La Comida Espanola

Let’s talk about food al little bit, shall we? Who doesn’t like food?

The Spaniards have an dining schedule that is quite different from ours. Their breakfast (el desayuno) consists of coffee. Sometimes they eat a bread product with the coffee, like a croissant or some ole chunk of white bread with jam. This they eat at 7:30 or 8:00. Around 10:30 or 11:00 they have another breakfast (el almuerzo). This is usually a bocadillo (a sandwichito) and coffee. The noon meal is called la comida, and this is eaten between 1:30 and 3:00. This is their biggest meal of the day. It is paella or ….well…I’m not really sure. They also might have a beer or a copa de vino with la comida. They have a break from work during this time (unless they are waiters, of course). They return to work around 3:00 ish. The stores are closed from 1:30-4:30, and at the end of the night they close around 10:00. The have a snack (una merenda) around, say 6:00. This is usually a piece of fruit or a bread-like thing, but it could be a tapa like some olives or a piece of jamon Serrano. They have dinner (la cena) at around 10:00, maybe una tortilla Espanola (this is an omlette of sorts with potatoes in it) or something else light.

Serena and I mostly eat at home (which will be the subject of the next blog), but above are some photos of things we have eaten out [you´re going to have to look at the photos bottom to top...an uploading issue...very frustrating...]. There is coffee, always coffee. We have this in the mornings mostly. There’s a café very close to the school where we go every day during our break for un cafécito. As far as tapas go, we like patatas bravas which are basically big fat French fries with some garlic mayonnaise sauce. Everyone likes to toss back a cold one on a hot summer day, and who doesn’t like an olive or two for accompaniment? We had cous cous one afternoon in a tikki tikki little restaurant in El Carmen. And the last beverage you see is called Horchata, and it is a local drink made from some sort of bean. It’s fairly light (even though it looks like milk), sweet, and a little grainy like Kaopectate. It doesn’t contain any alcohol, but you might notice the grainyness less if it had a shooter or two of vodka in it. Ooooohh…..or some Bailey’s. Mmmmmm…

Bueno-me voy, pero manana I’ll tell you about the non-restaurant eating experiences we’ve had here. Vale? That means "ok?" in Spaniard (because in Texas Spanish "ok" means "ok").