Past Newsletters
Vol 4 No 8

In Pursuit of Chocolate

Rabitos ' no where else on Earth

In the Spanish region (state) Extremadura, which is in the southwestern corner of Spain, you will find the little village of Almoharin (province Cáceres). Ask anyone about Almoharin, which is of Arabic origin, and they will tell you this is where you can find the finest, most scrumptious figs in the entire world.

Figs are an integral staple of the Mediterranean diet, and in Spain, the pairing of chocolate and figs is traditional, but you aren't going to be able to taste anything even remotely close to Rabitos very often. Fifteen artisans (mostly family) make these delicacies and the production is very limited - approximately 70,000 kg per year. Rabitos are made with a variety of fig called the Pajarito, which is unique to this part of Spain. The Pajarito varietal has a very early maturation which imparts a more concentrated sweetness, a chewy texture, and mellow flavoring. Pajaritos are small figs with hundreds of tiny seeds inside, and so they have a different texture than you might expect.

These bonbons are made of dried figs filled with a rich, dark chocolate truffle and liquor. Then the entire fig, including the stem is dipped in chocolate which has a high concentration of cocoa. The indulgence you are about to taste has been awarded the distinctive Quality Mark 'Alimentos de Extremadura' by Director of Commerce and Agrarian Industries of Extremadura. We suggest that when eating Rabitos, you slowly bite through to enjoy each layer - chocolate, fig, and filling. This tasting experience is one that we're sure you'll relish!

Extremadura is waiting for you

From the Gredos and Gata mountain ranges - all the way to Andalusia, and from Castile to the Portuguese frontier lies the somewhat remote western state of Spain, called Extremadura. It includes the provinces of Badajoz and Cáceres, and its capital is Mérida - one of the most important cities in the whole Roman Empire. This region was occupied by both Moorish and Christian Spaniards, which makes its architecture simply outstanding, extraordinary, and especially poignant.

The conquistadors, Cortés, Pizarro, Balboa, and many others, left this dry, sun-parched land because it was so challenging to earn a living. But they left their marks - many Spanish mansions and other structures that we can visit today were financed by the goods and monies that resulted from their American adventures.

Extremadura is a place you can go to get back a clearer perspective of life on Earth. You will find Roman ruins in Mérida - a colossal theater, an amphitheater, two aqueducts, and the Puente Romano over the Río Guadiana. This bridge has 64 pristine arches - one of the longest bridges the Romans ever built. The Museum of Roman Art is also in Mérida - its collection is priceless. Don't miss the Moorish Alcazaba town walls with great watch-towers, or the exceptional medieval palaces that can be found in Badajoz and Cáceres. Plasencia and Trujillo are also vital with a Gothic-Plateresque cathedral and their medieval well preserved town-walls and several palaces.

Spring and fall are the best times to visit ' summers are exceptionally hot and winters are quite cold. Spaniards go to Extremadura to hunt and fish, enjoy the many reservoirs, and to ride horses along ancient trails, just as the Romans once did.

When you visit Spain, you will want to stay in at least one parador. These Inns are funded by the Spanish government, all of them being buildings of significant cultural and historic interest. 'Frommer's Spain' describes the Parador de Mérida as a 16th-century building that was at various times a convent and a prison.' In the 1960's, this building hosted a meeting between the much-hated dictators of Spain (Franco) and Portugal (Salazar). 'Mudéjar, Roman, and Visigothic elements adorn the interior in unusual but stunning juxtaposition. The inner courtyard and Mozarabic gardens add graceful notes. The kitchen serves the best of the area, including gazpacho, calderetas extremeñas (stews), and the famous Almoharin figs.'

Chocolate Coated Rum Figs - Fichi al rhum ricoperti di cioccolato

Not Rabitos, but still good. You can prepare this dessert a few days in advance, and it's very simple to make, but use only the finest chocolate, please!
You will need dried figs, red rum, bitter chocolate, and butter.

Put your figs in a bowl, cover them with the rum, and soak them for several hours. Then drain the figs (Don't pour it out! Surely you can find a use for it ' we know what most chefs would do.) And let them dry.

Melt bitter chocolate in the microwave or a double boiler. Stir in the butter until it's creamy and smooth. Now, dip each fig into the chocolate mixture ' cover it entirely. Place your masterpieces on a large plate covered in grease-proof paper, and refrigerate them until the chocolate hardens. Theoretically, your Fichi al rhum ricoperti di cioccolato will keep for about 10 days, but let's face it, you would have to make hundreds of them to last that long!

Some Figgy Facts

Figs Leaves Were Our First Clothes! The Old Testament (thought to be completed around 500 BC) describes Adam and Eve's first clothing to be fig leaves. One translation - 'the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked, and they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons.'

