LARD HAT
I came to Spanish food a little bit late. My first surprise on arriving in Madrid was that no, they don’t eat Mexican food here. I was 21 and suffering from the All-American ailment of total ignorance of everything outside your dismal suburb, and really didn’t know any better.
In addition, I was a vegetarian at the time. While vegetarianism is an interesting experience, I wouldn’t really recommend it at this point: either way, it was totally impractical for me to integrate into Spanish culture if I wasn’t eating animals. So after a couple of years, I gave up on vegetarianism. Sorry, animals.
Anyway, a lot of Spanish food is not exactly politically correct by American standards, and I have the feeling that many tourists come here and don’t have any idea what things are, so they end up in McDonalds. Bad idea.
Anyway, without further ado, here are my top 25 Spanish foods (in no particular order):
1. Pulpo a la Gallega: That’s Galician-style octopus. Yep, the tentacles. It’s purple on the outside, white on the inside, an delicious all over. In Galicia (in the north of Spain), they serve it with cloudy home-made white wine, sometimes in little ceramic bowls like in the photo.
2. Tortilla de patatas: Otherwise known as Spanish omelette, this one is pretty simple (most Spanish food is pretty simple, actually.) It’s potato and eggs. Sometimes onion. Sometimes a little bit runny on the inside. Great.
3. Paella: I’m not actually a huge fan of paella, but it seems to be pretty popular. Rice and various kinds of seafood (mussels, prawns, squid) are the usual ingredients. The yellow colour comes from saffron.
Check out the sleek elegance of this rabbit. I’m making Coniglio alla Cacciatora, an Italian dish with white wine, tomato, fresh herbs, garlic, and this friendly little fellow, all chopped up. They sold it to me with most of the organs still inside; since I didn’t know what to do with them, I threw them out.
With the way things are going, we’ll be eating anything we can get around here before too long.
Greetings from the collapse of the euro! And have a nice Tuesday.
Ciausculo (also spelled ciabusculo, ciausculu, etc) is the pride of Italy’s least glamorous corner: a sausage from the Sibillini mountains on the border between the central Italian regions of Le Marche and Umbria. In August of 2009 it was given Protected Geographical Indication, protecting it, like Champagne and Sherry, from imitators in other regions.
Photo by Eneida Sosa
The fat content is high (about 50%) which makes it great for paleolithic dieters. Its texture is soft, it can even be spread on bread. The flavor comes from spices (pepper, garlic and even orange peel) and the process of cold-smoking over juniper branches.
For 9 euros you can bring one back from your next trip to San Severino, the happiest place on earth! (I brought two last week.)
