Brick Capital of the World: Pantoja and its neighbors

The brick capital coinage is my own adverb. You know, the American penchant for exaggerating every thing as number 1 or the biggest, ‘baddest’ or best. Remember our world series, which often involves only US and Canada? Well, there is no other way to describe the relatively small city of Pantoja, about 30 miles north of Toledo where I spent a couple of days with a Spanish friend of mine. The clay in the Pantoja and its neighboring towns of Cabeja, Alameda de la Sagra, Anover de Tajo, and Villaseca de la Sagra was described to be of the highest quality, hence attracting several brick factories to the area. If you know the Spanish love for tiles, both decorative and functional, you would understand why the brick industry could build regional economies. Even at this time when things are slow because of the global recession, you still saw trucks hauling bricks drive past you every 5 minutes. Based in Pantoja with a population of about 5,000, I visited nearby bigger cities of Yuncus, Numancia and Illescus. Sad you don’t get to hear about these cities but most of them are the size of American midsize cities with all the hustle and bustle of a big city, sprinkled with centuries old monuments amidst glitzy modern shops and conveniences and surprisingly very racially and religiously diverse. Being that far deep into the heart of Spain it’s always surprising seeing black kids playing around in the plazas or the adults tending shops or going back and forth from work, just as you see Moslem women clad in hijab (long robe covering the entire body but the face) resting on benches in front of old cathedrals and having good evening breeze with their kids. Determined to take home a cultural peculiarity of the area, if not the entire Spain I had my friend teach me how to make a cultural cuisine Paella, that is a specialty from the Valencia area of Spain. A tasty rice dish cooked with lots of seafood, including squid, shrimps, prawn, clams, mussels, chicken and assorted vegetables. For someone who is squeamish about irregularly eaten seafood like mussels, clams and squid, I found the dish mouthwateringly delicious and took notes. I have added it to my regular dishes to serve among friends and family. Sometime in the future, I will write about the various foods that I enjoyed from different regions of Spain. The assortment and originality of Spanish food are as rich as the tapestry of the civilizations that have called the Iberian peninsula home at some point in history.