The Calentita Press 3rd Edition

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It gives me great pleasure to welcome you to the Calentita Food Festival andStreet Party 2011.

This year marks the fifth anniversary of Calentita. In 2007, armed with tenpatio tents, some red carpet and a few flags, Calentita welcomed its firstguests to sample the delights of Indian, Moroccan, Llanito, and Spanish fo-od, and of course the eponymous Calentita. It was an instant hit with thebank holiday crowd - most stalls sold out before the midnight hour.

Now in 2011, the event has grown substantially. The number of stalls and fo-od types has more than doubled, the number of people attending has quadru-pled and the event has, I hope, become an important cultural date in the ca-lendar of Gibraltarian life.

In recent years, besides the Indian, Moroccan and Llanito stalwarts of thefestival, Calentita has also celebrated Gibraltar's historical roots with Genoe-se, Sicilian, Portuguese and British stalls. It has celebrated our increasinglydiverse community and our involvement in far flung regions of the worldwith Chinese, Nepalese, Sri Lankan and German stalls. New stalls for you toenjoy at Calentita 2011 include Kenyan, Hong Kong Dim Sung, Irish, Greekand South African.

Calentita is about eating great food and having a great night out. But it is al-so about encouraging all of Gibraltar together, to celebrate what is best aboutGibraltar. Our complicated and tumultuous geo-political history, our love offood, our patchwork of cultures and traditions - but most of all our diversecommunity and excellent human relations.

Apart from the food and music, the Ministry of Culture have once againarranged a fantastic fireworks and laser display, which will take place duringCalentita. There will also be dance displays by Urban Dance and the intro-duction of the Miss Gibraltar contestants.

I hope you have a very enjoyable Calentita!Owen Smith, Organiser.

Key InformationCalentita! will take place on Friday 10th June 2010 in CasematesSquare. The events starts at 8.00pm. This year is the fifth year thatthe festival takes place and it is likely to prove as popular as everso you better get down to the Square early. But remember, Calen-tita! doesn't start until 8.00pm. To make sure that everyone can getready on time please make sure that you do not try to buy any fo-od before 8.00pm. This year there are a record 25 stalls so therewill be plenty of food varieties to choose from. During Calentita! there will be a number of performances takingplace. The performances this year are by Urban Dance. The per-formances will take the form of floor shows, taking place on a lowstage in the middle of the square. The performances will reflectGibraltars mix of cultures.As is now traditional, the Miss Gibraltar contestants will also bepresented to the public at Calentita! This year Calentita! takes pla-ce just a couple of weeks before the Miss Gibraltar competition it-self, so this will be one of the last chances to see the contestants inpublic before the new Miss Gibraltar is chosen.Following on from the success of last year, this year the Ministryof Culture will repeat the fantastic fireworks and laser display thatso wowed the crowds at last year's event. This year the display isorganised by Events Unlimited. Set to music the show will last fornearly 20 minutes, and will start at 10.30pm.The whole event will finish at 1am. There is plenty of time betwe-en 8pm and 1am during which you can eat and drink your fill.Queuing at stalls is always a bit of an issue but please be patientand buy in bulk! Remember - all the people running the stalls arevolunteers and they want to enjoy the event just as much as youguys do.

Contents3. Minister´s Welcome.

Fast Food - Slow Food4. Are We What We Eat?6. Chickpeas in Other Cultures 7. When Food was a Luxury8. Committed to Calentita

Fresh is BestCalentita Abroad

9. The Political Diet10. Standing on the Edge of the World11. Gibraltar 711

Fireworks 12. Stalls at this Year´s Calentita13. Stalls at this Year´s Calentita14. Andalucia in 5 Easy Dishes15. Taking Part is Winning

Pa-todos16. Five years of Calentita17. Five years of Calentita18. Recipes 19. Recipes

Digging for Food20. Meet the Miss Gib’s21. Meet the Miss Gib’s22. The Calentita Competition23. Cultural Diversity on the Stage

Puppet Project24. The Rock that Dreamed Me

What’s On20.00 hrs Closing time for Calen

tita Competition Submission at the InformationTent

20.30 hrs Dance Display21.00 hrs Calentita Competition

Winners Announced 21.30 hrs MissGibraltars’22.30 hrs Fireworks and Lasers23.00 hrs Urban Dance Display

Event CreditsCalentita is organised by Word of Mouth Calentita Press CreditsPublished by Word of Mouth Editor: Owen SmithContributors: Jonathan Scott, Tristan Cano,Elena Scialtiel, Gabriel Moreno, Jennifer Ballentine, Christina Cortes, Tommy Finlay-son, Darion Figueredo, Owen Smith, RebeccaFiguerasPhotography: Figgy Photography, JonathanScott, Angela Cano, Owen SmithDistribution: Hour ConciergeStock Photography & Illustrations: IstockphotoPrinting: Ingrasa Artes Graficas SL

Calentita Press 3rd Edition

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Welcome - to Five Years of Calentita


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Dear Reader,

Thank you for picking up this "Calentita" newspaper. Every year the Spring Festival setsout to quench the Gibraltarian's thirst for culture; it's prepared mainly by Gibraltariansfor Gibraltarians. The Ministry for Culture enjoys a good working relationship withmany local cultural organisations and we are confident that these are mutually benefi-cial partnerships. This year, once again, I am very pleased with the variety of events of-fered by the festival: fine arts, theatre, music, dance and, of course, a food fiesta.

Gibraltarians love good food and I am, therefore, extremely happy that "Calentita"serves as our grand finale. I think you'll agree it has worked well so far, with lots of de-licious plates to choose from. Whether you're adventurous and sample new foods, or gofor your tried and tested favourites, I'm sure that you'll find something to suit your per-sonal taste. The informal atmosphere created at Casemates Square is always very livelybut not chaotic. I know that some choose to buy food and eat it elsewhere - perhaps ta-king it home for dinner, or indeed for lunch the following day - but, on the night, Case-mates is very much a place to walk around and mingle with family and friends.

"Calentita" has gained a good name for itself and I am hopeful that this year's eventwill be another great success. This year we will have another spectacular fireworks dis-play to cap off the night, as we know this has proved very popular in the past. Of cour-se, we have done our utmost to ensure safety during the display and are confident of zerofall-outs. It should be a great way to punctuate the end of "Calentita" for young and oldalike.

I would like to extend my thanks to all the entities that have contributed to the SpringFestival this year and to everyone who has attended one or more of its functions. It is es-sential that our actors, musicians, dancers and cooks are supported and it makes me proudthat Gibraltarians are so very good at supporting local events. On the Rock, we're likeone big extended family and we always show a keen interest in the events produced andpresented by fellow Gibraltarians.

The Ministry of Culture presents "Calentita" by arrangement with Word of Mouthand I would like to praise the organisers and everyone who contributes to making thisnight so enjoyable. Its success belongs to all Gibraltarians collectively since they takegreat pride in making this a very friendly event. Given the support "Calentita" has en-joyed since its inception, I am certain that this event is here to stay. Long may it conti-nue!

Edwin J ReyesMinister for Culture

Minister´s WelcomeCalentita Press 3rd Edition

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Fast Food - Slow FoodThe history of 'fast' or 'conve-nience' food can be traced backto Ancient Rome where breadand wine were sold on streetstalls. Roman society sufferedfrom all the pitfalls you wouldassociate with today's increa-singly urbanised societies andsince the average family housetended not to have a kitchen, mostmeals would be purchased fromstreet vendors and eaten 'on thego'.

Centuries later and naturallywe all still need to eat. Howeverjust as in Ancient Rome, our fast-paced lives mean that most hou-seholds do not have the time toprepare two meals a day. It is the-refore no surprise that fast foodoutlets offering the convenienceof quick meals without the fuss,have become such an importantpart of our everyday lives. Eventhough every country has its owntrends, fast food is as prevalentin the US where burger joints bat-tle it out with fried chicken, as itis in the UK where the sandwichis still king. Whereas noodlestend to rule the roost in Asia, ta-cos are número uno in South

America and falafels are the fastfood of choice in the Middle East.In Gibraltar a Moroccan-stylekebab is just as common as a tor-ta patata or a spinach pie.

Whilst a slice of spinach piemay not be the unhealthiest ofmeals, fast food outlets, particu-larly in the West, have been cri-ticized for their high-calorie,high-fat foods that include super-size meals and unlimited carbo-nated drink refills. The global fastfood franchises have also beencriticized for their aggressive ad-vertising campaigns and for thelack of nutritional informationand healthier eating options of-fered to their customers. Alt-hough they have been forced tocomply with stricter guidelinesin recent years, critics argue thatthese global brands are not doingenough to curb the rising levelsof obesity, particularly amongchildren, which is said to be lin-ked to the increase in worldwi-de fast food consumption.

As a result of this, organisa-tions like the Slow Food move-ment have come to the fore. SlowFood is an international non-pro-

fit organization based in Italywhich was originally formed inprotest against the opening of aMcDonald's restaurant in thePiazza di Spagna in Rome in1986. It describes itself as an eco-gastronomic movement whosejoint mission is to promote bet-ter food and the preservation ofthe traditional technologies andcommunities involved in theirproduction. Although it was ori-ginally promoted as an alterna-tive to fast food, its goal can bemore particularly described asthe preservation of regional cui-sine encouraging the farming ofsustainable foods and of smalllocal businesses. The Slow Foodorganisation boasts over 100,000members in 132 countries.

The success of the Slow Foodmovement is growing an its mes-sage has been gathering mo-mentum in recent years. This isparticularly the case in Europewhere there appears to be gro-wing awareness of the negativehealth implications of eating fastfoods and a year on year increa-se in Organic food sales. In theUS the take-up appears to be far

slower and despite the media suc-cess of films like Super Size Meand Eric Schlosser's bestsellingbook Fast Food Nation there arestill about 60 million Americanadults who are classified as obe-se. Whilst fast foods with typi-cally high saturated fat and ca-lorie contents are not solely toblame, the growing number ofobese Americans together withincreasing levels of type-2 dia-betes and heart disease in thecountry are certainly a worryingtrend. This is not to say that the-re is no place for fast food in ourlives. It is unlikely that there willbe any immediate changes in theway urban dwellers live and fastfood will always be the quick andeasy option for those people whoare always on the go. Problemsarise however when people re-gularly eat high fat, sugar and ca-lorie meals with little or no nu-tritional value and do not balan-ce this with fruit and vegetableportions and an active and he-althy lifestyle. Foods like ham-burgers, kebabs and fries are fineas an occasional treat, but if youfind that you're on first name

terms with the burger flipper atyour local takeaway, it may betime to re-evaluate your rela-tionship with fast food.

Fast & Slow Food - Facts-A standard burger, fries and

carbonated soft drink meal soldin a burger outlet has about 1,500calories, or of an average per-son's recommended daily allo-wance.

-There are more McDonaldsrestaurants on the planet than the-re are Gibraltarians. These bur-ger joints are spread across 126countries and six continents, su-rely a far wider web than evenLlanitos have cast.

-The Heart Attack Grill inChandler, Arizona is a medicalthemed fast food restaurant who-se Quadruple Bypass Burger ismade with just under a kilo ofbeef and boasts an artery clog-ging 8,000 calories and offersfree food for any customers weig-hing over 160kg.

-The UK Slow Food move-ment was started in 2005 by Gra-eme Kidd and now has in excessof 2,000 members.


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Often, when we consider food ina social context, we think of agood restaurant, perhaps evenone we can recommend tofriends, or of a favourite recipe,possibly one handed down th-rough generations and a firm fa-mily favourite. Then there are thestaples that become part of theculinary mix of any country, anddishes that become recognisedas cultural markers of a particu-lar community. Calentita has, forexample, become one such mar-ker of culture in Gibraltar - to thedegree that every year we cele-brate the Calentita Festival,which functions both as socialculinary event and as a markerof the ethnic mix if not culturalhybridity found in Gibraltar. Thediversity of foods available du-ring the festival goes some wayto explain how Gibraltar's cultu-ral past surfaces in the present,and how we can, to a great ex-tent, package this as a product tobe consumed. At the same time,this very diversity raises a num-ber of questions as to our focuson calentita as the national dish- why has calentita become sucha marker instead of, say, torta deacelgas or calabacines rellenos,or fish and chips? Are we takingcalentita too much for granted or,should I say, are we reading toomuch into calentita as a culturalsignifier?

As we walk around the foodstalls at the festival we quicklyrealise that these consumablesbefore us are a result of influxesand influences, of migrations andtrade routes - of global events.Even if we examine, for exam-ple, the introduction of Frenchcuisine and cookery techniquesin the culinary market we onlyhave to look back to the FrenchRevolution when chefs fled theircountry carrying with them theirskills and traditions all over Eu-rope, including Gibraltar. Evi-dence of French cuisine surfacesin a number of different ways andit would be interesting to inves-tigate the extent to which Frenchcuisine is embedded in Gibraltarfood culture. Class, of course, isanother issue that needs to be exa-mined when researching foodand culinary habits, but the the-ory goes that Genoese influen-ces hold the key to what has be-come recognised as a Gibralta-rian food culture, and there issome historical evidence to sup-port this. At the same time, whe-re and how do these Genoese tra-ces surface, and are they moreprevalent than, say, elements ofSpanish cuisine that would havealso been influenced by the spre-ad of Genoese migrations. Andwhat about North African in-

fluences, present through theearly arrival in the eighteenth cen-tury of Sephardic Jews from theBarbary Coast to Gibraltar, andthe more recent influx from Mo-rocco in the second half of thetwentieth century. We enjoy Mal-tese influences, traces of whichcould be further dug out, and cu-linary delights introduced by theIndian community in the latterpart of the nineteenth century.Then again, spices were alreadyin use globally, but the openingof the Suez Canal, also known asthe Highway to India, in No-vember 1869, connected the Me-diterranean Sea to the Red Seaand with this came new shippingroutes and abundant if not rela-tively immediate access to in-gredients from the Asian conti-nent. And where does good oldEnglish cooking come into thisvery impressive mix? All themore impressive when we reali-se that other countries enjoy va-riant although not dissimilar dis-hes to ours.

