Well, it's time for the Spanish Eating Experience, now that Zach has finished our one week in Spain!
When one thinks of Spanish food, tapas and paella immediately comes to mind - we definitely tried a lot of those.
So paella is like seafood cooked with the big grains of rice that the Europeans like to cook with (like risotto) - but the problem is that many Spanish "restaurants" or cafes that serve paella do not have a proper kitchen to cook it, so most of the time they are serving the microwaved version of some franchised paella brand at a price that's also definitely not worth it! (note: avoid eating paella at restaurants with the PAELLADOR sign outside)
For us, we always like to walk around and consider our options before we eat, so we managed to have freshly cooked paella for the times that we ate it :D Anyways, I find the rice plus seafood "sauce" actually makes the dish taste a bit like our Hokkien prawn mee haha!
Next up, the awesome tapas! Staying in a more residential rather than touristy area in Seville, I felt that this was the one place in Spain that we could really immerse ourselves in the Spanish lifestyle of eating tapas, having dinner and drinking some cava/sangria/beer late into the night! Tapas is actually not just limited to "appetizer" types of food such as calamari rings or meatballs - they can in fact be mini-portions of any dish! That's right... even your chicken fillet meal can have a tapas portion - just one smaller slice of chicken meat and some fries!
The other thing is that we can actually have a lot of variety by ordering tapas dishes - and some places really serve rather generous portions also! Thus while EUR 20 may usually get you 2 mains, you can better spend it on 5 or 6 tapas instead! Variety is also felt while we went from restaurant to restaurant - again, in Seville the plaza outside our hostel was chuck full of these restaurants that Zach and I only managed to try out 6 of them over our short stay there.
The only minor hassle was that many of these restaurants couldn't really translate all their wide variety of tapas dishes into English - but most of the time it's OK to try! Otherwise, one can always stick to stuff with chicken or potatoes inside, in case you are not really up to eating octopuses or perhaps a leg of ham that has been hung up for god-knows-how-long.
2. Bottom left-hand - fried squids. They're called chipirones in Spanish. The people in Sevilla tend to grill it instead of frying them but they taste good too (just taste more seafood-ish)
3. Bottom right-hand - simple tapas and one drink, it's only EUR 1 each. While it seems nothing much, this kind of portions are the kind that will encourage the bar-hopping culture! (sorely lacking in Madrid though, where we had it)
Of course, we also had our share of "main dishes" as well. As Barcelona was the only seaside towns that we are visiting over these 40 days, we decided to reward ourselves and enjoy some good food in Barcelona - yup that's an entire grilled sea bass (I think) in the top right-hand corner below. Zach had veal instead.
Last but not least, I'll mention something about the Spanish breakfast and the traditional Spanish beverages. To match the tapas, the Spanish have also similarly tapas-sized beers, as you can see in quite a few of the photos above. These portions are actually pretty worth it and we certainly didn't mind getting one beer at each of the restaurants we visited!
The Spanish also seem to pride themselves about their cava or their Spanish champagne. We're both not connoisseurs of alcohol, but it's certainly tastes fine and we can get it quite cheaply as well from supermarkets! Also, having colonies in the Americas meant that the Spanish have developed a liking for cocoa more so than other countries too - thus the churros and hot thick chocolate breakfast. (Try finding such food in Italy haha!)
When one thinks of Spanish food, tapas and paella immediately comes to mind - we definitely tried a lot of those.
So paella is like seafood cooked with the big grains of rice that the Europeans like to cook with (like risotto) - but the problem is that many Spanish "restaurants" or cafes that serve paella do not have a proper kitchen to cook it, so most of the time they are serving the microwaved version of some franchised paella brand at a price that's also definitely not worth it! (note: avoid eating paella at restaurants with the PAELLADOR sign outside)
For us, we always like to walk around and consider our options before we eat, so we managed to have freshly cooked paella for the times that we ate it :D Anyways, I find the rice plus seafood "sauce" actually makes the dish taste a bit like our Hokkien prawn mee haha!
Next up, the awesome tapas! Staying in a more residential rather than touristy area in Seville, I felt that this was the one place in Spain that we could really immerse ourselves in the Spanish lifestyle of eating tapas, having dinner and drinking some cava/sangria/beer late into the night! Tapas is actually not just limited to "appetizer" types of food such as calamari rings or meatballs - they can in fact be mini-portions of any dish! That's right... even your chicken fillet meal can have a tapas portion - just one smaller slice of chicken meat and some fries!
The other thing is that we can actually have a lot of variety by ordering tapas dishes - and some places really serve rather generous portions also! Thus while EUR 20 may usually get you 2 mains, you can better spend it on 5 or 6 tapas instead! Variety is also felt while we went from restaurant to restaurant - again, in Seville the plaza outside our hostel was chuck full of these restaurants that Zach and I only managed to try out 6 of them over our short stay there.
The only minor hassle was that many of these restaurants couldn't really translate all their wide variety of tapas dishes into English - but most of the time it's OK to try! Otherwise, one can always stick to stuff with chicken or potatoes inside, in case you are not really up to eating octopuses or perhaps a leg of ham that has been hung up for god-knows-how-long.
Anyway just to point out some of the good tapas we had:
1. Middle dish in the top right-hand - potatoes with fried eggs and bacon2. Bottom left-hand - fried squids. They're called chipirones in Spanish. The people in Sevilla tend to grill it instead of frying them but they taste good too (just taste more seafood-ish)
3. Bottom right-hand - simple tapas and one drink, it's only EUR 1 each. While it seems nothing much, this kind of portions are the kind that will encourage the bar-hopping culture! (sorely lacking in Madrid though, where we had it)
Of course, we also had our share of "main dishes" as well. As Barcelona was the only seaside towns that we are visiting over these 40 days, we decided to reward ourselves and enjoy some good food in Barcelona - yup that's an entire grilled sea bass (I think) in the top right-hand corner below. Zach had veal instead.
Last but not least, I'll mention something about the Spanish breakfast and the traditional Spanish beverages. To match the tapas, the Spanish have also similarly tapas-sized beers, as you can see in quite a few of the photos above. These portions are actually pretty worth it and we certainly didn't mind getting one beer at each of the restaurants we visited!
The Spanish also seem to pride themselves about their cava or their Spanish champagne. We're both not connoisseurs of alcohol, but it's certainly tastes fine and we can get it quite cheaply as well from supermarkets! Also, having colonies in the Americas meant that the Spanish have developed a liking for cocoa more so than other countries too - thus the churros and hot thick chocolate breakfast. (Try finding such food in Italy haha!)
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