Bocadillo de Jamón

Bocadillo de jamón is the most elemental sandwich in Spanish bar culture: a length of crusty barra bread split lengthwise and filled with a generous fold of cured ham, usually jamón serrano (the everyday dry-cured mountain ham) or, at the top end, thinly shaved jamón ibérico de bellota. There is almost nothing else — no butter, no cheese, no tomato.

The bread is the supporting act: a barra de pan with a crackling crust and a pale, slightly chewy crumb, often rubbed on the cut side with tomato pulp (pan con tomate style) or anointed with a thread of extra-virgin olive oil. Quality of the ham is everything — the slices should be cut to order, draped to show the fat marbling, and served at room temperature so the fats soften.

It is the universal bar snack, eaten standing up with a caña (small beer) or a glass of Rioja at any hour from mid-morning to late night. Every cervecería, mesón and taberna in Madrid, Salamanca, Sevilla, Logroño, Barcelona and San Sebastián keeps the basic serrano version; ibérico versions are the specialty of Extremadura (Jerez de los Caballeros, Monesterio, Fregenal de la Sierra) and Andalusia's Jabugo and Cortegana.