Since Sant Antoni created its world d’arròs de matances, in 2013, the competitions have become one of the main attractions of the festivities of the island. Santa Gertrudis already had its competition, also of rice with meat and pebrassos, but this year they have gone further with a new test in keeping with its uniqueness.

“We were looking for a new twist to the festivities and, as everyone knows us as the town of sandwiches, we thought it would be very representative,” recalls the president of the Santa Gertrudis festival committee, Marina Costa. Thus the Santa Gertrudis sandwich contest was born, which was held yesterday with an honorable patron as a member of the jury: Ginés ‘Corregüela’, the farmer from Jaén who has become a celebrity on social networks for his pantagruel recipes.

In his sandwiches, which trigger cholesterol just by watching them be prepared, he manages to include 18 sausages (plus cheese and bacon) or, in another case, nine thick pieces of pork loin and seven fried eggs. Each of his recipes on Instagram would easily feed four people, but this is his individual lunch.

Participants could enter individually or in teams of up to three people and the tests were divided into a section for cold sandwiches, another for hot and a third prize for the best children’s preparation.

In the test for the youngest, Yasmin Ferreria, nine years old and staunch follower of Masterchef Junior, won with a “chivito uruguayo” of beef tenderloin, ham, egg, bacon, onion, tomato and mayonnaise. Behind her, Miquel Serra, also nine years old, took second place with a “pa pagès” sandwich with fried egg, tomato, cheese, fried onion and lettuce.

Double-champion sandwich couple

In the adult competition, a total of nine teams registered and most of them were encouraged to participate in both the cold and hot recipes. Susana López and José Bustamente are the first to arrive, at a quarter past twelve. They explain that they had to go to more than one store to get the gas cylinder for the stove with which they will fry the pancetta for their hot sandwich.

They will also add sobrasada with honey, caramelized onion, cured cheese, fried egg and mayonnaise with peppers. For the cold, they will spread mushroom cream with truffle and foie mousse on a seeded bread, which will be topped with cecina (cured beef jerky). With these two preparations, Labrador and López win in both categories.