Indeed, it has been widely sug-gested that the origins of calen-tita, a chickpea flour dish simi-lar to the Italian farinata stemfrom Genoese migrations to Gi-

Jennifer Ballantine Perera

braltar and the Iberian peninsu-lar, which started before 1704.

The chickpea, or garbanzo, themain ingredient in calentita andvariations found along the Ligu-rian Seat is a native of southwestAsia which has been cultivatedfor over nine thousand years. Thekabuli variety, more common inthe Middle East and Mediterra-nean and the type used in calen-tita, is a larger, creamy yellow le-gume as opposed to the smaller,dark desi variety. The namechickpea stems from the bean'sLatin name, cicer. Interestingly,in the botanical name, Cicer arie-tinum, the second word means'ram-like', denoting the bean's re-semblance to a ram's head in-cluding the curling horns. Thechickpea is a key ingredient inMiddle Eastern and Indian dis-hes: hummus is a chickpea spre-ad that is popular in the easternMediterranean and can be foundglobally in local supermarkets.At the same time, chickpeas arethe most popular legume in In-dia where they are hulled and splitto make chana dal, and groundinto flour to make pakoras, pa-padums and other fried morsels.The chickpea has therefore un-

dergone any number of trans-formations within different so-cieties and cultures.

Other versions of calentita canbe found along the Ligurian Seacoast from Nice to Pisa: in Fran-ce it is referred to as socca, andin Tuscany, cecina. However, asimilar dish to calentita in its met-hod and use of chickpea flour iskarantita, which is found well be-yond the Ligurian Sea, in Alge-ria. Is there a connection, I won-der, between calentita and ka-rantita - especially when theysound so similar and when weconsider the well documentedconnections established soon af-ter 1704 between Gibraltar andthe Barbary Coast to provisionthe Garrison with food. Gibral-tar lost her cultivation grounds,her campo, following the AngloDutch action of 1704 and thisvery fact deprived Gibraltar ofher primary source of food pro-duction, leading to the importa-tion of food provisions from dif-ferent parts of the world, in par-ticular from the Barbary Coast.The Seraphic Jews from that areabecame major food purveyorsfor the British in Gibraltar - the-se founding Jews also brought

with them customs and langua-ges and a food culture. So ca-lentita may not be a so distant re-lative of karantita, after all, thehumble chickpea is a legume thathas travelled far and can contri-bute much to theories of migra-tions and adaptations.

It is nevertheless difficult todetermine how or when calenti-ta became known as such, but theterminology is attributed to thefact that the dish was sold in thestreet by vendors who wouldshout out caliente, hot, in Spa-nish, as a means of touting theirwares. It has been suggested thatthe food product, be it farinata orkarantita, became associated withthe daily cries of caliente to be-come transformed into calenti-ta, something intrinsically Gi-braltarian - and therein lies thekey.

An interesting aspect here isthat we are talking about streetfood - about a product that is ac-cessible to all, both in terms ofcost and visibility, and these ele-ments go some way to suggestwhy calentita can be consideredas a communal food product thatcuts across social if not class ba-rriers. It is a very basic commo-dity - not a more complex, ex-pensive festival type dish - andin this sense, calentita is a uni-fier. Still, let us not forget the ven-dor carrying his large pan of ca-lentita on his shoulders, whichhe would sell a slice at a time, apractice that continued until justafter the first half of the twentiethcentury, rendering his cries andwares very vivid in our collecti-ve memory.

The fact that so many Gibral-tarians still remember the pre-sence of this vendor is crucial tomy theory since we do not haveto dig deep into our past to drawupon some other cultural signi-fier to make our own.

The fact is that not only are wedealing with an accessible foodproduct, our memory of it is alsovery accessible, and this, I wouldsuggest, renders calentita a veryplausible and seductive symbolof Gibraltar's food culture. Wedo not have to work too hard atthis exercise of cultural recovery,for this is our endeavour whenwe refer to calentita as our na-tional dish. Neither do we haveto invent nor construct it out ofnothing.

To this end, calentita has un-dergone further transformations- no longer is the dish merely aninexpensive and handy source ofstreet food of a specific ethnicorigin, one which denotes a par-ticular emphasis. Instead, calen-tita has come to signify, or so mytheory goes, an important repo-sitory not only for Gibraltar's so-cial, culinary and ethnic past, butalso a vehicle for present-day ar-ticulations of a culturally diver-se Gibraltar.

Calentita has come to signify, or so my theory goes,an important repository not only for Gibraltar's

social, culinary and ethnic past, but also a vehicle forpresent-day articulations of a culturally diverse

Gibraltar


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Are We What We Eat?


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By Elena Scialtiel

Chickpeas are a bit of a staplefood across the Med, becomingessential to nutrition in cultureswhere meaty produce were scar-ce and the population had to drawits protein intake from alternati-ve sources, mostly legumes.

So they came up with the in-ventive and yummy substitutecalled falafel, the famous... me-atless meatball. Falafel is in facta ball or a patty made of groundchickpeas, mixed with onion,garlic and mild spices fried in ve-getable oil and served in an as-sortment of fashions, from snackto appetiser, from star starter tomain course, in single portion oron a centre-table deli platter ofsalads and dips to share and so-cialise around.

These fritters are perfect forvegetarians, vegans and for die-ters, because no animal (besidesman) is involved in their making,are low even in unsaturated fat,yet they contribute significantlyto a balanced daily dose of carbsand protein, and are high in so-luble fibre, which helps to lowercholesterol.

They also contain mineralsalts, like phosphorus to sharpenyour grey matter, potassium toprevent muscular cramps, ironfor your red cells, and anti-agingzinc; and vitamin, especially ofthe B group, useful for vegansand for all those who steer clearfrom eggs and dairy.Besides being healthy - and even

healthier if baked until crispy ins-tead of fried - falafel is filling,because the chickpea's complexaromatic chains take their timein being processed by the sto-mach, heaven-sent quick-fix forkeeping you away from the frid-ge until dinner.

But first and foremost, falafelis delicious and can be eaten anytime, thanks to its 'portable' ver-sion stuffed in a pocket of pittabread, or wrapped in a tortilla-like wheat pancake, with lettu-ce, tomato, cucumber, hummusand tzatziki, sold by street cartsor booths strategically placed atbusy crossroads.

However, it becomes the cen-trepiece of elaborate meals wheneaten convivially around a table,laden with bowls of fresh salads,grilled vegetables and spicy sau-ces, like the above mentionedhummus, but also with pickledvegetables, roasted pepper relish,and baba ganoush (creamed ro-asted eggplant with or withoutyogurt, but with one as generousas compulsory input of garlic).

So popular in the Middle East,falafel has taken by storm eventhe local outlets of iconic Ame-rican food chains, which serve itin wraps and in burgers, and itsbase dough has in return invadedAmerica as the vegetarian optionfor spaghetti with meatballs,sloppy joes and even meatloaf!

The origins of falafel are ho-wever controversial: everycountry of the Levant claims pa-ternity to a dish which has beco-

me the Arabic response to Ame-rican hotdog and Italian pizza.

Legend suggests falafel comesfrom Egypt, invented by CoptChristians as meat replacementduring Lent, whence it spread tothe entire Eastern Mediterrane-an from the busy port of Ale-xandria.Other sources place theirorigin well farther in the remotepast, claiming that Pharaohs usedto enjoy already the falafel's fo-refather. Others place it fartherin space, supporting the theory itcomes from India, and its name

is a corruption of Sanskrit pip-pali, meaning long pepper, sin-ce the Arabic word falafil is theplural of filfil, meaning both 'hotpepper' and strangely enough,'fluffy thing'.

Lebanon is the country wherefalafel is most revered and con-sumed, while Israelis are com-monly credited for making it por-table, and somehow westernised,stuffing it in edible bread handy'containers', which has someti-mes raised political issues aboutcopyright infringement.

Wherever it comes from, fa-lafel is going everywhere fast asthe flagship of Levantine cuisi-ne, setting major competition toits meaty counterpart shwarma:British supermarkets stock do-it-yourself kits, and it has takena place of honour on pub grubmenus alongside curry, quicheand bolognaise. In Gibraltar youcan find it at a couple of bistroswhere it is tinged with local fla-vour thanks to side helpings ofolives, piriñaca, coleslaw and po-tato salad.

By Elena Scialtiel

Calentita isn't the only popularrecipe in Gibraltar where chick-peas are absolute superstars: im-ported from Morocco, we can en-joy the hearty and heart-warmingsoup harira, a meal with high nu-tritional value packed in a bowl,traditionally reserved for grandoccasions like Ramadan andweddings, but delicious anytimeas an energizing pick-me-up.

In Morocco, the preparationof harira is a ritual which startsfrom the careful selection of in-gredients at the market. The holymonth of Ramadan approaching,roadsides become clustered withimprovised stalls, manned by wo-men in stripy aprons and pom-pon-rimmed straw hats, sellingonions and tomatoes.

They take them to the market,or just to any main road closer totheir farm, straight from thefields, often on donkey-back inwicker baskets, and customers

mob their rustic and folkloric ou-tlets to land themselves a sizea-ble share of this fresh crop at verycompetitive prices.

It is a quaint picture indeedwatching colourful customersand even more colourful vendorsweighing onions on rudimentalscales, or just estimating theirworth by lifting up the heavy brai-ded strings of stalks, where fromthe plump golden bulb dangleproud, filling the air with theirtangy aroma, harbinger of festi-ve nights and convivial delights.

Although vegetables are pic-ked with the utmost care, theyare not what make harira... hari-ra: its staple ingredients are infact chickpeas and lentils, whichreplenish the body of proteins af-ter a long day of fasting, alongwith spices, rich in mineral salts.

The recipe is carefully balan-ced to offer the best part of thedaily intake of nutrients, inclu-ding carbs, mostly in the form ofrice, and is usually vegetarian,

even if the solemnity of the oc-casion calls for beaten eggs, andmorsels of lamb or chicken to beadded in the stew.

The result is a creamy thicksoup where whole chickpeas flo-at in a film of olive oil topped bycoriander leaves.

With such variety and numberof ingredients required, harira isbest cooked in large quantities,and is regarded as more than asimple hunger-busting dish.From shopping for it to digestingit, harira is a social affair, the verysymbol of family ties and auspi-cious new beginnings, particu-larly when eaten by newlywedsas their first shared breakfast.

Because of its elaborate met-hod, preparation often requiresteamwork: women gather in thekitchen to peel tomatoes and diceonions, and harira ends up beingseasoned not only with saffronand ginger, but also with a goodpinch of saucy gossip.

Its consumption is meant to beteamwork too. It is usually ser-ved at nightfall to break the Ra-

madan fast to the extended fa-mily reunited around a big table,and it marks the beginning of along night of togetherness andmerriment, sometimes stretchinguntil sunrise, when the fast res-tarts.

It is served with lemon and tur-meric and is usually accompa-nied by hardboiled eggs sprin-kled with cumin and dried fruit,like dates or figs, and traditional

sweets made with fruit and ho-ney.

While this recipe originatesfrom Morocco and it graces tra-ditional menus as far east as Al-geria, the similar name hareera,designates a wintry pudding inPakistan and North-Western In-dia, made with wheat starch, su-gar, nuts, oil and cloves, a realpanacea for mountainous clima-te.


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Chickpeas in other cultures: at the heart of Ramadan nights

Chickpeas in other cultures: the Levanthas got balls - falafel balls, that is!


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By Elena Scialtiel

Gibraltar is renowned for its th-riving food culture: wherever weturn, there is something sweet orsavoury to snack on, and theabundance and variety of it ondinner tables and restaurant me-nus alike often lead us to take itfor granted and abuse it.

Alas, until not long ago, foodwas a precious commodity forthe average Gibraltarian, facedwith malnutrition more often thanwe care to listen to our grandpa-rents' recollections, especiallywhen the garrison's supplies weresubject to the caprice of wars, sie-ges, conspiracies and provisionsboycotting.

If you want to dodge the stodgyhistorical essays about the direside effects of the Great Siege ondemographics, a congenial ser-ving of murder mystery narrati-ve is instead highly recommen-ded to the curious unwilling toendure the tedious.

Fall of a Sparrow is the pre-quel to the critically acclaimedThe Murder in Whirligig Lane,by former teacher Mary Chiap-pe and local retired paediatricianand amateur historian Sam Be-nady, who has made a name forhimself with his extensive rese-arch on the history of epidemicsand yellow fever in Gibraltar.

The novel is a lively insight into Gibraltarian life at the timesof the early Great Siege, seen th-rough the eyes of Giovanni Bres-ciano, a patriotic teenager whojoins the army to proudly defendwhat he feels to be his country,despite the fact that his father isGenoese and refugee and hismother an Englishwoman.

