Plan Your Trip
Eat & Drink Like a Local
For Spaniards, eating is one of life’s more pleasurable obsessions. In this chapter, we’ll help you make the most of this fabulous culinary culture, whether it’s demystifying the dark art of ordering tapas or taking you on a journey through the regional specialities of Spanish food.
The Year in Food
Spain’s relatively balmy climate ensures that, unusually for Europe, fruit and vegetables can be grown year-round.
Winter (Dec–Feb)
Across inland Spain, winter is the time for fortifying stews (such as cocido or fabada) and roasted meats, especially cochinillo (suckling pig) and cordero (spring lamb).
Winter to Spring (Nov–Apr)
Catalans salivate over calçots, those large spring onions that are eaten with your hands and a bib, and romesco (a rich red-peppers-and-ground-almond sauce). This is pulpo (boiled octopus) season in Galicia.
Summer (Jun–Aug)
The cold soups gazpacho and salmorejo (specialities of Andalucía) only appear in summer. Rice dishes by the Mediterranean are another key ingredient of the Spanish summer.
Autumn (Sep–Nov)
La Rioja’s grape harvest gets underway in September. The Fiesta de San Mateo in Logroño (21 September) gets it all happening.
Food Experiences
Meals of a Lifetime
Arzak This San Sebastián restaurant is the home kitchen of Spain’s most revered father-daughter team.
El Celler de Can Roca This Girona eatery represents everything that’s good about innovative Catalan cuisine.
Tickets Barcelona restaurant headed by Albert Adrià, younger brother of Ferran, from the stable of Spain’s most decorated chef.
La Terraza del Casino Located in Madrid, this is one of the country’s temples to laboratory-led innovations.
Quique Dacosta Molecular gastronomy brought to the Mediterranean; in Denia.
DiverXo Madrid’s only three-Michelín-starred eatery.
Food & Wine Festivals
Feria del Queso An orgy of cheese tasting and serious competition in Trujillo in late April or early May.
Feira do Viño do Ribeiro Ribadavia in Galicia’s south hosts one of the region’s biggest wine festivals on the first weekend of May.
Batalla del Vino A really messy wine fight, held on 29 June in Haro in La Rioja.
Festa do Pulpo de O Carballiño Carballiño in Galicia sees 70,000 people cram in for a mass octopus-eating binge on the second Sunday of August.
Fiesta de la Sidra Natural This August fiesta in Gijón includes an annual world-record attempt on the number of people simultaneously pouring cider.
Fiesta de San Mateo In Logroño, La Rioja’s September grape harvest is celebrated with grape-crushing ceremonies and tastings.
Cheap Treats
Tapas or pintxos Possibly the world’s most ingenious form of snacking. Madrid’s La Latina barrio (district), Zaragoza’s El Tubo and most Andalucian cities offer rich pickings, but a pintxo (Basque tapas) crawl in San Sebastián’s Parte Vieja is one of life’s most memorable gastronomic experiences.
Chocolate con churros These deep-fried doughnut strips dipped in thick hot chocolate are a Spanish favourite for breakfast, afternoon tea or at dawn on your way home from a night out. Madrid’s Chocolatería de San Ginés is the most famous purveyor.
Bocadillos Rolls filled with jamón (cured ham) or other cured meats, cheese or (in Madrid) deep-fried calamari.
Pa amb tomaquet Bread rubbed with tomato, olive oil and garlic – a staple in Catalonia and elsewhere.
Cooking Courses
Alambique Cooking classes in Madrid covering Spanish and international themes.
Apunto Excellent range of cooking styles in Madrid.
L’Atelier Vegetarian cooking courses in Andalucía’s Las Alpujarras.
Annie B’s Spanish Kitchen Top-notch classes and courses in Spanish, Moroccan or seafood cuisine in Vejer de la Frontera.
JAMÓN
There’s no more iconic presence on the Spanish table than cured ham from the high plateau.
Jamón serrano, made from white-coated pigs, accounts for about 90% of cured ham in Spain. It’s cured and dried in a climate-controlled shed for around a year.
Jamón ibérico, the elite of Spanish hams, comes from a black-coated pig indigenous to the Iberian Peninsula. Its star appeal is its ability to infiltrate fat into the muscles, producing an especially well-marbled meat. It’s commonly eaten as a starter or ración (large tapa). Cutting it is an art form and it should be sliced so wafer-thin as to be almost transparent.
