Breakfast, snacks and
sandwiches
For
breakfast you're
best off in a bar or café,
though some
hostales
and
fondas will serve
the "Continental"
basics. The traditional
Spanish breakfast is
chocolate
con churros - long tubular
doughnuts (not for the weak of
stomach) with thick drinking
chocolate. But most places
also serve
tostadas
(toast) with oil (
con
aceite ) or butter (
con
mantequilla ) - and jam (
y
mermelada ), or more
substantial egg dishes such as
huevos fritos (fried
eggs), which are not a typical
Spanish breakfast but do tend
to be on offer in tourist
areas.
Tortilla (potato
omelette) also makes an
excellent breakfast.
Coffee and pastries ( pasteles
or bollos ) or
doughnuts are available at
most cafés, too, though for a
wider selection of cakes you
should head for one of the
many excellent pastelerías
or confiterías . In
larger towns, especially in
Catalunya, there will often be
a panadería or croissantería
serving quite an array of
appetizing baked goods besides
the obvious bread, croissants
and pizza.
Some bars specialize in bocadillos
- hearty French bread-style
sandwiches with a choice of
fillings. If you want them
wrapped to take away with you,
ask for them para llevar
. Incidentally, be careful not
to use the word
"sandwich" to order
a bocadillo , as an
Iberian sandwich is
usually on sad, processed
white bread - often with ham
and cheese or something with a
lot of mayonnaise.
Tapas and raciones
One of the advantages of
eating in
bars is that
you are able to experiment.
Many places have food laid out
on the counter, so you can see
what's available and order by
pointing without necessarily
knowing the names; others have
blackboards or "
lista
de las tapas ".
Tapas
(often called
pinchos
or
pintxos in northern
Spain) are small portions,
three or four small chunks of
fish or meat, or a dollop of
salad, which traditionally
used to be served up free with
a drink. These days you often
have to pay for anything more
than a few olives, but a
single helping rarely costs
more than ?1.20-2.40 unless
you're somewhere very flashy.
Raciones
(costing around ?6.50-9) are
simply bigger plates of the
same intended for sharing
among a couple of people, and
can be enough in themselves
for a light meal. The more
people you're with, of course,
the better; half a dozen
tapas
or
pinchos and three
raciones
can make a varied and quite
filling meal for three or four
people.
Tascas, bodegas,
cervecerías and tabernas
are all types of bar where
you'll find tapas and raciones
. Most of them have different
sets of prices depending on
whether you stand at the bar
to eat (the basic charge) or
sit at tables (up to fifty
percent more expensive - and
even more if you sit out on a
terrace).
Wherever you have tapas, it
is important to find out what
the local special is
and order it. Spaniards will
commonly move from bar to bar,
having just the one dish that
they consider each bar does
well. A bar's
"non-standard"
dishes, these days, can all
too often be microwaved -
which is not a good way to
cook squid.
Meals and restaurants
Once again, there's a
multitude of distinctions. You
can sit down and have a full
meal in a
comedor , a
cafetería
, a
restaurante or a
marisquería
- all in addition to the more
food-oriented bars.
Comedores are the
places to seek out if your
main criteria are price and
quantity. Sometimes you will
see them attached to a bar
(often in a room behind), or
as the dining room of a hostal
or pensión , but as
often as not they're virtually
unmarked and discovered only
if you pass an open door.
Since they're essentially
workers' cafés they tend to
serve more substantial meals
at lunchtime than in the
evenings (when they may be
closed altogether). When you
can find them - the tradition,
with its family-run business
and marginal wages, is on the
way out - you'll probably pay
around ?4.50-8 for a menú
del día, cubierto or menú
de la casa , all of which
mean the same - a complete
meal of three courses, usually
with bread, wine and dessert
included.
The highway equivalent of comedores
are ventas which you'll
be extremely glad of if you're
doing much travelling by road.
These roadside inns dotted
along the highways between
towns and cities have been
serving Spanish wayfarers for
hundreds of years - many of
them quite literally - and the
best ventas are
wonderful places to get tasty
country cooking at bargain
prices. Again the menú del
día is the one to go for
and the best places usually
have quite a gathering of
lorries in their car park,
shrewd long-distance truck
drivers being among the best
customers.
Replacing comedores
to some extent are cafeterías
, which the local authorities
grade from one to three cups
(the ratings, as with
restaurants, seem to be based
on facilities offered rather
than the quality of the food).
These can be good value, too,
especially the self-service
places, but their emphasis is
more northern European and the
light snack-meals served tend
to be dull. Food here often
comes in the form of a plato
combinado - literally a
combined plate - which will be
something like egg and chips
or calamares and salad
(or occasionally a weird
combination like steak and a
piece of fish), often with
bread and a drink included.
This will generally cost in
the region of ?4.50-6. Cafeterías
often serve some kind of menú
del día as well. You may
prefer to get your plato
combinado at a bar, which
in small towns with no comedores
may be the only way to eat
inexpensively.
