Spanish food. ....deliciosa!

In summary, Spanish food is cheap and fabulous.

I have simply collected photos of my favourites for you so you can drool overt the food!  Next time you see me you will notice that I appear to have sampled far too many of all of these!!

TAPAS
You do have to work out how to do tapas, as the types are many and varied. Hot and cold, tapas size to raciones, (which are large tapas plates) standard offerings to local specialties.......it gets complicated.  My advice is to try and find out the local specialties and go for those.  For example in Sevilla the local specialty,  which sounded a bit odd,  was spinach and chickpeas but when it arrived it had a smokey flavor.  Delicious! 

The same rule applies to pinchos: the slices of bread piled high with all sorts of delicacies. Just pick whatever takes your fancy and wait for a surprise whilst you try to work out what is in it.  

About 4 - 5 tapas makes a filling meal with bread and wine, and a few pinchos are the perfect entree to any meal. 

The tapas anchovies and sardines were a surprise here: pickled soft and delicious.  And we have definitely overdosed on grilled red peppers and potatoes in garlic and oil. 

Some of the seediest looking bars have had the best food so don't be put off by the look of the place.

POTATOES
Every food place, regardless of size, makes potatoes tortillas which consist of diced garlicky cubed potatoes in an egg omelette. They also seem to have Russian salad everywhere, but it looks drenched in mayonnaise and not very enticing

Often on a menu you can order potatoes served many different ways, primarily involving  oil and/or deep frying! Potatoes Bravas are very popular: fried potatoes with tomato sauce , sour cream and cheese: how could that not be a weight watchers special? It involves two vegetables after all! 

MEAT

Pork and beef are the most common and often slow cooked so they are very tenet.  I drew the line at bulls testicles,  tripe and lambs heads that were available in the market.  We did see a man delicately picking the meat from a cooked lambs head,  but that's one delicacy we haven't tried! 

The range of chorizo and sausages is endless and its impossible to tell which is best: you just have to try!  Today we ordered chorizo and chickpeas as a tapas dish and they arrived separately (?) with the chorizo fly sliced and very red.  Chili I thought, and prepared myself but not at all: very sweet and tasty.

Roast suckling pig is a big deal in some places,  but when Lauren and traveled to Segovia in 2007 her  piece of pig arrived with an ear and its plastic tag intact! !!

OIL

Everything comes with lots of tasty olive oil which soaks well into the endless white bread that is always provided.

CHOCOLATE
For the chocoholics, it's worth noting that chocolate was a common drink for all Spaniards some centuries ago.  The clever traders from Spain realised the worth of cacao beans from South America and so it became a common drink. Now there are lots of chocolate pastries and chocolate con churros are simply heaven.

WINE
I might have to leave that to others to describe as I'm not interested.  Rioja, sherry and lots of choices are on offer and usually surprisingly cheap. The giant gin and tonics , and the sangria have been very refreshing.

BREAKFAST
The quickest cheapest and most traditional breakfast is a strong coffee and a pastry standing up at a local bar. You know you've hit a tourist spot if toast and eggs are on offer! Trying to find cereal in the supermarket is almost impossible,  and most have chocolate added.  Imagine cornflakes or Special K with chocolate: Yuk! !

Enough said: here are the photos!  Enjoy!