What is more California than a green juice truck, a missing dog sign that alerts the finder to only feed the dog GMO, or a place that does loans for designer purses? Here are some photos from a recent trip to the Sunshine State from San Diego on up to Los Angeles. Being from the east coast sometimes things seem foreign and fun to me. Here are a few of my observations.
I recently spent a busy Sunday morning with Paco and Vanessa, the owners of the “Manolita” bakery in Luarca, Spain (pop. 5,500), where bread is still being made using a traditional wood-burning oven. The process of making bread is both time-consuming and complicated as I learned while observing the hecticness of this bakery. Paco and Vanessa’s day starts at 5 a.m. The fire is lit and babied for hours until the wood turns to embers. Paco says that it takes a long time to understand the nuances of controlling the fire to get the temperature of the oven correct so as to not burn or under bake the bread. While the oven is heating, the bread dough is mixed in an industrial mixer, made into loaves, and allowed to rise. When the oven is ready, the bread is loaded in using a long bread paddle (a doppelganger of a canoe oar). Paco says he usually has so many different breads (and other pastries) in the oven that it’s a real art of timing; all this while serving customers. Paco learned the art of bread making from his father who had a bakery in a mountain village called Paredes (pop. 700). Their bakery supplied bread for many surrounding villages and Paco remembers delivering bread when he was 14 (without a driver’s license). Paco met Vanessa through music - they are both musicians - and after they got married she then joined him in the family business. Though they say this type of work takes up a lot of their time, they gain weight, and are always cold (from getting used to the heat of the kitchen), they are happy running their own business and being known as the bread makers in and around Luarca. |
AuthorHeidi Buffington, American expat living in Madrid. Archives
September 2016
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