A TRADITIONAL Catalan winter food festival that involves giant onions called calcots and red wine poured into the mouth from a great height, La Calçotada is a unique gastronomic and cultural ritual that people all over Spain have come to enjoy.
At the festival, the calçots are dipped in carefully prepared salsa de calçots or romesco sauce, often made from a closely guarded family recipe. Grilled meats usually follow. Traditionally the food is accompanied by Cava which locals drink from porróns. Calçotadas can get quite messy, so participants are encouraged to wear bibs!
Now Ibérica Spinningfields is offering guests the opportunity to experience La Colcotada first hand on Wednesday, February 24, from 6-8pm. Tickets are £37 a head. For that you get two classic Cavas and a Rioja to accompany bread with olive oil, calçots with romesco sauce, butifarra with trinxat Catalan and a mixed grill of Ibérico pork prime cuts from País de Quercus, finishing with espuma de crema catalana and salted caramel ice cream.
Iberica, 14-15 The Avenue Spinningfields, Manchester M3 3HF. 0161 358 1350. Book La Calçotada via [email protected].