Buñuelos con chocolate de San Antón

The buñuelo is a simple dough of flour, milk, egg and yeast, fried in oil until crisp outside and hollow and tender inside. It is dipped in thick hot chocolate and eaten standing up, hot, with the fingers. In Alhama its night is 16 January, the eve of St Anthony.

In several villages of the province, Alhama among them, buñuelos with chocolate are eaten around the bonfires of the winter festivals. In 1997 the local custom of "burning St Anthony's beard" was described like this: bonfires at street crossings, roast bacon, popcorn, buñuelos, chocolate and punch, though even then the festival was no longer "at its peak". In Abrucena, St Anthony is celebrated with buñuelos, palomicas and porrones.

Beyond St Anthony, the buñuelo is also the Holy Week food of the Andarax-Nacimiento valley: each family fried a basinful for the whole week, unless in mourning. In Huécija they are made with anise. No churrería sells them: they are made at home or in the street, on the night itself — so if you are in Alhama for St Anthony, go and stand by a bonfire.