The winter has finally arrived to Burgos. The days are darker, the temperatures are lower, and the people of the city are [...]]]>

During the winter, churros stands like this one begin to crop up all over Burgos. It’s easy to eat these delicious delicacies; however, it’s somewhat more complex to order them.

The winter has finally arrived to Burgos. The days are darker, the temperatures are lower, and the people of the city are sporting their “Eskimo attire” to combat the cold. Of course, if you don’t like bundling up to stay warm, you could try another “heat-seeking” technique: eating freshly made churros.

Since the weather has begun to get colder, churros stands (like the one pictured above) have been popping up all over the place around the city. For those of you who don’t know what churros are, they’re basically rod-shaped pieces of fried dough that are covered in sugar — the Spanish version of the doughnut. The truth is, nothing quite warms you up on a winter day like some freshly fried churros along with a little hot chocolate to accompany them.

Despite their delectable goodness, ordering churros from a street vendor posed a bit of a problem for me when I first moved to Spain.  It turns out that ordering churros is more difficult than you might think.   

You see, before coming to Burgos last year, I had never seen a churros stand anywhere. I had eaten churros in various bars and restaurants before; however, the whole “street churros experience” was something new to me.

When you’re in a bar and you want churros, the “norm” is to tell the waiter or waitress that you want “churros for one person” or “churros for two people.” In other words, you tell the waiter how many people are going to be eating the churros and then let the staff in the kitchen decide exactly how many to give you (they typically allot three or four churros per person). At the stands on the street, on the contrary, churros are ordered by the piece. The first time that I went to a street vendor to order churros, I applied my “bar logic” and asked the employee for “churros for one person.” Of course, the worker promptly responded with a puzzled look. He later asked me exactly how many churros I wanted.

Since my first “churros mishap” last year, I have ordered churros from street vendors many times. After so much experience ordering them, I have come to realize that the “norm” for buying churros off the street is to ask for them by the dozen or by the half-dozen.  I wish I had known that last year when I visited my first churros stand — maybe I could have saved the churros guy his puzzled look.

In any event, I’d like to dedicate this post to the discussion of Spanish snacks. What is your favorite Spanish snack for a cold (or warm) day?  Leave your response below.

Hasta luego,
–Chris
http://abroadinspain.com