Delights of Spanish Cuisine by Catherine Smith...

Spanish Food

The two basic ingredients of all Spanish food are olive oil and garlic. The golden spice saffron enhances many Spanish foods, paella in particular as well as many other dishes including Asturian fabada, a wonderful mixture of beans, chorizo, morcilla and salt pork. To savour the truly wonderful world of Spanish food it's essential to venture beyond the seaside tourist traps and follow the example of the Spaniards.

Tapas

There isn't a Spanish holiday that doesn't involve sampling tasty Tapas. If at times you have been tempted to sample everything on a menu, tapas may be in your future. Tapas can be found in even the smallest bar in a tiny village. It can vary from simple to complex and include cheese, fish, eggs, vegetable dishes, dips, canapés, and savoury pastries. Every Spaniard has his favourite tasca, as the tapas bars are often called, where he goes regularly to meet his friends or business acquaintances. The way to tell a good tapas bar from a poor one in Spain, is to measure the square footage you can occupy on the floor: Anything more than one square foot means it's not the best.

Paella

It was the poor peasant people of the Valencian region who invented Spain's most famous dish, paella. Paella is a rice dish, usually cooked with seafood, pork, rabbit or chicken and seasoned with saffron.

Bread

The waiter is also likely to bring you Spanish bread, sometimes placed right on the tabletop. A dish of olive oil, possibly containing slivers of butter, will also come with the bread in some regions of Spain.

Vegetarian Food

The idea that Spanish cuisine can't be appreciated if you don't eat pork will come as a big surprise to the growing number of veggies in Spain as well as the million Muslims who live there. It's true that a lot of traditional recipes contain pork and seafood, but many restaurants are creating delicious veggie dishes and you can always just pick out the veggie dishes when creating tapas. Vegetable Paella is also widespread and rather yummy.

Language

The general rule of thumb for finding the best places to eat in Spain is to go to restaurants with Spanish- only menus, but this rule is not universally correct. It helps to have a basic grasp of the Spanish language when eating out in Spain, but learning Spanish will also help you enjoy all aspects of your holiday.

Spanish food should be a memorable factor from your holiday in Spain. You can even try some of the recipes when you get home.

About the Author

Catherine Smith 2007 Copyright http://www.learn-rocket-spanish.info Learn how to speak Spanish confidently and naturally in less than 3 months and take all the frustration, difficulty and headache out of your practice time. Simply visit http://www.learn-rocket-spanish.info to start learning Spanish today.