Sweet Toothed Gijón: Pañuelo de Chocolate

This is the latest relevant novelty in town, whicho opened on New Year’s Eve 2010. After five years at the hotel and catering school and more tan ten years’ experience in well-known pastry shops, Ana Belén Fernández decided to take the plunge and créate her own  bakery with the backing of her brother and sister-in-law.

The establishment’s name, Chokoreto, i show chocolate is pronounced in Japanese. There se labours from sunrise to sunset in search of sublime flavours, with cocoa taking centre stage.

The establishment boasts an attractive, modern conuter with well-regulated climate control that contributes to sales, as well as six tablets that allow customers to taste a selection of coffees and teas in situ accompanied by fine artisan biscuits. It fills an important gap that existed in the residential neighbourhood of Viesques.

Sweet-Toothed Gijón: Casadiella Asturiana

We are going to Biarittz pastry to eat “casadiellas”. Would you like to come with us?

Back in the 1970s, a precocious assistant pastry chef who had learned the trade in Granada, and who had also worked both in a flour Factory in Burgos and as an analyst in a nitrogen Factory in la Felguera, decided to open un shop closet o San Lorenzo Beach.

It was a raging success and he son began to be known and recognised for his excellent way of frying “churros” as well as “casadielles”. In 1979, Francisco passed on the baton to his daughter Rosa, who continues to run the business nowadays, keeping up the tradition of lighting the flame that enraptures passers-by every morning.

Gijón will host the Sport Climbing World Championship 2014

The delegation of Gijón, leaded by Pedro Barbillo, Sports Councillor, has defended the bid against cities like Munich, Moscow or Pekin. The championship will take place from the 15th to the 21^st of September of 2014 at Gijón’s sports palace.

The members of the delegation have presented the best proposal at the General Assembly of the International Climbing Federation, held the last 25th of February in Amsterdam.

The competition area will be placed at the Sports Palace’s Central Court, which can hold up to 7000 people (up to 5000 seated), and there will be around one thousand climbers competing in Gijón.

Sweet-toothed Gijón: Applebeat

Sweet-toothed Gijón presents one of its most irresistible temptations: The “Latido de Manzana” (Applebeat).
This delicious sweet is made with crumble biscuit (base), chocolate ganache and roasted apples. A black chocolate table covers the top of it.

Where can you taste this special sweet? In Argüelles, one of the oldest pastries of Gijón. Its origins date back to early 20th Century when Gersán, the great-grandfather of the current generation of bakers sold eggs, sweets and flour in the town of Laviana.

After years of success, his children named the new Pastry as Argüelles, as his father’s surname. These days it is one of the most elegant and known establishments of Gijón.

Come to Gijón’s April Fair 2012

From the 12th to the 15th April Gijón will host the April Fair with the purest Andalusian style. During these days, the event offers lots of different activities such as Flamenco dancing, gastronomic activities, contest for children, music and dance groups…

See the program on the following link: Gijón’s April Fair

We show you some pictures:

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Gijón’s cuisine: Fabada

These days the “Soup and Broths” gastronomic event is taking part in Gijón. On this article we are going to write about the “Fabada Asturiana”, the most famous stew of the region.

Fabada is made with beans and pork belly, “chorizo and morcilla” (kind of red and black sausages). It is a hot and heavy dish most commonly eaten during winter and at the largest meal of the day, lunch. It is typically served with crusty bread, and with Asturian cider or a red wine.

The experts think that the fabada could exist since the 18^th Century thanks to the influence of St. James’ Way due to its similarity to the french “cassoulet del Languedoc”.

The first written reference dates from 1884, where a Gijón’s newspaper called “El Comercio” mentions it, but without the recipe. Do you want to cook it? We leave you this link to the fabada recipe.

Enjoy your meal!

Sweet-toothed Gijón: apple ice cream

Sweet-toothed Gijón offers the chance to try 16 specialities that are emblematic of their corresponding establishments in the city. Thanks to their vouchers, you can taste 5 sweets (5 €) or 10 (13 €).

We would like to introduce you one of the newness of this edition of Sweet-toothed Gijón: Coppelia.

This establishment is an ice-cream parlor, founded in 1992. They make artisan ice creams during the whole year. One of their specialities is the apple ice cream, included within the variety you can taste with these vouchers.

They also make efforts to create new tastes, creams and sorbets, such as gin tonic, mojito or pistachio sorbets. Their ice creams are characterized by a low grade of overrun, the amount of air incorporated to the ice cream.

