Eating
is in Spain one of the most pleasant rituals of daily
life. The variety and richness of its gastronomy, as well
as the Spanish meal culture make very easy to find, in
the great cities or the small rural villages, a place
to eat well. The prices are usually in the restaurants
door, that also have a menu of the day with reduced prices.
The service is included in the price, being usual although
non obligatory to destine between five and ten percents
of the total to the tip. Most of restaurants usually close
once a week (Sunday or Monday), although there are numerous
establishments that open every time and day.
The Spanish kitchen is distinguished traditionally by
the use of olive oil, vegetal or animal fat, pork butter,
as well as a great variety of fruits and vegetables taken
from the Arab culture, and other elements like potatoes
and tomatoes, that arrived from America.
The north is a humid and rainy region that grants a very
rich and varied gastronomy, as much in meats as in fish.
The Basque Country develops a seasonal kitchen based on
the familiar furnaces, with plates as marmitako (potatoes
with bonito fish) and txangurro (clams and spider crab).
Asturias provides plates as the fabada (beans and pork
stew), the cheese and the cider. Among the Galicia delicatessen
are worthy of mention the caldeiradas, the squid, milky
products and bakery.
The Mediterranean kitchen is based on the wheat, olives
and grapevine trilogy with other remarkable contributions
as rice, legumes, garlic, vegetables, cheese and yogurth,
fish, meats and eggs and fruits. A kitchen so varied as
complete, that in the Spain Mediterranean natural spaces
are interpreted with different particularities. Catalonia
already has, since the Middle Ages, a coastal kitchen,
using a great variety of fish, while in the country are
commendable the escudella and the roasts. The typically
Valencian kitchen conjugates Mediterranean plates as fish,
vegetables and fruits with the hunting meats potagges
and stews with rice as the star product. Candies, turrones
and ice creams maintains the Arabic influence in their
kitchen. The Balearic Islands gastronomy has in vegetables,
fish and pork its main products as well as in the famous
mayonnaise sauce.
The kitchen of the Plateau is product of a weather that
demands of the man a hard and continued effort in its
work. Castile and Leon base foods are vegetables such
as beans, chick-peas and lentils. The pig, that in the
Iberian variety is fed with chestnuts and acorn is also
basic in regional typical products, as well as the hunting
meats. The bakery has in yolks and puff pasty the refined
expression of the Arab tradition. Extremadura’ gastronomy
emphasizes products and plates derived from the Iberian
pork. The kitchen recreated in the Quixote, typical of
Castile-La Mancha, has particularities like saffron, the
honey from La Alcarria and the manchego cheese (sheep).
Like a small island, Madrid contributes the peculiarity
of some plates like the Cocido Madrileño, codfish
and callos. Torrijas and candies are others of their specialities.
The southern Andalusian kitchen is the result of the mixing
cultures that inhabited it and forged its gastronomical
patrimony. The Canary Islands enjoy a very personal kitchen
that it has in gofio (toasted cereal flour), legumes,
tropical cultivation and their famous mojos (pepper and
coriander sauces) some of their main attractions.
The wine is a very important element in all and each one
of the regional kitchens of Spain. The Romans bequeathed
the art of grape growing that has turned Spain into one
of the greater wine producers, famous by its quality.
Among them we will mention the Rioja wines, that by its
aroma, flavor and body has obtained an outstanding international
place. Other denominations of origin very appreciated
are those of the Ribera del Duero, Penedés and
La Mancha.
The wine from Jeréz is an Andalusian wine of great
international prestige, mainly in the Anglo-Saxon countries
and that has different varieties (fine, manzanilla, amontillado,
sweet and fragant) able to satisfy the different pleasures.
The Spanish cava or espumante has its main centre of production
in the Penedés Catalan region, although in the
last years it has extended to others like Castile. The
beer enjoys great consumption in Spain today, mainly as
appetizer and companion to the popular tapa. The Spanish
beer is blond and pleasant. Liquors are also an important
part of Spanish culture. The brandy is produced fundamentally
in Andalusia, while brandies and orujos are distributed
by all the Spanish geography, giving rise to the celebrated
queimadas Gallegas, or to the diverse varieties as dry,
herbal, cherries or with honey. The anises, the Navarrese
pacharán of endrinas, and the fruit liquors are
also appreciated.
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