Tapas Tour

Neither of us is a big proponent of posting pictures of food on Facebook and Instagram, but food is such a big part of life in Spain, that we don’t feel right leaving the country without writing about it.  So screw it; here’s a post about food.

Obviously the Spanish are known for tapas- small plates meant to be shared- and nearly every restaurant serves them.  We ate tapas all but one of the times we ate out.  (In that instance we had hamburgers.  Don’t judge- sometimes you just need a taste of home).

We found that the size, quality and price of tapas varied greatly between the cities.  However, there didn’t seem to be a huge variety of types of food offered.  Nearly every restaurant served roasted peppers with tuna, fried calamari, Russian salad (potato salad with lots of mayo- no idea why it’s called Russian salad, or why it’s so popular in Spain), fried green padron peppers, French fries with a fried egg, chorizo, and Iberian ham.  Iberian ham is cured meat from black Iberian pigs.  Usually, a pig leg is set out on a counter, and waiters shave meat off it, when it is ordered.

 

Pinchos (or pinxos) were also popular.  These are slices of bread served with a variety of toppings. Sometimes the toppings are simple (cheese and tomato), and other times they have entire chicken breasts and mounds of fancy ingredients on them.

 

Luckily, gazpacho was in season.  It is cold tomato and vegetable soup, served in a glass, and meant to be drank.  Salmorejo is a thicker form of it, served in a bowl with a spoon.  I couldn’t get enough gazpacho.  I’d swim in that stuff if I could.

 Mmmmm gazpacho

Depending on the size and cost, we tended to split 3-5 tapas for a meal. In Granada, where they came free with drinks, we just ate whatever they served us with our beers and sangria.

 

In case anyone else is as much of a food voyeur as I am, I’m posting some of our favorites below.