ORIGIN OF BRAVAS
Patatas Bravas it is a dish recorded origin in Madrid and spread to other parts of Spain. In other parts of Spain (Madrid) it’s typically just a hot pepper/tomato sauce. The origin of the dish is a little unknown, some say 1560’s, but Spanish Wiki suggests older late, 19C. My money is on the latter, as UK’s Fish and Chips is thought to be of Jewish immigrants of Spanish origin plus the use of fried street food.
DIFFERENCE BETWEEN MADRID AND BARCELONA
In Madrid it is deep or fried / roasted potatos with 1 sauce, the hot red one. Barcelona is a dish of with a mix or fusion of two sauces ali oli (garlic) and bravas (chilli/pepper/tomato)
In Barcelona it looks like this with two separate sauces.
Let me explain the sauces and what’s in them…
INGREDIENTS
The bravas sauce. This is typically tomato with (optional) paprika, chilli, black pepper, salt. Ali Oil sauce, is traditionally a garlic and olive oil (old/traditional) but the new version mixes it with egg, mayonnaise or dairy (new style). Now the sauce is mixed in many places, making a rose coloured sauce. You can order the sauce in a side dish (which I recommend).
FINDING AUTHENTIC BRAVAS
Finding good traditional authentic ‘Patatas Bravas’ is exceptionally hard in Barcelona. Over tourism has lowered, rather than raised quality, so the point of this list is to shift interest to different sauce interpretations to places which are worth visiting.
There’s no olde style Bravas on my list. In 12 years as sadly I’ve not found one place offering it. If you get invited to my house, I’ll make one for you :-D. Most Catalans now make it the new way. I prefer the older way as its vegan!
Like a lot of Spanish tapas bars, the authentic has dropped to tourist demand (in my view, to offer an inferior product taking out the heart and filling with straw). The same argument (for another list) will be the best places in the Canary Islands for Mojo Picon. Most natives Canarians (including journalists) can’t recommend a handful of authentic ‘hot’ Picon sauce establishments. So, we’re left with what we’ve got!
Nowadays most places claim to have (chilli) ‘hot’ braves but they are not prepared in the kitchen that way. From experience in most it’s a last minute addition (tabasco, chilli powder).
THE LIST
I’ve made a list of the top 5 places where you can get an authentic, fusion or reimagined experience.
3 VEGETARIAN / 2 MEAT EATERS ONLY
3 are vegetarian friendly, two are for meat/fish eaters. They are all fusion - reinvented. In terms of ingredients, quality, price, service, plating and equilibrium of the two sauces they’re Barcelona’s top 5. The list should include any establishments using home made and prepared sauces. The style of chips depends. 4 of the 5 have old (thick chunk) style.
SPECIAL MENTION
I must mention Senyor Vermut is seen by the locals as a standard but IMHO, they overdo the Ali Oli and offer about 1/4 braves sauce.
Here’s the link to the list. Enjoy, comment, follow and share!
There’s another list here with top 50 places but I’ve been clearer with what you should expect and my criteria
