Unless you’ve had them before the ‘boiled potatoes’ you are served in Tenerife or any of the other Canary Islands may come as a bit of a surprise. Indeed the plate of small wrinkly potatoes covered in salt that your camarero puts before you look so unappealing that locals call them ‘uglies’.

But just pop one in your mouth and you may be as pleasantly surprised with ‘Papas Arrugadas’ as was Frank Bruni, food writer for The New York Times. He was reviewing the Bazaar, by José André in Los Angeles which he called, ‘…an important and exciting restaurant.’

One of my favorite dishes was boiled potatoes. Yes, boiled potatoes. The size of golf balls, they’re given a more exalted moniker, papas Canarias. They’re cooked in water so salty it could have come from the sea — that’s apparently how it’s done in the Canary Islands. And they emerge from it in a state as close to succulence as a spud could ever hope to get. You drag them one at a time through a glittering green pesto of cilantro and parsley (with a touch of cumin), then pop them whole into your mouth. They wear that pesto beautifully.

Thanks for the tasty shot go to JLastras who includes that picture and others in his review of the Restaurant La Vieja in Adeje.