENCIA CLOTCHINA
– Squid. Street of Just Vilar, 19, Valencia.
– Mar d’Amura. Carrer del Progrés, 159, Valencia.
– Bar Cabanyal. Carrer del Martí Grajales, 5, Valencia.
– Mountain House. Josep Benlliure street, 69, Valencia.
– Tapavid. Street of the historian Diago, 24, Valencia.
– Cinnamon. Fourth Street, 49, Valencia.
– The Pitanza. Fourth Street, 5, Valencia.
– The Pilareta. Carrer del Moro Zeid, 13, Valencia.
– Central Bar. Central Market of Valencia.
– The Sequieta. Camí Vell de Torrent, 28, Alaquàs.
– Teaspoon (they make a recipe with orange if you order it). Calle del Mestre Rodrigo, 12, Valencia.
CLOTCHINER'S RECIPE
1) Traditional Valencian recipe
Ingredients:
– One kilo of cloxine
– A few garlics
– A round of lime or dues
– A laurel leaf
– Some parsley leaves (optional)
- A pinch of black pepper
- A pinch of red pepper (optional)
Elaboration:
Enter the chouxines, previously clean, in a pot, and add the crushed garlic and the rest of the ingredients. Let it cook for five minutes and remove it from the fire. No need to add any water; the clotches have a lot of them. The broth is delicious and if you have any left over, you can use it to make rice or pasta.
2) Grilled clams in vinaigrette
Ingredients:
– One kilo of cloxine
– Diced tomato
– Diced red pepper
– Diced green pepper
– Chopped spring onions
– A tablespoon of Perrins sauce
– Olive oils
Elaboration:
Mix all the raw ingredients and season them with Perrins sauce and olive oil. Once clean, grill the chutneys. Being done, pour the chutneys and the broth they have softened into a bowl and mix them with the well-chopped vegetables. It is an ideal recipe for summer.
3) Clotches with orange and saffron
Ingredients:
– One kilo of cloxine
– The juice of an orange and a bit of lime
– A sprig of saffron (optional)
– A taste of white wine
– A bay leaf
- Olive oil and a little salt
Elaboration:
Once clean, put the chouxines with a little wine and bay leaves in a pot. When the cloches will have been opened, drain them and reserve the liquid that has softened.
In a large paella, brown the crushed garlic and add the cloves and the juice with the saffron and the cooking liquid. salt it, let it cook for a few minutes and it will be ready.
Bon profit!
