Pumpkin fritters are a traditional snack during the Falles festival in which city?

Las Fallas, the great festival of the city and Province of Valencia, and also celebrated by many towns of the Valencian Community, is synonymous with gunpowder and a festival atmosphere. It is also known for its deeply-rooted gastronomic tradition which goes back to no less than the 19th century: pumpkin buñuelos.

The origin of this traditional Valencian sweet began with the Fallas, when the carpenters’ union of Valencia was given permission by the local government to bring their surplus wood out onto the streets in order to burn it on bonfires. This was the starting point of the current Fallas, which are so well known the world over and, from 2017, included on the UNESCO list of Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.

Large metal drums would be place right next to the bonfires. These would act as stoves in which the wood from the bonfire would be used to heat oil in which to fry the delicious fritters for the people to eat while the fires were burning. That is exactly where the first ‘buñoleras’ (a person who is an expert in making buñuelos) came from.

The buñuelo recipe has been passed from one generation to the next since the 19th century to the present day. They are still made in the same way today, although as is commonly said, ‘each master cook has their own recipe’. With such simple ingredients as pumpkin, yeast, flour, water and salt, you can make fritters which are crisp to the bite on the outside, yet soft and spongy on the inside.