| Summary: | In this article, I give an ethnographic account of the lived realities of everyday
nationalism by presenting some of the ways in which Catalans in northeast Spain use food to
express their national identity. Due to its quotidian, essential nature, food is an ideal tool for
studying the experience of nationalism in everyday life. Catalonia, in northeast Spain,
provides a useful context in which to study a contemporary nationalist movement, as the
recent 2017 political crisis and the independence movement that has burgeoned since 2010
have made questions of national identity a highly relevant topic of everyday discussion in the
region. I will first introduce the growing literature on nationalism and food, or
‘gastronationalism', which is the basis of my research. I also briefly discuss my
methodological approach as an ethnographer. Next, I provide a brief introduction to some of
the essential sauces and dishes of Catalan cuisine and the national sentiments that these foods
represent. Following on from this, I discuss the gastronomic calendar, that is, the practice of
associating particular foods with certain days or seasons, a notion that is shared across
Catalonia and that creates recognized culinary unity. Finally, I discuss how food has been
linked to the current independence movement in the region.
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