there Welcome as always to Paulina Cocina! Have you heard of the furancho? Are they a form of marketing, a sustainable initiative, a business model or simply the best way to go out for tapas and wine in Galicia?
I found it very interesting to bring you a little information about them. Let’s see what it’s about.
The origin of the furanchos
Human beings have always come together to eat, drink and talk. The history of the origin of the furancho seems to be no exception to all this.
Well located and registered with its origin in Galicia, it is believed that they were born in ancient times when Galician peasants shared their own homemade wine with friends and neighbors in their homes.
Both for tasting and for consuming the surplus, meetings were held outside the house or on the terraces taking advantage of the weather. In addition, they talked, drank and ate a snack of cheese and bread, the important thing was the wine.
What are they?
Born as a way not to waste the production of homemade wine, they maintain the ancient essence of being a private place within the owner’s winery or home. In this furanchothe owners of the small wineries sold to the inhabitants of the town, the production resulting from a harvest that exceeded their sales or usual consumption.
It may also be called in some areas “laurel”, common name that designates the tree laurus nobilis from the Latin laurum, because the winemakers called to go to their establishments by putting a laurel branch at the door. This practice is no longer common, but traditionally the denomination remained.
what does the word mean
The Galician boasts of being ingenious. So when they began to detect in the small wineries an important surplus of wine that they could not get to consume, they began to offer it in the town, calling on the neighbors and relatives to consume this wine along with a tapas of what is produced for consumption. same of the owner of the house.
They put furancho to the place destined for such needs because it comes from the word Furo-Ancho (wide hole) that was made in the barrel with the spike to taste the wine.
Operation of the furanchos
The furancho is an enogastronomic concept that allows locals and foreigners to share the Galician experience from a more homemade and artisanal place.
The main area of furanchos is the Rias Baixas, followed by Betanzos. But they have spread to several places in Spain.
What can you eat?
We must bear in mind that if we talk about furanchowe talk about eat well, homemade and abundant. We already said that since its inception, the wine tasting was always added to the food produced and eaten by the owners of the place. This means that the prices are not as high as in any other gastronomic place.
The system they use is the traditional Spanish one called tapas. We can find traditional dishes such as potato tortillas, locally produced sausages, croquettes, seafood such as sardines, squid, mussels, etc. Of course these dishes vary from one place to another because, as I told you, the production is local and homemade. There is no letter, only what the place produces is consumed.
We can also find homemade desserts such as fried milk or flan and close the experience with coffee and homemade liqueurs for after dinner.
In addition to the food and wine part, the beauty of these places lies in the simplicity of their cuisine, decoration and furniture. It should be noted that you can also take your own food.
When are the furanchos?
The furanchos have a season of operation that goes from December until the end of summer, but in many cases they close earlier because they exhaust the supply of surplus wine, which is the objective of this type of establishment.
In these places you cannot drink anything other than the open house wine. A young wine that is sold until its production is exhausted.
How they work in Galicia
Currently the furancho is a concept disseminated by some towns in Spain but, when it became massive and successful, businesses that did not have their traditional characteristics and other commercial problems began to be detected.
Parallel businesses arose that were bars or taverns taking the name of furanchos to summon the unsuspecting public. The hotel field began to see them as a threat to real and legal establishments. Its operation had to be regulated.
In 2011 there was a record wine production and the appearance of legal and illegal furanchos grew excessively.
Current legislation in Galicia
In the year 2021 and after records in production of wine and furanchos, the Junta de Galicia made the decision to draft legislation on the subject. It says that:
“Furanchos are considered premises used mainly as private housing but where their owners sell surplus wine from their own harvest, made at home for their private consumption, together with tapas that, as food products regularly prepared by them/them , serve as an accompaniment”.
The Junta de Galicia follows this issue closely to incorporate the necessary modifications so that this very traditional concept can work together with the new and modern forms of offer.
Source: www.paulinacocina.net