Moving up the scale there
are restaurantes
(designated by one to five
forks) and marisquerías
, the latter serving
exclusively fish and seafood. Restaurantes
at the bottom of the scale are
often not much different in
price from comedores ,
and will also generally have platos
combinados available. A
fixed-price menú del día
is often better value though:
generally three courses plus
wine and bread for around
?4.50-9. Chinese restaurants -
increasingly popular in Spain
- generally have the cheapest menús
del día : ?4.50-6 is the
norm. Move above two forks,
however, or find yourself in
one of the more fancy marisquerías
(as opposed to a basic
seafront fish-fry place), and
prices can escalate rapidly.
However, even here most of the
top restaurants offer an
upmarket menú called a
menú de degustación
(a sampler meal, usually
including wine) which is often
excellent value and allows you
to try out some of the
country's finest cooking for
20-30.
To avoid receiving confused
stares from waiters in
restaurants, you should always
ask for la carta when
you want a menu; menú
in Spanish refers only to
fixed-price meal. In addition,
in all but the most
rock-bottom establishments it
is customary to leave a small tip
( propina ): Spaniards
are judicious tippers, so only
do so if the service merits
it: the amount is up to you,
though 5 to 10 percent of the
bill in a restaurant is quite
sufficient. Service is
normally included in a menú
del día . The other thing
to take account of in medium-
and top-price restaurants is
the addition of IVA , a
seven percent tax on your
bill. It should say on the
menu if you have to pay this.
You'll find numerous
recommendations, in all price
ranges, in the guide.
Spaniards generally eat very
late, so most of these places
serve food from around 1 until
4pm and from 8pm to midnight.
Many restaurants close on
Sunday or Monday evening .
Outside these times, generally
the only places open are the fast-food
joints; Pans & Co
and Bocatta serve
suprisingly good bocadillos
and often have special offers.
Alcoholic drinks
Over fifty percent of the
European Union's vineyards lie
in Spain and
vino
(wine), either
tinto
(red),
blanco (white)
or
rosado/clarete (rosé),
is the invariable
accompaniment to every meal.
As a rule, wine is extremely
inexpensive and while low
prices used to be equated with
low quality, in recent years
enormous investment has been
flowing into the Spanish wine
trade and standards have risen
dramatically. The wines to
look out for are whites from
Galicia and reds from Rioja,
Navarra and Ribera del Duero.
Cava
(Spain's champagne) generally
comes from Catalunya and is a
real bargain, whilst Andalucía
is noted for its sherries and
brandies. One thing worth
knowing about Spanish wine is
the terms related to the
ageing
process which defines the
best wines;
crianza
wines must have a minimum of
two years ageing before sale;
red
reserva wines at
least two years (of which one
must be in oak barrels); red
gran
reserva at least two years
in oak and three in the
bottle). White
gran reserva
guarantees five years' ageing
(of which six months must be
in oak).
The most common bottled
variety you'll encounter in
the more economical
restaurants and comedores
is Valdepeñas, a good
standard mass produced wine
from the central plains of New
Castile; most Valdepeñas is
ordinary if quaffable stuff,
but the Los Llanos bodega
produces an outstanding and
affordable gran reserva
. Rioja, from the area round
Logroño on the edge of the
Basque country, is rightly
Spain's best known wine and
available everywhere (Cune,
Berberana, Marques de Caceres
and La Rioja Alta are brands
to try). Another top-drawer
and currently fashionable
region is Ribera del Duero in
Castilla-León which makes
Spain's most expensive wine,
Vega Sicilia, besides other
outstanding reds (Pesquera, Viña
Pedrosa and Senorio de Nava
are names to look out for).
There are also scores of local
wines - some of the best are
Navarra (Chivite, Palacio de
la Vega) and Catalunya (Bach,
Raimat, Caus Lubis and Alvaro
Palacios), a region which also
produces the champagne-like cava
(Codorniu, Marques de
Monistrol); Galicia too, in
the temperate northwest is
producing some notable white
wines (Ribeiro, Fefiñanes and
Albariño are prominent
producers). However, in most
low-budget eating places
you'll rarely be offered a
wide choice of Spain's better
wines, which tend to appear
only in the higher-class
establishments.
Dining off the beaten track
may mean drinking whatever
comes out of the barrel, or
the house-bottled special (ask
for caserío or de
la casa ). This can be
great, it can be lousy, but at
least it will be distinctively
local. In a bar, a small glass
of wine will generally cost
around ?0.30-0.60; in a
restaurant, if wine is not
included in the menu, prices
start at around ?2 a bottle
although you'll be paying at
least double this and more for
quality wine. If it is
included, you'll usually get a
whole bottle for two people, a
media botella (a third
to a half of a litre) for one.
Be on your guard for the odd
skinflint establishment which
may try to get away with
serving you a single glass of
wine to comply with the
"including wine"
offer, thus obliging you to
buy a bottle on top. A polite
but firm word with the waiter
is usually enough to secure
your rights.
