Every January 6th Spaniards celebrate a holiday dedicated to the Magi, or three kings, that brought presents to the baby Jesus! The parable says that King Herod, a crazy baby killer, asked the three kings to find Jesus and tell him where he was at, so that he too could pay homage to the little one. Luckily the three kings had a dream, realized that Herod just wanted to shank the baby, and decided to ignore King Herod's wishes. Although I'm not sure about the actuality of the three kings, I was more than down to eat "roscon" y and drink chocolate caliente in celebration of this "event". Dia de los Reyes Magos seems to be valued equally if not more than Christmas, here in Spain. I don't mind that. Seems better to focus on three baby-saving kings than on a judgmental, cookie scarfing Santa Claus.
I tried two different types of roscon, one with "nata" (cream) and one without. But of course, being the "gordi" that I am, I liked the Roscon with whipped cream in the middle. Santi, his mom, and I all failed to find the porcelain "sopresa" in our first pieces of Roscon. Although I did find it in my second piece...apparently you don't get any good luck from that. Oh, and can't forget, our roscon was accompanied by thick, rich, and creamy valor chocolate! Hot chocolate in Spain is so different from America's. It incredibly thick and filling... yet whenever I have it, I seem to be the only one who can't finish the whole thing. Spaniards drink it like milk. Such bosses.
After breakfast and a few cat naps, Santi's mom and her friend prepared a feast for lunch! We had chicken adobo, fried rice, langostinos (shrimp), salad, some anchovy fish dish (that I wasn't adventurous enough to try), and my favorite wine in the world, Lambrusco Dell'Emilia Tinto (basically just bubbly red wine < 2e at your mom&pop supermarket in Madrid).
I feel so lucky I get to have real homecooked meals at Santi's. I may not miss Spanish food when I come home, but I'll definitely miss Josefa's filipino food!That night I went to Reina Bruja with the gang (minus my roomies who were still recovering from the night before), and had a really good time. Reina Bruja never fails to have great music and good company. I feel like a regular these days.