Dare to Try
Oreja Pig’s ear, cooked on the grill. It’s a little like eating gristly bacon.
Callos Tripe cooked in a sauce of tomato, paprika, garlic and herbs. It’s a speciality of Madrid.
Rabo de toro Bull’s tail, or oxtail stew. It’s a particular delicacy during bullfighting season in Madrid and Andalucía, when the tail comes straight from the bullring…
Percebes Goose barnacles from Galicia. The first person to try them sure was one adventurous individual, but we’re glad they did.
Garrotxa Formidable Catalan cheese that almost lives up to its name.
Caracoles Snails. Much loved in Catalonia, Mallorca and Aragón.
Morcilla Blood sausage. It’s blended with rice in Burgos, with onion in Asturias.
Criadillas Bull’s testicles. Eaten in Andalucía.
Botillo Spanish version of haggis from Castilla y León’s Bierzo region.
Local Specialities
Food
Spaniards love to travel in their own country, and given the riches on offer, they especially love to do so in pursuit of the perfect meal. Tell a Spaniard that you’re on your way to a particular place and they’ll probably start salivating at the mere thought of the local speciality, and they’ll surely have a favourite restaurant at which to enjoy it.
Basque Country & Catalonia
The confluence of sea and mountains has bequeathed to the Basque Country an extraordinary culinary richness – seafood and steaks are the pillars upon which Basque cuisine was traditionally built. San Sebastián, in particular, showcases the region’s diversity of culinary experiences and it was from the kitchens of San Sebastián that nueva cocina vasca (Basque nouvelle cuisine) emerged, announcing Spain’s arrival as a culinary superpower.
Catalonia blends traditional Catalan flavours and expansive geographical diversity with an openness to influences from the rest of Europe. All manner of seafood, paella, rice and pasta dishes, as well as Pyrenean game dishes, are regulars on Catalan menus. Sauces are more prevalent here than elsewhere in Spain.
Inland Spain
The best jamón ibérico comes from Extremadura, Salamanca and Teruel, while cordero asado lechal (roast spring lamb) and cochinillo asado (roast suckling pig) are winter mainstays. Of the hearty stews, the king is cocido, a hotpot or stew with a noodle broth, carrots, cabbage, chickpeas, chicken, morcilla (blood sausage), beef and lard. Migas (breadcrumbs, often cooked with chorizo and served with grapes) are also regulars.
Cheeses, too, are specialities here, from Extremadura’s Torta del Casar (a creamy, spreadable cheese) to Castilla-La Mancha’s queso manchego (a hard sheep’s-milk cheese).
Galicia & the Northwest
Galicia is known for its bewildering array of seafood, and the star is pulpo á feira (spicy boiled octopus, called pulpo a la gallega or pulpo gallego in other parts of Spain), a dish whose constituent elements (octopus, oil, paprika and garlic) are so simple yet whose execution is devilishly difficult. Neighbouring Asturias and Cantabria produce Spain’s best anchoas (anchovies).
In the high mountains of Asturias and Cantabria, the cuisine is as driven by mountain pasture as it is by the daily comings and goings of fishing fleets. Cheeses are particularly sought after, with special fame reserved for the untreated cow’s-milk cheese queso de Cabrales. Asturianos (Asturians) are also passionate about their fabada asturiana (a stew made with pork, blood sausage and white beans) and sidra (cider) straight from the barrel.
Valencia, Murcia & the Balearic Islands
There’s so much more to the cuisine of this region than oranges and paella, but these signature products capture the essence of the Mediterranean table. You can get a paella just about anywhere in Spain, but to get one cooked as it should be cooked, look no further than the restaurants in Valencia’s waterfront Las Arenas district or La Albufera. In the Balearics, paella, rice dishes and lashings of seafood are similarly recurring themes.
Murcia’s culinary fame brings us back to the oranges. The littoral is known simply as ‘La Huerta’ (‘the garden’). Since Moorish times, this has been one of Spain’s most prolific areas for growing fruit and vegetables.
Andalucía
Seafood is a consistent presence the length of the Andalucían coast. Andalucíans are famous above all for their pescaito frito (fried fish). A particular speciality of Cádiz, fried fish Andalucian-style means that just about anything that emerges from the sea is rolled in chickpea and wheat flour, shaken to remove the surplus, then deep-fried ever so briefly in olive oil, just long enough to form a light, golden crust that seals the essential goodness of the fish or seafood within.
