If you ever go to the Valencian Country and they offer you an esmorzaret ("little breakfast", from esmorzar -"breakfast"- with the diminutive suffix -et), don't be fooled, there's no -et in it.
Valencians are known for using the diminutive suffix quite liberally, and this is definitely one of those cases. The diminutive can mean small, cute or show affection. In this case, it must be ironic humour.
The esmorzaret refers to a big breakfast or brunch that starts with some smaller appetizers like tomato and onion salad, olives, peppers, pickles, crisps/chips, cacau del collaret (local variety of peanuts), white lupin beans, omelette, even sausage, among others. The central element is a thick sandwich (and what a sandwich! this is a whole art form). All of it accompanied by either wine mixed with sprinkling water or by beer. The ritual ends with a cremaet, a cup of espresso coffee with a drizzle of burnt rum (the alcohol leaves when it's burned) and aromatized with cinnamon, coffee beans and lemon peel.
Back in the day, this was done because most people had hard physical jobs in the fields. Nowadays, it has become a social event.
Photos by Francho Lázaro Aznar on Traveler, Visit València, esmorzaret.es.
