What's that your eating?

I dipped into the first chapter of "Everything but the squeal" by John Barlow courtesy of the NYT.

It is subtitled - Eating the whole hog in Northern Spain. The chapter starts with the importance of the pig. It describes a meal in a restaurant in Galicia, the food - cocido, rabas, lacon- and the atmosphere and the fact that it was shared with a wife, a fish-eating vegetarian who did not even eat chicken, and a small child asleep in a buggy.

It rang a bell.

In Cantabria, where herself taught English for some time, a favourite question to the children on a Monday morning was: What did you do over the weekend, kiddies?
The enquiry brought the usual replies; played with Carmen, Jose, Ramon, visted grandparents etc etc. One little chap could not find the words in English but gave a detailed description of the ritual of slaughtering the pig. It was that time of the year and in his grandparents' pueblo the pig made the usual generous sacrifice. If you don't think it is generous, you have never eaten cocido.

There are some pictures here.