The main plot follows his ef-forts to solve a double murder

The Great Siege through the eyes - and the stomach - of young Giovanni Bresciano

pulation and when Giovanni's lit-tle sister Lucia is hit, he doesn'thesitate to steal some lemonsfrom the army larder to relieveher symptoms. Thus, a handfulof mushy lemons, like the ickyones 21st century consumerismwould lightly toss in the dumps-ter, makes the difference betwe-en life and death, and miracu-lously sets ailing Lucia on her

convalescence path, teaching usa valuable lesson on the value ofvitamin C. Of course, the focusof this page-turner isn't food, andappetite doesn't hinder Giovan-ni's deductive skills in followingthe many leads - and dead ends- towards solving his case.

Although he blatantly jumpsto conclusions, luck and comra-deship make him succeed in pre-

venting the assassination whichcould have changed the historyof Gibraltar.

Although 100% fictional, hebecomes a real patriot in the ri-veting finale, where naive fer-vour and youthful gallantry, se-asoned with a pinch of reckless-ness, are the main course of thebanquet in honour of the originsof the Yanito identity.

case, while surviving his first fort-night in the British army and bat-tling his hormones tangled in thejealous blooming of his child-hood friendship with barmaidBianca.Within this frame, Fall ofa Sparrow is a diorama of theEighteenth Century garrison,mostly dominated by the hurryand flurry of building, repairingand strengthening fortifications,as well as the fear for an uncer-tain future and the incumbent fa-mine.

With the Spaniards blockadingvictuals both from land frontierand sea, the soldiers find them-selves stuck in a rut of dried saltpork, porridge and stale bread,washed down by some sorry su-rrogate for ale, and blackstrap,the as cheap as fiery mixture ofwines sold in the town's taverns,because the top of the crop is ob-viously commandeered for thetop brass.

And with rations becomingsmaller and more rancid everyday, in times when potatoes andrice are a treat, it isn't time to befussy for Giovanni, the son of amerchant who has always pridedhimself with providing abun-dantly for his wife and children,drama-prone stepmother and herdisillusioned daughter.

However, swapping the rela-tive comforts of his boyhood forthe hardship of army rations inhis newly achieved manhood isn'ta seamless rite of passage.

Soon, his personal battle withhunger pangs almost obscureshis initial enthusiasm for servingand defending his country, whenhe is drawn to chew on stringysalt pork, or compelled to gulpdown porridge without dwellingon its taste, or lack of it, as longas it eases the cramps and doesn'tmake him gag.

So unpalatable is the salty meatfor idealistic Giovanni that he'shappy to trade it for bread froman even happier comrade - whichis a paradox, considering the scar-city of protein they were facedwith.

Even worse, to his horror henotices that his porridge is aliveand kicking! Yes, kicking withweevils. His friend jollily ex-plains to him he can either pickthem out of it before eating it, orjust swallow the grub whole wit-hout minding too much of its con-tents!

And so Giovanni puts up a bra-ve face and makes virtue of ne-cessity, since starvation is the glo-omier alternative, to the extentthat when the military cook of-fers him some cabbage leaf, hefeasts on it as if it was manna!

Furthermore, the spectre ofscurvy and smallpox lingers onthe malnourished dwindling po-

Fall of a Sparrow is the prequel to the critically acclaimed The Murder in Whirligig Lane


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When Food was a Luxury


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Calentita - thousands of peoplecoming together to celebrate ourvibrant, multicultural and har-monious community. It's a state-ment about the Gibraltarian iden-tity, a recognition of the roots ofthat identity and a chance to ex-plore its many different culturesthrough the universal languageof food.

But a big event like Calentitadoesn't just happen; it dependson a lot of people putting in a lotof hard work. Anyone who's ex-perienced the finale to the springfestival over the past 4 years willknow that those working at theIndian stall don't shy away fromhard work. They have earned areputation for endurance at theevent - each year, late on, whenother stalls have sold out, thechicken tikka rolls, kebab rollsand vegetable biryani just keepon coming!

"I remember being told to ex-pect 6,000 people the first year,but we weren't sure whether thatwas perhaps a bit optimistic" saysVikram Nagrani, long-standingpresident of the Gibraltar HinduCommunity. "We took a risk inordering lots of supplies andthankfully it paid off!" Vikramworks with a committee to pre-pare a long task list every year in

community coming together insuch a positive way. It's for aworthy cause".

The Gibraltar Hindu Com-munity have raised between£2,000 and £3,000 each year, do-nating to a various local causes:Women in Need, AKIN, MountAlvernia, the Hindu Temple andSt. Martin's School. But Vikramstresses just how much of a teameffort it is. "It's not just those fromwithin the Hindu Communitywho contribute. We have manyother partners who make it pos-sible. We have to thank AngloHispano, Saccone & Speed, Le-wis Stagnetto, Ramsons and Ci-sarego in particular, for kindlydonating their produce so thatworthy charities can benefit fromthe proceeds on the night."

The Indian stall has been a keycomponent of every Calentita.No doubt the demand for chic-ken tikka will be just as great thisyear as it has been in the past. Andyou can be equally assured of thefact that Team India will be up tothe challenge! "It's always beena successful event. We've foundit rewarding and fulfilling to beinvolved.

Calentita is entertaining andfun, but I think it also gives us alla sense of belonging."

preparation for the event. Theystart planning a month before andhave strived to improve their of-ferings year on year. "It's a lot offun, but it requires good organi-sation, so we always try to buildon what we know has worked inthe past."

Ensuring that there is enoughfood to serve on the night, at the

breakneck pace that it flies fromthe tent, is no small feat. A fewlocal restaurants help prepare bigpots of sauce and marinated chic-ken in the 24 hours leading up tothe night, while a number of in-dividuals put together exquisitehome-made samosas and otherdelights in their own kitchens.Last year, the team operating the

stall on the night was 25-strong,but many others had contributedin the build up.

"Everyone pitches in", says Vi-kram, who you might spot on thenight coordinating the Indian tentwith a calmness that belies thehigh-tempo operation Calentitademands.

"It's great to be a part of the

Fresh is BestHave you ever asked for somet-hing simple at a restaurant, onlyto be served a dish that you knowcame straight out of a jar or a tin?If you're happy with that, if youridea of a restaurant is a place yougo to avoid washing up after-wards, then bully for you. If you'-re after something more from arestaurant, then maybe youshould chat to Idan Greenberg.

"The bottom line is if we don'tmake it, we don't serve it." Idanruns Verdi Verdi, a small cafe onCornwall's Lane where a whole-some, home-made philosophyreigns supreme. "Eating is notjust about hunger, it should alsobe about the eating experience.All five senses should be indul-ged when dining," Idan statesemphatically. Having spentsome time studying in France,Idan has picked up the Frenchboulangerie's passion for bread."Something as simple as freshlymade bread, served warm withbutter can be so, so tasty."

They're proud of their bread atVerdi Verdi. Idan and Duncan(his trusty sidekick) don't grindtheir own flour, but all their loa-ves are made fresh, from scratch.It's home-made bread, kneadedwith their own hands. "There'ssome-thing authentic and uniquein that." It's also quite indulgent;

Idan's sandwiches have beenknown to be some 10cm deep!Idan is Jewish, so Verdi Verdi isa Kosher eatery, but he insists thatfirst and foremost it's a restau-rant serving good food: "ever-yone wanting good food is wel-come".

The falafel is perhaps their sig-nature dish. "It's very commonin the middle east, but we serveit our own way. We use our home-made chili jam garnish andfreshly-made pitta breads."They're big on vegetable soupsand boast about their 'fish of theday'. It's not your traditionalmenu, but it's wholesome andtasty. "We like spoiling our cus-tomers. Our desserts are parti-cularly gen-erous and indulgent."

Again, all desserts are 100%home-made. "We love brownies,banoffee pies and cheese cakes."Reflecting upon his insistence oncooking dishes from scratchusing fresh produce, Idan con-firms that it's probably more timeconsuming and more expensive."But it's good and therefore it'sworth doing." Unsurprisingly,he's a big fan of the local market:"It's a delight! High quality fish,fresh vegetables & quality herbscan be bought locally... We're pri-vileged."

He suggests you visit it if youhaven't been in a while. "Deli-cious aubergines and the best to-matoes in the world!"

You can find Verdi Verdi inCornwall´s Lane.

Calentita AbroadJonathan Scott says: My wifeCatherine and I honeymooned inItaly last summer. We spent a fewdays in Cinque Terre, which is inLiguria, close to Genoa. On a hotJuly morn-ing, while walking inManarola, a small village not toodisimilar to Catalan Bay, we stop-ped at a small shop to buy a colddrink.

The shop was a delicatessenand we were fascinated to seethey were serving something re-sembling both our torta acerga(theirs was torta pascualina) andcalentita. We had heard of 'fari-nata' (meaning 'made of flour')but hadn't tried it yet, so simplyhad to. As compared to your ave-

Mark Montovio says: You canstill see calentita being soldby street vendors in Moroccothe same way it used to be soldin Gibraltar years ago: sameshape, same tin pans, and it'svery popular there. I actuallybelieve that any dish usingchickpeas in Gibraltar comesfrom Moroccan tradition, rat-her than Spanish, but of cour-se I'm no expert on this! I re-cently came across a Moroc-can version of callos in Ma-rrakesh: much spicier and wit-hout pork, of course, butequally delicious! Spain wasruled by the Moors for yearsand their influence is markedthere, but I have never seenanything similar to calentitain Spain.

rage calentita, it was less oilyand thinner. It was tasty butnot as rich. Still, lovely to geta taste of Gibraltar on the westcoast of Italy.


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Committed to Calentita


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The Hon. Haresh Budhrani QC is the Speakerof the Gibraltar Parliament; he likes his food butis not so hot on cooking...

“I was away from Gibraltar for eight years (bet-ween 1967 and 1975) while I pursued my educa-tion in England and, at the risk of stating the ob-vious, I missed my mother's cooking most. Whi-le the survival instinct helped me to quickly 'ac-quire a taste' for boarding school and Universityrefectory 'cuisine', I always looked forward to co-ming home for holidays and to my mother's who-lesome food. She was a brilliant cook, even thoughI say so myself, having mastered not only the fullrange of Indian delicacies but also a variety of Chi-nese, European and, of course, Gibraltarian fa-vourites. It is a pity she did not pass any of thosegenes on to me because I can't cook to save mylife! While Indian and Chinese food was and con-tinues to be readily available everywhere in En-gland even to those on student budgets, Spanishrestaurants were very few and far between in tho-se days and I certainly never came across any whe-re I could have indulged myself with food whichhad a local flavour. I particularly missed sardinasrellenas and carne como callos - to name but twofrom recollection - so it had to be home for holi-

The Hon. Joe Bossano MP is a formercook and still enjoys spending time inthe kitchen. He also has an interestingstory concerning the tortilla de patatas....

“I was on route to Geneva where I wasattending a conference as Chief Minister.We stopped in the area of Savoy in eas-tern France. I knew that the Duke of Sa-voy was an ally of England when she tookGibraltar in 1704. And the first census ta-ken in Gibraltar some years later showsthat Savoyads, people from that area, werean important part of Gibraltar's popula-tion at the time. So, given that some of ourancestors are from Savoy, I thought itwould be interesting to see what their cui-sine is like today. I don't eat too much inthe evenings, so i ordered something Ithought would be light - a Savoyad ome-lette. Low and behold, the waiter turnedup with a 100% llanito tortilla! Maybe it'sbeen with us for longer than we think.”

Moira Walsh is a spokespersonfor the Progressive DemocraticParty. She's also a devoted grand-mother with very Gibraltariantaste buds...

“Torta de Acelgas (or Chard pie)is one of my favourite typicallyGibraltarian dishes. The ingre-dients include pastry and eggsfrom Britain, acelgas, garlic andolive oil from Spain and Edamcheese from Holland. Two of itsingredients Acelgas (chard) andhard Edam cheese (queso de boladuro) can be easily purchased inGibraltar around Easter time butare difficult, or in the case of chard,impossible to find in the UK. Sowhen we lived in the UK, eitherthe pie flew to the UK courtesy ofmy in-laws or we flew to Gibral-tar to savour this very tasty dish!”.

Damon Bossino is a lawyer and poli-tical analyst with an interesting palet-te...

“Being third generation Maltese andmarried to a Spaniard, gives rise to avery interesting and varied culinary ex-perience. On the Maltese/Gibraltarianside I have had the benefit of experien-cing the delights of eating dishes suchas "Fideo al Relleno". In its essence itis a pasta (usually penne) dish, with anaccompanying sauce, mixed in with thepasta, comprising cheese (lots and lotsof it) and garlic (again lots and lots ofit). The Spanish contribution comes fromSalamanca (which is where my wife'sfamily is from), in the shape of an "hor-nazo", which for want of a better wordis a pie with chorizo, lomo and egg mi-xed inside of it. Not to be confused withthe "bollo hornazo" which we normallyhave here at Easter and is sweet. The Sa-lamanca variety, although a pleasure toeat, is probably a health hazard if youhave high cholesterol. One thing youappreciate in the variety is in fact howdifferent the Gibraltarian food cultureis from the Spanish”.


