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| A walk around the Mercado San Miguel,Madrid is the ultimate of a Spanish gastronomic tour |
The Spanish people are a bit lazy by habit (as they
quote themselves), late to rise, late to go to bed and of course late lunch and
dinner. But, the fortnight I spent in Spain was a great experience and my ‘food
hunt’ initiative took detailed turn, until I felt confident enough to pen down
on the best 10 food items, which should be a must try for any travel freak,
travelling to Spain.
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| Tapas or the fun filled snack of Spain |
1.
Tapas: If you are in Spain never go without trying
tapas. Tapas, is derived from the Spanish verb ‘tapar’ which means to cover.
Before the 19th century, the tapas were served with posados, bogedas
and albugues. The inns used to offer their guests a sample of the dish served
on tapa or cover of the pot. Tapas could be of two variety, hot and cold
served. According to the concept of ‘Joy
of Cooking’ tapas are thin slices of bread or meat which is used to cover their
sherry glasses in between slips. Tapas generally comes with a drink, Vermud or
Sangria. There are various types of tapas, depending on their popularity and
the consumer’s taste buds. Tapas could be served with fried potatoes, cured
ham, cheese, olives, calamari, croquets, mussels, pan tumaca, gilda,
cuttlefish, octopus and many more.
We had an
awesome experience in Madrid’s ‘Mercado de la san Miguel’, where the market
specializes in tapas and a number of sea foods. The market starts just at 12
noon and you should see people queueing outside the market waiting to devour
eatables inside.
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| The crunchy bite dipped in chocolaty sauce |
2.
Churros: When you think about churros, your mouth
literary waters up. The luscious bread stick like snacks dipped in chocolaty
syrup, will definitely take your heart and soul in the first bite. Well, the history of churros has various
explanations. The first theory says that it’s a descendant of the Chinese
pastry called youtiao, which looks
like two joint breadsticks dunked in chocolate syrup. Others say that churros
was an invention of Spanish shepherd,
made from a dough of flour, salt and water which resembles the horns of the
native Chura sheep.
My
experience was truly awesome. While hanging round the streets of Madrid, in the
month of December, got to take a bit at the crunchy churros dipped in hot
piping chocolate sauce. Hot crunchy
churros, beat the essence of mercury dipping below three degrees.
3.
Calamari:
The calamari is a fish extremely popular in the Mediterranean country zones, is
one of the hot favourite food in Spain. Also known as squid, calamari rings
sliced, battered in flour and then deep fried, tossed with lemon juice is
simply fabulous. There are various
health benefits of calamari. They are
rich in protein, contain cancer preventive antioxidant, filled with vitamins
and minerals and fight anaemia in humans.
I tried calamari
many a times, in places like Barcelona, Alicante, Madrid and Granada. It was
spread widely as a popular fried sea food in North America in 1975.
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| Gazpacho soup, the traditional Spanish meal |
4.
Gazpacho
soup: The gazpacho
soup is a typical invention of the Andalusian region of Spain. The soup has its
own specialty as its made from dried bread, vegetable and fruits all blended
together to form a cold soup. The history of the food traces to the era when
Spain used to be conquered by the roman soldiers who used to carry dried bread.
The bread were ground in a mortar, mixed with tomato, olives, beetroot, olive
and apples altogether , which got the generic term gazpacho. All ingredients
were readily available in Spain.
The soup has
its term derived from Arabic influence, or might be from a term ‘Gazaz’ which
has Hebrew origin. It can even be derived from the Latin word ‘Caspa’ which
means little pieces or fragments. It’s said that Christopher Columbus preferred
this soup when he used to go to voyages from Spain.
I tried this cold soup in Granada, which was
really a juicy, tangy experience. In fact a bread along with the soup could be
a very desirable option to satiate your hunger at the minimal cost.
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| Sangria or the fruity Alcohol drink |
5.
Sangria: Try the cool, refreshing, fruity alcohol
drink while you are in Spain. The word
Sangria literary means bloodletting in Spanish. The use of the term Sangria can
be traced back to history in the 18th century. The main ingredients
are red win and fruit. Later, in 1964, Sangria was tasted in 1964 World’s fair
in New York city. It’s made from Spanish wine Tempranillo and other wine from
the Rioja, which has added flavours of fruit in it. Basically it’s aromatizing,
diluting and fortifying the Spanish wine.
