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OUTBREAK

72-year-old third fatality in Spanish listeria outbreak

A man died after eating tainted meat in Spain, the third fatality in a listeria outbreak that has also seen five women lose their babies.

Published: 31 August 2019 09:39 CEST
72-year-old third fatality in Spanish listeria outbreak
A picture taken from Magrudis' website for La Mecha. Photo: Facua
More than 200 people have been infected with the common bacteria which poses a serious threat to elderly people, pregnant women or those with serious health conditions.
   
The source of the outbreak, which was declared on August 15, comes from a product of pork stuffed with garlic and other condiments sold under the commercial name “la Mecha”.
   
The delicacy is made by the company Magrudis, based in the southern city of Seville. Its factory has since been closed and its meat recalled from shops.
 
 
Here's one of the company's promotional videos. 
 
 
On Friday, Spain's health ministry and the government of the southern region of Andalusia, the worst affected, said a 72-year-old man who had terminal pancreatic cancer died from the infection.
   
That comes on top of the deaths of two elderly women this month. 
   
The ministry and regional government both told AFP on Friday that five women had also lost their babies after eating the tainted meat, one in Madrid and the others in Andalusia.
   
In a statement, the health ministry warned: “The appearance of new cases cannot be ruled out in the coming days.”
   
But it said, “there is a drop in the number of confirmed cases since the start of the outbreak.” 

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FOOD AND DRINK

Why do they pour cider like that in Spain’s Asturias?

The green northern region’s drink of choice is cider but it’s the method waiters have of pouring it from a great height that catches the attention of ‘out-ciders’.

Published: 29 February 2024 15:40 CET
Why do they pour cider like that in Spain's Asturias?

They say Asturian blood is 50 percent water and 50 percent cider, and given the 40 million bottles produced every year in the region, it doesn’t seem too hard to believe.

However, it’s the method of serving cider in Asturias which really captures the imagination. 

The bottle will either come attached to a contraption which sucks up the cider and splurts it into a wide but thin-rimmed glass.

Or the waiter will come out every few minutes to grab your bottle and glass, lift the former high up with one arm and the latter down low around waist height before pouring some of the cider into the glass from at an arm’s length. 

There’s even a verb for this action – escanciar – to decant.  

The objective is for the cider to be shaken and aerated so that its natural carbon dioxide ‘awakens’.

When it is poured from above and hits the glass, carbon dioxide bubbles are produced that make the aroma of the cider come alive.

It’s good and normal for there to be splashback when pouring Asturian cider, but the aim is still to get most of it in the glass. (Photo by MIGUEL RIOPA / AFP)

These bubbles go away quickly so once served, the customer should quickly drink the culín (small bottom) up in one swig. 

The action of escanciar imitates how cider would be traditionally served when it went directly from big oak barrels to the glass, as cider has been the drink of choice in Asturians since before Roman times. 

READ ALSO: Why Spaniards’ habit of drinking alcohol every day is surprisingly healthy

This is after all natural cider which doesn’t come with the sugar, additives and pre-carbonated mixes of brands such as Strongbow, Magners or Kopparberg.

“It took me some time to get the hang of pouring cider, I missed the mark a lot, and my arm used to get very tired at first,” a Latin American waitress at a bar in Gijón told The Local Spain. 

Many sidrerías (cider houses) and restaurants have cylindrical tubes on wheels where escanciadores (the waiters in charge of pouring cider) can put the glass in to avoid making a mess on the floor or splashing customers, as there is always some splatter even if they don’t completely miss the mark. 

A waiter pours cider for customers at a cider bar in the northern Spanish city of Oviedo (Photo by RAFA RIVAS / AFP)

The more old-school chigres (cider house in Asturian) prefer to have sawdust all over the floor to absorb the spilt cider.

To pour, tirar (throw) or escanciar (decant) cider like an Asturian, you should tilt the bottle slowly from above and aim for the cider to hit the top part of the inside side of the glass, which has to be held at a 45-degree angle. It’s this that brings out the effervescence out in la sidra natural.  

So when you visit the beautiful region of Asturias and you tuck into their famously ample servings of fabada asturiana (Asturian bean stew) or cachopo (meat, cheese and ham all together in breadcrumbs), washed down with one or two bottles of sidra, now you’ll understand what’s behind this eye-catching tradition.

READ ALSO: Eight fascinating facts about Spain’s Asturias region

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