Today, Spanish children woke up--excited to see if the Reyes had brought them presents or coal. Unlike in the United States, coal given to Spanish children is a sweet. Also, unlike in the United States, children actually do receive coal if they've been bad. Several children told me that they've gotten "coal" at least once.
It was also time for us to eat our roscón de reyes--King Cake. We had two to choose from!
My friend's French roommate brought one back with her from France. It's the one below. It's different from the Spanish roscón de reyes. It's flakier and the inside has a (for lack of a better word) paste made from almonds. It is supposed to served warm. YUM!
I bought a roscón de reyes from the local supermarket. You can get it in all sorts of flavors--cream-filled, chocolate cream-filled, etc. I decided to go with the most traditional--which has no filling just the candied fruits on top.
Traditionally, each roscón de reyes has two things hidden inside--a figure and a bean. If you find the figure, you are king (or queen) for the day and you have a year's good luck. If you find the bean, you have to buy the roscón de reyes.
This year, I found the figure in the roscón de reyes. After the grapes at New Year's fiasco, I'm glad to be getting some good luck this year!
For dinner, I went over to my host teacher's apartment for enchiladas made by her American husband. Contrary to popular opinion in the United States, Spanish (from Spain) food isn't actually similar to Mexican food at all. In fact, the food that I eat here is much more like the food I eat in the States.
There is one HUGE difference though. Spaniards don't eat spicy food. PERIOD. They might tell you that their brava sauce (served with potatoes and garlic mayo) is spicy. Occasionally, it is a little spicy, but usually it's about as spicy as ketchup.
So I've been craving spicy food like crazy. And I finally got it! The chiles in the enchiladas were enough to make my eyes start to water... DELICIOUS!
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