Blog #3
Outside of Spain you might hear this dish referred to as the Spanish Omelette, growing up in my house and in many suburbs around Buenos Aires you can order this dish as a Tortilla española.
This potato and egg dish has firmly engrained itself into the Spanish culinary gist and is recognised near-universally as a constituent of Spanish food and culture.
In Spain you won't have to look far to find the tortilla de papas, as its called locally, in fact you might even be lucky enough to visit the festive tortilla holiday celebrated in regions of Spain during February and March. Each region adds its unique identity to the dish, such as Madrid's addition of chorizo, yet the tortilla is unmistakably recognisable no matter the regions influence. The two main ingredients do not change, potatoes - the star, and the eggs.
As a child growing up in Buenos Aires, the tortilla española was a staple, not just of my mother's cooking repertoire but of the restaurants we frequented. The influence is clear to see, with vast Spanish immigration to Buenos Aires in the late 19th century, Spaniards brought with them not just their recipes, but their style of gastronomy, ingredients and most importantly their styles of cooking. The Argentine public took best to the more modest foods due to the poverty of recent immigrants, and so dishes like the tortilla española exploded in popularity over other more bourgeoisie dishes. The dish to this day is as easy to find in Buenos Aires as it is to find in Spain, the recipe having maintained a strict adherence to the Spanish style and ingredients, as noted by the homage in the dishes name (española).
However, there is a definite ironic undertone in the voyage the dish made to Argentina. After all, a modest dish whose ingredients don't go further than potatoes, eggs and onions, all of which were widely in use in Native American gastronomy well prior to colonisation. The potato had not even made its way to Europe prior to the Spanish introducing it in the mid 16th century. Argentina, and many other Latin American countries recognise the dish as uniquely Spanish yet its main ingredient, the potato, has more to do with this dish's destination than its origin.
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