A taste of Spain - buen apetito.
We didn’t know what to
expect of Spanish food, our knowledge ran to paella and oranges before we arrived,
as we got closer to arrival we realised we didn’t even know what sort of bread
we would see.
The main meal of the day in
Spain
is lunch. Starting from 2pm a ‘normal’ lunchtime is a couple of hours, shops
and businesses shut and school children all go home for lunch, apparently many
adults will often return to their parent’s home to spend lunch together. A
midday meal eaten out will often consist of 3-4 courses, usually two small
mains and a dessert served with bread and wine from the menu del dia (menu of the day).
Meaty, tasty sausages. |
We’ve had the chance to
eat out a few times over the last few months enjoying sampling paellas, stews,
ensalada (tasty salad), delicious chicken in sauce meals amongst others, we’ve
also had pizza much to the boys delight as it takes too long to cook on the
boat and they even talked us into visiting a certain popular American
‘resturant’. So we are enjoying the Spanish food and continue to try different
things, not necessarily good for the waist line but certainly very nice.
Seafood is very important in
this area and the base of many dishes it is possible to order something which
when it arrives appears to be just a bowlful of tentacles! Sardine, urchin roe,
razors, squid (especially using it’s ink as part of the dish) and octopus are popular
and of course many varieties of paella. When cooked properly this has a lovely
crumbly almost dry texture unlike its cousin risotto and huge chunks of meat,
almost every area of Spain has it’s own version of this classic dish and it’s
definitely one of my favourites.
Paella. |
As for cooking at home we
found a cool box which can be plugged into our electricity both offshore and
shore side in France, it was good to have a fridge during the hotter months to
save pouring the butter onto the bread and using a spoon for the cheese and
means we can keep meat for a couple of days before cooking now. There are very
few Asda/Tesco packages left in the stores now (excepting the all important and
replenished by visitors teabags!) carrefore is currently the store of choice
but it does change with each harbour, we seem to have an interesting
multicultural mix of items.
A home made tentacled seafood delight. |
Rabbit is easily found in
butchers but the children were not keen to try eating cotton tail yet so we’re
leaving that one for now but we did try horse which was very nice. Chicken is less commonly sold and at a
premium price when it is, beef and pork are readily available along with a huge
variety of sausages and other pork products. I love seeing the strings of dry
sausages and enormous cured ham legs hanging in the shops and they smell
wonderful too.
Sausages and meat hanging in the butchers window. |
A very Asturian stew is
Fabada made using faba beans (only grown in Asturias ), pork belly, blood sausage
(morcilla) and chirizo. It has a very rich full flavour and is a wonderful
winter dish, we tried a very nice restaurant one, some not so good cheap canned
versions and found a recipe for home made which has been delicious each time.
The beans are sold out of huge sacks lined up in the shops.
Home made Fabada. |
We have tried empanada
from various places. This is a pie with a savoury filling and a thick crust.
Our favourite came from a market in Ribadesella and was stuffed with spicy
chorizo, we also tried a tuna version from a supermarket and promised the boys
we would never buy another one as none of us liked it.
Cakes and pastries are
something to really celebrate in Asturias ,
in Gijon alone
the variety of pananderias is amazing, every window is crowded with delicious
looking treats and many cakes are highly decorated. Marzipan often features
heavily in these confections, a hangover from the time that most of Spain (although not Asturias ) was ruled by the Moors. Another type of pastry is the Casadielles, a deep fried tart
which is filled with walnut paste which glues to the top of your mouth, then
there are Polvorones, biscuits which crumble as you eat them leaving a cinnamon
flavour. And of course there are churros, a cross between a donut and a pancake
traditionally eaten dipped in thick hot chocolate – delicious.
mmmmm....... |
Of course to wash it all
down are the local specialities sidra (cider) and Rioja (red wine) which we
have tried a few of during our stay. We hope that there will be many more
mouth-watering treats to come in the months ahead, we’ve had to dig out the
running shoes after so many delights!
Salud.
other similar blog entries
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http://sarahontarquilla.blogspot.com.es/2012/03/bon-appetit.html
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