Expatiperro

Catalans have a number of somewhat bizarre (at least to an outside observer) cultural obsessions- fireworks, staid group folk dances, and this adorable little guy (which you can order here, just in time for Christmas!). Food is another fecal, I mean focal point of Catalan culture, and this time of year, Catalans come together in a shared preoccupation for bolets, or wild mushrooms. Families across the area spend their weekends up in the Pyrenees, digging around the woods in a passionate search for all sorts of varieties of mushrooms. In bookstores, there are shelves full of books on shrooming, with tips on the best time of year to go (right after it rains), the best areas for different varieties, and the vital information on how to tell deadly from non-deadly types.

In Catalan class last year, Xavier mentioned that going bolet-hunting in the fall is quite a big deal, but I never realized just how big a deal it was until tonight. On prime-time television (which of course was at 10 PM) on the Catalan equivalent of NBC, there was a full hour reality TV show on families going bolet-hunting in the mountains- kids running off into the woods while calling out "where are you, Mr. Bolet," fathers who followed them with a videocamera shouting words of encouragement, and mothers, back in the car, looking like they would rather be anywhere else. According to my roommates, this is a fairly popular show, and pretty representative of how some Catalans get wrapped up in the season.

Anyone want to do some mushroom hunting soon?