Bilbao almonds), rice cakes and "bollos de mantequilla" (butter buns). Bilbao, as other Basque cities, is known for a variety of appetizers and snacks, being prominent among them the "pintxos", which are typically eaten in bars and that consist of small slices of bread on top of which is placed an ingredient or mixture of ingredients, generally of many different types and usually including elements typical of Basque cuisine. Other snacks include "rabas" (fried or battered calamari rings, usually served with lemon slices), Spanish omelette (omelette made with eggs and potatoes, sometimes including onions and peppers), "txampis" (stuffed mushrooms), "triángulos" (Bilbao-style
Omelette during the mid-16th century, but the versions "alumelle" and "alumete" are employed by the Ménagier de Paris (II, 5) in 1393. Rabelais ("Pantagruel", IV, 9) mentions an "homelaicte d'oeufs", Olivier de Serres an "amelette", François Pierre La Varenne's "Le cuisinier françois" (1651) has "aumelette", and the modern "omelette" appears in "Cuisine bourgoise" (1784). According to the founding legend of the annual giant Easter omelette of Bessières, Haute-Garonne, when Napoleon Bonaparte and his army were traveling through southern France, they decided to rest for the night near the town of Bessières. Napoleon feasted on an omelette prepared by a local innkeeper,