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The Political Diet

“Being third generation Maltese and married to a Spaniard,gives rise to a very interesting and varied culinary experience”


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By Christina Cortes

Gibraltar is known for manythings: for our iconic Rock andour equally iconic Barbary ma-caques, for our status as one ofthe last remnants of the BritishEmpire, and for the ongoing con-flict with Spain over this. It isknown by the scientific commu-nity as one of the last outposts ofthe Neanderthals, and by histo-rians for all the civilisations thathave lived or passed through heresince then. Readers may recog-nise our hometown from MollyBloom's famous monologue atthe end of James Joyce's classic"Ulysses" - some may know usin a more modern capacity as thetax heaven in the hugely popu-lar Millennium trilogy of novelsby the late Stieg Larsson.

One of Gibraltar's most fa-mous mentions in all of world li-terature and indeed culture, ho-wever, is as one of the Pillars ofHercules in Greek and Romanmythology: between our Rockand the Jebel Musa mountainacross the Straits in what is nowMorocco, we represented the endof the known world, beyondwhich even Hercules did not tra-vel. We are famous, then, as a ga-teway between worlds: for beingat the limit of what is known, atthe edge of something new. Weare both a monument, and a step-ping-stone. It isn't a bad thing tobe famous for.

Gibraltar can be seen as a ga-teway, as a crossroads, as a con-nection. Almost entirely su-

rrounded by water, we've alwaysassociated ourselves closely withthe sea, especially the Medite-rranean: a naval base, a com-mercial port, rich in marine life,and historically a haven for tra-vellers. With the colours of thesea all around us, and its breezeconstantly in our faces, one couldalmost imagine Gibraltar as theprow of a ship facing into the oce-an.

Yet, Gibraltar also stands atalmost the narrowest point of the

Straits. On a clear day you cansee the striking outline of Mo-rocco across the water, and re-mind yourself that behind thatsilhouette lies a whole massive,diverse continent - and behindus, the Iberian peninsula at theedge of Europe. Other countriesand continents come to mindhere, too. One cannot think of theAtlantic, just beyond the west,without thinking of the huge, fa-raway unseen mass of the Ame-ricas; and then we have the Me-diterranean to our east, the "midd-

le sea" where some of the mostancient civilisations in the worldcame to fruition, and often bat-tled each other across its expan-se. Gibraltar is at the crossroadsof two continents and two mightybodies of water: it is no wonderthat the figure of the Rock on thehorizon has been so iconic for themany people that have stoppedhere on their way through his-tory, or that it still captures ourimagination.

Gibraltar has found its owncultural identity, too, as a midd-le point between many elements.So often, we are defined betwe-en the two poles of Britain andSpain. The UK mainland is a fa-raway island with little geograp-hical similarity to us, but it is ourcolonial power and Gibraltar asit is now has grown up under the300 years of its stewardship, ta-king on its language and institu-tions. Spain is our next-doorneighbour, and we share withthem our climate, much of ourfood, some of our way of life, andin many cases our ancestry: yettheir refusal to relinquish theirsovereignty claim has long an-tagonised Gibraltar, reaching itsapex in Franco's closing of thefrontier, which is largely credi-ted with inadvertently cementingGibraltar's sense of its own uni-que identity.

Making this all more than aquestion of British rule and Spa-nish proximity is the vibrant com-bination of other cultures and re-ligions coming together in Gi-braltar: Genoese, Maltese, Sin-di, our historic Jewish commu-nity, and many more. Gibraltar,like any other community, is notwithout its tensions: but arguablyfor such a small city, we all co-exist remarkably well, and thediversity of cultures representedhere is really something to be ce-lebrated, even as we unite underour British sovereignty or the"llanito" banner.

There are times when being aGibraltarian can, admittedly, befrustrating. Not many people livein a city they can't leave withoutshowing their passport. Espe-cially once you've lived away, itcan be hard to come to terms withour own lack of a larger country.This is not to say that Gibralta-rians can't live happily anywhe-re they please, adapt and maketheir lives there, and grow to feelat home whether in Britain, Spainor anywhere else, while alwaysbeing able to return here and feellike they belong too. However,many people elsewhere grow upknowing they can go two hoursdown the road, and still be wit-hin the same country: that theirtown is not alone in the centre ofa crossroads, touched by so manycultures yet not fully integratedinto any.

Yet, far from being handicap-ped by this potential sense of iso-lation, Gibraltarians are actuallypretty adaptable, and cheerfulabout it. It is astounding how of-ten people from other countrieshave told me they've met a Gi-braltarian before, considering ourrelatively small population.Being a Gibraltarian can be a trueblessing in this world where cul-tures are increasingly communi-cating and intermingling. Beingneither English nor Spanish, norentirely anything else except our-selves, we are given a uniqueperspective, outside of the con-fines of merely "belonging" toone big country and accepting itsstereotypical national characte-ristics without noticing (whichis easy, though avoidable, for ci-tizens of a bigger country). Wecan see and enjoy the best (andignore the worst!) of so many dif-ferent cultures from where westand.

Far from being small-minded,we are well placed to becometruly open-minded about theworld we live in - and yet havethis town to come back to, withits own unique character and sen-se of community, its history andmodernity, its diversity and sen-se of unity, evolving over the ye-ars yet maintaining a charm that'senduring as the Rock it's built on.

As a symbol of all this, justthink of two national drinks.From the English, we get our loveof tea with milk, an oddity inmuch of the rest of Europe buthugely cosy and warm to anyo-ne who's grown up with it, drin-king tea at home, at work andeven on the beach from a ther-mos flask! From Spain: our ca-felito, delicious coffee served ina little cup or glass, and excep-tionally good with churros. In Gi-braltar, unlike most of Britain orSpain - you can get both equallywell made. It's a small pleasureperhaps - but an enduring andcomforting one that contributesto quality of life, and you can'task for much more than that!


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Standing on the Edge of the World


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This year marks 1,300 years from711 AD, largely cited as the yearin which the Muslim occupationof Gibraltar began. But as Tris-tan Cano discovers, not everyt-hing about the story is as straightforward as the history books maysuggest.

The history of human settle-ment in Gibraltar can be tracedback tens of thousands of yearsto the Stone Age. Gibraltar wasthought to have been one of thelast sites of regular occupationfor Neanderthal man and the so-called 'Gibraltar Skull' which wasblasted out of a quarry on theRock's north face in 1848 wasactually discovered eight yearsprior to the remains found in Ger-many's Neander Valley. As a Gi-braltarian man myself, I someti-mes wonder what life would havebeen like for me if the words 'Gi-braltar man' were synonymouswith the same meaning 'Nean-derthal man' has nowadays.

There is historical evidence oftheir having been Phoenician,Carthaginian and Roman visi-tors to the Rock in the centuriesthat ensued but the next key datein Gibraltar's history was 710 AD

when a small brigade consistingof about 100 Berber cavalry and400 foot soldiers led by Tarif ibnMalik Nakli landed on the Spa-nish mainland close to Tarifa. Itwas after Tarif, that Spain's kite-surf capital eventually took itsname. Tarif did not visit Gibral-tar but a successful plunderingof the area meant that he retur-ned to Africa with a sizeable bo-oty and the stage was set for anincursion by a larger force the fo-llowing spring.

This time the raid was led byTariq ibn-Ziyad, a MuslimUmayyad general who was incommand of the garrison at Tan-gier, under orders from Musa ibnNusayr. Conventional wisdomcites Gibraltar as having been hisdisembarkation point and hen-ce, it is said, that the rock knownby the Romans as Mons Calpebecame Jabal Tariq, meaning li-terally, Mountain of Tariq. Thesimplified account of procee-dings goes onto say that it wasnot long after his 711 AD landingthat the foundations of the origi-nal Moorish city of Gibraltarwere laid, centering around astructure positioned where the


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Gibraltar 711Tower of Homage now stands.

However a more scepticalanalysis of these facts may sug-gest that not all of the above isentirely accurate.

Firstly - as to whether theMountain of Tariq was in fact na-med after Tariq at all. It is saidthat Tariq himself named theRock Jabal Al Fath which meansliterally the 'Mountain of Victory'and it was gradually over timethat the Rock became known asJabal Tariq. However there arethose who say that instead of 'Ja-bal Tariq' it may rather have been'Jabal Tarek' which means'Mountain of the Path' denotingGibraltar's role as a stepping sto-ne for the Islamic conquest of Eu-rope. The use of the word 'Tarek'(meaning path) and not 'Tariq'(after Tariq ibn-Ziyad) is also inline with the fact that it is un-common for places to be namedafter persons in the Muslimworld. The name was later co-rrupted by the Spanish to beco-me 'Gibraltar' and its originalname was therefore banished toconjecture.

There are also doubts overwhether Tariq did in fact land hisexpeditionary force within thegeographical boundaries of whatis now Gibraltar. By all accountshe is meant to have avoided theclosest route across the Strait ta-ken by Tarif aiming to land hisarmy in the Bay 'close' to themountain. Whilst the Rock of-fers few natural anchorages the-re is a possibility that the isthmusor the area of Red Sands mayhave offered good landing spotsfor Tariq.

On the other hand, when youconsider that Tariq's primary aimwas to conquer Iulia Traducta,

FireworksThis year the display is being pro-duced by Events UnLimited, fe-aturing pyrotechnics by AlchemyFireworks and lasers by Lasy-sEurope and starts 22.30 hrs. Thefireworks and laser show will beinspired by the flavours of Gi-braltar, featuring music from someof the various cultures and tradi-tions that have influenced the cul-ture of The Rock. The soundtrackis guaranteed to provide somet-hing for all the family, from up-beat dance tunes to music fromthe musicals, classical tracks andatmospheric ambient pieces. Theartists are equally varied, reflec-ting the melting pot of Gibralta-rian culture with influences fromthe UK, Spain, Italy, North Afri-ca, China and India to name but afew. For further information aboutthe fireworks display contactEvents Unlimited at [email protected]

located close to where Algecirasnow stands, a landing in Gibral-tar would have been largely im-practical. Not only because of thedistance he would need to coverto get to Algeciras, but also be-cause, located across the Bay andin full view of that City, he wouldhave denied himself the poten-tial element of surprise. Arab ch-roniclers have claimed that Ta-riq attempted a landing furtherup the Bay, possibly in the areabetween Campamento and theruins of Carteia but was repelledby Christian defenders. It is be-lieved by some historians that asecond unobserved landing wasmore likely attempted on the Me-diterranean coast, possibly alongthe beaches between La Atuna-ra and Alcaidesa. From here Ta-riq could have waited for his fullforce to land and travel by landto the area of Puente Mayorgawhere he could launch an attackon Algeciras.

Finally, there are questionsover Tariq's supposed settlementon the Rock. We must rememberthat Tariq's was a substantial andfar more powerful force than thatof Tarif who had preceded him ayear earlier. Unlike Tarif, Tariq'sintention was not a mere 'smashand grab' but was the vanguardof a serious invasionary force in-tent on wresting control of His-pania from the Visigoths. It couldbe argued therefore that Tariqwould have been occupied withfar more important issues thanbuilding a fortress on the Rock.

Indeed just a few months af-ter landing he had led a famousMoorish victory over ChristianVisigoths led by Roderic on thebanks of the Guadalete River.Not wanting to be outdone by his

protégé Tariq, Musa himself cros-sed the Strait with a sizeable armyin 712 AD and together with Ta-riq pushed on via Merida, whe-re a bloody siege ensued, to thecapital Toledo. Many more bat-tles were won along the way asTariq and Musa continued norththrough Spain until, within se-ven years of landing, all of Ibe-ria was in Moorish hands.

A more likely alternative toTariq's building of a settlementor fortress on the Rock wouldhave been the construction of alook-out post of some descrip-tion, possibly close to where theTower of Homage now stands; alocation which provides an ex-cellent vantage over the Bay.

The first major settlement onthe Rock would therefore havebeen built many years later du-ring the 12th Century, when theMedinat al-fath (City of Faith)was constructed during the reignof Almohad ruler, Abd-al-Mu-min.

By way of postscript to theabove, Musa, in obvious grati-tude for Tariq's tireless work, hadTariq stripped of his commandand publically whipped. This didnot go down well with the Ca-liph in Damascus who summo-ned both Tariq and Musa beforehim for judgement. This time itwas Musa who was stripped ofall his possessions and shamedinto living his last years as a beg-gar. His legacy though was subs-tantial.

It was Musa who was respon-sible for extending Muslim ruleover much of North Africa andit was after him that the JebelMusa Mountain located in nort-hern Morocco and visible fromGibraltar took its name.

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Stalls at this Year´s Calentita1. South AfricanAlbert and Jules Gonzalez

Bringing the distinct taste of South Africa to Calentita, this is most definitely a stallnot to be missed. If you have ever been to South Africa you will know how importantthe "braii" (BBQ to you and me) is. If you've never been this is your chance to find outand to sample the goodies - Boer Sausages and Burgers on a Braai, Bunny Chows(unique to South Africa) mild curries served in hollowed out bread. Spare Ribs inSouth African barbeque sauce and Chakalaka sauce.

2. Ye Olde Sweet ShopYe Olde Sweet Store

If Gibraltarian Desserts just isn't sweet enough for you then make sure you pay a tripto the traditional sweets on offer at the Sweet Stall. Boasting a tantalising range of mo-dern and traditional sweets there is sure to be something for everyone at this stall.

