Mm, horchata. Thick, creamy, ice-cold. You either love it or loathe it. There are no half measures. Made by crushing the life out of tiger nuts (chufas) and mixing with sugar and water, you’ll find it at any good heladería swimming around in a glass tank next to the lemon granizado (sort of slush-puppy). I [...]
I’ve been in Spain as long as The Simpsons have been on air (1989). And for me, despite their utter American-ness, they remain utterly Spanish. The first time I heard the ‘real’ Homer’s voice I was horrified. Lisa and Marge sound amazingly similar in both languages, but somehow Homer is cuter in castellano, Moe even [...]
No matter how well you speak Spanish there will always be certain words and phrases in the middle of a conversation that will leave you totally flummoxed. ‘Escotbreetay’? What’s on earth is that? And should you need to ask for said ‘escotbreetay’ without Spanglifying – or Andaluzifying – your pronunciation, you haven’t got a [...]
‘Con Canon, tu puedes’ works almost as ‘You can with Canon’, the ‘con’ and the ‘Canon’ resonating in a similar way to ‘can’ and ‘Canon’. Not all advertising slogans translate so well, though, and on occasion the marketing whizzes have screwed up big time. You would not, perhaps, expect a Spanish drinks manufacturer in the 1950s [...]
