Spanish Dessert Showdown: Pain y Chocolate vs Churros

As I mentioned last week, I had a lovely dinner with friends last Sunday at Barcelona in West Hartford. It's become one of my favorite hang outs when I visit home, and not just because a friend of mine works there. The tapas are delicious and the decor is hip and sleek. But, this post isn't about their ham-wrapped figs (delicious!) or those eye-catching light-fixtures that hang in the dining room (so chic!). This is a post about two very important things: chocolate and dough. First up we have churros, which are basically Spanish doughnuts coated in sugar. The fun part comes when you dip the churros in melted chocolate. Normally, the churros come with a cute little cup of chocolate, not the bowl you see pictured. I asked for extra, because I'm gross. (Now, I really should have asked what kind of chocolate they use but I forgot and now my friend is in Vegas and won't respond to my annoying text messages.) Despite my liberal use of said chocolate, there was still quite a bit left after we finished the churros. Enter: Pain y Chocolate. My friend offered to bring over some bread for us to use with the rest of the chocolate, which sounded perfectly acceptable. However, this wasn't simply table bread. First, the chef toasted the bread, then drizzled it with olive oil, and finished it off with a sprinkling of sea salt. It was delicious: Sweet and salty, crunchy and buttery. But what I love most is how easy it is to make. I'd never try to make churros at home; the whole deep-frying process turns me off. But, anyone can toast some bread and dunk it in a bowl of chocolate. Ugh. I love how the simplest things are usually the most delicious.

Pain y Chocolate enters the ring after we devoured the Churros