Description
Juan Eslava Galán makes a nod in his works to one of the oldest taverns in the city of Jaén, since it was founded in 1888.This tavern also displays a “mummified ham” in the establishment that has a legend about its origin, with two versions. The first and most plausible is that José María López Cruz, the first tavern owner of the dynasty, while hanging several ham pieces in the tavern's cellar, learned of the end of the First World War and to celebrate he decided to “spare” the ham for the remains and save it from being consumed. The second and most romantic is that a Russian princess who was fleeing on her way to Gibraltar, came across the tavern, where she could rest for a while and eat something to regain her strength. The Russian princess, sitting under one of the hams, noticed how a sticky drop of fat stained the clothing that covered her chest. The kind owner agreed to clean it and from there, according to legend, a romance arose. The innkeeper, enormously grateful to the greasy ham, pardoned him for life. Choose the one you like the most. (…) And it was a crazy fine one of the kind they have in the del Gorrión tavern and we got together with each other and with the ladies present there and there was honest conversation and leisure where a creed before there would have been a fierce battle and the creaking of ash trees and the resounding of dents in the iron. (…) In search of the unicorn. Chapter IV. (…) In some variants of the legend of the Malena lizard it was mentioned that the lizard guarded Solomon's Table - my friend Juan confided to me while we were tasting a wine accompanied by aged cheese and donuts at the del Gorrión tavern -. (…)
