Macarena Olona's lentils: the meme that eats Spanish politics

Macarena Olona's lentils: the humble dish that unleashed the wit

No spoon dish has generated so much political entertainment in years. A photo of Macarena Olona with a bowl of lentils has triggered a perfect storm of memes, double entendres and, of course, the odd exchange of culinary accusations.

Sangria or pork cheeks: the unlikely debate

The first battlefront was culinary. Some insisted it wasn't lentils at all, but sangria; another, hungrier than scientific, labeled it pork cheeks. The reasonable doubt about whether the dish came from Mercadona -dubbed "Mercarena Dona" in a display of wit- was answered with a more exotic theory: pointing out that the kitchen, Barcelos rooster included, looked every bit like an authentic Portuguese tasca. So we're not just talking about legumes: we're talking about national identity.

When the humor overcooks

As usual, not everything was a delicacy. While some got lost in the protagonist's age -a whopping 47, according to the comments-, others went straight for the crude joke, the kind that stays at the gates of what's publishable. Give the matter a slant we won't reproduce and you'll get where they were going. But Spanish politics is already used to it: a photo traveling across the country with more stubbornness than analysis is not news, just the anecdote of the day.

The question is simple: when public life is reduced to a plate of lentils, something tells us the great debates are running low on substance. Or maybe it's just the opposite: that the human side, even in politics, fits in a spoon dish and a handful of ill-intentioned tweets. That this will be forgotten tomorrow is likely; that it remains as a portrait of an era, also.