One of the jewels of the gastronomy of Castille, the
cochinillo or baby-suckling pork. Cooked on wood in traditional ovens.
In the City of Segovia the best cooker of this dish achieves the official rank of
Mesonero Mayor de Castilla (Grand Innkeeper of Castille), which is granted by the Royal House. And each town which has the status of villa real (royal village) has its own
mesonero mayor.
The skin crusty and the meat so tender, to demonstrate it they will cut it in front of you with a plate (the tradition dates back to 1884).
There is a statue in the city dedicated to these
mesoneros mayores (I gather it must be after Cándido [picture above], who made a big name in Spain).
On this page (English version) you may order a Castillian
cochinillo (suckling-baby pork) directly from a farm, and also the famed Castillian
lechazo (suckly-baby lamb):
Cochinillo Segoviano. Venta directa cochinillos de segovia, para asado y gastronomia, marca y garantia
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'Dardanidae duri, quae uos a stirpe parentum
prima tulit tellus, eadem uos ubere laeto
accipiet reduces. Antiquam exquirite matrem:
hic domus Aeneae cunctis dominabitur oris,
et nati natorum, et qui nascentur ab illis.'
We can easily forgive a child who is afraid of the dark; the real tragedy of life is when men are afraid of the light.
–Plato–
'Many people, I believe, wish for a society where faith, decency, pro-life convictions and national self-determination within Europe can flourish; and not be swallowed up in a dictatorial EU bureaucracy.'
–Gerry McGeough, Irish Nationalist and POW–