La Chanfaina or the Totalan festival
We set off early in the morning and headed off to Totalan (province of Malaga, Andalusia), this place is a stunning town up in the beautiful mountains that you need to have a car to visit.
Every November they hold a local festival called “La Chanfaina”, this is to celebrate a very popular and old dish, that is to be said the fuel to farmers in this region.
The dish consists of potatoes fried in olive oil with the addition of sausage, tripe and black pudding, served on a bed of breadcrumbs.
Sounds good to me lol.
As we arrived about two hours early or so, it gave us plenty of time to sit down and have a drink before we looked around.
Lee’s dad spoke a lot more Spanish than Lee and me and got chatting to a few locals who were cycling the mountain road we had just drives on.
One of the men spoke a little English, and we discover that he has a daughter currently studying in Brighton, in England where we are from. Small world or what! That’s crazy that our paths crossed on a mountain in Malaga.
They were a friendly bunch of people, and I showed us that the residents of this small place were so friendly, we didn’t need to speak Spanish to visit this place, but you do find out so much more when you do.
After our drink, we took a walk around this very tiny very Spanish village, on this small slice of the mountain. The views were stunning and completely ore inspiring. We took a walk through the streets and came across people setting up little stalls, we walked past them and came across various stalls of the most delicious, local delicacies such as olive oil, salami, sugared nuts, nougat, sweets, cakes and pastries. There were other stalls also selling locally crafted items, but my go-to is always the local sweet food.
We indulge in a few treats as pictured and continue to make our way back through the town. We come across the stands that were being set up previously, and I kid you not, the rather narrow streets were cram packed with people, hundreds of people. Each stall was handing out little samples of brandy, bread, olive oil, raisins and other various alcoholic treats. They were a free for all, but it was a vicious mass panic but a calming wave of getting in there and try this, kind of vibe.
As we were trying these lovely little treats, a mass of people dressed up in traditional clothing and holding instruments joined us. They started to sing and play traditional songs which people started watching and singing along.
The atmosphere was electric, and the celebration was in full swing, it was such an experience seeing the people around me getting a real buzz from the music. Don’t miss, this if you’re ever near Malaga in late November.