3. Information Tent Word of Mouth

If you have any questions or queries during the event this is the place to head. Word ofMouth staff will be on hand to assist you with any enquiry you might have. It's alsothe place to drop off your entries to the calentita competition.

4. ScottishSharon Moir

Making its debut at this year's Calentita is the Scottish stall. Boasting the quintessen-tially Scottish Haggis, Neeps and Tatties as well as the Scottish dish "stovies". Thereare not many dishes that can boast a famous poets praise - but thanks to Rabbie Burns,Haggis can…

Fair fa' your honest, sonsie face, Great chieftain o' the pudding-race! Aboon them a' ye tak your place, Painch, tripe, or thairm : Weel are ye wordy o'a grace As lang's my arm.

5. IrishO' Reilly's Pub Another first for Calentita - enjoy an authentic thick and steaming Irish Stew, miniatu-re Bailey's Cheese cakes, all rounded off with a glass of the black stuff - ice cold Guin-ness.

7. Kenyan Lianne Azzopardi and Catarina Canessa Visit our Kenya Stall and help local volunteers Lianne Azzopardi and Catarina Canes-sa fundraise for an Actionaid project, which will see them building a much neededschool in Marafa, Kenya, later this year. This is a chance to help provide a communitywith much-needed classrooms, as the school is currently mud-walled, uninhabitableand without toilets, and create a conducive learning environment for the children.We will be making Kuku Paka (Kenyan Chicken Curry) and Kibama (Banana Bread).Hope you come and visit our stall :)

6. SicilianPizzahut

Some of Gibraltar's most traditional dishes draw their inspiration from dishes origi-nally created by our Italian forefathers. Bringing a very distinct taste of Italy to Calen-tita this Sicilian stall will specialise in Italian Pizza.

8. Bread and CakesCrumbs Bakery

Enjoy the best of local breads and cakes served up by Crumbs Bakery. Their tastymorsels are sure to make your mouth water. Having already established themselves lo-cally as a popular bread shop and bakery, this is certainly not a stall to miss.

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10. Montaditos"Los Mojitos"

We will be selling freshly made montaditos with a variety of ingredients to include Se-rranitos and 3 choices in sauces and some very tasty sangria as well. We are a group of12 friends fundraising for the RIFCOM Atlas to Sahara Challenge Charity Trek in No-vember 2011 and we have called ourselves 'Los Mojitos'. RIFCOM is a non-profitcharitable organisation run by volunteers from Gibraltar and Spain. Please visithttp://www.rifcom.org/11. Calentita

Gibraltar Youth Service

A group of young people will be selling Calentitas at this stall. They have been run-ning the Calentita stall for the past two years and the group love being involved in thisevent as it is the most interesting and vibrant community event Gibraltar has in its so-cial calendar. Every year we are amazed at the diversity Gibraltar has as a community.This is something we forget but should actually be celebrated with such events. Thefunds raised will go towards a summer programme of activities for the committed ser-vice users.

12. Photo BoothLaguna Youth Club

Make sure you come down to the Photo Booth to capture your Calentita Moment forever - lights, camera, speech bubble, calentita? Action! Let the Figgy Photo Booth be apart of your calentita experience and capture the moments that you will never want toforget. Step right in with your family and friends, grab a prop and get creative. Free ofcharge - or make a charitable donation.

13. PaellaSwave

Always one of the most popular stalls at the event. Despite each giant paella being suf-ficient to provide several hundred servings, this tent is always kept busy all night ma-king more than one. A fantastic and tasty example of Spanish cuisine enjoyed in Gi-braltar.

15. Cup CakesCupcake Gibraltar

Last year their ornate cupcakes sold out in just minutes. This year they are more thandoubling their offering, not just in terms of quantity, but also in terms of cupcake fla-vours, icings and toppings. Look out for the Oreo which features an entire orea atopthe cupcake.

14. GibraltarianGibraltar Cheshire Home Support Group

This year look forward to torta de patata, torta de acelgas, croquetas and other local fa-vourites. With the expert assistance of some of Gibraltar's top local eateries this stallwill be as always, not one to miss.

16. Sri LankanRenu Bartolo

This is my first time representing Sri Lanka at this food festival… The reason I am ta-king part in this event to demonstrate to people all the wonderful food that we have inSri Lanka and to show how different they are to Indian food although we are neigh-bours geographically.

18 & 19. IndianThe Hindu Community of Gibraltar

Always the most colourful stall at Calentita this year the Hindu Community are onceagain going all out to keep up with demand with two LARGE stalls. Look out for localfavourites samosas, curries, masalas, chicken tikka, biryani and many more dishes.

17. CaribbeanDenise Bacarisa

Gibraltar has an important connection to the Caribbean - during the Second World Wara large number of Gibraltarians were evacuated to and live in Jamaica. This stall re-es-tablishes that important connection with the Caribbean through tasty foods from oneof Jamaica's neighbours Barbados - look out for chicken, fish cakes, hot-pot stews, retias well as many other tasty Barbadian dishes.

21. MexicanMade In Mexico

This year Gibraltar’s small Mexican community is represented by local Restuarant“Made in Mexico”. Make sure you pop on down Mexico.

20. GermanTristan and Ming Ming

Serving up the very tasty German dish "Wurst Bude" - a traditional German sausageserved with a side of potato salad - the German tent always has queues winding roundthe tent...but always in the most orderly of fashions.

9. Chinese, CinmanKowloon Restaurant

Authentic Chinese food served the way you have always enjoyed it. Look out for localfavourites Mini vegetable spring rolls, Crispy fried won tons, Egg Fried Rice, Vegeta-ble noodles, Sweet and sour chicken, plus other dishes. This year we are raising mo-ney for Cancer Research in conjunction with Relay for Life and MS.

22. Hong Kong Dim Sum Flora Lam and Kimme To

Dim sum is a Cantonese term that literally means dot heart or order heart, or can be in-terpreted as snack. Classical dim sums include dumplings and rolls in a variety of in-gredients such as beef, chicken, pork, prawns or vegetarian ingredients. They are coo-ked by steaming, frying and sometimes other methods. Traditional freshly made dimsum will be available at Calentita Hong Kong stall this year. Don't miss out!

23. GreekChildline

This year Childline Gibraltar has decided to surprise and delight with the flavours ofGreece. We will start you off with an aperitif called "Ouzo" which always accompa-nies the "Meze" (Greek style appetizers). This is not for the faint at heart, so if youthink it might be too much for you we can dilute it in to a "Greek Kiss" (Ouzo withorange juice)…and we're off to a good start…OPA!!!!

24. Llanito Desserts Sarah Sheehan and Friends

Throw the diet plan out the window, for the second year running, a stall dedicated justto the most popular course on any Gibraltarian menu...dessert. Puddin de pan, arrozcon leche, mantecados, you remember it, they're making it.

25. MoroccanMoroccan Community Association

From their traditional sweet meats, to harira the Moroccan soup, chiken briwat, las-hing of sweet mint tea, and the superbly popular pinchitos, the Moroccan stall is notone to miss. Selling as fast as they can cook this stall is worth the wait!

16. JewishVerdi Verdi / Amar's

Although Jewish members of our community are unable to participate directly in thisyear's Calentita, they are well represented through their food - the almost iconic Japo-nesa de Amar for those with a sweet tooth, and falafel and humus from Verdi Verdi forthose more inclined towards the savouries. Look out for the sign at Calentita so youknow where to buy.


14

By Tristan Cano

Gibraltarian food can be descri-bed as a fusion of many differentcuisines, just as Gibraltariansthemselves are a mix of the manycultures and nationalities whohave settled on the Rock. A tra-ditional British dish like 'cod andchips' is as much a testament toGibraltar's background as a dis-tinctly Mediterranean plate offried rosada or gallo. Whilst theyare not a million miles apart whenit comes to taste or application,both arrived on Gibraltarian pla-tes by very different means.

Although there are some as-pects of Gibraltarian cuisinewhich are distinctly British, Ita-lian or Maltese, it stands to rea-son that due to Gibraltar's loca-tion, Spanish and particularly An-dalucian culture and cuisinewould be influential on our diets.Our geography and natural lands-cape make it unsuitable for agri-culture, meaning that much ofthe fruit, vegetables and grainswe eat are imported from Spain.We fish in the same waters andmany of our favourite foods aremerely variations of Andaluciandishes which have trickled theirway across the border throug-hout the centuries. It is therefo-re with this in mind that TristanCano visits five of Andalucía'smost vibrant cities and explorestheir links to Gibraltar togetherwith key aspects of their cuisine.

SEVILLE Situated just a two hour drivefrom Gibraltar, Seville is Anda-lucía's largest city and home ofsome of the region's best knownhistorical monuments. It is alsorenowned as being one of Anda-lucía's centres of gastronomy,providing some of the region'sfinest and most varied culinaryexperiences. Its Barrio de SantaCruz is certainly worth a visit, asmuch for the beauty of its pictu-resque plazas, as for the abun-dance of excellent tapas bars scat-tered along its cobbled walk-ways.

Seville's Torre de Oro is lessauriferous that you would ima-gine but was, like our own To-wer of Homage, built during theAlmohad Dynasty. As was Se-ville's most famous monument,the 93-metre-tall Giralda Towerwhich was designed at the end ofthe Twelfth Century by promi-nent Islamic architect Ahmad IbnBaso. Baso was renowned,amongst other things, for havinglaid out the original city of Gi-braltar including the Great Mos-que which was located where theCathedral of St. Mary the Crow-ned now stands.

There are many dishes whichare professed to have originatedin Seville, including Gazpachoa cold tomato soup which is re-nowned the world over. Howe-

ver one traditional Sevillian dishwhich is also a particular favou-rite in Gibraltar is Huevos a laflamenca. This dish has manydiffering versions depending onthe individual chef and, generallyspeaking, the leftovers that areavailable to throw in to it. It ty-pically consists of fried tomatomixed with diced Spanish hamand either peppers, peas or gre-en beans and served on a bed ofchips or fried potato chunks. The'huevos' are added before placingthe dish in the oven and are the-refore poached in the tomato sau-ce. Whilst many a Gibraltarianmay claim their own version tobe best around, Triana which isSeville's old gypsy quarter, andsaid to be the home of flamencomusic, is as good a place as anyto enjoy this iconic Sevillian dish.


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A taste of Andalucia in 5 Easy DishesHoly Roman Emperor.

Because much of the region'sfishing industry is located nearby,seafood is a particular speciality.Cádiz therefore boasts more thanits fair share of marisquerias of-fering the freshest seafood andshellfish with the fritura Gadita-na perhaps the most famous dishof them all. It's essentially a pla-te of mixed fried seafood simi-lar to the type available in manyGibraltarian restaurants and inthe beach bars and chiringuitosin nearby Spain. Although thevarieties of fish will vary depen-ding on the season and the day'scatch, squid rings (calamares),white anchovies (boquerones),red mullet (salmonete), dogfish(cazón) and baby squid (punti-llitas) are amongst the most com-mon inclusions.

CÓRDOBACórdoba was originally foundedin Roman times and became oneof Europe's largest cities, sup-posedly being one of the first toreach one million inhabitants. Itwas the capital of Al-Andalusand a centre of culture and lear-ning which was considered to bethe spiritual heart of IslamicSpain. Centred around the im-posing Great Mosque (la Mes-quita), the largest in Spain, Cór-doba's historic streets are aneclectic mix of the many diffe-rent cultures and religions whichhave lived there through the cen-turies. These cultural influencesare reflected in its many historicbuildings and unique architectu-re, not to mention the labyrinthof cobblestone streets lined withorange trees and some of the mostcharming squares you will findin all of Andalucía.

Córdoba's Great Mosque bo-asts a mix of Muslim and Spa-nish architecture making it inmany ways an analogy of the cityas a whole. When the Moors wereousted from Córdoba at the endof the 15th Century, the zealousChristian rulers tore out its cen-

GRANADALocated in the foothills of the Sie-rra Nevada mountain range, Gra-nada was a stronghold of the Nas-rid Dynasty, Spain's last greatMoorish kingdom which stoodalone after Seville and Córdobahad fallen to the Catholic mo-narchs. It remains one of Spain'smost spectacular historical WorldHeritage cities and its AlhambraPalace must surely be one of themost well-known and recogni-sable man-made landmarks onthe planet

Gibraltar itself once formedpart of the Nasrid Kingdom ofGranada and was an importantbase port providing the Nasridswith a link to North Africa. It washowever, during the Merinid oc-cupation of Gibraltar that the so-called Gate of Granada was builtin the 14th Century, in the areawhich later became known as theNorthern Defences (the 'Jungle').Although only remnants of thisgate survive, it was once the mainentrance into the City and reve-als the important connection bet-ween Gibraltar and Granada du-ring this period.

Although 'tapas' are said tohave originated somewhere inAndalucia, the inhabitants ofGranada emphatically claim thatthey were invented in their city.Tapas supposedly originated aswine or sherry glasses were co-vered with bread or meat (lite-rally lids or 'tapas') to keep theflies away. Bartenders would usesalty meats like chorizo or Spa-nish ham which would maketheir punters thirsty and wouldtherefore increase their alcoholsales. As each bar tried to outdoeach other with ever more ela-borate (and no doubt saltier) va-rieties, tapas evolved and even-tually become more importantthan the drinks themselves.Whether or not Granada is theactual home of tapas, it remainsone of the few places in Spainwhere tapas are provided free ofcharge as an accompaniment todrinks in almost every bar in theCity.

