Dinner Time!

One of the things I was most excited and most nervous about this trip was trying new Spanish food.  Despite my initial concerns, I am pleased to report that I am really enjoying the food!  Like I have mentioned earlier, our madres are required to feed us breakfast and dinner.  Although we are eating authentic Spanish breakfast foods, I wouldn't quite describe it as experiencing Spanish cuisine.  But dinner is a different story!

Every night, my madre serves me a main course, a salad, a piece of bread, a yogurt, and sometimes a dessert.  It really is a ton of food to eat, and I always feel uncomfortably full after the meal.  I don't think that the Spanish (or at least my madre) have grasped the concept of leftovers, so any food that I wouldn't eat would get thrown away.  I don't want to waste the food, and I don't want to unintentionally insult her by not finishing my food, so I eat everything.

It's interesting how I am always served a piece of bread with my meal.  In the US, my family only serves a loaf of freshly baked bread when we make pasta.  Here, they eat bread with every meal!  I actually learned that bread is a really important part of Spanish food.  Since they grow so much wheat here, Spaniards eat bread all the time!  It's similar to how Mexican cuisine consists of corn tortillas- because they grow tons of corn/maize.  I was also told that buying bread can be a source of aggravation within a family because it becomes an annoying chore.

On the first day I was here, I discussed the foods that I don't like with my madre.  Since then, she has never made me a food that I dislike.  Of course there's food that I like better than others, but overall everything is great.  I have heard horror stories from other kids from my group about the foods that they have been served.  For example, a girl was given two hard boiled eggs heated up and covered in tomato sauce.  Fortunately, I haven't had to choke down anything like that.

Here's some of the food's I've eaten with my opinion on a scale of ok, good, great, love this:

• Salad: a mixture of lettuce, corn, shredded carrots, onions, black olives, asparagus, and bocaditos del mar (crab) with vinegar and olive oil drizzled on top.
• Opinion: Great!  Spanish food is really heavy, so the salad is really refreshing.  However, the uncooked onions can be hard to eat sometimes because they're so strong.
• Pork and french fries
• Opinion: Good.  Who wouldn't like this dish?
• Hot dogs and a potato puree
• Opnion: Good.  It's what you would expect from the title.  Interesting to note that the hot dogs were not served with buns.  The potato puree was good, but tasted more like Cream of Wheat.  It is not fluffy like mashed potatoes, but rather a soupy consistency.
• Pasta: mostaccioli pasta and tomato sause topped with toasted ham or chorizo and hard boiled eggs.
• Opnion: Great!  I thought the use of hard boiled eggs on top was unusual, but it actually tasted pretty good.
• Judías: not exactly sure how to describe this.  I believe that it is a stew-like food cooked with beans (or judías) and potatoes.
• Opinion: Love this!  It's really delicious and hearty.
• Fried ham and cheese
• Opinion: Great!  I have a breakfast version of this every few days, but I prefer the dinner version so much more!
• Lentil stew: cooked lentils with chorizo, ribs, and potatoes.
• Opinion: Love this!  Similar to the judías, it's a very satisfying, comfort food.
• Lentil puree: just lentils (I think) pureed, similar to soup.
• Opinion: Love this!  So great!
• Fried fish
• Opnion: Ok.  I love fish, but I'm not very fond of the fish preparation here.  Last night for dinner, the fish I ate had the heads removed, but everything else was on the fish.  A ton of bones were still inside.  I tried eating it with a fork and knife, but my madre recommended that I eat it with my hands (like you would eat a rib).  The fish tasted great, but I couldn't help but cringe every time I crunched down on the bones.
• Tordita mexicana: this is what my madre calls a fajita!  Red peppers, green peppers, scrambled egg, potatoes, and onions wrapped inside a tortilla.
• Opinion: Love this!  A familiar food with a great new twist!
• Chicken and rice: plate of rice with chicken, red peppers, and onions on top.
• Opinion: Good.  I really liked how the rice was cooked (it tasted a bit like sticky rice), but I was just given an enormous amount.
• Tortilla española: my favorite food in Spain so far!!!  I love this dish so much, I'll be devoting an entire blog post to its deliciousness in the future.  Stay tuned!