Turismo de Galicia

“Vés das mans das avoas das nosas avoas, / moi ilustre señora, filloa, vella amiga, / fino corpo lixeiro, / leite e fariña triga, / para ti a nosa festa, para ti as nosas loas. / Se con mel ou con azucre, todo amor, te nos doas, é / xusto que adozada a nosa lingua diga / por mellor festexarte tamén unha cantiga / en Muimenta onde hoxe raíña te coroas”. (You come from the hands of our grandmothers ancestors, / my illustrious lady, filloa, old friend, / thin light body, / milk and wheat flour, / our festival is for you, our praises are for you. / If with honey or sugar, all the love, you give to us, it is / and our sweetened tongue says / let’s celebrate with a song too / in Muimenta where today you are crowned queen). Thus begins the “Oda á filloa” (Ode to filloa), composed by the neighbour of Cospeito Marica Campo to praise one of the most famous examples of traditional Galician confectionery, otherwise known as a crêpe, and that in Galicia is called filloa or freixó. In the parish of Muimenta, by the initiative of the local businessmen, a gastronomic festival has been held in its honour since 1992, coinciding with Labour Day, on May 1, a day of conviviality between neighbours and outsiders and a reaffirmation of the rural spirit and its future in the region. The crêpe makers strive to make thousands of filloas (water, flour, salt and egg, although they can also be made without eggs) that are eaten with churrasco and Creole sausages, which are the typical gastronomic items in this festival. Thus, at the fairgrounds, where artisans such as zoqueiros (clog makers), blacksmiths or basket makers sell their creations and show live demonstrations of their traditional trades, the public comes to eat or just to buy the crêpes and eat them at home. The Festa da Filloa de Muimenta, which was born as an initiative to raise funds for the organization of the Mostra Exposición de Muimenta (Moexmu) – an annual livestock event, in which the Galician Blonde Breed Exhibition and the Frisona Breed Contest take place, in addition to an exhibition of agricultural machinery and an auction of selected livestock, which now stands on its own, and welcomes around 25,000 people each year. Thanks to this, the inhabitants of the area restored the filloa to the prominent place it has always held in the local cuisine and have revived the typical griddles used in its preparation for their homes. It was declared of Galician Tourist Interest in 2008.

Not to be missed:

Try Churrasco, Creole sausages and filloas for dessert, at the fairgrounds.