A weekend in
Spain is always celebrated by welcoming the guests with Sangria followed by a
seafood meal, Paella.
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| Paella - the Mediterranean sea food wonder! |
6.
Paella:
Paella is originally a seafood meal originated from Valencia. In one word,
Paella covers all the flavours of Spain in one dish. A flat dish made with all sea food – mussels,
prawns, and rice flavoured with saffron. The dish is served with lemon, which
will give a unique taste once tossed upon. In fact, you will find the black
version of Paella, which is made from squid ink. The world paella comes from ‘La Paella’,
Catalan language which means the plate.
Paella has a very humble beginning
where it was known that the farmers cooked rice combined with meat and other
vegetable for a meal. Mught be sea food found place in paella plate in the next
generations. Today, Paella is a weekend sea food culture. We enjoyed Paella
which we has lunch in Valencia.
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| Tortilla or Spanish omlette |
7.
Espana
tortilla: This is popularly known as Spanish omelette. The dish
is made from egg casquaded with potatoes and bread. It’s a filling meal and
often served during Spanish breakfast. The origin of this dish is not really
known, but tales do like when General Gumalacarrlegui visited the home of a
poor farmwife, requested her to feed the troop during the siege of Bilbao.
Thereafter, the food became famous throughout Spain. The dish became famous in
Mexico in later times.
You may get one of the best tortillas if
you visit Madrid. Well, if you want to cook it for yourself, you may bring
variation with cheese, herbs, onions and tomatoes.
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| Patatas Bravas or the cubed potatoes tossed with sauce |
8. Patatas
Bravas: A bowl filled
with potatoes, cut unevenly, chunked and then topped with tomato sauce, is the
most favourite and economic dish for Spain. Like the French likes French fries,
the British like fish and chips, for Spain there is only one winner and that’s
patatas bravas. The potatoes are often accompanied by hot sauce, named cayenne
sauce. The origin of this dish comes from Madrid, from two restaurants namely,
La Casa Perico and La Casona. They were the creators of white potatoes. While
some fry the potatoes, some bake it.
We tried patatas bravas as a snack.
It was truly awesome and a fulfilling food for a minimum 3-4 euros.
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| Jamon Iberico or the spiced grooves of Pig |
9.
Jamon
Iberico: As you visit the tapas bars of Spanish cities, you
will see the bar owners prefer to hand the whole leg piece of the pig from the
ceiling. The scene looks a bit weird to a first time traveller to Spain, but
there is an age old tradition behind this. The pork meat is mixed with salt and
then allowed to hang and dried, so that it ensures maximum taste of the piece
of meat.
Since Spain has been a melting pot of
various traditions, but not necessarily that all were loved equally. The Jews, who
were forced out of the country, never ate pig or pork meat. The meat were
hanged so that the Jews knew they were not welcome to the country. Jamon
Iberico is awesome, especially with tapas. It’s salty, and the dried fat gives
a crunchy feel.
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| Croquets, the melt in mouth wonder |
1 10. Croquets: Croquets are small pieces of cylindrical or
spherical succulent bite made from eggs and breadcrumbs fried with lot of oil.
As per the tales go, the origin of this dish was not Spanish but a French one.
The dish was invented at an urgency when meat was left over from the previous
day, along with remains of ham which were getting hard; the meat was put
together with béchamel, a flour of the 19th century which was mixed
to make the classic item croquet.
The person credited with the invention of this snack was named Antoine
Careme, popularly known as the ‘ chef of kings’ presented the dish in a society
in the occasion of a dinner, which represented items of European nobility.
Croquette is
simply a melt in mouth version. With lots of cheese, potato, egg and
breadcrumbs, this dish which can be made with a bit of variation of
composition, is rightly a must eat in Spain.
I am a foodie
and love to remain so. I travelled extensively across Spain, watched the
restaurants, eateries and thereby explored food items ready to create an
explosion (taste of course) in my mouth. A trip to a county is incomplete
without its characteristic food tour.
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