Member-only story
Let Them Eat Mona — A Traditional Catalan Cake
The heartwarming (and slightly over-the-top) tradition of dilluns de Pasqua
Isabel and Maite are two of my favorite participants in the English conversation group I host at the local cultural center. They’re both in their mid-50s, have college-age kids, and have been best friends since they were five. Their lives are so parallel, it’s uncanny: both married childhood sweethearts from their tiny village, and all still live here today. About the only difference is that one’s a teacher, and one’s a stylist.
Another slight difference is that Maite is an only child, and Isabel is one in a family of six. So, despite them celebrating the same holidays with the same traditions, differences were there, in part due to family size. One of my favorite stories Isabel told was about how her family handled dilluns de Pasqua, or Easter Monday.
A Cake for Every Occasion
Hearing Isabel’s story took me back to a moment years ago, when I was sitting with my family, happily eating ice cream in the dining room of a longstanding bakery and confectionery, when I became completely transfixed by a video playing overhead. Surrounded by industrial baking equipment, bakers were methodically measuring ingredients, cracking eggs, beating batter, and…
