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It's
Tomatina time at La Tasca throughout the whole of August as the
Spanish restaurant and bar group invite customers to join them in
re-enacting the famous Spanish tomato throwing festival throughout
its 87 restaurants nationwide. La Tasca, through the month of
activities, culminating in a weekend on 23 - 25 August of madcap
tomato exploits, will raise funds to support Teenage Cancer Trust,
the national charity devoted to improving the lives of teenagers and
young adults with cancer.
La Tomatina
food fight festival has become something of a cult festival in Spain.
Held on the last Wednesday of August every year in the town of
Buñol in the Valencia region of Spain, thousands of people
come from all over the world to fight in a battle, in which more than
one hundred metric tons of overripe tomatoes are thrown in the streets.
La Tasca are
throwing down the gauntlet and challenging people to create their own
Tomatina at home and download the video clips and photos of it onto
the La Tasca website (www.latasca.co.uk).
There are two holidays to Valencia to be won for the most hilarious
clips or photos as voted by the tomato chiefs at La Tasca Towers,
courtesy of Monarch and Hotelopia. There are also 10 runner-up prizes
of red IPOD nanos and 200 T-shirts for third prize winners.
For those of
you not mad enough to want to get messy creating your own tomato
fight in the garden, competition entries can also be in the form of
tomato-based photos or recipes. So what better way to entertain the
kids throughout August but set them this fun challenge.
Tomatoes are
already known for their health benefits and have been linked with
reducing some types of cancer. For every dish sold from La Tasca's
special Tomatina Menu throughout August, 20p will go to Teenage
Cancer Trust, the national charity devoted to improving the lives of
teenagers and young adults with cancer.
There are
five delicious tomato-tastic dishes on the Tomatina menu. These are
'Tomate Relleno de Paella' (baked tomato, stuffed with chorizo
paella), 'Ensalada de tomate con chorizo y habas blancas' (a warm
salad of cherry tomatoes with chorizo and white beans),
'Selección de tomate (a selection of sliced tomatoes served
with spinach and spring onion), 'Berenjena rellena de queso y tomate'
(baked aubergine, stuffed with cheeses, peppers and cherry tomatoes)
and 'Estofado de pollo con tomate' (chicken and aubergine, served
with a rich tomato sauce).
The Tomatina
activity will raise funds enabling Teenage Cancer Trust to continue
to support teenagers with cancer by building specialist units in NHS
hospitals. Each unit, which costs over £2million to build,
provides an environment where teenagers can get on with being
teenagers while receiving the best possible medical treatment in a
recognised centre of excellence.
Andrew
Buchanan, Managing Director of La Tasca said, "Spanish
culture is all about fun in the sun, and so at La Tasca we thought
we'd bring a bit of that mayhem to Britain. And what better way than
to celebrate Tomatina, the craziest of all Spanish festivals. At each
La Tasca restaurant throughout the UK on the weekend of 23-25 August
there will be lots of activities for you to join in with from tomato
dunking to tomato racing, fiesta dancing to splatting the restaurant
manager in the stocks. Bring the family down, go tomato-tastic and
help us raise some money for Teenage Cancer Trust."
Simon Davies,
chief executive of Teenage Cancer Trust added: "Our thanks go
to La Tasca for the generous support they are giving us this summer.
We hope that lots of you will go along to your nearest restaurant and
choose one of the delicious dishes raising money for Teenage Cancer
Trust - you will be helping make a big difference to the many
thousands of teenagers and young people diagnosed with cancer every year."
To find out
all about Tomatina at La Tasca, what's happening at a restaurant near
you and how you can be involved visit www.latasca.co.uk.
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