Romescu para principantes
| October 20th, 2009I find myself involved in another documentary. This one is about a fellow named Felix Miret who is a Casteller from Vilafranca, a medium sized town near Barcelona which is in Spain or Catalunya depending on whether the person you are talking to is a rabid fan of the Sardana, would kill their mama for a big plate of botifarras i mongetes and swoons over the sound of series of open reed instruments that sound remarkably like either a cat being killed or some one dragging their fingernails down the blackboard.
What’s a Casteller? From Wikipedia we learn that:
“A castell is a human tower built traditionally in festivals at many locations within Catalonia, Spain. At these festivals, several colles castelleres or teams often succeed in building and sustain a tower’s structure for a certain length of time.”
Felix is basically the Michael Jordan of Castellers. In Vilafranca people stop him in the streets and have them kiss their babies, bless their botifarras and give him jars of homemade salsa romescu which is a very tasty sauce made from almonds, hazel nuts, garlic, dried red peppers, olive oil and vinegar and is used on everything from fish and meats to ice cream…
Like most of these often crazy endeavors this one has not gone as smoothly as a “porc engreixat en una banyera.” But I am now find my self shooting in the USA in the lovely small town of Walla Walla, Washington. Which in Catalan would be pronounced Waya Waya.
So what’s the story? Felix the Michael Jordan of human tower makers falls in love with Andrea a nurse practioner from Roseburg, Oregon. They get married, they move to Walla Walla, Andrea gets pregnant, they have a baby. And Felix decides to make America safe for Castells and Castell builders.
