WORLD TAPAS DAY IN LAVAPIÉS: THE CROQUETTES OF LAVAPIÉS

2023/06/10

23 bars and restaurants in Lavapiés celebrate World Tapas Day with exclusive croquettes at €1.5

• • World Tapas Day - Thursday June 15 - Lavapiés
  • 23 bars serve their croquette for €1.5 until Sunday the 18th.
  • In Spain we consume 240 croquettes every second.

Is the croquette the favorite tapa in Spanish bars? From Thursday 15 to Sunday 18 June, Lavapiés celebrates World Tapas Day 2023 with the croquette as the main protagonist. 23 bars and restaurants in the Madrid neighborhood serve an exclusive croquette for only one and a half euros.

In Spain we consume 7,162 million croquettes a year, according to 2022 data from the Spanish Association of Manufacturers of Prepared Meals (Asefapre). That is, 20 million croquettes a day, 240 per second. Each citizen ate two and a half kilos, more than a hundred.

The media chef Julius Bienert will give a live show cooking of four express croquettes from @enlavapies' I nstaLive, on Thursday, June 15 (6:00 p.m.). The inventor of the '22 minutes' concept on Canal Cocina has just premiered the third season of 'Julius invites you'. It will teach us how to prepare homemade croquettes in record time, for singles, couples and people in a hurry who don't want to resort to frozen products.

The croquettes represent 5.9% of the total frozen prepared dishes, according to Asefapre. 12,200 tons for a value of 41.8 million euros.

EMPRESS OF LAVAPIÉS.

From the traditional ones with ham, chicken and pork shoulder to others inspired by the Caribbean or India with chicken curry, with Asturian cheeses and Italian cold cuts or Portuguese-style cod and salmon: for four days croquettes for all tastes invade the bars of the most cosmopolitan neighborhood from Spain. Between the
more original, the 'Kong' with banana and blue cheese at La Buga del Lobo (Argumosa, 11), a restaurant with a strong influence of Cuban cuisine. Café Barbieri (Ave María, 45) surprises us with guanciale, cold cuts from La Lazio without smoking with a mask or pork cheeks. An explosion in the mouth is that of goat cheese, jalapeños and spices from La Lata de Cascorro (Embajadores, 1), in the antipodes of the sweet 'Cangas de
Narcea' from La Musa de Espronceda (Santa Isabel, 17), with blue cheese and honey from Spanish bees.

Cod is once again stomping in Lavapiés. Tostas & Bacalao (Argumosa, 29), winner of the last two editions of Tapapiés, combines it with salmon in the Portuguese recipe for his 'grandparents' croquette'. The 'bubbles' at the El Quijote tavern (Ave María, 52) mix it with potato,
peppers and black pepper, while the Galician restaurant Portomarín (Valencia, 4) sweetens it with caramelized apple.

The 'caralladas' from La Caníbal (Argumosa, 28) recover another typical Galician recipe, with pork shoulder, chorizo and San Simón smoked cheese, coated in crispy panko. For strong palates, also the ceboleiro chorizo from La Falda de Lavapiés (Miguel Servet, 4). And if we talk about croquettes, we are talking about ham, and the 'croqueta de la Tere' from the emblematic El Jamón (Lavapiés, 47), a truly tasty classic with Iberian bacon. López & López (Cabestreros, 4) and Xantico (Doctor Piga, 21) opt for ham with chicken, another ingredient in the traditional Spanish croquette
that the Indian restaurant Anarkoli (Lavapiés, 46) brings to its land: curry chicken croquette with spices. Before you sink your teeth into it, don't forget to say Námaste!

LIST OF CONTESTANTS