In a region where summers can be fierce, there’s no better way to keep cool than with a gazpacho andaluz (Andalucian gazpacho), a cold soup with many manifestations. The base is almost always tomato, cucumber, vinegar and olive oil.
SECRETS OF PAELLA
Traditional Valencian paellas can have almost any ingredients, varying by region and season. The base always includes short-grain rice, garlic, olive oil and saffron. The best rice is bomba, which opens accordion-like when cooked, allowing for maximum absorption while remaining firm. Paella should be cooked in a large shallow pan to enable maximum contact with flavour. And for the final touch of authenticity, the grains on the bottom (and only those) should have a crunchy, savoury crust known as the socarrat.
Restaurants should take around 20 minutes or more to prepare rice dishes. They’re usually for a minimum of two, though some places will do one for a solo diner if asked.
Wine
All of Spain’s autonomous communities, with the exceptions of Asturias and Cantabria, are home to recognised wine-growing areas.
La Rioja, in the north, is Spain’s best-known wine-producing region. The principal grape of Rioja is the tempranillo, widely believed to be a mutant form of the pinot noir. Its wine is smooth and fruity, seldom as dry as its supposed French counterpart. Look for the ‘DOC Rioja’ classification on the label and you’ll find a good wine.
Not far behind are the wine-producing regions of Ribera del Duero (in Castilla y León), Navarra, Somontano (Aragón), and Valdepeñas in southern Castilla-La Mancha, which is famous for its quantities rather than quality, but is generally well priced and remains popular.
For white wines, the Ribeiro wines of Galicia are well regarded. Also from the area is one of Spain’s most charming whites – albariño. This crisp, dry and refreshing drop is unusual, designated as it is by grape rather than region.
The Penedès region in Catalonia produces whites and sparkling wine such as cava, the traditional champagne-like toasting drink of choice for Spaniards at Christmas.
Wine Classifications
Spanish wine is subject to a complicated system of classification. If an area meets certain strict standards for a given period, covering all aspects of planting, cultivating and ageing, it receives Denominación de Origen (DO; Denomination of Origin) status. There are currently over 60 DO-recognised wine-producing areas in Spain.
An outstanding wine region gets the much-coveted Denominación de Origen Calificada (DOC), a controversial classification that some in the industry argue should apply only to specific wines, rather than every wine from within a particular region. At present, the only DOC wines come from La Rioja in northern Spain and the small Priorat area in Catalonia.
The best wines are often marked with the designation ‘crianza’ (aged for one year in oak barrels), ‘reserva’ (aged for two years, at least one of which is in oak barrels) and ‘gran reserva’ (two years in oak and three in the bottle).
Sherry
Sherry, the unique wine of Andalucía, is Spain’s national dram and is found in almost every bar, tasca (tapas bar) and restaurant in the land. Dry sherry, called fino, begins as a fairly ordinary white wine of the palomino grape, but it’s ‘fortified’ with grape brandy. This stops fermentation and gives the wine taste and smell constituents that enable it to age into something sublime. It’s taken as an aperitivo (aperitif) or as a table wine with seafood. Amontillado and oloroso are sweeter sherries, good for after dinner. Manzanilla is produced only in Sanlúcar de Barrameda near the coast in southwestern Andalucía and develops a slightly salty taste that’s very appetising. It’s possible to visit bodegas (wineries) in Sanlúcar, as well as in Jerez de la Frontera and El Puerto de Santa María.
How to Eat & Drink
Having joined Spaniards around the table for years, we’ve come to understand what eating Spanish-style is all about. If we could distil the essence of how to make food a highlight of your trip into a few simple rules, they would be these: always ask for the local speciality; never be shy about looking around to see what others have ordered before choosing; always ask the waiter for their recommendations; and, wherever possible, make your meal a centrepiece of your day.
When to Eat
Breakfast
Desayuno (breakfast) Spanish-style is generally a no-nonsense affair taken at a bar mid-morning or on the way to work. A café con leche (half coffee and half milk) with a bollo (pastry) or croissant is the typical breakfast. Another common breakfast order is a tostada, which is simply buttered toast.
In hotels, breakfast can begin as early as 6.30am and may continue until 10am (usually later on weekends).
