Thursday 8 April 2010

Lost In Translation

Patatas Bravas is a fairly common dish in Madrid. It consists of chunks of fried potato topped with a spicy tomato-based sauce. We've been to the café that claims to have invented them, but nobody seems to know why they bear this name ('brave potatoes'). Sometimes, you'll see patatas written as papas. Papa also means father, and there's a Holy Father in the Vatican who is known as El Papa.

So I couldn't resist a little giggle the other day when I read a menu that had English translations. The translation of papas bravas was 'brave Popes'.

1 comment:

leftbanker said...

Don't quote me on this but I think the "brava" part comes from the salsa brava they are served with.

I just went on about a two week bender of eating and making bravas. Most places serve pretty dreaful interpretations of this dish. They need to be deep-fried twice, once at a lower temperature and then again at a high temp. I now make them better at home than in about 99% of the bars I frequent (and I frequent a lot of bars). Now I need to drop about five kilos of brava-based barriga.

P.S. Due to technical difficulties I have moved to Leftbankview.