Food Match
We recommend that Zaleo be served
between 14 and 18ºC.
Why not sip it leisurely on its own
or pair it with tasty Spanish tapas,
especially cheese or Ibérico ham?
It glistens on the wooden stand,
a black trotter pointed upwards
as if offering a hoofprint.
Now cut a slice so thin that steel
is visible below the meat.
Place it across your tongue and wait
for the marbled fat to melt. Sip
un vino tinto. The tannin
grips, hugging the ham – both of them
start, suddenly, to magnify.
Matthew Stewart lives between Extremadura, Spain, and West Sussex, England. Happenstance Press published his first pamphlet collection, Inventing Truth, in April 2011, followed by a second chapbook, Tasting Notes, in September 2012. ‘Food Match’ appears in Tasting Notes.