Postcard from... Toledo

One thing your doctor will not recommend if your cholesterol is high is a typical Spanish breakfast of churros.

On a recent trip to the magnificent city of Toledo, having taken the bus from the railway station to the entrance of the walled citadel, we stopped at a café and the only thing on the menu was churros and hot chocolate.

Spaniards are known for forming long queues outside the cafés that specialise in the deep fried snack and there’s really only one way to eat them – first dipped in a pile of white sugar and then dunked in the accompanying hot chocolate.

Made either thick or thin early in the morning from basic dough, usually by cheery café owners, they are delicious, even if they will probably not constitute one of your five a day.

Of course, churros are available in many parts of the Spanish speaking world, and in some countries, variations have been invented to make them a little more appealing to the health conscious – in central America, for example, fruit is often added. But in Spain, they come in their delicious original form. Spaniards seem to pile their plates high and the earlier they arrive, the better chance of getting their churros hot.

They are typically a winter snack and for the next few months expect to see cafés packed each morning with Spaniards, huddled over their churros and hot chocolate.

It’s great fun to join them, just don’t tell your doctor, or your dentist.