Spanish cuisine consists of the cooking traditions and practices from Spain. Olive oil (of which Spain is the world’s largest producer) is heavily used in Spanish cuisine. It forms the base of many vegetable sauces (known in Spanish as sofritos). Herbs most commonly-used include parsley, oregano, rosemary and thyme. The use of garlic has been noted as “common to all Spanish cooking. The most used meats in Spanish cuisine include chicken, pork, lamb and veal. Fish and seafood are also consumed on a regular basis.
Spain is the largest producer of olive oil in the world. The growing of crops of the so-called tríada mediterránea [es] (the “Mediterranean triad”: wheat, grapevines, and olives) underpinned the staple meal products for the inhabitants of the south of the Iberian Peninsula during the Roman Era (bread, wine and oil).
A continental-style breakfast (desayuno) may be taken just after waking up, or before entering the workplace. Common products taken during breakfast include coffee, milk, chocolate drink, biscuits (most notably Marie biscuits), magdalenas, toasts (featuring ingredients such as oil, tomato and butter, bread toasts are a staple part of the desayuno either consumed back in home or in bars) or churros.
Due to the large time span between breakfast and lunch, it is not uncommon to halt the working schedule to take a mid-morning snack.
Lunch (el almuerzo or simply la comida, literally meaning “the food”), the large midday meal in Spain, contains several courses, especially in restaurants. In some regions of Spain, the word almuerzo refers to the mid-morning snack, instead of lunch. Lunch usually starts between 2:00 pm or 2:30 pm finishing around 3:00 pm to 3:30 pm, and is usually followed by sobremesa, which refers to the tabletalk that Spanish people undertake. Menus are organized according to these courses and include five or six choices in each course. At home, Spanish meals would contain one or two courses and a dessert. The content of this meal is usually a soup dish, salad, a meat or a fish dish and a dessert such as fruit, yoghurt or something sweet. Tapas may also be typically served before or during lunch.
In recent years, the Spanish government took action to shorten the lunch break, in order to end the working day earlier. Most businesses shut down for two or three hours for lunch, then resume the working day until dinner time in the evening.
La cena, meaning both dinner or supper, is taken between 8:30pm and 10pm. It typically consists of one course and dessert. Due to the large time span between lunch and dinner, an afternoon snack, la merienda, equivalent to afternoon tea, may take place at about 6pm. At merienda, people would typically drink coffee, eat something sweet, a sandwich or a piece of fruit.
Asturian cheeses are very popular in the rest of Spain. Among them, the most representative is Cabrales cheese, a pungent, blue cheese developed in the regions near the Picos de Europa. Other popular cheese types are gamonéu afuega’l pitu, and queso de Pría [es]. These can be enjoyed with the local cider, a low-alcohol drink made of Asturian apples, with a distinctive sourness.
POPULAR DISHES
- Paella: (a rice dish incorporating different ingredients as it moves away from the area of origin in the Valencia region)
- Ensaladilla rusa: The local name for the Olivier salad
- Gazpacho: also called Andalusian gazpacho, is a cold soup made of raw, blended vegetables. It originated in the southern regions of the Iberian peninsula, specifically Andalusia, and spread into the Algarve regions. Gazpacho is widely eaten in Spain and Portugal, particularly during hot summers, as it is refreshing and cool.
- Tortilla de patatas:Spanish omelette.
- Tapas/Appetizers (Tiny rotation): Escabeche(marinated mussels), albóndiga [es] (meatballs).
- Caldillo de perro:fish soup with orange juice.
- Sopa de gato: is a simple soup typical of the classic cuisine of southern Spain. It is a very thick sopa (soup) served hot. It is a suitable dish for the winter months. Typical ingredients in the dish’s preparation include water, bread, oil, garlic and salt.
- Torta del Casar:is a cheese made from sheep’s milk in the Extremadura region of Spain. It is named after Casar de Cáceres, its city of origin. The milk is curdled using a coagulant found in the pistils of the cardoon, a wild thistle.
- Pestiños:A fritter is a portion of meat, seafood, fruit, vegetables or other ingredients which have been battered or breaded, or just a portion of dough without further ingredients, that is deep-fried. Fritters are prepared in both sweet and savory varieties.
- Chorizo de Pamplona:is a sausage that is typical in the cuisine of the Navarre region of Spain It is prepared with equal parts of finely-chopped beef and pork and significant amounts of a strong smoked paprika, pork fat and a natural or plastic casing