Pa de Sant Jordi

The story

In Catalonia the day for lovers is April 23, the feast of Sant Jordi, Saint George, when people exchange roses and books. The roses are the older custom: by the fifteenth century a rose fair was held around the Palau de la Generalitat in Barcelona, attended mostly by newlyweds and engaged couples, and it was already the habit to give a rose to the women there. Books came later. In the 1920s the Valencian writer Vicent Clavel Andrés proposed a book festival, and in 1930 booksellers moved it to April 23, the date associated with the deaths of Cervantes and Shakespeare; in 1995 UNESCO made it World Book and Copyright Day. The bread is much younger. In the late 1980s the Barcelona bakers' guild wanted a loaf of its own for the day, and Eduard Crespo, a baker who taught at the guild's school, created one from three doughs flavored with cheese, sobrassada and walnuts. Sliced, it shows the red and yellow stripes of the senyera, the Catalan flag, and bakers also sell it for Catalonia's national day on September 11. It has nothing to do with February 14. Serve it in thick slices with cheese, olives and a glass of cava as part of the starters.