New Food Euphoria

I’m back from my brief hiatus from blogging. I needed to divorce myself from the part of my brain that was making it feel tiresome. I was putting too much pressure on the structure and timing of the content, and while there is focus and drive in artistic restriction, I fear I restricted a little too close to the sun. So, I let myself enjoy a few trips without the expectation of content or recording the process, and now here we are. I bring to you a fun and short piece today because that’s what writing is also allowed to be-- collected snippets of joy.

Without further adieu, let me set the scene...

My girlfriends and I were exploring Seville by foot, and after a gorgeous morning sauntering around the Plaza de España, we still had some time before our tour of the Real Alcázar. We headed toward the area of our tour like responsible travelers so we could make the “15 minutes early” request that came along with signing in for our tour.

Near the entrance of the historic palace, we stumbled upon Cafe Santa Cruz Seville. Naturally, we had to stop for some tapas. We ordered padron peppers, shrimp, and a charcuterie board. Every single item was spectacular.

There was one item amongst our spread that surprised me in the best way. Our charcuterie came with two jams of sorts. One that looked to be a cherry jam (maybe) and the other was a pale yellow crystalline-looking jam. It looked like honeyed lemon pulp. I’ll be completely honest, I forget the type of the first jam because the pale yellow pulp eclipsed it in flavor (for me) immediately.

You know that feeling when you realize a particular item is about to become a hyperfixation? This was exactly that. I peppered the waiter with questions about the name of this glorious product and where I could find it and after some fumbling through the language barrier (my fault for not knowing spanish. Bless that man for his patience and leaning into my enthusiasm), I handed him my phone for him to type out the name so I could continue the search.

“Cabell d’ángel”

Which translates to “angel hair.” And that checks out because it tastes angelic.

The transparent, thready jam is made with the pulp of a Siam pumpkin. That pulp is carmelized with sugar, lemon, and spices until thickened to jam consistency to create this traditional Spanish dessert.

I found out this dessert is usually used as pastry filling and originated in Mallorca but is now made all over Spain and parts of the Americas. The cabell d’ángel became somewhat of a side quest for the rest of the trip. I didn’t have luck finding it in any of the specialty stores except one, but the cookies looked a little sad.

At the airport for our journey home, I found some beautiful cookies stuffed with the (at this point) legendary cabell d’ángel! My intention was to bring the cookies home and savor them as long as possible until I could find more. Those cookies barely survived the flight home.

So, the search continues. I did find a site called Ibérico Taste, BUT they won’t ship to my address, so once I figure out how to get around that hurdle, it’s charcuterie board time. I included the store link above if any of you would like to experience the glorious sugared pumpkin pulp jam for yourself.

The cookies from the airport were the brand Dulceria La Rondeña. I found their website and among all the great looking baked goods was a dumpling with the angel hair, which might be even better than the cookies with a larger jam-to-baked good ratio.

No promises on the Iberico Taste site because I haven’t tried out their product yet. I will post an update on my instagram once I manage to get my hands on some cabell d’ángel.

Please leave a comment on my instagram post about this blog if you have a food like this that you encountered on a trip and fell in love!

Until next time,

Aja

Stoos Ridge Hike