The classic Andalucian wine
is sherry - vino de
Jerez which refers to the
wines produced in a
triangular-shaped area to the
west of the town of Jerez de
la Frontera. Served chilled or
at bodega temperature -
fino (the Spanish name
for dry sherry) is a perfect
drink to wash down tapas -
and, like everything Spanish,
it comes in a perplexing
variety of forms. The main
distinctions are between fino
or jerez seco (dry
sherry), amontillado
(medium dry), and oloroso
or jerez dulce (sweet),
and these are the terms you
should use to order. Manzanilla
is another member of the
sherry family produced in the
seaside town of Sanlúcar de
Barrameda; the vineyards'
proximity to the sea gives it
a delicate, briny tang and
among Spaniards it is
currently the most popular of
all the dry finos .
Similar - though not identical
- is montilla , an
excellent dry sherry-like wine
from the province of Córdoba.
The main distinction between
this and the other finos
is that no alcohol is added at
the production stage,
prompting the cordobeses
to claim that theirs is the
more natural product, but
sales and popularity still lag
way behind those of its rival.
Cerveza , lager-type
beer, is generally pretty
good, though more expensive
than wine. It comes in 300-ml
bottles ( botellines )
or, for about the same price,
on tap - a caña of
draught beer is a small glass,
a caña doble larger,
and asking for un tubo
(a tubular glass) gets you
about half a pint. Many
bartenders will assume you
want a doble or un
tubo , so if you don't,
say so. Mahou, Cruz Campo, San
Miguel, and Victoria are all
decent beers and good local
brands too are worth trying,
such as Estrella de Galicia or
Alhambra.
Equally refreshing, though
often deceptively strong, is sangría
, a wine-and-fruit punch which
you'll come across at fiestas
and in tourist bars. Tinto
de verano is a similar red
wine and soda or lemonade
combination which is a great
refresher in high
temperatures; variations on
this include tinto de
verano con naranja (red
wine with orangeade) or con
limón (mixed with a Fanta
lemon juice).
In mid-afternoon - or even
at breakfast - many Spaniards
take a copa of liqueur
with their coffee. The best
are anís (like Pernod)
or coñac , excellent
local brandy with a distinct
vanilla flavour; try Magno,
Soberano, or Carlos III
("tercero") to get
an idea of the variety, or
Carlos I ("primero"),
Lepanto, or Gran Duque de Alba
for a measure of the quality.
Most brandies are produced by
the great sherry houses in
Jerez, but one equally good
one that isn't is Mascaró,
produced in Catalunya and
resembling an armagnac.
In bars spirits are
ordered by brand name, since
there are generally less
expensive Spanish equivalents
for standard imports. Larios
gin from Málaga, for
instance, is about half the
price of Gordon's. Specify nacional
to avoid getting an expensive
foreign brand. Spirits can be
very expensive at the trendier
bars; however, wherever they
are served, they tend to be
staggeringly generous - the
bar staff pouring from the
bottle until you suggest they
stop.
Mixed drinks are
universally known as copa
or Cubata , though
strictly speaking the latter
is rum and Coke. Juice is zumo
; orange, naranja ;
lemon, limón ; and
tonic tónica .
Soft drinks and hot drinks
Soft drinks are much
the same as anywhere in the
world, but try in particular
granizado
(slush) or
horchata (a
milky drink made from tiger
nuts or almonds) from one of
the street stalls that spring
up everywhere in summer. You
can also get these drinks from
horchaterías and from
heladerías
(ice cream -
helados -
parlours), or in Catalunya
from the wonderful milk bars
known as
granjas .
Although you can drink the
water
almost everywhere it usually
tastes better out of the
bottle - inexpensive
agua
mineral comes either
sparkling (
con gas )
or still (
sin gas ).
Café (coffee) -
served in cafés, heladerías
and bars - is invariably
espresso, slightly bitter and,
unless you specify otherwise,
served black ( café solo
). If you want it white ask
for café cortado
(small cup with a drop of
milk) or café con leche
(made with lots of hot milk).
For a large cup of weaker
coffee ask for an americano
. Coffee is also frequently
mixed with brandy, cognac or
whisky, all such concoctions
being called carajillo
. Iced coffee is café con
hielo , another great high
summer refresher: a café
solo is served with a
glass of ice cubes. Pour the
coffee onto the cubes - it
cools instantly.
Té (tea) is also
available at most bars,
although bear in mind that
Spaniards usually drink it
black. If you want milk it's
safest to ask for it
afterwards, since ordering té
con leche might well get
you a glass of milk with a tea
bag floating on top. Perhaps a
better bet would be herbal
teas and most bars keep
these: manzanilla (camomile,
not to be confused with the
sherry of the same name), poleomenta
(mint tea) and hierba luisa
(lemon verbena) are all
popular herbal infusions.
Chocolate (hot
chocolate) is incredibly thick
and sweet, and is a popular
early-morning drink after a
long night on the town. If
you'd prefer a thinner
cocoa-style drink ask for a
brand name, like Cola Cao.
