Valencia Eats Throwback: Hyped Bocadillos of La Pascuala
While I’m staying at home due to COVID-19, I’m going back through my archives and writing about places I should have written about long ago. This one comes from Spain; hoping the eatery and staff make it through this crisis.
After yesterday’s post about what might be my favorite restaurant in Valencia, Kiosko La Pérgola with its famous bocadillo sandwiches, it’s only fitting that I write about another eatery in Valencia famous for its bocadillos, La Pascuala.
This one is just a few steps away from the beach in the Cabañal neighborhood. At least on the weekends, it’s always crowded with people trying to get a bite of their bocadillos. I ordered mine to go and eat by the beach, in order to not wait for a table.
Why are they so famous? Well, for one, horse meat is one of the options. And I’d say the other reason for their fame is the gigantic size of the bocadillos.
Take mine for example. This is a half bocadillo, and only cost 3.10€! The one I ordered was the “Fran,” composed of griddled pork loin, bacon, cheese, and a tortilla de sobrasada. In my post about La Pérgola, I mentioned that I loved their tortilla de sobrasada, which is a loose chorizo-like sausage. But the execution here was quite different. Instead of the Spanish-style egg disk which I love, this one was the “French”-style tortilla (tortilla francesa), which is basically a fried omelette. Same ingredients, but I like it much less.
And while the ingredients of this sandwich sound fine individually, together I didn’t get any harmony from them. They just sat there individually without contributing to a greater whole. There really wasn’t any rhyme or reason for them to exist together.
(To be honest, many Spanish bocadillos leave me underwhelmed for this reason. They often just taste like very plain ingredients stuck inside bread, unlike the masterful compositions of Italy. And one reason why La Pérgola stands above the rest - because they have come up with unexpected yet ravishing combinations of ingredients.)
So it’s no surprise that despite its fame, I only ate here one time. The bocadillos are big, cheap, and you can choose horse meat if you want. But there hasn’t been a reason to compel me to return.
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La Pascuala
Calle Doctor Lluch 299
46011 Valencia
Spain
