I didn’t take my camera with me for the past couple of trips I made. It needs cleaning and I’ve been too lazy to get to the service center to have it done, which means that I have to rely on my phone camera for pictures. So you’re going to have to excuse the not-so-great quality of the pics below, which do absolutely no justice to the food I had in Spain.
Of course, we started our journey with sangria. Any self-respecting traveler knows that the first rule of travel is to sample the local brew, be it beer or wine, or arak, or absinthe even (if you ever meet my friends, ask them what happened in Mallorca, cos I don’t have a friggin clue! Absinthe took for me that night).
There was sangria. And loads of it!
Anyhooo… let’s talk about food shall we?
Breakfast in Barca
Have I mentioned my new-found love for tapas? You just get to try a lot more things than with one main dish, which makes so much sense!
Fried jalapenos, and that’s artichokes & patata brava in the bg. All delicious!
This one tapas bar we went to in Barcelona was self-service. You just go to the bar, take as many tapas as you like, go back to your table and tuck in. While we were eating, we wondered how they were going to keep track of our consumption.
Tapas!
Turns out, the little toothpicks that were on the bite-sized food was not just for our convenience. They’d count the number of toothpicks at the end of the meal and charge you accordingly.
Of course, the concept of tapas is only in the big cities. Once you enter the countryside, the restaurants are rustic and homely, serving up food that is delicious, but with massive portions that were impossible to finish (for me anyway)!
On my first day in Cordoba, the owner of the B&B my friends and I were staying at asked us if we’d like to try the “Andalusian breakfast”. It’s fresh tomato paste on warm bread with olive oil. The flavours are simple, yet delicious and rustic, though it’s not something I’d have on a regular basis.
Andalusian breakfast
This of course was just part of the breakfast that included cereal, fruits, chorizo, cold cuts, preserves and fantaaaaaastic cheese that you have to grate using a rotary device that makes the cheese come out in little florets.
pretty cheese!
The orange juice was one of the best I’ve tasted. I think it only compares to the one I had in Cappadocia. I guess food just tastes better in the mountains.
food tastes better here!
Speaking of mountains… I had my first brush with real snow (I’ve been to Ski Dubai and see the manufactured variety) only this year when I went to Sierra Nevada. I’m not much of a skier obviously. Once I fell down when I was simply standing around talking, just cos I had skis on and somehow lost my balance. So I spent more time building snowmen and throwing snowballs than actually skiing, but it was a fantastic day nonetheless.
But playing in the snow is hard work too, and it is only when you get back down on level ground you realize how ravenous you are. We went to this cosy little cafe called Cafe Vertical and wolfed down hotdogs and hot chocolate and churros like it was going out of style!
Best. Hotdog. Ever!
Food memories always have a special place in our hearts don’t they? I think it’s cos it takes us back to those wonderful moments when we first had a bite of something new or delicious and everything around that moment is brought back to us, if only for a fleeting instant. It’s more than just about eating, wouldn’t you agree?
Wanderlust 