I stumbled upon the churros stand in Jerez. I had already heard much about churros and hot chocolate being consumed for breakfast in Spain, though during my time abroad in Barcelona, breakfast was something simpler that my host mom prepared. Certainly I am not the first to point out the appeal of fried dough around the world. However, I'm more of a salty and unfried tooth, so my desire to eat these stemmed mainly from an interest in getting a taste of a local tradition.
At around 10:00 am, the line in front of the churros man was long. I had already eaten a smaller breakfast of tostada con mantequilla (toast and butter) and cafe con leche, but who wouldn't be curious about a line like this?
I'll call him the churros man, for lack of a better word. The churros man rotated between stations in his small space. At one corner, not visible here, he stirred a large amount of masa, i.e. churros batter, in a large vat. Here, he is releasing the dough into hot oil, moving the machine in circles to create coils of batter.
After a short time in the oil, the churros coil gets flipped over using long, thin metal skewers.
The churros man then brings the coil over to the front, where he drops it on the counter and makes a few quick cuts using a pair of scissors.
Using tongs, he piles the churros on a piece of paper. What you see here is just under el minimo, which was the smallest amount you could buy, for one euro. You could also order by kilo.
The churros then get weighed on the scale...
...before they get bundled in paper for easy carrying.
With your bag of churros in hand, you can walk over to a nearby cafe, maybe Bar La Perla, with its bullfight posters on the wall.
Order a chocolate, dip your churros in the hot liquid, and enjoy!
My chocolate was more of the watery, hot chocolate drink packet type instead of the thick sludge you sometimes find in restaurants serving a fancier version of this dish. In the same vein, the churros were thin, light, and unadorned, the opposite of the thick, sugar-laden type you find in California. Still, I could only eat a few pieces before I said, "Enough!"