CÁDIZFounded by the Phoenicians asa small seasonal trading post inthe 12th Century BC, Cádiz isthe most ancient still-standingcity in Western Europe and theclosest to Gibraltar of the 5 citiesfeatured. The old town is almostcompletely surrounded by waterwhich has been as much a key tothe City's success throughout thecenturies as to its downfall, ha-ving made it a sought-after pri-ze for army upon army of attac-king invaders. Despite a turbu-lent past, the local Gaditanos nowprefer to concentrate on some ofthe more important aspects ofAndalucian life: excellent food,fine wines and Sherries and longhours spent relaxing on sandy be-aches.

Cádiz has played a prominentrole in Gibraltar's history as theoriginating port for many a Spa-nish naval attack on the Rock.More crucially, however, it wasthe taking of Cádiz and not Gi-braltar which was the primaryaim of Admiral Sir George Ro-oke when in 1704 he set off toclaim control of the entrance tothe Mediterranean. As it happe-ned, and despite boasting an im-pressive fleet of fifty two Englishand ten Dutch ships of the line,Rooke had misgivings about afurther attack on Cádiz followinghis disastrous attempt to take theCity two years earlier. Gibraltarwas considered a more than ade-quate consolation and on 1 Au-gust of that year an Anglo-Dutchforce under Rooke's commandsailed into the Bay of Gibraltar.Just three days later they took theRock in the name of Charles VI,

courtyard.There are two dishes which

stand out as being uniquely Cor-dovan in origin. Firstly there'sSalmorejo, a cold vegetable soupmade with bread and tomatoesand sprinkled with hard-boiledegg and Serrano ham. Like gaz-pacho this soup is served coldthough it's generally much thic-ker and can be employed in manyother ways such as sauce for dip-ping or as a garnish for meat. The-re can be nothing more typicalhowever than a Cordovan fla-menquín. It consists of a longtube of pork which is wrappedwith Serrano ham, breaded andthen deep fried. It's a bizarre lo-oking food item which resem-bles a large breaded sausage andcan be served-up at lengths of upto 40cm in some restaurants. Thebest flamenquines can be foundin restaurants near Puerta de Se-villa or in Córdoba's Jewish quar-ter which tend to be housed intraditional Cordovan buildingswith elegant central patios whichserve as dining rooms.

MALAGAMalaga lies at the heart of theCosta del Sol and is Andalucía'ssecond largest city and the sixthlargest in all of Spain. It is thebirthplace of Picasso and nowa-days home to Andalucía's largestairport which is the internationalgateway to the Costa del Sol. Alt-hough many of us will pass th-rough the airport regularly, notall of us will have ventured intoMalaga's centre, which like somany other Andalucian cities re-tains a very distinct personality,consistent with its Islamic past.

Aside from the Alcazaba, an11th Century Moorish fortifica-tion, Malaga is overlooked by the14th Century Castillo de Gibral-faro which is set in dense pineand eucalyptus woods. This cas-tle was named after a Phoenicianlighthouse which once stood inthis location (gebel-faro meaning'rock of the lighthouse') and wasbuilt by Yusef I of Granada. Thisgreat Sultan is closely linked toGibraltar through the Gate Hou-se of our own Moorish Castle (lo-cated between the Moorish Cas-tle Social Club and former Pla-ter Youth Club), which bore a no-longer-visible dedication to himabove the gate.

Like Cádiz, Malaga prides it-self on its seafood and the mileupon mile of beautiful coastlinevisible from the Castillo de Gi-bralfaro are as noteworthy fortheir superb golden sands as fortheir many excellent chiringui-tos. There are few better placesthan here to enjoy sardinas al es-peto which literally translatedmeans 'skewered sardines'. Freshsardines (which are neither gut-ted nor cleaned) are pierced witha sharpened shard of bamboocane and then cooked in the em-bers of a fire which burns tradi-tionally on the back of an old fis-

tre and built a cathedral insidethe Great Mosque's main prayerhall. Much the same happenedwith our Gibraltar's Cathedral ofSt Mary the Crowned, howeverunlike our Cathedral, much ofCórdoba's Great Mosque is stillintact, albeit devoid of its onceremarkable symmetry. Whereaslittle remains of our Cathedral'spatio of orange trees, the GreatMosque's Patio de los Naranjosremains a virtually untouchedexample of a Medieval Moorish

hing boat. The espetos are set atan angle so the sardines cook inthe heat and not in the smoke andthe fish are turned half way th-rough cooking. Although coar-se sea salt is added during pre-paration, lemon tends to be avoi-ded as they are said to detractfrom the sardines' natural fla-vours.


15

By Jonathan Scott

"Disfrutamos de la paliza que nosdamos," says Ali laughing. Hemakes a lot of sense when he tellsme it's always much more plea-sing to do something because youwant to, rather than because youhave to. For Ali Doussi and theMoroccon Community Asso-ciation, Calentita is just that; it'svery hard work, but they take gre-at pride in being part of somet-hing so quintessentially Gibral-tarian. He tells me how difficultit is to organise, cook and servewhile the queue of people wai-ting to be fed grows faster thanthey can cook the pinchitos! Butit's a dilemma that Ali and histeam are only too happy to takeon every year.

"We want to contribute to labuena imagen de Gibraltar... perolo que pasa es, short of staff" saysAli, in perfect llanito. He explainsthat preparing the large quanti-ties of food requires a large spa-ce, but that they have to make doinstead with a small kitchen.Along with his team of about 12(all volunteers, naturally), it ta-kes about 2 days to prepare thethousands of pinchos for coo-king. About 75 kg of chicken, 75kg of beef and 75 kg of lamb are

What dish is most typically Spa-nish? There are thousands of Spa-nish recipes and flavours to ex-plore - and explore we should.But along with the tortilla de pa-tata, it is the paella that is com-mon to most of Spain's regions.You might say its popularity hassomething to do with the way thedish reflects the country's deepmaritime roots. Or you could justsay it tastes delicious!

The paella is thought to haveoriginated in Valencia, perhapsas far back as the 15th century(some 500 years ago). However,it wasn't until the 19th centurythat its popularity saw it spreadacross Spain, acquiring regionalinfluences in the process. (AnAndalusian paella won't neces-sarily taste the same as a paellafrom Valencia, let alone one fromGalicia.) The original Valencianpaella was enjoyed by country-dwelling peasants, who used rab-bit, beans and whatever vegeta-bles they could get their handson.

But when the dish made itsway to coastal areas, the rabbitand beans were replaced by fishand shellfish, and thus the sea-food paella was born.

This paella de marisco is ac-cepted as an authentic paella inValencia, where, more than

anywhere else in Spain, the dishhas a special place in people's he-arts.

At festivals, it has become cus-tomary to prepare enormous pa-ellas. According to the GuinnessBook of World Records, in 2001Valencian restaurateur Juan Gal-bis made the world's largest everpaella, feeding a phenomenal110,000 people!

Johnny Garcia's paella is notquite that big. But it is big. Eachpaella can feed 500-600 people,which is no small feat. For thepast 4 years, Johnny and his brot-her Adrian have prepared paellaat Casemates for Calentita.

Rather than prepare variousSpanish dishes, they prefer toconcentrate on making the Spa-nish dish, and on making it tasteyummy.

Spanish cuisine is renownedfor its health benefits and freshingredients. And true to that idea,the Garcias insist that everythingmust be cooked from scratch onthe night as a paella loses someof its flavour when it's reheated."Hombre, it's harder to do thisway", Johnny tells me, "but it'sworth it as we don't lose any ofthe aromas or flavours... No de-bes tener prisa en cocinarla".

Not cooking it in a rush trans-lates to about an hour and a half

per paella on the night. Given thesize of the dish, all the ingredientsare supersized, as is the effort.Johnny and Adrian take great careto ensure the rice doesn't stick.But apart from conscientious sti-rring, what makes their paellataste great? "Claro, lleva pesca-do fresco, el arroz, marisco, agua,tomate and fresh vegetables".What marisco? And what seaso-nings do the Garcias use? "Nun-ca se dice toda la receta!"

Given its popularity in Anda-lusia, it is unsurprising that Gi-

diced, then the fat's removed, thenthey're placed in the marinade...and then they're threaded ontothe skewer, ready for their nowfamous BBQ on the night. Ali'steam strives to keep prices very,very accessible, practically costprice in fact. "Lo que se gana esla colaboracion con la gente deGibraltar."

The Moroccan pinchitos workexceptionally well for Calentita.Not just because they have thatdistinctly smokey flavour of theBBQ while still being tender andjuicy... beautifully tender andjuicy! Mmmm.... But it's not justthat. They work well becausethey can be eaten very easily onthe move. Ali is very aware of thefact that people like movingaround the square on the night,"es parte del ambiente, rey".What it means is that other tra-ditional Moroccan dishes, likethe tajine, are far less practicaland therefore less attractive forCalentita. They'd also take lon-ger to cook. "We could do them,pero seria dificil and we couldn'tdo as much."

But don't worry, there are ot-her classics that will feature onthe night. In fact, you could evenhave a 3 course meal at this onestand. For starters, some tradi-tional soup, so often a feature ofspecial occasions in Morocco -

the harira. For mains, along withthe chicken, lamb and beef pin-chitos, you can also choose fromkufta - the cigar-shaped, spicedmeatloaf. Oh, and cous cous.And, if like me you've got a swe-et tooth, you could top it off witha scrumptious Moroccan cakeand wash it down with some mint

Gibraltar Regiment and is proudthat, more and more, Moroccandishes are making their way into the camp's menu. He says the-re's much more demand, amongthe Rock's soldiers, for the likesof cous cous and Moroccan-sty-le chicken. Judging by the Mo-roccan stall's popularity at Ca-

tells me there are 1,116 Moroc-can nationals living on the Rock;largely a diminishing, ageing po-pulation. But one that feels verymuch a part of Gibraltar today.Ali feels more Gibraltarian thanMoroccan. He has more friendshere, returning to Tangier justonce every 10-15 days to see hiswife and family. Unfortunately,visa restrictions don't permit themto live on the Rock with him, sohe relishes the summer holidayswhen they're allowed to visit."Hombre, es muy dificil dividirtu vida entre Gibraltar y Tangier.Dividir tu sueldo."

Despite this hardship, Gibral-tar is Ali's home and Casemateshas a special significance. Forhim, the square is a great testi-mony to our community's coo-perative spirit. Like everywhe-re, there are some issues, but inthe main, he tells me, relationsbetween the Moroccan commu-nity and other Gibraltarians havebeen excellent. And nowhere isthis better exemplified than atCalentita. "Siempre ha ido muybien para nosotros, y divertido."

Ali and his friends embracethe chance to be part of - and beseen to be part of - the fabricof Gibraltarian culture andproudly share their Moroccan he-ritage. "Un encanto participar inthis very Gibraltarian day."

tea. Discussing these classicswith Ali, he convinces me thateven with the most simple dis-hes, there is a traditional methodof preparation that makes the tas-te authentic.

Ali Doussi was born in Tan-gier, but has spent most of his lifehere on the Rock. He inheritedhis passion for food and love ofthe kitchen from his mother, whohe describes as an excellent chef.He works as a chef for the Royal

lentita, it's not just the soldiers.I think that Gibraltar is fasci-

nated by Moroccan culture.Many of us make the short jour-ney across the Strait to glimpseanother way of life, on anothercontinent. In the 1970s, howe-ver, the journey was made in theopposite direction. With the Gi-braltar-Spain land border closed,hundreds and hundreds of youngMoroccans came over to workhere. Some forty years later, Ali

Taking Part is Winning


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Pa-todos

braltar too is fond of the paellade marisco.

On the night, Johnny andAdrian will attract long queuesof people waiting patiently fortheir plate of typical Spanish cui-sine. Some ask for various ser-vings to take home for relatives(or so they say), while manycome back for seconds. So howmany big paellas will the Gar-cias get through at Calentita thisyear? As many as people de-mand, but probably 2 or 3 largedishes (i.e. 1000 - 1800 servings).

They enjoy a very good rap-port with the organisers and aremore than happy to be involvedin the event. "Se pasa super bien.El ambiente esta buenisimo y lagente super simpatica". Johnnyexplains that Gibraltarians knownot to expect the same serviceyou would at a restaurant. "It's adate for the diary, an evening forfamilies, a special day."

So, I ask again: what are thespecial ingredients in his paella?"Que pesado! El secreto se man-tiene - que no te lo digo!".



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18

By Tito Benady

Our Gibraltar cuisine has beenmuch influenced by the influxof Spaniards during the lasttwo hundred years and by En-glish cooking in the last fifty;the latter as a result of the eva-cuation to Britain in 1940 andthe influence of women's ma-gazines since then. Nevert-heless there are some tradi-tional dishes that are the hall-mark of the Gibraltar cuisine;they are mostly of Genoeseorigin.

CalentitaThis is the most famous of

our dishes. In Italy the fari-nata is usually made with whe-at flour, water and oil, but inGenoa, where it is known asfainá, because Genoese is aCockney Italian that tends togloss over the last con-sonantsof word, it is always made withchickpea flour. In the old daysit used to be prepared in ba-kers' ovens and then sold bystreet vendors who carried thelarge metal trays on their head,balanced on a padded peakedcap to protect themselves fromthe heat of the trays. It is nolonger sold this way, but as wenow all have ovens in our kit-chens and it is very easy tomake many people make it athome.

