The bocata is an emotional and immaterial heritage of Spanish gastronomy. An essential recipe: bread, something inside and hands. It is eaten by the high school student, the grandfather on the park bench. And to test the bocadillo traditions throughout Spain, the second edition of a championship that rewards the best sandwich in the country is back.
Madrid is participating strongly in the second edition of the Campeonato de España de Bocatas ®, organized by Fenicia Marketing, who are also responsible for the hamburger, taco and pizza championships. The contest started on April 3 and has already exceeded 10,000 votes.
Last year, the Lizarrán in Alcalá de Henares won the prize in Madrid with a dish of cheeks in sauce, blue cheese and sweet potato puree. This year, things are even tighter. In total, there are 30 participating restaurants throughout Spain. Ten of them are in the Community of Madrid. Here, you can try ear, baby squid, blood sausage, chistorra sausage and jowl sandwiches. Some of them have names of their own: Minutejo, Don Pancho, Miss Bolas, Sleepy Jojo’s. Others appeal to the traditional recipe.
How does the championship work?
Voting combines popular opinion and professional criteria: 60% public, 40% experts. Anyone who tries one of the sandwiches can vote through elmejorbocata.com using a code received at the restaurant. On May 12, the grand finale will be held: a blind tasting at the MOM Culinary Institute in Madrid, where the best bocata in the country will be crowned.
The evaluation takes into account the quality of the bread, the filling, the presentation and, of course, the overall taste. In addition, a team of inspectors made up of chefs, critics and influencers will tour the participating bars.
These are the 10 sandwiches from Madrid competing to be the best in Spain.
- DÖGGO – Don Pancho – Calle de Juan de Austria, 25
- DÖGGO MARKET – Miss Bolas – Mercado San Leopoldo
- Don G Torrejón – Bocadillo Cachopolopollo – Ctra. Ajalvir Centro Comerci, s / n
- El Momento Gastrobar – Paseo de Juan XXIII, 22
- Jojo’s Burger – Sleepy Jojo’s – Calle de la Isla de Oza, 41
- La Casa de los Minutejos – Minutejo – Calle de Antonio de Leyva, 19
- La Meme’s Food – El Meme’s 2.0 – Calle de Barceló, 6, second floor stall 305
- Lizarran, Alcalá de Henares – Chistorra Premium – Calle Mayor, 12 (Alcalá de Henares)
- Palique Pozuelo – Sando en Pepitoria – Calle de Peñalara, 2 (Pozuelo de Alarcón)
- Pistola – Chipirones con Morcilla y Calamar – Calle del Dos de Mayo, 1 (Alcalá de Henares)
Two of the favorites: oreja or chipirón.
There is a nuance here. The fact that the championship is called bocatas and not bocadillos may not be a coincidence. It is a choice related to Madrid’s DNA. Bocata is a word that was born in the margins of the normative language and is installed in popular speech through cheli, a slang that was spoken in the neighborhoods of Madrid between the 70s and 90s.
And in the category of what is very Madrilenian, casquería cannot be omitted. Nor La casa de los Minutejos, that temple of the castizo near Marqués de Vadillo that has been making a sandwich with thin slices of grilled ear and spicy sauce since 1965. A traditional recipe, direct and without frills.
Pistola, one of those places that modern people would define as hot spots in Malasaña, also comes strong. Chipirones con Morcilla y Calamar, a sandwich already tasted by our beloved Pedro Pineda when he opened Pistola. Battered squid on a homemade squid and blood sausage stew, with a slice of Iberian jowl, roasted garlic and lime aioli, and lime zest on top. That’s all there is to it.