The Wall Street Journal-20080119-WEEKEND JOURNAL- Travel -- Europe- Spain-s Hot Potato- Taking a tour of the country through a simple tapas dish
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WEEKEND JOURNAL; Travel -- Europe: Spain's Hot Potato; Taking a tour of the country through a simple tapas dish
Special To The Wall Street Journal
Barcelona, Spain -- It's one of the country's most popular dishes, and it doesn't seem like much more than glorified French fries. The dish, patatas bravas, is cubes of fried potato served with two sauces -- one red and spicy and the other white and infused with garlic.
But patatas bravas, which roughly translates as wild potatoes, holds a high place in Spanish gastronomic lore. In a country whose national cuisine includes hundreds of varieties of finger food known as tapas, bravas is becoming the gourmand's benchmark.
In recent years, Spain's growing economy has meant locals are willing to spend more money on classic cuisine. The working-class plate of bravas, often sold for a few dollars and eaten with toothpicks, is now appearing on the menus of more high-end restaurants. Michelin-starred chefs are charging upwards of $20 for reinterpretations. They're playing with presentation, for instance, by sculpting individual cubes of potato and filling them with sauce.
People are paying more attention to bravas because even though the basic recipe is simple, it's easy to experiment, says Antonio Betorz, owner of Bar Tomas, a tapas bar in Barcelona. "The potato will absorb whatever you give it," he says. The challenge is to work within the formula and find the balance between garlic and spice. "There are a million possibilities."
Tapas varies across the country. In the northwest province of Galicia, octopus, cod and prawns constitute the main ingredients. In the central provinces, the dry-cured ham called jamon iberico is a specialty. The Basque variation, called pintxos, are some of the most artisanal, incorporating seafood, copious garlic and cheeses and sausages from local farms. Streets in the old quarter of San Sebastian are lined with small bars, each stacked high with creations. Tapas hopping there is the culinary equivalent of a pub crawl. One of Spain's few dishes on most tapas menus is patatas bravas.
"No one makes bravas in the home," says Josep Ravell, owner of the Barcelona restaurant Can Ravell. "They go to bars to try them. It is a social dish. People are at once eating and discussing your work."
The plate of potatoes may look simple, but Mr. Ravell -- whose restaurant serves foie gras omelettes and mashed potatoes with truffles -- calls it the most technical tapa to make. "So many elements -- the potato, the sauces, the frying oil -- must be in balance," he says. "A tapas chef in Spain should sign his autograph with the bravas."
With its many working-class bars, Barcelona is one of the best cities in which to sample bravas. There, Bar Tomas is considered a standout, according to patatabrava.com, a social-networking Web site built around the dish that has more than 1,500 bravas listings.
Located on a narrow street in the residential neighborhood of Sarria, Bar Tomas would be hard to distinguish from other tapas stops in Spain. Several wooden tables line the wall opposite a bar and sawdust and used napkins cover the floor. Aside from the crowd, there is only one indication of its specialty: two large barrels full of soaking potato chunks and an intricate system of fryers set up behind the bar.
Mr. Betorz is the third generation of his family to own Tomas. In the 1970s his aunt developed the current recipes used for the sauces by experimenting with a variety of other salsas used in tapas dishes with fish. These days, Mr. Betorz makes a thick, garlic-rich white sauce and pairs it with a much thinner red sauce mixed with as much oil as tomato and picante seasonings.
Secret recipes are nothing new in the culinary world, and bravas seem like they'd be easy to figure out. Mr. Betorz and others know better, which is why he becomes incredulous when asked for specifics about his formula. Is the secret paprika or red pepper? Mr. Betorz doesn't even keep a written copy. "My aunt showed me how to make it once and that was it."
Across town, on a quiet street in the Sant Gervasi neighborhood, is the tapas equivalent of the rivalry between the FC Barcelona and Real Madrid football teams. Bar Mandri and Montesquieu, both known for their bravas, are only two doors apart. Bar Mandri cuts its potatoes into cubes and is liberal with the garlic in its white sauce. At Montesquieu, they see things differently. "We slice the potatoes very thin," says a waiter; this absorbs the flavor of the sauce, which is much spicier and has no garlic.
An upcoming election in March and the possibility of a slowing economy have uncovered, yet again, differences of opinion in the direction of the country. Some rifts, such as more autonomy for provinces versus a strong central government, trace back to the Civil War. But bravas may play a new role as a symbol of unity, with each element deriving from various regions. "Bravas mix the many different cultures of Spain on one plate," says Mr. Betorz.