To make it you mix chick-pea (gram) flour with water,olive oil, salt and white pep-per and let it stand for a cou-ple of hours. You then bake itin a roasting dish, the bottom

of which has been liberallysprinkled with olive oil, in ahot oven, at 220° centigradefor about an hour until the topis a golden colour. When youtake it out of the oven you letit stand for five minutes to setbefore cutting into it.

The time it is baked in theoven must depend on thequantity you make. GibraltarFavourite Recipes suggeststwo measures of water for eachmeasure of flour, but I find thattwo and a quarter gives a bet-ter re-sult.

PanissaIs a type of polenta made

with chick-pea flour, mixedwith oil, water, salt and pep-per in the same proportion asthe for the calentita. The mix-ture is then slowly boiled sti-rring all the time. When it iscooked it is allowed to set ona plate. It can be eaten hot orwhen cold it can be slicedthinly and deep-fried in veryhot oil until it is crispy. In Nice,which until 1860 was the Ita-lian city of Nizza, the crispyfried panissa is known as soca.

RostoThis is the traditional Sun-

day dish. Given that most pe-ople did not possess ovens inthe nineteenth century and thatthe meat that was obtained lo-cally tended to be tough, thispot roast was very popular. Thelements that make up thisdish are clearly of Italian ori-gin but it seems to have beendevel-oped locally and I have

not found equivalent recipesin Genoa.

You need a piece of beefweighing between 3 and 5pounds, which is browned ina saucepan in hot olive oil withgarlic and a bay leaf. After ithas been browned on all sidesit is taken out and the vegeta-bles - carrots and turnips aretossed in the hot oil and thentaken out and reserved. Re-move skin and pulp from halfa pound of tomatoes, chopthem up and fry them in the oilin a medium heat for about tenminutes. Add two glasses ofred wine and bring to the boil,then put the meat back in thesaucepan and simmer for anhour and a half. After whichyou add the reserved car-rotsand turnips and some mush-rooms and cook for a furtherhour, adding sufficient waterso that you have a nice sauceat the end. I find that peeledshallots, which have beenslowly fried and caramelisedfor about half an hour, go well

Serve the slices of meat ona bed of cooked macaroni,spoon the sauce of the meatover it and add grated cheese.

INGREDIENTSA joint of beef or veal 2 cloves of garlic 1 bay leaf1 lb carrots lb turnips lb fresh mush-roomsI glass red wine lb macaroni lb grated cheeseolive oil

salt ground black pepper

CimaYou take a piece of brisket

from which the pieces of flankhas been re-moved and youare left with a triangular pie-ce of meat without fat. Youmake a deep incision in thesmallest side, stuff it and thensow up the opening. It is thensimmered in an uncoveredsaucepan for two to threehours, depending on the sizeof the piece of meat.

INREDIENTS FORSTUFFING

2 cups soft bread crumbs 2 crushed cloves of garlic 4 beaten eggs lb salami or ham, cut

small handful of pis-tachio salt

1 teaspoon dried marjoram 2 ozs grated cheese black pepper2 tablespoons parsley Mix all the ingredients in a

bowl and spoon into the ope-ning you have made in themeat.

Fifty year ago there was acook from La Linea calledMariquita da Costa who wasmuch in demand in Gibraltarfor dinner parties and ban-quets. Her specialty was bo-ning small chickens, fillingthem with a cima stuffing andthen sewing them up beforesimmering them. These chic-kens were always called ma-riquitas in deference to theiroriginator.

MinestraThis is the usual Italian mi-

nestrone into which 4 tables-poons of chopped basil are sti-rred in towards the end. A mi-nestrone is a vegetable soupmade with white beans andfresh vegetables and flavou-red with to-matoes; gratedcheese is added when served.The beans are essential but thefresh vegetables can be variedaccording to taste and availa-bility.

INGREDIENTS (sugges-ted!) lb white beans soaked

overnight 1 lb pumpkin or carrots (or

mixed) 2 tomatoes (skin removed

and chopped) 2 potatoes cut into small pie-

ces2 courgettes cut small lb French beans1 kohlra basil salt

grated cheese

Torta de acelgaThis is the local equivalent

of the Genoese torta pasqua-lina, a popular Easter dish.

First you make the pastry.Put cup of water and cupof oil in a bowl with a pinchof salt, beat well and slowlyadd plain flour to the mix-ture,stirring all the time, until it isfirm enough to handle. Rollthe mix-ture into a ball and rollout when desired.

Remove the stalks from th-ree bunches of acelga (chard,

the West Indian kalaloo), or ifthe bunches are vary large, twowill probably do. Roll the le-aves and chop them finely thencover in boiling water to sof-ten, drain and squeeze out thewater. Stir into the choppedleaves, three cloves of crus-hed garlic, two tablespoons ofolive oil, two teaspoons ofdried mar-joram, some chop-ped mint, 3 eggs and 200grams of grated cheese, andmix well. If you do not haveacelga or fresh spinach, youmay use a kilo of chopped fro-zen spinach, which has beendefrosted and had the watersqueezed out.

Line a deep oven dish withhalf the pastry, spoon in themixture you have made, maketwo wells in the mixture andbreak and drop an egg intoeach of them. Cover with theremaining pastry, brush overwith milk or melted butter andcook in a medium oven for twohours.

INGREDIENTSFor the filling3 cloves of garlic3 bunches of acelga 5 eggs1 teaspoon died marjoram 200 grams grated cheddar salt and black pepper For the pastry cup of oil cup water pinch of salt and 400 grams of flour.

AdafinaJewish cuisine in Gibraltar

follows the general pattern butthere are some specific Je-wish-Moroccan dishes. Thegreat classic is the adafina, thenormal Saturday dish, whichis cooked overnight so that itcan be served hot without bre-aking the prohibition of coo-king on the Sabbath.

INGREDIENTS FOR 6A joint of beef of about 2lbs

(preferably brisket) 1 large on-ion1 large cup of chick-peas so-

aked overnight 3 table-spoons pearl barley6 boiled eggs 6 medium potatoes 1 heaped tea-spoon paprika1 cup of rice with chopped

garlic and saffronolive oil

1 or 2 heads of garlicsalt

The onion is sliced thinlyand fried until it is a crispybrown. The rice is fried in apan with the garlic, saffron andsalt and then placed in a pieceof butter-muslin and tiedtightly so that it becomes acake when it cooks and ex-pands. All the ingredients arethen assembled in a pot withplenty of water and brought tothe boil, after which they aresimmered for some 14 hours,preferably in a an oven at about120º C.

In the old days the pots weretaken to the oven of Amar thebaker, on Friday afternoon andcollected on Saturday mor-nings, but today they are coo-


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Recipes for some Gibraltarian Favourites

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ked at home in a slow cookeror on a hotplate. Before ser-ving, the eggs are shelled andthe muslin is removed fromthe rice. The garlic will be softand sweet.

A hallmark of this dish is itsdeep brown colour, someachieve this by frying theonion until it is almost black.I do not like the flavour ofburnt onion and I think thatachieving the right colour withpaprika is to be preferred.

A feature of Gibraltar's Je-wish cuisine are the cookedMoroccan salads.

Pimiento & tomato saladSkin two green peppers.

The best way is to grill themuntil the skins be-comes black,then place in a plastic bag andallow to cool. The skin shouldthen be easy to scrape off. Sli-ce the peppers in strips. Peeland seed two large tomatoes(or 4 small ones) and chop up.

Heat three tablespoons ofolive oil in a frying pan andfry three cloves of garlic sli-ced thinly for a minute, thenadd the peppers and fry slowlyfor ten minutes then add thetomatoes and cook rather morebriskly for 15 minutes, add saltto taste and allow to cool.

Rolitos de carneTowards the end of the ni-

neteenth century there was asubstantial Maltese immigra-tion. The immigrants weremostly male workers who ma-rried lo-cal or Spanish girls,so they did not make muchcontribution to Gibral-tariancustoms or cuisine although

beef olives or rolitos de carneor ternera known in Malta asbragoli, have become one ofthe mainstays of the local cui-sine.

INGREDIENTS FOR 48 pieces of thin beef or veal

flattened as for schnitzels 6 rashers back bacon 2 hardboiled eggs chopped 4 tablespoons soft bread-

crumbs 2 cloves of garlic, crushed salt and pepper(Some replace the bacon

with chopped cooked carrotsand olives)

The ingredients are mixedand placed on the pieces ofmeat, which are then rolled upand fastened with a toothpick.

INGREDIENTS FOR THESAUCE

1 large onion 2 tablespoons olive oil 2 cloves garlic1 bay leaf 150ml wine flourRoll the olives in flour and

fry in the oil until brown allover and remove, add more oilto the frying pan and cook thesliced onion until goldenbrown, add the garlic and bayleaf. Return the beef olives tothe pan, add the wine and sim-mer for an hour.

A few middle class familiesdid emigrate to Gibraltar andtheir descendants still makesome traditional Maltese dis-hes.

(adapted from an article thatoriginally appeared in the Gi-braltar Heritage Journal)

Jennifer Ballantine Perera isa self-confessed hispanist. Butdon't worry, that doesn't meanthat she meets Alejandro San-chez for churros on a Satur-day morning; it means she's ascholar specialising in Hispa-nic studies. She's a social his-torian and a major aspect ofher research has been Cubanliterature and the developmentof a cultural identity within co-lonial and post-colonial cons-traints. Her focus in the lastten years has also been direc-ted towards the Iberian Pe-ninsula and in particular, Gi-braltar.

The history of food in Gi-braltar is therefore very rele-vant to Jennifer's academic fo-cus. It's very easy to say thatcalentita, panissa and rolitosare our national dishes, butwhy are they are national dis-hes? How did they become ournational dishes? Why are theyimportant to us today? Howdid they come to be in the firstplace? Did our ancestors bringthem from other countries orwere they more-or-less in-vented on the Rock? These arethe sort of questions that Dr.Ballantine Perera will ponderover for hours, days, weeksand months, dusting off oldarchives and bygone books todo her digging. Think of heras a local Lara Croft who usesresearch tools and systematicthinking rather than guns and

acrobatics. She searches forclues that, when pieced toget-her, tell us something newabout how Gibraltar came tobe just the way it is, and howwe came to eat what we eat.Her academic studies turnedto food culture while lookingat Gibraltar's historical censuslists and demographics to re-search language. She reflectsupon how it's often said thatmodern-day Gibraltar was for-med as one big melting pot ofcultures. Jennifer tells me thatcultures are always in a stateof flux and this is evident inthe introduction of certain fo-ods in different cultures andsocieties. During the first onehundred years of British rule,the British influx was (natu-rally) considerable. Given theproximity, some Spaniards didcross over to settle here,though not in great numbersdue to the many ongoing con-flicts. But then there were alsopeople coming to the Rockfrom Portugal, Malta and fromthe region Liguria and in par-ticular its capital city Genoa.There were also a significantnumber of Jews from the Bar-bary Coast who also broughtwith them their own cultureand language. Yet, despite the-se massively diverse begin-nings, and the fact that Gi-braltar must have been a poly-glot society, with many diffe-rent influences, cultures and

languages, Gibraltar even-tually became a bilingual so-ciety with English and Spa-nish dominating. The firstquestion Jennifer poses, the-refore, is: how and when didthese languages dissipate?And secondly: where else canwe find the cultural markersin our present day society thatindicate such diverse begin-nings? Food is one such mar-ker.

Food is a vehicle for trans-mitting culture; it tells us so-mething about the culture thatproduces or even consumesthe food - it also tells us so-mething about the history ofthat society. For some yearsnow Jennifer has been tracingthe roots of this polyglot so-ciety, collecting historical evi-dence to describe why andhow some foods have mana-ged to stay on whereas othershave not. In other words, thefact that calentita and panis-sas are popular in Gibraltar isnot the end-point for Jennifer,it's where the research begins.She digs up old cookbooksthat have been passed on fromgeneration to generation - stillexisting in homes today. So-metimes these carry hand-written notes, which can pro-ve very interesting. Locally-produced cookbooks are hertreasure chests. She tells meabout one that was preparedfor forces personnel in the late19th early 20th century, de-signed to help incoming fa-milies to source ingredients.Those coming from the UKwere advised on how to adaptrecipes to reflect the food avai-lable locally. Right there, onthose pages, are two culturescoming together, influencingthose aspects of culture (andfood) that stayed on and tho-se that didn't. These are thetombs that Jennifer raids; theyare windows through whichshe can look back at food cul-ture many, many years ago.


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Digging for Food

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Meet the Miss Gibraltars

This year the Miss Gibraltar contestantswill make their public debut at Calentita.With 10 entrants in this year's pageant it isset to be one of the most exciting compe-titions in recent times. Make sure you'rein Casemates by 21.00 hrs to meet all 10contestants as they introduce themsel-ves…

This year the Miss Gibraltar Pageant takesplace in the Alameda Open Air Theatre onSaturday 25th June 2011. It is one of thehighlights of the Gibraltar social and cul-tural calendar and will be broadcast, asusual, live on GBC television.

Organised for the fourth year running byChristian Santos, of the eponymous San-tos Productions, the show is set to be asenjoyable as ever, and who knows, per-haps we might find ourselves with anotherMiss World!

