Humankind has a long relationship with mind altering substances. We chew mushrooms and leaves, we sniff things, we smoke all sorts of vegetation, we (not me you understand but we, humankind) drink snow laced with reindeer urine and, for lots of us there is a close relationship with fermented and distilled alcohol. Around here the most obvious local booze is wine, and the variants on it like vermouth, but there are others. In fact, years ago, I wrote an article about it for the old TIM magazine.
That TIM article was inspired by a visit to the bar in Calle Sol in the Santa Catalina district of Pinoso. We were in Santa Catalina for their fiestas, I had never been in the bar there and, once inside, I realised that every second person in the bar was drinking cantueso. I'd been blissfully unaware of its existence till that moment but it's actually readily available around here. It's fine, not my preferred tipple but, if you like the brandy based drinks like Ponche Caballero, you may like it.
In a similar way this post was prompted by reading a book and a visit. The local book club, based in Pinoso library, chose to read Modorra by Rafael Azuar. The book is set in Salinas. We followed up on the reading of the book by going on a visit to places mentioned in the text. As we stood outside the old posada (posadas are the old inns - if this were Shakespeare they're where we'd have Falstaff drinking flagons of ale, eating mutton, sleeping on paillasses and rubbing shoulders with muleteers) we read out paragraphs which referred to the building. In one section the text mentioned that the inn users were not so keen on Coca Cola and preferred tried and tested drinks like absinthe, wine, carajillo, paloma or gallo.
I didn't know what gallo was - other than the Spanish word for cockerel. I know that absinthe is the high spirit aniseed flavoured drink, wine I think we all know, carajillo is a spirit laced coffee (usually brandy but you can ask for a splash of anything). Now paloma I happened to know because years ago, when I first arrived in Pinoso and we were doing Spanish classes with Cruz, we went over to Monforte del Cid for some sort of Adult Education get together. Monforte is well known for producing anis. To be honest I've never quite been able to work out the difference between absinthe and anise but the one from Monforte is very much like Pastis or Ouzo or Sambuca or Raki or Aquavit. Generally this sort of aniseedy tasting alcohol is taken with water. The local version turns cloudy white with water, the same colour as a dove and hence, paloma.
Nobody else in the group knew gallo either. I wondered if it were the lemon flavoured anis. No, that one is called a canario, a canary, again, presumably, for the colour. Wikipedia doesn't know either. I think this is something we could all do, in search of cultural enlightenment you understand. We could go into as many bars as possible and ask for a gallo until we eventually find out what it is. Until we discover what it is we will have no option but to drink something else while we're there.
