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COPYRIGHT 2005 Smithsonian Institution
Joan carles ninou smiles broadly and laughs easily, signs of a man who can appreciate life's jollier moments. But get him talking about anchovies and you'll soon realize that a serious streak runs through him, a streak as deep as the Mediterranean Sea that washes the coves and craggy headlands of his native Catalonia.
A boisterous lunchtime crowd fills El Xampanyet, Ninou's storefront cafe tucked away in the cobblestone labyrinth of Barcelona's Ribera Quarter. As he pours wine or rings up a bill, Ninou chats in Catalan with a lively mix of blue-collar and office workers seated at small tables or bunched along a marble bar covered with platters of bright red marinated peppers, herb-flecked olives and other tapas. An animated man with hair cropped so close it looks like a shadow on his shiny, round head, Ninou also has two of the most expressive eyebrows I've ever encountered, a matched pair of fuzzy, black caterpillars whose rise and fall mark the tempo of his conversation. And when the topic turns to anchovies, as it inevitably does at El Xampanyet, the eyebrows shift into double time.
"The ancient Greeks brought the art of salting fish to Catalonia," Ninou says. "And almost since that time, anchovies have been a part of our life here."
El Xampanyet doesn't go back quite as far as Aristotle--only to 1929, when Ninou's grandfather opened the place--but house-cured anchovies have been its specialty for decades. From my perch next to the tapas, I watch as a barman vigorously rinses five-inch-long anchovy fillets in fresh, running water to remove any excess salt. Across the room I spot a customer in blue coveralls drinking beer and downing the little fish like a trained seal: picking each one up by its tail, tilting his head back and lowering it into his mouth. I try a few myself, seal-style, and discover that with their ruddy brown color, firm texture and rich, meaty taste, they bear no resemblance whatsoever to the mushy, gray slivers of sharp fish-salt flavor that pass for anchovies in most of the world. Locals will tell you that what makes a Catalan anchovy special is the traditional way in which it's cured, and Ninou's may be the best anchovies in all of els paisos Catalans--the Catalan lands. Unless, perhaps, you count those I tasted the day before at La Boqueria, Barcelona's vast and bustling covered market. Or those from the Costa Brava towns of l'Escala and Cadaques, or...
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