Commentary: Food in Spain

As we sit in the train to take us to the southern reaches of Spain, we pass countless olive groves, I'm inspired to spend some time on the food and drink of the country.

First and foremost for us, since Sudha is a vegeterian, was the preponderence of meat in practically every entrée.  This made for a little bit of adventure as we searched for suitable restaurants... and kept us away from some of the more quintessential Spanish establishments.

Of course, there were tapas places, especially abounding in Sevilla.  Dishes were very traditional; there was probably less variety than in tapas places in the U.S.  Cheese and Spanish ham -- jamón iberico -- were staples.  Jamón here is nothing like what you find in the States.  It's thinly sliced and, I guess, cured, and extremely flavorful.  The cheese is often manchego -- with both dry and non-dry varieties -- or some type of goat-cheese, although even that is not as bitter as the chevre we have back home.  Other tapas include octopus and achovies.  I found both of these to be smoother and tastier here.  Olives and pickled onions accompany most meals.  For veggies, there are only a handful of options and not all places have them.  Patatas bravas (broiled potatoes) and espinacas con garbonzes (spinach with chick peas) were two of the most likely.

In all Spanish restaurants, bread is an extra charge per person, but it's always brought to your table.  Water, like most European countries, is not offered, and if you ask for it, you'll get bottled water.  At first, we tried for tap water and did get it at a few places, but not without some difficulty and perplexity.  So that was the end of that quickly.  The bottled water you get is very local -- in Granada, it comes from the Sierra Nevadas that overlook the city.

One nice thing about Spain is that wine and beer are as cheap if not cheaper than coke or water.  The house red wine is ofted quite good, too, often a rioja or a local varietal.  Sangria is a tad different here -- it's a little sharper, almost fizzy, with far less fruit.   It's also fairly strong.  Another Andalucian specialty is the sherry but it's too sweet for my tastes.  I prefer the port better though that's an import from Portugal.

Coffee here is amazing, almost as good as that in Italy.  Daily, I have 1-2 cortados, the local version of a macchiato.  The big brother, cafe con leche (coffee with milk, essentially a latte), is equally good.  Sudha did also tried a hot chocolate, which is a far cry from the watered down equivalent back home.  Here it is literally liquid chocolate.  A tad sweet for my tastes, but I still liked it.

Returning to food, the other Spanish dish (actually Catalon) we had was paella in Barcelona.  It's rice often  cooked with veggies (for Sudha) or all types of seafood (for me).  For some reason it's always required for two people to get it, though in Barcelona we got lucky and were able to get it for one (having to pay for that privilege).  The paella was good though I think what you can get at B44, a Catalon restaurant in SF, is just as good. 

All of the Spanish cities we went to had some non-Spanish food.  Barcelona was the most cosmopolitan, but that's to be expected of a city of three million -- we even saw a few sushi restaurants (mmmm... but not on this trip!).  Chinese restaurants are ubiquitous the world over.  Indian not so much, apart from Barcelona.  Granada had a Moorish quarter with lots of Moroccan and other Arabic cuisines. 

We haven't partaked too much in dessert, mostly because we're too full by then.  I had a nice Granadan honeyed cake called a penononos.  It was very sweet.  I guess we'll have to try more sweets here after we get back from Africa...

The bodega on Las Ramblas was an vibrant farmer's market with lots of variety, but we only came away with oranges for fruit.  They're much better than that orange Sudha tried in Seville, but on par with Californian oranges.  I supposed we should have tried pommegranate in Granadas (since las granadas = pommegranagtes); I guess it'll be better in Morocco...

Our last night in Granada saw us dine at a fine restaurant on the Alhambra hill, just down the way from our hotel.  It was almost worthy of a Michelin star.  Though slightly pricy, one reason we chose it was that it was nearby.  At 8:30pm we were the first customer!  Spaniards eat notoriously late; the maitre d' said one couple was going to show up at 11:30!  It does get tiring to eat so late each night...

I've included a picture of the menu for this nice restaurant.  The maitre d' was very friendly and helpful.  He arranged for a vegeterian pasta with eggplant for Sudha.  I had a great Andalucian loin of venison with chestnuts over risotto.  Here's a picture of the sprig of garnish.  Anyone know what it is?

Lastly, one thing I haven't quite grokked is tipping.  We've been told 10% is typical, but you don't see other people doing that.  It doesn't seem as hard and fast the 15% in America.  And there's no room for tips on the charge receipt.  Tipping always is the hardest thing to figure out in a new country since everywhere it's different.

Oh, once again, I'm pleased by the portable credit card swipers that waiters bring to your table.  It's always nice to always be able to keep an eye on your card.  I wonder why they haven't caught on in the U.S...?

We're now on the bus to Algeciras -- the train doesn't run on the last 2 hours over the mountains on Sundays.  I guess there isn't enough clientele for it to run, so they just bus you for the last stretch.  Anyway, all this talk of food is making me hungry!