Today is a Catholic holiday in Spain, Assumption day, and one that I remember from my high-school days where on each 15th of August, we celebrated with a mass and a small treat to commemorate this religious holiday.
We went to our favorite beach, la playa fantastica, with a friend, Rosemary, and her family who are here in Marbella for a week. We met Rosemary through another good friend, Therese, more than a year ago in Paris when we all went to Disneyland with the kids in January. Our day at the park was memorable because of the freezing wind and rain. We met again last October when Therese and I were in Paris to celebrate her birthday and we all met for lunch at Le Grand Colbert. Rosemary is visiting with her daughter Sarah, her mom and her cousin after spending part of her holiday with family in Salamanca. After many years working as the creative director of Paco Rabanne, she did two seasons with Nicky Hilton for her fashion collection, Nicholai, before joining Thierry Mugler as creative director with her first collection (Printemps-Ete 2009) previewed in July this year.
How is this related to the Spanish treats? Well, Rosemary brought us two boxes of special Salmancan delicacies – Chochos and Rosquillas. I opened both today to have a taste and was surprised that the Rosquillas de Ledesma are very similar in flavour though not shape to the rosquillos cookies that we get in the Philippines. These little hand-rolled cookies will be super with an afternoon espresso – they’re so tiny that one could easily polish off a half a dozen in a handful. Chochos, on the other hand, are something I’ve never tried before and are large lozenge-shaped sweet candies – too sweet for my taste but interesting nonetheless.
Travels with a Gourmet 