Enjoying the food in Spain

 One the things I love about Spain is the food. Now I originally come from South Africa where I grew up loving my home cooked food, no takeaways or fast food or interfering food police.

UK food can not compare to the enjoyment and taste I get from Spanish food. My wife and I go to the markets in the small villages near where we have a place. We buy the ugly shaped fruit and vegetables and bought a weeks worth for 4euros. You can not beat the price or taste,

The cured meats are so good that I am so tempted to just bite into every leg of cured pork I see hanging. If you do come across teeth marks in the hanging meat then I apologise, but it is not just the meat but everything else. We love the bacon flavoured Ruffles crips and eat a large packet everyday. I buy the looong loaf of sliced bread and it stays fresh and tasty from day 1 to day 7, in the UK a loaf of bread lasts 3 days before it starts walking around the kitchen.

Am I alone in saying that Spain's food tastes better than the UK's. I would also like to you hear of any food item (especially meat) that you might enjoy. I am keen to try everything, except fish because I am allergic to fish.

Hi Neil

I'm more of a seafood man myself so it's really the fishy stuff that I like.  In terms of fruit and veg where we are, I've never been particularly overwhelmed by it and it's not that cheap either.

I do like the legs of ham but my favourite Spanish meat is chorizo, the sausage type which you can fry or grill.  Grill it, fry some eggs, put it together in some crunchy bread and you'll have gone to heaven.

I do like my "pinchos" too. The pincho moruno when done well is very tasty.  The "carne en tomate" and the "albondigas" are firm favourites too.

Too many things to list and I'm getting very hungry now!

Justin

 Hi Justin

Compared to the price and size of the fruit & veg we get at our local Tesco, Spain wins hands down. I also like seafood, it is just fish that I must avoid everything else into the paella. 

This past Saturday on BBC's Saturday Kitchen programme, one of the guest  chefs did the fried eggs and chorizo on a thick slice  toasted bread, the chef also added fried scallop. It was what actually got me thinking about Spanish food.

We book our flights out to Spain on a Saturday for such a time that we can get to the Saturday market in Vera and stock up. Although the chicken grill truck worries me. How can you have raw chicken grilling above the cooked chicken. 

Mmmmmm!

Tapas!

Jamón Serano con Queso! yum! yum!

followed by (as per Justin)

Carne con Tomate y Albóndigas

And don't forget:

Patata Tortilla

Accompanied by lashings of ice cold cerveza!

Wish I was down Lo de Andres right now!

 TechNoape you star, I have been trying to remember the name of the Spanish food item I always get. 

Jamón Serano con Queso is always on my shopping list. The drool is actually building up in my mouth thinking of the dishes you and Justin have mentioned.

Thanks 

Love your chicken comment Neil.  It always gets me too how they put the uncooked chicken ABOVE the cooked chicken.  Mind you, we still buy it on occasion and haven't had too many problems!

I tried the "solomillo de cerdo" the other day and it was gorgeous.  Highly recommend that and for BIG meat eaters, if you get the option, go for the "chuleton". It's always huge.

Justin

 All I can say Justin is HELL YEAH, where can I get me chuleton. Seriously, I will be in the Mojacar / Vera area and there must be a restaurant somewhere I can get this dish, I will even go as far as Cartagena or Almeria.

I have googled pictures of the dish and it brings a tear of joy to my South African eye and a flood of saliva to my mouth.

You tend to get them in "ventas" which are the more inland side-of-the-road type places to eat.  I don't know your are area so can't recommend somewhere to you. All I can say is that we have a place we go to in the mountains near us and it's amazing...drool, drool.

Justin

hi justin, where in the mountains do you go.

noddy

it's called "Venta San Juan".  You need to head up past Gaucin heaing in the direction for Ronda.  You get to the village of "Algatocin".  There you take a right following signs for "Jubrique".

You end up on a very windy road for a while throught the mountains until you get to a bridge, which crosses a river.  Just after the bridge is the venta.

Make sure you haven't had breakfast if you order the chuleton there!

It's a lovely place, all the meat is made on a wood burning stove.  It's particularly nice in the winter where you can sit by their roaring log fire.

Enjoy!

Justin

We find the fruit and veg much cheaper in Spain than the Uk, because our neighbours keep giving us it for free. True the stuff grows all around us as we are in a green fertile valley inland from the coastal town of Almunecar - our lovely village is Otivar.

We get courgettes, avocados, cherimoyas, nisperos, onions, lemons,  and various herbs etc. We also get free homemade wine, and feel guilty, so we take sweets over for the kids who play in the square.

 I came, I ordered and I was satisfied!

I found my meat, not the Chuleton but a good start.

Justin, I could not have said it better myself.

Black sausage, Red Sausage, two pieces of chicken, two pieces of pork rib, five pieces of steak and a side plate of chips. It is a meal for two but my wife only got a look-in on the chicken the smallest pork rib and some chips.

 I got this at a restaurant called La Cabana in Mojacar, for those who might be interested. Cost was €38.

Neil, I looked back down this thread and as soon as I saw the picture of the Chicken Grill Truck I started to drool. Back in the mid nineties I used to work the markets down in Devon and Cornwall-just for the summer season-and a big attraction was a genuine Spanish Chicken Grill Truck that arrived in early June.

I managed to get the pitch next to him on most of the markets, and I soon became his best customer-it helped that he used to give me a big discount, because as he said " You bring me lots of customers because they see you eating my chicken all the time and you never get ill-so they give it a try !"

It was hard to resist as it smelt so good-and it was delicious. Trouble was I was spending most of my earnings on chicken. Thanks for the memories.

 Hi everyone,

   Does anyone can suggest me where the best food i can find there in spain? I'm planning to have a vacation there and taste there delicios food.

  Hope there's anyone can give me suggestions.

Thanks

There are a lot of diferent kinds of food in Spain. Each area has its typical food, but everything is really taste.

Where I live, in winter we do the "matanza". We kill a pork, and we do a lot of diferents dishes with the differents parts of the pork. We do chorizo, morcilla, jamon (leg ham), bacon, lomo, careta (something like face) etc etc.

You must try to visit Castilla y Leon and taste our food. It´s really nice.

 YUMMY! :)

The photos of neatrees are really GREA! ^_^

I think I am craving already!

** EDITED - Spam **