4000 BC: Archaeologists like Daniel Zohary, think figs were one of the first fruits to be domesticated in the Eastern Mediterranean area. They are thought to originate from Asia Minor, and in mythology they represent abundance and wisdom.

2500 BC: Sumerian scribes write about figs on clay tablets

2000 BC: Figs were mentioned in a Babylonian hymn book. The Greek goddess Demeter first revealed figs. Fig trees were considered to be sacred in Southwestern Asia, Egypt, Greece, and Italy.

639 ' 559 BC: The ancient city of Attica, famous for its figs, was ruled by Solon, who made it illegal to export figs out of Greece.
Figs leaves were the very first Olympic 'medals.' As a token of honor, figs were used as a training food by the early Olympic athletes, and their leaves were presented as laurels to the winners. The Greek King of Pontus instructed his physicians to use figs medicinally, and ordered his citizens to consume figs daily.

300 BC: 1700 years after the Babylonian hymn book (hard to imagine that block of time), Greeks were still worshipping figs. Figs were actually considered to be more precious than gold! The Romans believed that Bacchus was the god who introduced the fig to mankind, therefore fig trees were sacred, and images of the god, as well as other dignitaries were often crowned with fig leaves.

1575: The Spanish introduced figs to Florida.

1769: Spanish Franciscan missionaries brought figs to California and established a mission in San Diego.

Currently, California ranks third in world fig production after Turkey and Greece, and ahead of Spain and Portugal. The state produces 100% of domestic fig production and 65% of the figs consumed in the country.

Figs Are not Fruit' they're really flowers!

The following information has been gleamed from various Internet sites. For those of you who need to know more, we recommend that you go to http://californiafigs.com/history/index.html. And yes, there really is a Fig Advisory Board located at http://californiafigs.com. Figs are BIG business in the San Joaquin Valley in California!

Over 720 varieties of figs have been identified in the Mediterranean countries, but most of these varieties have never been introduced into the United States. In fact, here we grow mainly four types commercially ' three are dried and one is eaten fresh. In Spain they grow an amazing variety. Figs are used abundantly, both dried and fresh. In fact, Mediterranean's use figs in just about everything from stews to Rabitos, and of course as a snack ' particularly wonderful with cheeses.

According to Ray, many fig varieties do not require pollination, but some do. Check out his great article, 'The Weird Sex Life of the Fig.' Ray says all fig species have a syconium, 'an enlarged, fleshy and hollow peduncle with closely massed tiny female flowers on its inner wall. The problem is these flowers are borne on the inside of the syconium. They never open to the outside world like respectable roses, cabbages and apple blossoms. So how do they get pollinated?'

Now here comes the bizarre part' by the way, this is a test in reading comprehension. Two figs might look alike but one of them might be a caprifig that is not edible. Well, you could eat it, but you wouldn't enjoy the experience. To quote Ray, 'it's usually dry, pithy, and resinous. Very few critters, aside from goats, will eat the nearly seedless caprifig fruit.'

Caprifigs are welcoming hosts to teeny fig wasps, which lay eggs in the caprifig's tiny flowers. Both male and female fig wasps are born within the caprifig. The male fig wasp has a very limited universe. It's born, and it grows, mates and dies - all within one caprifig fruit. Female fig wasps, being more carefree and thrill seeking, leave the caprifig and carry a lot of pollen in the process. Once they find a new caprifig fruit at the right stage of development, they lay eggs. And the beat goes on.

Female fig wasps lay so many eggs in each caprifig fruit that very few of the flowers produce seeds. The survival of the fig species might be in jeopardy if it weren't for the edible figs. They look just like caprifigs, but the flowers inside of their syconium have long styles that don't make suitable nests for fig wasps, so they don't lay eggs in the edible figs. When the wasp enters the fruit of an edible fig, looking for a place to nest, she scatters the pollen she picked from the caprifig and pollinates the edible fig. Got all that, or do you need to read it one more time?

Each fig will produce several hundred to several thousand seeds per fruit, depending on the variety. Bottom line - there are ample caprifigs to nourish the fig wasps, and plenty of edible figs to produce seeds that become both edible figs and caprifig plants. The long styled flowers of edible figs develop into a juicy, tasty mass that some people fill with truffles and coat with chocolate. Although we think of figs as a fruit, they actually are flowers that are inverted. Fascinating stuff!

Here is where you come into the picture ' that is, if you take figs on your backpacking trips. I'll bet you never realized you could be indispensable to the fig species and the teeny tiny fig wasps. The seeds pass through our digestive tracts, and those of birds and other animals. And you guessed it - some of them will fall on favorable ground within warm climates and become fig trees.