Zim tapas: New food culture

 The public spectacle — which culminates in the bulls being subdued and put down in a bull ring — eventually ends with the bull meat on the table in a proud tradition that spans nearly two-thousand years.
Love it or hate it, bull fighting is one of the most outstanding characteristics of Spanish culture.
But perhaps the sauciest Spanish festival would be the La Tomatina fest or simply the tomato festival. This is an event in which massed ranks of revellers descend on Bunol’s central Plaza del Pueblo square just to chuck tomatoes at each other — since 1945.
Yep, just that; and they do that with gusto, whether you find it insane or otherwise.
Over 40 000 are thought to take part in the celebrations which sees the Bunol’s (near Valencia) streets run with rivers of red pulp. Trucks bring in over a 100 000kg of crimson ripe tomatoes to be flung, squished and trampled on in a three-hour battle every last Wednesday of August.
However, far from discussing Spanish festivals, the issue at hand here is food.
Food mirrors our attitudes, practices and beliefs — it is a reflection, to a great extent, of our perception of the world and a reflection of society as a whole — it is a culture unto itself. Hence, food varies from place to place depending on the geography.
But food can now be a common culture the world over depending on the migration and emigration patterns in each country or region. In this part of the world, and in Zimbabwe in particular, food is now almost a common culture (talk of a global village). This is primarily because Africa has experienced a large influx of migrants from across the globe.
Talk of American food (KFC or Spurs), Portuguese (Nando’s or Cascais), Italian (Panarottis), Chinese (Shangri-La or China Town), French (Le Francais or La Fontaine). However, the majority of restaurants and hotels in the country serve British-based menus. 
And as the Spanish Ambassador, Pilar Ferragut, puts it: “Food is such an important cultural element in any country that it always invariably ends up defining that country. In point of fact, McDonald’s (a global American food outlet) has in the past, been attacked several times for representing the gastronomical American imperialism.
“Funny enough, no Chinese or Italian restaurants, of the millions you can find in every corner of the planet, have ever been criticised or attacked.”
But food as a culture, a true representation of a people or society and their being it is “fun and is .?.?. one thing one misses the most, even more than friends and family .?.?.”.
The Spanish Embassy, in collaboration with Pamberi Trust, an arts organisation which runs The Mannenberg and The Book Cafe,  has set up a Spanish “restaurant” at The Mannenberg at the Fife Avenue Shopping Centre in Harare, which will serve Spanish cuisine in the most of novel way — the Zimbabwean tapas.
Zimbabwean tapas is a fusion — in terms of how the food is served — of Spanish and Mediterranean tradition combined with Zimbabwean flavours and delicacies.
Last week, the Spanish Embassy held a Spanish gastronomic gala at The Mannenberg at which Spanish food, prepared by accomplished Spanish chef, Simon Gonzalez, was served to guests to sample some of the greatest Spanish cuisine.
Tapas is a Spanish word which literally means snacks.
Using the rather obsolete small kitchen at the venue of the gala, chef Gonzalez served a menu of finger meals, some of which can be served as main menus. These included Spanish croquetas (snacks) which are deep-fried ham and vegetable balls with a crusty coating and creamy centre; and sadza croquetas (the most authentic fusion of between Spanish and Zimbabwean food, a crusty ball filled with sadza, minced beef, vegetables and peri-peri).
Other dishes on offer, which can be served as main dishes were empanada, a crusty bread pie filled with spicy chicken and creamy sauce; pisto rolls, a puff pastry filled with pisto manchego (vegetables), minced beef and peri-peri; tortilla or call it eggs and chips (same ingredients), but with a different method of attack; coca catalana (the Spanish pizza), which is a crusty dough with an appetising topping (tomato, onion, chicken breast, mozzarella and cheddar cheese; tigres, a fish dish of stuffed mussels with the perfect combination of spicy white sauce, vegetables, tuna and crispy bread crumbs; patatas bravas (deep fried potato cubes served with a spicy tomato sauce; and meat rolls filled with stir fried vegetables and melted cheddar cheese).
The empanadas are quite scrumptious even for those who might be drinking stuff on the alcoholic side. But the tigres, a bizarre looking dish served in seashells, would also leave you with a tantalised palate.
Ferragut said their idea was “to go to the essence of cultural diversity and exchange through innovation and to try to have a profound and lasting impact on Zimbabwean-Spanish cultural co-operation”.
She said Spanish cooking is one of the tastiest and most popular cuisines in the world and that the country is very diverse geographically and culturally.
“But there are some features common to Spanish cooking: The consumption of fish . . . Spain is the third largest consumer of fish in the world, just behind Japan and Norway,” she said. “Another characteristic of Spanish cooking is the use of the ‘gold liquid’, olive oil, which is the base of the Mediterranean diet considered to be the healthiest by the medical profession.
“We also consume huge amounts of vegetables and fruits.”
Spain does not have any investments in the food retail in the country and this could be the opportunity for Spanish investors to set up shop in Zimbabwe.
Daniel Jabesi, a Zimbabwean and duty manager at the Mannenberg, was at hand to help out with the fusion of dishes in this “kind of cultural exchange”.
Indeed, as other well-informed writers put it, food, “beyond merely nourishing the body . . . can inspire and strengthen the bonds between individuals, communities, and even countries”.