La Comida y Las Bebidas

I am feeling a little more optimistic after my last post, especially since I met my intercambio language partner (basically a Spanish student who I hang out with and we spend half our time talking in English and half our time talking in Spanish) who is very nice and a lot of fun to talk to. However, I would prefer to spend a larger part of this post addressing that which I know most of you have been waiting for with abetted breath: food and drink in Spain.

As you well know, lunch is sacred here and breakfast and dinner are little more than afterthoughts. Of course, my homestay may be different because my roommate and I basically have free range of the kitchen for breakfast and dinner instead of having my mom make dinner for us, so my usual breakfast is cereal and my usual dinner is yogurt, cheese, a croissant or something like that. And I am learning to like black coffee (with milk of course). Though there is a specialty coffee shop called "Starbars" near campus, for the most part, it's hard to find anything fancier than an espresso.

As for lunch, you would be surprised by the variety. For example, on Sunday we had paella which is rice, some vegetables and shrimp seasoned with saffron. However yesterday, we had roasted chicken and french fries. I am definitely a fan of my host mom's lentil soup with sausage and the quintessential Spanish tortilla which is basically like a quiche with just egg and potato. At every lunch, we always have a salad of iceberg lettuce and tomato smothered in olive oil and balsamic vinegar and a baguette of some sort. Water is the lunchtime beverage. Dessert is usually a piece of fruit or yogurt or cheese. As a whole, I feel like vegetables are not an important part of the Spanish diet.

Outside of the house, tapas are definitely the way to go. I usually order a tinto de verano which is red wine, club soda, and lemon juice and with that come tapas. Of course, if you don't care about being labeled a guiri (the word for foreigner or gringo here), you can go for the sangria. Alhambra beer and red wine is also acceptable as is manzanilla, a sweeter, crisper white wine I had the other day. And if you want soda, the only choice is Coca-cola... or maybe a Fanta -- no Pepsi in sight. Most of these drinks cost between 2-3 euros which, at least in Granada, comes with tapas or small plates of food for free. A word about the beer -- I am not a beer drinker by nature so I usually order wine but let's just say that outside of the weak local beer, there's Guinness and Hefeweizen (sorry Dad and Uncle Paul).

Tapas are an art. You learn early on which places are good (I had a bocadilla with ham, cheese, and olive oil that was amazing and a plate of mussels at one place) and which places are disappointing (a plate of olives hardly counts). There were even tiny hamburgers on the menu along with anchovies, calamari, and tuna. And of course after that tapa, you need ice cream. There has to be one gelato shop for every two people in this city and the same with pastry shops. I think I have eaten gelato here almost every day since I arrived and I still haven't returned to the same place twice.

Thus, you can see where all that hard earned money of mine is really going. If you know me you know I have trouble practicing self-control when it comes to food... and here's not the place to start.