‘Patatas bravas’ are one of the most traditional and popular tapas outside of Spain. The reason for such success lies in the potatoes, cut into small irregular pieces and then fried in olive oil until they are crispy on the outside and tender on the inside, but above all in the sauce that accompanies them: salsa brava, with as many versions as there are cooks. With onion, flour, sauce and red pepper, but without tomato; with tomato sauce and chilli, or; even in its less orthodox version, with mayonnaise, ketchup and Tabasco, the fact is that salsa brava is, first of all, a hot sauce. Hence its name and also its origin: the spicier the potatoes, the more beer was needed to

Few things are as peculiar to Spain as the concept of tapa. This distinct item of Spanish gastronomy has been exported to the rest of humanity and finds literary references in texts by Quevedo, for whom they are “avisillos”, or Cervantes, who refers to ‘tapas’ as “llamativos”. And just like everything that is good, many lay claim to its authorship. From the primitive custom of accompanying alcoholic drinks with ‘something’ to eat to mitigate its effects, supposedly promoted by Alfonso X, the Wise, to the fact that they say that the country workers used it to prevent the flies from landing in their drink. But the most widespread of the t

Very brave you have to be to compete with your culinary skills in a region of good eating and good drinking like Valladolid. For a few days in November, the Castilian capital further enhances its offer with the best of haute cuisine in miniature, as the centre for the National Competition of Kebabs and Bites, receiving only the most talented and imaginative. People able to recreate the planet Mars with egg dumplings and mushrooms or dress a vertical salad. The flavours in Spain (and the rest of the planet) concentrate in one place. Professionals come from around the country who usually serve in their bars. Besides choosing three winners, the best concept is valued, the most avant-gar