I Festa do Caldo Ilustrado - O Barco de Valdeorras 2023

Nace la I Festa do Caldo Ilustrado en O Barco, by Susana Prieto, 21 December 2022.
It will be on 14 January (2023) at the Casino, and during the celebration the "Barquense del Año" award, which the Casino revives, will be announced.
The president of the Instituto de Estudios Valdeorreses (IEV), Aurelio Blanco Trincado, accompanied by the president of the Casino de O Barco, Pablo Dobao, and members of the group, presented the I Festa do Caldo Ilustrado, a gastronomic celebration he devised long ago, to be held on 14 January.
The menu will be caldo, cocido, leche frita, torta de roxóns, godello and mencía wine. There will be a musical performance. Entrance price: 25 euros.
Blanco Trincado said it was an old aspiration now coming true: a gastronomic and cultural but also "sentimental" festival, alluding to the traditional value of caldo, a dish that "saved lives, as it removed cold and hunger in the past, mainly in the 1940s".
He recalled his great-aunt María Merayo saying "stay to eat, today there is caldo ilustrado"; there were two types of caldo, that of the rich and that of the poor, the clean and the ilustrado. The clean caldo was made with water, cabbage, potatoes and a piece of bacon cut into as many pieces as diners. The ilustrado was cooked with pork, beef and chicken products.
The IEV president described the ritual for making the caldo and the cocido, in which the "chanteiros" or "coiñas", besides dry-land potatoes, play a big part.
He praised the harmony between the young board of the Casino and the IEV: "We help each other, they give us the central premises and it is the most suitable place for a party."
At the same festival the "Barquense del año" award (to a person or entity) will be announced, a recognition existing since the 1980s, organised by the Casino, which stopped being held. The trophy will be a reproduction of the Ninfa del Casino (by the artist Xelo de Tremiñá).
Pablo Dobao said it had been years since a Barquense del año was chosen. "As 14 January is the eve of San Mauro we resume it that day. We do not yet know who or which group will be chosen. The career will be taken into account, not only in one year but continuous work."

El caldo ilustrado tuvo su fiesta en O Barco, by Susana Prieto, 14 January 2023.
The first edition seated a hundred people to exalt one of the best-known but most forgotten dishes, said the IEV president Aurelio Blanco Trincado.
The festival seated about a hundred people at the Casino de O Barco. At this first edition they tasted caldo, cocido, leche frita, torta de chicharrones, bread, wine, coffee and liqueurs.
Before tasting the traditional dish, the president of the Instituto de Estudios Valdeorreses, Aurelio Blanco Trincado, promoter of the celebration with the collaboration of the Asociación Casino de O Barco, read the pregón.
Blanco Trincado, moved at fulfilling the old dream of doing "justice" to caldo, recalled that caldo removed hunger in times of scarcity. But "caldo does not make itself, nor is the cook the only protagonist of this work of art; one must think of the Galician farmers who make it possible for cabbages, potatoes (cachelos) and beans to reach us, the so forgotten farmers who break their backs to get the best from the earth for very little in return", paying them tribute. And the pig "should have a monument in every village, as it is the animal that got us out of misery in times of famine".
Attending were the territorial delegate of the Xunta in Ourense, Gabriel Alén; the mayor of A Rúa, Álvaro Fernández, representing the Diputación de Ourense; the mayor of O Barco, Alfredo García, and councillors of the O Barco corporation; and the mayor of Vilamartín, Enrique Álvarez Barreiro, among others.
Vilamartín was one of the municipalities featured at the festival; Ciprián Rivas, director general of Ordenación y Promoción Turística de Canarias, travelled to Valdeorras to meet Enrique Álvarez Barreiro and advance the procedures for the coming twinning of San Sebastián de La Gomera and Vilamartín. The link between the two is the Abbot Antonio José Ruíz de Padrón, of whom Rivas spoke before the meal began.
During the festival the Asociación Casino de O Barco also revealed who will be the Barquense del Año, a title recovered after several years, to be given to the association Morea.
Music also sounded, with the voice of Valdeorras singer-songwriter Sito, who performed various songs.
The festival exalted the illustrious caldo ilustrado.

21 December 2022, 18:18. Once again the Instituto de Estudos Valdeorreses (IEV) and the Casino de O Barco have collaborated to hold the I Fiesta del Caldo Ilustrado. "It seemed to us the ideal place to hold the festival", says IEV president Aurelio Blanco. It will take place on 14 January, a date they have used to reveal the winner of the "barquense del año" prize.
Aurelio Blanco explained that the reason for the celebration is the feeling of paying homage to this typical dish: "I have always heard that caldo saved many lives, because it took away cold and hunger". "It is a kind of cultural monument", he clarified.
At the presentation the ingredients of this "caldo ilustrado" were listed: cabbage or turnip greens, potatoes, chickpeas, lard (unto), chorizo, beef, hen and as many parts of the pig as possible. "It is like a traditional cocido, only that instead of soup as a first course, one takes caldo and then the meats", Blanco explained.
The IEV president highlighted the quality of the caldo ingredients in the region, such as lacón, trotter, ear, backbone and all the richness of meats, "even the water is good". He also praised the typical torta de chicharrones or "roxóns". "The same pride the Maragatos have in their cocido; Valdeorras' has nothing to envy", he concluded.
Prize for barquense del año: the president of the Casino de O Barco, Pablo Dobao, announced the return of the "barquense del año" award. The name of the winner will also be revealed at the meal on 14 January. "It had not been done for several decades and we wanted to recover it", said Dobao. The prize will be given at another meal "held according to the winner's availability, since it is a party for him or her, but it will be before Easter".
The president of the Casino also explained that the prize will go to an institution, association or person with a good track record or who has stood out. "We will try to make it well received and keep doing it every year."

Held on a Saturday; the Barquense del Año award went to the association Morea.