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By Ria Rueda
One of the world’s messiest food festivals, La Tomatina in Buñol, Spain, is celebrated on the last Wednesday of August. Thousands of tourists and revelers descend on the Spanish town to partake in La Tomatina, one of the world’s biggest food fights.
It begins when one person races to the top of a two-story greased pole to drop down a ham, which signals that it’s time to hurl tomatoes for one hour.
Although we did not throw tomatoes, we did serve a tomato-centric dinner in Greenwich to pay homage to this fun holiday. We celebrated La Tomatina with our annual wine dinner hosted by one of our sommeliers, Jose Valverde, and Chef Michael Lucente.
Chef Michael prepared a delicious four-course dinner while Jose paired each meal with wine from Valencia and other regions of Spain. Check out what we ate and drank:
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First Course
Tomato gazpacho with whipped sheep’s cheese
NV Cava, Juve y Camps, Rose, Brut – Penedes
Second Course
Fried oysters with pickled green tomatoes
2012 Hondarribi Zuri, Aizpurua – Getariako Txakolina
Third Course
Spicy tomato-braised black bass
2009 Bobal, Bodegas Sierra Norte, Pasion de Bobal – Utiel Requwena
2008 Monastrell Blend, Celler del Roure, Les Alcusses – Valencia
Fourth Course
Drunken goat cheese a la plancha with house made tomato jam
NV Espumoso de Moscatel, Reymos – Valencia
Do join us next year, we promise that no tomato fighting head gear will be required.