For more information check out the MissGibraltar website at;

www.missgibraltar.gi

No 1 Kirsty VictoryAGE 21COLOUR OF HAIR BlackCOLOUR OF EYES Brown WHY HAVE YOU ENTERED THE PAGEANT I have entered this pageant becau-se I have been told that it is a very enjoyableexperience. WHY DO YOU WANT TO BE MISS GIBRALTAR I believe it's every little girlsdream to be elected Miss Gibraltar. As aproud Gibraltarian I would be honoured to re-present my country abroad.

No 2 Naomi GonzalezAGE 19 COLOUR OF HAIR BrownCOLOUR OF EYES Brown WHY HAVE YOU ENTERED THE PAGEANT To gain a new experience and be-cause as a child I used to tell my grandmotherthat when I grew up, I would join the Pageant.WHY DO YOU WANT TO BE MISS GIBRALTAR It would be an honour to repre-sent our country abroad and be able to workclosely with different organisations in Gibral-tar.

No 3 Amy BrittoAGE 21 COLOUR OF HAIR BrownCOLOUR OF EYES Hazel WHY HAVE YOU ENTERED THE PAGEANT My family has encouraged me toenterWHY DO YOU WANT TO BE MISS GIBRALTAR I would like to represent mycountry and take a good experience from it

No 4 Chantal CanepaAGE 24 COLOUR OF HAIR BrownCOLOUR OF EYES Brown WHY HAVE YOU ENTERED THE PAGEANT I have always enjoyed taking partin events like these; the backstage buzz, the so-cial aspect of it, forming new friendships, etc.WHY DO YOU WANT TO BE MISS GIBRALTAR Being Miss Gibraltar would giveme the opportunity to proudly represent mycountry, which I consider to be an honour.



www.calentita.gi

No 5 Michelle GillingwaterAGE 23 COLOUR OF HAIR Light BrownCOLOUR OF EYES Green WHY HAVE YOU ENTERED THE PAGEANT I've always had an interest in joi-ning and this year I look forward to makingnew friends, working hard, enjoying myselfand the exciting challenges ahead.WHY DO YOU WANT TO BE MISSGIBRALTAR As a proud Gibraltarian I wouldlove the opportunity to represent my countryand do my utmost to make Gibraltar proud.

No 6 Natalie CromeAGE 24COLOUR OF HAIR BrownCOLOUR OF EYES Green WHY HAVE YOU ENTERED THE PAGEANT To grow as a person, boost myconfidence and most importantly to make newfriends and have an unforgettable experiencethat I will always remember.WHY DO YOU WANT TO BE MISS GIBRALTAR It would be an honour for me tobe able to represent my country abroad andwithin the community.

No 7 Amanda GaliaAGE 19COLOUR OF HAIR BrownCOLOUR OF EYES GreenWHY HAVE YOU ENTERED THE PAGEANT: I thought it would be interesting tobring a different type of woman that is moreinterested in the military than dance and dres-sesWHY DO YOU WANT TO BE MISS GIBRALTAR I want to bring a new image toMiss Gibraltar. Redefine the stereo type ofMiss Gibraltar

No 8 Gianna RobbaAGE 18 COLOUR OF HAIR Dark BrownCOLOUR OF EYES Brown WHY HAVE YOU ENTERED THE PAGEANT The pageant will allow me to buildmy confidence and self-esteem. WHY DO YOU WANT TO BE MISS GIBRALTAR Being Miss Gibraltar would be alifetime opportunity and if I had the chance torepresent Gibraltar abroad, it would prove tomyself, that I can surpass any obstacle emotio-nally and psychically in life.

No 9 Rubaina PinchoAGE 21COLOUR OF HAIR BrownCOLOUR OF EYES BrownWHY HAVE YOU ENTERED THE PAGEANT I have entered this pageant becauseI know that this is the one time opportunity anda great experience in life. WHY DO YOU WANT TO BE MISS GIBRALTAR Being Miss Gibraltar would giveme the opportunity represent my country as aproud Gibraltarian that I am.

No 10 Jessica BaldachinoAGE 23COLOUR OF HAIR BrownCOLOUR OF EYES BrownWHY HAVE YOU ENTERED THE PAGEANT Watching the show has always be-en a highlight for me. This year I have beenencouraged by friends and family and thoughtit would be a wonderful opportunity to makenew friends and experience something newWHY DO YOU WANT TO BE MISSGIBRALTAR It would be an honour to make adifference to the community.


22

"Calentita es lo mejor que tie-ne Gibraltar", says Pepe ca-sually. Gibraltarian exagge-ration? Good old fashionedpatriotism for our nationaldish perhaps? "It's importantbecause it's ours and alwayswill be". For Pepe Palmero,the chickpea dish reflects ourcultural heritage - it tells astory of where the Gibralta-rian people came from andhow we evolved. Over the ye-ars, it's taken on an identity ofits own. Families that cook ca-lentita at home often follow arecipe that has been passed onfrom generation to generation.

But if it is "the best Gibral-tar has to offer" in the kitchen,as Pepe claims, then why don'tmore restaurants serve it lo-cally? "Hombre, it's an ac-quired taste. La calentita noes para todos." And he's right;it's not for everyone. If yougrew up with your granny co-oking calentita every Sunday,chances are you like it. If, ho-wever, you didn't, you're lesslikely to find it appealing. Re-gardless, there are only a fewplaces that cater for the Rock'spenchant. Pepe enjoys buyingit, and other local favouriteslike tortilla de patata and tor-ta de acelga, from the TastyBite. You can also find calen-tita at Amar's. But can youcook your own?

For Pepe, the choice ofchickpea flour is of the utmostimportance when preparingcalentita. Apparently, it's notjust a case of buying a packfrom the shop on the corner:"como todo en la cocina, hayque empesar with good in-gredients".

And despite being a verysimple dish with few ingre-

dients (see page _ for a reci-pe), there are variations in thequantities used. The mostcommon sticking point - ifyou'll excuse the pun - is whet-her or not to use eggs. "Yosiempre le hecho un par dehuevos," says Pepe with a che-eky smile.

For the fourth year running,there'll be a calentita compe-tition at Calentita! to find outwho makes the best in Gi-braltar. Do you make a goodcalentita? Maybe a familymember does? If so, enter ourcalentita competition and youcould win yourself a fantasticprize.

Taking part is simple - allyou have to do is prepare yourbest calentita and bring itdown to Casemates on Friday10th June 2011. There are acouple of guidelines, so plea-se make sure you stick tothem.

1) Please register by fillingout the appropriate registra-tion form. You can get this byemailing [email protected] with the subjectline "Calentita Competition".We will send you a formwhich you can then fill out andemail us back. Registeringhelps us to run the competi-tion smoothly but even if youdon't you can still enter.

2) More importantly, on thenight (10th June 2011), bringyour calentita down to Case-mates and bring it to the stallmarked "info". Please makesure that you arrive before8pm. Judging begins at8.30pm with the winner an-nounced at around 10pm.

3) To take part, please makesure that your calentita mea-sures no more than 10cm x

10cm and is divided into squa-res of 2cm x 2cm. This willassist our judges in getting th-rough all the entries: "nos va-mos poner como el Kiko!"

There are probably as manyvariations of calentita as the-re are families cooking it onthe Rock. So how does onechoose between them? Thatdifficult task belongs to Pepeand his judging sidekick - lo-cal broadcasting legend - Ri-chard Cartwright.

So, what will they each belooking for in the calentitason 'el Calentita night'?

- Pepe DOES NOT like itto be grainy

- He DOES like the con-sistency to be creamy - 'cre-mosita' - with some crispy bits

- Pepe DOES like salt &pepper, but he prefers to addit to his lik-ing / himself

What about Richard? - He definitely DOES like

his food to be tasty rather thanbland; Richard likes rich fla-vours.

- He DOES prefer it warm,but he doesn't mind cold ca-lentita.

- Richard DOES like it tobe crispy on top.

Good luck and happy coo-king! On the night scores willbe compiled and audited byVasquez Consulting. Alfredoand Ramon are too young toremember Paloma, but Ri-chard's voice is full of nostal-gia as he recounts his memoryof Gibraltar's last calentitastreet vendor. He tells me thathe would always chucklequietly when she got teasedwith cries of, "Paloma, comoesta tu hermana?".


www.calentita.gi

The Calentita Competition

Pepe Palmero: Long time Calentita participant and Calentita CompetitionJudge.

Richard Cartwright joins Pepe in 2011 to judge the Calentita Competition.


23

Urban Dance are once again participatingin this year´s Calentita, bringing a spec-tacle of colour and dance to the ever po-pular gastronomic extravaganza. As theyhave been doing for the past five years,this versatile dance group perform all sortsof different cultural styles, including In-dian Bhangra, Arabian, Flamenco Fusion,Caribbean and Commercial styles, brin-ging something for everyone, and makingthis evening bursting with energy and en-

tertainment. The group, which has beenestablished for the last 15 years, alreadyhas an extensive portfolio of performan-ces around Gibraltar, at many events suchas Miss Gibraltar, Fusion, and NationalDay Rock Concerts to name a few.

The Urban Dance Studio for the per-forming arts, located at Jumper's Bastion,holds classes for children 3 years and up-wards, and specialises in Modern/Com-mercial, Hip Hop, and Contemporary.

The group also perform on a regular ba-sis in Spain, in the Teatro La Velada andPalacio de Congresos in La Linea, TeatroSan Roque, Casino San Roque, TivoliWorld and Bahia Park.

The group has strong ties with Spanishschool, Academia de Eva Sanchez fromLa Linea, and both groups perform to-gether regularly, being a first in Gibral-tar's dance history. Dance teachers at Ur-ban Dance, Yalta Pons and Jolene Gomez,

are also the Modern and Contemporarydancer teachers at the Academia de EvaSanchez. Urban Dance have also repre-sented Gibraltar at the World DanceChampionships in Germany, attendedsome intense dance workshops in Bari,Italy, were selected to perform at the GotTo Dance Auditions in UK, and recently,achieved two 1st prizes at the BarcelonaWorld Dance Grand Prix, highlighting thegroups recent achievements.

The young people who are service users of the Youth Centre havebeen working on a variety of different programmes this year suchas Forensic Factory and more recently the 'Puppet Project'. Thisgroup of committed young people have been participating in we-ekly workshops delivered by Lizanne Figueras about Puppet ma-king. The project has opened the opportunity to young people whoare interested in the arts. The workshops have given opportunitiesfor the exploration of cultures, food, customs and beliefs which aremirrored in the Calentita event which is where the public will ex-perience their work.

This puppet art parade will be perfectly suited to feature as partof the 'Calentita' food festival event and it will be a chance to bringcolourful, exciting and theatrical street art to this popular Gibralta-rian event.

Puppet Project

www.calentita.gi


Cultural Diversity on the Stage


Tú eres el peñón que me soñó

Suéñame ahora,

bajo la luna mora,

en la noche veraniega,

tú posees el espejo de mi mente.

tú hilas flores en mis sueños.

Llueve sobre mi cúspide de dudas,

cruza el estrecho de la inacción,

tú eres la paradoja del tiempo,

tú eres el teatro del convencimiento.

Mientras el océano sopla sobre el mar,

desenfunda mi ser con tu navaja gitana,

tú embelleces el verbo inglés,

tú me devuelves del olvido.

Rasga las banderas que conocimos,

al viento del poniente con ellas,

tú eres el mercado del deseo,

tú eres la lumbrera de la identidad.

Diseña una voz de sonido Sajón,

dame canciones de gaviotas y piedras,

tú eres la visión de la totalidad,

tú eres el peñón que me soñó.

Gabriel MorenoBorn in Gibraltar in 1977. Graduated in Philosophy and HispanicStudies at the University of Hull, Yorkshire, (1995-1999). Studiedliterature at the University of la Serena during exchange year(1997). In 2003 commenced the doctorate on Hispanic literature atthe university of Barcelona, completing the academic instruction.Teacher of English at the University of Trujillo, Peru (2000), Cam-bridge School of languages, Naples (2005) and Institut de Idiomes,Barcelona (2006) and currently teaching at the Eden House Schoolcollege, London. Published works include, Londres y el susurro delas amapolas, Omicrón, (2007), Voices from the blue, Omicrón,(2008), Cartas a Miranda, (2008), La barca enterrada, (2009), Losárboles plateados, (2009) and Identidad y Deseo, Omicrón (2010)Also wrote introduction to several poetry books including, Los be-bedores de estrellas, Omicron (2008) Las Criaturas Celestes, by Is-rael Clará, collection Entre la rosa y la azucena (2010) and La tra-ma perfecta by Daniel Busquéts, (2010.)© Gabriel Moreno, 2011 www.gabrielmoreno.yolasite.comwww.calentita.gi

You Are the Rock that Dreamed Meby Gabriel Moreno

Dream me now,

under a Moorish moon,

conceive me in the southern night,

you hold the mirror of my mind,

you thread petals in my dreams.

Rain on my summit of doubts,

cross our straits of stagnation,

you are the paradox of time,

you are the theatre of belief.

As the ocean breathes into the sea,

unfold me with your gypsy knife,

you enhance the English verb,

you release me from oblivion.

Shred the flags you knew and wore,

hurl them out in western winds,

you are the market of desire,

you are the porthole of identity.

Design a voice of Saxon sound,

give me songs of stones and gulls,

you are the vision of the whole,

you are the rock who dreamt me.

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