As always from late June to the end of August. Las Pavías

There's an annual serial event called Las Pavías taking place again on the public library patio in front of my house organised by the local Brotherhood every summer weekend night starting at 21.00 PM that rallies the entire neighbourhood into action.

Poster of the event. Image by the Sacramental Brotherhood of Tomares

It's a public-spirited eating and "spending time" event in essence, a perfect way to pass a Saturday or Sunday night with fine outdoor dining in a pleasant atmosphere of a pedestrian patio, surrounded by friends and neighbours. Quite noisy and messy, but relaxing, and all for a good cause and at affordable prices that do not exceed two euros. The earnings are intended for the Brotherhood purposes, such as social work, repairs and incidentals, which are not adequately funded through general contibutions.

The ambience of the event. Image from the news site ABCdesevilla.es

What they have for the people to enjoy is a wide variety of traditional snack and sandwich choices, together with some mandatory homemade desserts, such as three chocolate cake, rice pudding, tiramisù, crème caramel, sponge cake or something else of the kind. The stars of the night, obviously, being strips of desalted codfish, marinated in a mixture of lemon juice and sweet paprika (pimentón), then coated in flour and egg or in a frying batter, and deep-fried in olive oil - a snack called Soldaditos de Pavía (Pavian soldiers). The origin of the name relates, supposedly, to the red and yellow striped uniforms of the Spanish troops at the time of the Battle of Pavia, in 1525. 

Mothers and wives of the Brotherhood members frying fish on spot. Image from Artesacro.org

Anyway, besides the tasty speciality, they have other things here, including small pork loin and ham baguettes with salmorejo (tomato cream), Russian salad, seafood cocktail, small kebabs and Spanish omelette. All to be accompanied with a soft drink on the rocks or a nice cool beer. What a treat! And, to wrap it up, here's a recipe for those who want to put this sunny summer to good cooking use and try making the Pavías at home.