Franco dined while Spain starved

Madrid (Spain), June 30 (ANI): Spanish dictator General Franco enjoyed lavish three course meals, even as his country was facing severe food shortages months after a civil war.

According to The Telegraph, the Spaniards struggled to survive on daily rations of potatoes and beans in the months following the 1936-1939 conflict, while he dined on stuffed hake and medallions of veal.

Just a fortnight after his newly formed government introduced a severe rationing system, a menu dated May 29 1939 shows a three-course lunch was served at the dictator's table.

On that day Franco and his wife Carmen were offered a traditional stew from Asturias that included chunks of chorizo and black pudding followed by fillet of hake and topped off with a selection of cheese and fruit.

The menus, emblazoned with the emblematic eagle and coat of arms used under the Franco regime, came from Franco's table at the Pardo Palace, where the dictator resided following his victory in April 1939 until his death in November 1975.

The collection of menus were discovered among papers belonging to a former Civil Guard officer, Carlos Palacios Miguel, who in the autumn of 1936 when Franco led his military uprising against Spain's Second Republic was appointed as the Generalissimo's personal stenographer.He remained close to Franco's side throughout the ensuing conflict and became a member of dictator's household staff at El Pardo, according to a weekend report in the national newspaper Publico.(ANI)