It is not Jamón de Pata Negra nor olive oil nor even the popular Paella or the traditional Córdoba Salmorejo, what is being a sold-out recipe around the world this XXIst century is our simple very modest Churro. It is a very familiar recipe all along the Americas (Hispanic Americas), many countries have their own version, filled with cream, chocolate, you name it.

However in Northern America this product was not known, for nothing of interest could have existed South of the Colorado river. As of today that traditionally habit of ignoring Spanish America and Spain itself is slowly reverting. For example, Mercado Little Spain the gastronomic venture leaded by the chefs José Andrés and the Adrià brothers is considered as the best restaurant in New York city. Needless to say inside one can find churros with chocolate. The waiting lines are terrible. So big was the success that the popular cookie brand Oreo has recently unveiled their latest product. It all started some three months ago when the company dared its consumers to guess the mysterious flavor of 2019 that will be sold as a limited edition basis. Of course the answer was churro; it would have been a real piece of cake for any Spanish or Latin-American citizen but it took them, us citizens, three months. They are now being sold quite successfully in the US. Of course most news papers have published the strange event.

All of Europe is also enjoying the wonders of a good old churro thanks to the wit and hard work of our entrepreneurs who had successfully implanted the churro in the big cities of Europe. Spanish churro is in some cases as popular as Italian pizza. Among those daring entrepreneurs there is however one that outshines them all. I am referring of course to the churrería San Ginés, first opened in 1894, which has managed to export this tasty tradition to Asia. So popular that its website can be read in Chinese and new establishments have been inaugurated in Tokyo, Osaka and Shanghai, among many others, where they are known by the name of xuanlezi in China and youtiao in Japan.

Churros are at an all time popularity peak. Take for instance the new party sponsored by the discotheque Joy Eslava in Madrid every Sunday. The name of the party says it all "Churros con Chocolate", of course the night ends with a full churros con chocolate breakfast for, as you may know, churrerías are often the first ones to open.

THE HISTORY OF THE CHURRO

The churro has a rich history, it origins are as clear as a myth. It is very difficult to be certain of the origin of this sweet delicatessen. Water, flour and olive oil is all one needs to cook such a tasty recipe. It is quite possible that it could be tied with the development of agriculture. There are some theories wandering around the Internet. One of them states that it did not come from Spain but from China instead, where Portuguese merchants would have first tried youtiao: salted pastry fried for breakfast. When these merchants reproduced the recipe in Portugal a churro was born.

Another theory states that the word “churro” comes from the churra sheep, a kind which horns are said to resemble the shape of a churro. It would seem that the shepherds would have created and then made churros known beyond their mountains. The shepherds had to adapt their nutrition to their lifestyle and common bread would go bad quickly so bringing the simplest ingredients, like flour, salt, water and olive oil, turned to be much more useful.

These are just some hypothesis but we would probably never know how did it all begin. It is somewhat likely that the first civilization to ever grow wheat would have also been the first ones to try this recipe.

We could say that the history of the churro is yet to be studied, I hope this comes with time.

The churro has also made its mark in our beloved Spanish language. Since the churro has a uneven ugly shape sometimes we Spaniards refer to something half-done as being a churro, which translate to being crap. We can also see the word churro to point out the speed with which something is done, for example: he scores goals like churros would translate to he scores goals at a staggering rate; the reason behind this has to do with the speed in which churros can be made.

CHURROS, PORRAs...
We must now differentiate for churro is a broad term that refers to all sorts of churros, but there are types that go under different names.

There are three basic differences between a churro and a porra: first, the porra has a pinch o bicarbonate soda; second, the dough rests for approximately ten minutes; and third more water is added than for a normal churro.

CHURROS IN CÓRDOBA

Sadly most traditional churrerías in the city have disappeared. They used to be rolling shops that would sell churros by the river and would serve them to you tied with a long straw from the river. Not anymore. You can still find plenty of cafés that serve them. Find your closest churros here.