Picatostes are slices of fried bread

Fried bread

Fried bread, or fried slice, is bread which, after being sliced and fried, typically in reserved bacon fat, is served as part of a meal. Typically it is fried in the same pan as other ingredients in a meal, to absorb their flavour....

, from loaves fried with lard

Lard

Lard is pig fat in both its rendered and unrendered forms. Lard was commonly used in many cuisines as a cooking fat or shortening, or as a spread similar to butter. Its use in contemporary cuisine has diminished because of health concerns posed by its saturated-fat content and its often negative...

 or olive oil

Olive oil

Olive oil is an oil obtained from the olive , a traditional tree crop of the Mediterranean Basin. It is commonly used in cooking, cosmetics, pharmaceuticals, and soaps and as a fuel for traditional oil lamps...

. They are typical of Madrid

Madrid

Madrid is the capital and largest city of Spain. The population of the city is roughly 3.3 million and the entire population of the Madrid metropolitan area is calculated to be 6.271 million. It is the third largest city in the European Union, after London and Berlin, and its metropolitan...

, Spain

Spain

Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...

. They are usually sweetened with granules of refined sugar on the outside. They are most commonly eaten for breakfast

Breakfast

Breakfast is the first meal taken after rising from a night's sleep, most often eaten in the early morning before undertaking the day's work...

 or a light lunch (merienda), accompanied by coffee

Coffee

Coffee is a brewed beverage with a dark,init brooo acidic flavor prepared from the roasted seeds of the coffee plant, colloquially called coffee beans. The beans are found in coffee cherries, which grow on trees cultivated in over 70 countries, primarily in equatorial Latin America, Southeast Asia,...

. They are also sometimes eaten as a substitute for chocolate

Hot chocolate

Hot chocolate is a heated beverage typically consisting of shaved chocolate, melted chocolate or cocoa powder, heated milk or water, and sugar...

 and churro

Churro

A churro, sometimes referred to as a Spanish doughnut, is a fried-dough pastry-based snack that has disputed origins. Churros are also popular in Latin America, France, Portugal, Morocco, the United States, Australia, and Spanish-speaking Caribbean islands. There are two types of churros in Spain....

s (including as a late night snack). They can be eaten hot or cold. As a cheap staple food, they are also a common accompaniment to beverages in the traditional cafés of Madrid where tertulia

Tertulia

A tertulia is a social gathering with literary or artistic overtones, especially in Iberia or Latin America. The word is originally Spanish, and has only moderate currency in English, in describing Latin cultural contexts....

s are held.

Characteristics

Picatostes are rectangular slices of bread, cut from loaves fried in lard or olive oil to the point of having a golden color and a crunchy crust. Typically, shortly after frying they are sweetened with refined sugar. Their shape is suitable for dipping in coffee or hot chocolate. A similar but more savory dish, torrijas

Torrijas

Torrijas is a municipality located in the province of Teruel, Aragon, Spain. According to the 2004 census , the municipality has a population of 87 inhabitants....

, can be made by soaking the bread in a sauce before frying.

A 1933 reference work on the vocabulary of Andalusia

Andalusia

Andalusia is the most populous and the second largest in area of the autonomous communities of Spain. The Andalusian autonomous community is officially recognised as a nationality of Spain. The territory is divided into eight provinces: Huelva, Seville, Cádiz, Córdoba, Málaga, Jaén, Granada and...

 (southern Spain) says that a picatoste is a slice of bread soaked in salt water

Saline water

Saline water is a general term for water that contains a significant concentration of dissolved salts . The concentration is usually expressed in parts per million of salt....

, then fried. Some writers say that pica comes from picar ("to peck", "to bite", or "to burn") and refers to the stimulation of thirst.