The wonderful people we met in Bărbăteşti invited us to show up on the
pig slaughter! The slaughter was going to be held in the house of Bărbăteşti´s
mayor.
We left very early in the morning, at 7 am. When we arrived one of the
pigs was already killed! And there he was, laying with his tongue out of the
month, looking like he was smiling! So big he was! They were already in the
phase of burning the fur with the blowtorch.
Almost all of the people were there that we had already met before and I
felt that everybody was very happy to see us! One does not really need to speak
a language to understand when there is empathy!
They immediately offered us hot Țuică and, of course, we didn´t refuse
it (I don´t remember of drinking alcohol at 8 am before!!)
In Portugal we also keep this tradition of pig slaughtering but the last
time I attended one was more than 10 years ago, so I just had a distorted
image!
I believe that the big difference of the process, comparing with the
Portuguese one, is that here they do not profit the pig blood (we use it to do
other kind of sausages) and they eat the skin without cooking it before!
It was quite cold and standing there doing nothing was difficult to
handle, so we went inside of the house. We ate cozonac, drank coffee and there
we were, entertained and having fun, enjoying the Denises´s company and singing
Christmas carols.
When we went to take a look outside, another murder was committed
already!
The women were separating the meat and in some pots something was being
prepared, but I dind´t pay too much attention to that. It was actually a
surprise to me when at 12pm the table was already set! Mămăligă, cheese and
meat from the first dead! It was certainly the best pork I remember to have had
eaten before! And believe me, I ate it in a lot of different places, also in
villages, all and all, for more than 10 years, I was a countryside girl…!
Perhaps because it was so fresh or because they feed the pigs with different
food… I don´t know, but it was really delicious. If one day I will think about becoming
vegetarian, the memory of that pork will be enough to dissuade me!
The lunch was great! I can say that almost just Denise was speaking
English but it wasn´t at all an obstacle to communicate and laugh with the
others.
Unfortunately, shortly after lunch,
we had to leave because we had Martha and Roshan´s birthday party and we still
had to prepare some snacks to take and prepare disguises (it was a
thematic party). We lost too more deaths.