Its owners, Mila and Chema, come from a family with high experience on ice cream making, but on this period, they introduce some creative recipes, like greek yogurt ice cream.

Birdwatching at Gijón’s Atlantic Botanical Garden

The second Sunday of each month we can discover the birds that inhabit Gijon’s Atlantic Botanical Garden.  People from the Ornithological Group “La Carbayera del Tragamón” guide this visits for free. This is a different way to visit the gardens, paying attention to its singing animals: the birds.

Recently, in February, we have gone on a tour around the gardens in order to share with you that lovely experience. Would you like to join us next time?

We had a sunny day so we could watch lots of birds. Depending on the part of the year and the day, we can see different species and behaviours. During the last visits, about 25different species were sighted. In February birds look for a couple to build their nest. The visit started in the Cantabric area, where doves and tits made their first appearance, while the guide explained about their customs.

On the Plant Factory area we could watch a female finch and some Iberian chiffchaffs. We highlight that many birds inhabit throughout the year in the Atlantic Botanical Garden as thrushes, tits and chickadees. Other species as the redwing only come in winter.

As we walked along the paths the guide explained us the importance of the plants for birds. Do you know that they help against insects pests? They emphasized the importance of bay laurel, St. John’s wort or cornel.

In Quintana de Rionda area we watched the landing of a couple of ducks, enjoying the spectacle very close. We continued to the Ireland Garden area, where thrushes and blackbirds were looking for food on the grass. We also watched a male blackcap and some goldfinches between conifers. We could see woodpecker nests.

They also showed us the nest houses and the feeders, as the one on the Boreal área where we watched chickadees. On the lagoon we saw some ducks and chiffchaffs.

We accessed the Carbayera area, watching tree creepers and jays. We also listened to some Winter wrens (smallest European bird). Finally, on the Aliseda meadow, we could see two jays.

It was a three hours tour where we could learn all this and much more we haven’t) even explained to you because we would like you to discover by yourself during the next visits. Remember: second Sundays at 10.30 a.m., included within the Atlantic Botanical Garden entry ticket, the free Bird watching tour.

European Theatre Fair for Children- Feten 2012 in Gijón

Every year Gijón hosts one of the most popular cultural events: FETEN (European Theatre Fair for Children), from 25^th February to 2^nd March.

The fair is aimed at general and professional public, and includes works for young audiences by theatre companies from all over de world. This year incorporates more tan 140 shows from 67 theatre companies from different European countries as Austria, France, Bulgaria, Belgium, Denmark, Portugal and Spain.

The performances take place in various theatres, schools, and centres of learning and throughout the city with a wide range of activities designed for children and families, as theatre for children, juggling, dance, music, puppets…

One of the aims of the fair is to highlight new theatrical works and to encourage promoters and schedulers to contract them.

There will be also an exhibition at ‘Antiguo Instituto’ Cultural Centre of the replica of the legendary theatre Shakespeare Globe, made by Escalante Theatrical Centre. This is the principal part of ‘In Love With Shakespeare’ Exhibition, led by Paula Salinas.

Here you can see a sample of the shows we can enjoy during these days:

Mowgli The Jungle Boy. Lleida’s Puppets Centre

Mr. Baltasar animals. Teloncillo’s Theatre

Stories in dance. Carmen Roche Ballet

Carnival in Gijón

From 16th until 21st of February Gijón celebrates one of the funniest festivals of the year: The Carnival. Its origin is due to The Lenten period of the Church calendar’s liturgical year. During the forty days of Lent no parties or other celebrations were held, so the people celebrated a big party before this period of penitential practices, where lots of food and drink were offered.

It starts with the ‘Comadres’ Party, taking place on the 16^th of February, where men stay at home and women go out for dinner and party all night.  Restaurants offer special menus for that day with a special dessert: frixuelos (a kind of crepes)

There are lot of activities in the city those days, people disguise themselves, attend carnival parades, students celebrate the festivity at school making their own costumes and people have fun with their friends and relatives.

A Gastronomy event is held on the different establishments of the city offering a special menu from 15€ (Tax included, drinks not included):

Pote de Berzas (Asturian cabbage soup with pork)

Picadillo de matanza (mince meat)

Frixuelos (crepes) or Picatostes (croutons)

As you see, we offer the whole package: fun, parades, gastronomy and much much more… Do you want to come?