- a memoir, a food book, and a personal travel guide -
From the publisher...
Hidden in the misty northwest corner of ‘green’ Spain, Galicia is a largely unknown corner of old Europe, with a Celtic past and a damp Atlantic climate. Farming and fishing still form the basis of the economy here, and set firmly at the center of its robust, no-nonsense cuisine is the pig. In an attempt to know the region more fully, Barlow vows to eat as much pig as he can, everything but the squeal. Unfortunately, his Galician wife is a vegetarian...
EVERYTHING BUT THE SQUEAL begins in January with a gargantuan serving of pork stew and turnip greens, and culminates with a traditional pig slaughter (big knife, no anesthetic) in December. The book is a fond, year-long sojourn amongst a highly idiosyncratic rural population, where food is an obsession, and servings are hearty. The mission
is to visit as many out-of-the-way places as possible, and to sample a different part of the pig in each one. By the end of the book, the entire animal will have been eaten at least once.On the way we meet an ex-president, a saintly pig called Anton (who was given the freedom of his village), as well as Fidel Castro’s favorite cousin (the Castros emigrated to Cuba from Galicia). Barlow forces his battered car up mountain tracks and deep into ancient forests, meeting hippies in an isolated commune and a whole array of eccentric characters from Galicia’s rural backwaters. He takes part in the ‘Exaltation of the Chorizo’ (a sausage-eating extravaganza), and spends a long, drunken evening at an ant-throwing and pig head-eating bacchanal in the village of Laza, said to be one of the oldest extant folk festivals in the world. He makes pig-bladder puddings for Carnival, and cooks up pig brain and head-meat terrine for his in-laws. Indeed, whenever there’s pork to be had - absolutely any part of the animal – he has it. All washed it down with lots of wine. Meanwhile, his wife just has a salad.
Publishers: US - Farrar, Straus and Giroux; UK - Summersdale; Australia/New Zealand - Wakefield Press.
The BookNotes
Reviews
Home