Lunch
Lunch (comida or almuerzo) is the main meal of the day. During the working week few Spaniards have time to go home for lunch, so most people end up eating in restaurants, and all-inclusive three-course meals (menús del día) are as close as they can come to eating home-style food without breaking the bank. On weekends or in summer, Spaniards are not averse to lingering for hours over a meal with friends and family.
Lunch rarely begins before 2pm (restaurant kitchens usually open from 1.30pm until 4pm).
Dinner
Dinner (cena) is usually a lighter meal, although that may differ on weekends. Going out for a drink and some tapas is a popular way of eating dinner in many cities.
It does vary from region to region, but most restaurants open from 8.30pm to midnight, later on weekends.
THE TRAVELLER’S FRIEND: MENÚ DEL DÍA
One great way to cap prices at lunchtime on weekdays is to order the menú del día, a full three-course set menu, water, bread and wine. These meals are priced from around €10, although €12 and up is increasingly the norm. You’ll be given a menu with a choice of five or six starters, the same number of mains and a handful of desserts – you choose one from each category; it’s possible to order two starters, but not two mains.
Vegetarians & Vegans
Such is their love for meat, fish and seafood, many Spaniards, especially the older generation, don’t really understand vegetarianism. As a result, dedicated vegetarian restaurants are still pretty thin on the ground outside the major cities.
That said, while vegetarians – especially vegans – can have a hard time, and while some cooked vegetable dishes can contain ham, the eating habits of Spaniards are changing; an ever-growing selection of vegetarian restaurants is springing up around the country. Barcelona and Madrid, in particular, have plenty of vegetarian restaurants to choose from.
Otherwise, salads are a Spanish staple and often are a meal in themselves. You’ll also come across the odd vegetarian paella, as well as dishes such as verduras a la plancha (grilled vegetables); garbanzos con espinacas (chickpeas and spinach); and potato dishes, such as patatas bravas (potato chunks bathed in a slightly spicy tomato sauce) and tortilla de patatas (potato and onion omelette). The prevalence of legumes ensures that lentejas (lentils) and judías (beans) are also easy to track down, while pan (bread), quesos (cheeses), alcachofas (artichokes) and aceitunas (olives) are always easy to find. Tascas (tapas bars) usually offer more vegetarian choices than sit-down restaurants.
If vegetarians feel like a rarity among Spaniards, vegans will feel as if they’ve come from another planet. To make sure that you’re not misunderstood, ask if dishes contain huevos (eggs) or productos lácteos (dairy).
ORDERING TAPAS
In the Basque Country and many bars in Madrid, Barcelona, Zaragoza and elsewhere, it couldn’t be easier. With tapas varieties lined up along the bar, you either take a small plate and help yourself or point to the morsel you want.
Otherwise, many places have a list of tapas, either on a menu or posted up behind the bar.
Another way of eating tapas is to order raciones (literally ‘rations’; large tapas servings) or media raciones (half-rations). After a couple of raciones you’ll be full. In some bars you’ll also get a small (free) tapa when you buy a drink.
Drinking Etiquette
Wherever you are in Spain, there’ll be a bar close by. More than just places to drink, bars are centres of community life. Spaniards drink often and seem up for a drink almost any time of the day or night, but they rarely do so to excess; drinking is rarely an end in itself, but rather an accompaniment to good conversation, food or music. Perhaps they’ve learned that pacing themselves is the key to lasting until dawn – it’s a key strategy to make the most of your Spanish night.
Where to Eat & Drink
asador Restaurant specialising in roasted meats.
bar de copas Gets going around midnight and serves hard drinks.
casa de comidas Basic restaurant serving well-priced home cooking.
cervecería The focus is on cerveza (beer) on tap.
horno de asador Restaurant with a wood-burning roasting oven.
marisquería Bar or restaurant specialising in seafood.
restaurante Restaurant.
taberna Usually a rustic place serving tapas and raciones (large tapas).
tasca Tapas bar.
terraza Open-air bar, for warm-weather tippling and tapas.
vinoteca Wine bars where you can order by the glass.
Menu Decoder
a la parrilla grilled
asado roasted or baked
bebidas drinks
carne meat
carta menu
casera homemade
ensalada salad
entrada entrée or starter
entremeses hors d’oeuvres
frito fried
menú usually refers to a set menu
menú de degustación tasting menu
pescado fish
plato combinado main-and-three-veg dish
postre dessert
raciones large-/full-plate-size serving of tapas
sopa soup
