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Spanish cuisine
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Mini-glossary
Butifarra - pork sausage, served with French-fries or vegetables, sometimes with an egg or an omelette
Chorizo - hot pork sausages
Gazpacho - probably the widest known Spanish soup – soup served cold made of vegetables puree
Habas a la Catalana - beans cooked with ham and butifarra. It may be a starter, when served only with ham
Paella - a rice dish garnished with saffron, poultry meat, pork meat, seafood, pepper, green peas and any other ingredients, depending on the taste and mastery of the cook... It is served right after being prepared on a huge pan
Zarzuela - in Spanish it means „operetta”, which wonderfully renders the spontaneity and taste of this dish. The dish consists of anything that can be caught in the sea: crabs, shrimps, octopuses and white fish. All these ingredients bathe in a delicious sauce made with the addition of wine and cognac. The dish is both very tasty and extremelly filling
The country of paelli and gazpacho
Whilst seafood predominates in the south, in the central part of the country there reign vegetables and various kinds of meat; and in the mountains – lamb meat and leguminous plants.
For Asturia a typical dish are beans with pork meat stewed in tomato sauce – a so-called fabada asturiana. The visiting card of upland Castylia is roasted veal and lamb meat as well as dry hams (the most famous one is serrano); also hot pork sausages chorizo. Catalonia eats fish prepared in many different ways with vegetables (fresh, cooked or pickled), in Galicia they serve zarzuela de maricos – pieces of fried fish, stewed in hot sauce made of tomatos, onion, garlic, olive oil and wine. Valencia is the country of paelli – the most famous Spanish dish made of rice stewed on a huge iron pan together with vegetables, chunks of chicken meat or seafood.
In entire Spain vegetable soups served cold enjoy unchanging popularity - ajo blanco (the white kind) and gazpacho (the red kind). Their genesis reaches back to the Roman times, when it was a statutory daily food portion of every Roman legionary, stationing on the territories of today’s Andalusia. The other soupd typical for Spain are: puchero – made with beef and ham, sausage, boiled dumplings, parsley and garlic and a thick olla podrida, whose main ingredients are: mutton, veal shank, beef taili, ham, smoked sausage, peas and vegetables. After the meat is cooked, it is served chopped in soup seasoned with garlic and aromatic herbs. In all the country tortillas are extremely popular – fried omelette, served both cold and hot.
Appetizers, appetizers…
A typical appetizer is Tapas, which is served for free along with your ordered glass of beer called caña. Another appetizer is pintxos – a one-bite dish which is famous especially in the region named San Sebastián. Raciones are larger than tapas. But both of them are made of from one product or dish such as a grilled pork’s ear, calmaries in the Roman style, sausages in wine. Still larger of a portion are platos combinados, which combine a few products (croquettes, a fresh vegetables salad, sunny-side-up eggs, veal meat). According to the Spanish tradition, before meals there are served roasted almonds, green raw olives, bread as well as tomato and garlic sause. |
It owes its unrepeatable taste the peoples which in the past lived on the Iberian Peninsula. The form of its amazing food „offer” was shaped by the Fenicians, Greeks, Romans, Cartaginians and Arabs.
The reflection of the regional difersification of Spain may be found in its cuisine. The most famous ones are Baskian, Galician, Catalonian, Valentian, Estremaduran and cuisines of both Castillas. The country of corrida and flamenco, sun and sandy beaches, the taste of olive and saffron, oranges and wine, is inhabited by 17 nationalities. Foreign visitors are most surprised with the differences between its regions – in language, culture, artistic traditions, landscape and politics.
The aroma of saffron
Spanish dishes are simple and - thanks to flavorful herbs such as saffron – have a rich sophisticated taste. Olive oil is used for flavouring soups and salads, which the dietitians consider the most wholesome fat. Most often meals contain fish, seafood, leguminous plants and rice. Meals are enriched with tomatos, pepper, potatos, eggs, garlic, onion, almonds and wine.
Spanish cuisine became famous thanks to such dishes as: paella (a special dish made of rice), gazpacho (a spicy-hot vegetable soup served cold), tortilla (omelette) or tapas (appetizers). However, on the coast the first option are dishes made of fish and seafood. Huge market halls are an attraction of nearly every seaside town – these are places of commerce where every day enourmous amounts of mackerel, tuna fish, shrimp, octopus, mussels or crawfish are sold.
The southern culture of eating meals
According to this culture, the Spaniards spend a great majority of their time outside their homes. For this reason they also eat out a lot, in restaurants or cafeterias. The habit of eating breakfast in a bar is common. Such a bar plays the role of a coffee place, a pub and a restaurant and depending on the time of the day it serves adequate dishes. Until twelve they serve breakfast, as a rule sweet, but you can ask the waiter to bring you a cheese or ham sandwich. From noon ‘till four p.m. the kitchen serves hot dishes. After four the kitchen is closed until evening when they start to serve supper. For desert, besides season fruit and ice-cream, customers are served puddings and cakes. What’s interesting, the Spaniards consider coffee to be a desert, too – the coffee prepared here tastes wonderful. Lovers of tea will be upset hearing that it is hardly ever served here. |
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