Introduction to Spanish cuisine

Spanish food is wonderful. So wonderful in fact that my week long vacation in Spain was more about eating than site seeing, and with my food loving Spanish officemate showing Cheryl and me around, life was good. I could go on and on about the different types of food and wine, but for now I'll just stick with what we had to eat.

Day One

Almost immediately upon arriving, Borja was hungry. After all it was 3 pm, a whole half hour after his typical lunch time, so we rushed over to the Plaza Mayor for some typical Spanish tapas: Tortilla Española, Jamón Serrano and Patatas Bravas. The tortilla is probably the most well known dish in Spain as it is the ubiquitous food for all occasions - think quiche firm with fried potatoes and onions inside. The jamón is one of my favorite dishes in Spain - thinly sliced cured ham. Patatas bravas (brave potatoes) were an excellent example of Spaniards not knowing what spicy means as the tangy sauce on fried potatoes failed to scare us Texans.

That evening we went to the Lavapies neighborhood in Madrid where there was a "festival" going on. In truth it was more like some games for kids and lots of food. We grabbed some excellent fried chorizo or Spanish sausage and felt our arteries clog, scarfed a heaping pile of calamari that made most portions of the stuff look tiny, tasted the sangria and tinto de verano in "mini's" (a size of at least 32 ounces), and finally finished up with churros (think fried dough in stick-shape) with chocolate dipping sauce for dessert.

Day Two

The next day was all about the paella. First there was the discussion about where to get a paella worth getting between Borja, his grandmother and his mother - the Americans must have excellent paella or none at all. We ended up at the very nice Casa de Valencia and had a paella valenciana. Paella is a dish as linked to manhood in Spain as barbecue in Texas. It's a rice dish cooked in a saffron sauce and various vegetables and meats or seafood. This particular paella had rabbit, chicken and sausage and was so tasty even Bugs would have enjoyed it. Of course, I shouldn't forget to mention the super olives and manchego cheese before the meal as well. Needless to say we were quite stuffed.

Day Three

A prominent feature to Spanish food is coffee. I think I had more coffee the week in Spain than I can remember. It seemed the typical thing to do was have it every 2 hours...but, of course, that could have just been Borja. Spanish coffee is always wonderful, but unlike the Italians, they only drink three varieties: espresso, espresso with a shot of milk, espresso with equal parts milk. Often we would have either churros or magdelenas (a muffin of goodness) for breakfast and elevensies with our coffee.

For lunch it is also typical to go to a restaurant and have a three course meal or menú del día. The restaurant will usually only have a few options to reduce the price and also give out cheap table wine as well. Interestingly enough it seemed that a bottle of wine was given for 1 to 3 people - that's some incentive to eat alone.

That evening we started the Spanish Civil War back at Borja's place when we just said we wanted to have a typical Spanish food for dinner. The two ladies in the room and the one on the phone had plenty to say about where to get good food, but we ended up at Botín, the oldest restaurant in the world, to dine on traditional roast suckling pig. Let's just say it was fantastic, and the restaurant's decor seems to be the same as when it opened in 1725, which Borja kindly pointed out is "older than our country".

Day Four

Today we headed to Bilbao with a stop in the country for yet another traditional dish, cocido con sacramentos. It is basically a garbanzo bean soup with various vegetables, such as potatoes and artichokes, along with a collection of meats. The meats always include a large clump of fat and morcilla or blood sausage, so it really throws people off guard. I found the whole dish to be amazing and the collection of jumbled meats really made an interesting blend that I will probably never get to repeat in the States.

Day Five

Our last full day was all about taking in Bilbao and their version of food. The menú del día had two of my Spanish favorites, bull tail soup and rape. I'm told the only thing you can do with a bull tail is boil the meat off and makes an excellent broth for soup. The fish in Bilbao is quite excellent and the rape I had was no different - served very simply, whole but headless (much to Cheryl's relief), with a lemon sauce on it. I didn't have any this trip, but I would definitely advise anyone eating in Spain for the first time to try bacalao, or marinated baked cod - it is yet another traditional Spanish dish that is quite fantastic.

At night we went out on the town for an experience I hadn't had before. The Bilbaoans start with half glasses of wine at several bars and then head off to dinner. We went to a traditional (tired of that word yet? well as Borja would say, "it means older than your country") Basque ciderhouse. To start with, lets just say the Basque are known for out-eating and out-drinking everyone, which might be why their traditional meal starts with going to a huge keg of cider, pulling the tap and having it shoot into your glass three feet from the keg, and only drinking about 3 ozs per glass because the stuff is so strong. I know after four of those things I was, as they say, "en puntillo". After a round of appetizers, most already mentioned here, we were given the traditional meal, a thick prime rib steak seared on the out side and red warm in the middle. Now I wouldn't be a Texan if I said it was better than steak back home but it was definitely a piece of meat I won't forget. I was pleasantly surprised when a rather large one was slapped on my plate with a challenge from the skinny Basque as to whether I could eat like them, I think I won (so did Cheryl).

In conclusion, I probably shouldn't need to eat any meat again for at least a few years - Borja isn't kidding when he says "Spain isn't for vegetarians". If you are ever headed to Spain be sure and try a few of these dishes and you won't be disappointed.

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