Booking cheap Hotel in Spain discounted Bed & Breakfast.
Hint & tips restaurants Spain typical dishes

Eat, cuisine in Spain

The Spanish are very passionate about their food and wine and Spanish cuisine. Spanish food can be described as quite light with a lot of vegetables and a huge variety of meat and fish. The Spanish cuisine does not use many spices; it relies only on the use of high quality ingredients to give a good taste.
Fast food has not yet established a strong grip on the Spaniards and you will find McDonalds and Burger King only in bigger towns in the usual places. The menu can be a surprise since it has been customized to appeal to the locals and beer, salads, yogurt primarily Dannon, and wine are prominent. Pizza is increasingly popular and you will find some outlets in bigger towns but it can be their own homegrown franchise, TelePizza, as well as Pizza Hut.
Lunch and dinner times: Spaniards have a different eating timetable than most people are used to, spreading meals out over a longer period of the day. Breakfast is of course eaten first thing of the day. The main lunch time starts around 2-3pm. Most shops and public offices will also close from 1:30pm to 4:30pm or 5pm, excluding those located in large malls or belonging to big stores. Dinnertime starts at around 9pm or 10pm so don’t be surprised that a restaurant looks completely deserted at 8pm and crowded at 11pm. Normally, restaurants in big cities don't close until midnight during the week and 2-3am during the weekend.
Specialties to buy:

• Cheese: Spain offers a wide variety of regional cheeses.
• Queso Manchego is the most famous one.
• Chorizo: Spain's most popular sausage is made from pork, ham, salt, garlic and pepper and is produced in multitude of varieties, in different sizes, shapes, short and long, spicy, in all different shades of red, soft, air dried and hard or smoked. Frequently contains emulgators and conservatives, so check ingredients if you feel sensitive.
• Jamón (air dried ham): Jamón Serrano (Serrano ham): A tinned food obtained from the salt meat of the back legs of the pig and air dried. This same product is given the name of trowel or paletilla when it is obtained from the front legs. Also it receives the names of jamón Iberico (Iberian) and jamón of bellota (acorn). They are specially famous jamones that takes place in Huelva (Spain), in Guijuelo (province Salamanca), in the Pedroches (province Cordova) and in Trevélez (province of Granada). Jamón Iberico is made from free range pigs.
• Morcilla: Sausages made from pig blood flavoured with anise, it comes as a fresh, smoked or air dried variety.

Restaurants in Spain

Seafood: on a seacoast, fresh seafood is widely available and quite affordable; in the inner regions, frozen (and poor quality) seafood can be frequently encountered outside few highly reputated (and expensive) restaurants. In coastal areas seafood deserves some attention, especially on the north Atlantic coast.
Meat products are usually of very good quality, because Spain has maintained quite a high percentage of free range animals.
Water is frequently served without a specific request, and is normally charged for--unless it's included in your menu del dia.
Typical dishes are:

• Mariscos: Shellfish. Best shellfish in the world you can eat in the province of Pontevedra.
• Calamares en su tinta: Squid in its ink.
• Chipirones a la plancha: Grilled Little squids.
• Caracoles: Snails in a hot sauce.
• Pescaíto frito: Delicious fried fish that can be found mainly in southern Spain
• Fabada asturiana: Bean stew from Asturias.
• Gambas al ajillo: Prawns with garlic and chile. Fantastic hot stuff.
• Gazpacho Andaluz: Cold vegetable soup. Best during the hot weather. It's like drinking a salad.
• Aceitunas, Olivas: Olives, often served for nibbling.
• Lentejas: A dish made from lentils with chorizo sausage and/or Serrano ham.
• Potajes or pucheros: Garbanzo beans stew at its best
• Paella: Famous rice dish originally from Mediterranean area.
• Pimientos rellenos: Peppers stuffed with minced meat or seafood. The peppers in Spain taste different than all other peppers in Europe.
• Potaje de espinacas y garbanzos: Chick pea stew with spinach. Typical of Seville.
• Tortilla de patatas: Spanish egg omelet with fried potato. Probably the most popular dish in Spain. You can easily assess how good a restaurant is by having a small piece of its potato tortillas.
• Patatas bravas: They are potatoes cut in form of dices or prism, of one to two centimeters of size approximately and that they are fried in oil and accompanied by a sharp sauce that spills on potatoes using hot spices.
• Churros: A fried horn-shaped snack, sometimes referred as a Spanish doughnut. Typical for a spanish breakfast or for tea time. Served with hot chocolate drink

Drink in Spain

Tea and Coffee: Spanish people are very passionate about the quality, intensity and taste of their coffee and good freshly brewed coffee is available almost everywhere.
The usual choices are solo, the milk-less espresso version; cortado, solo with a dash of milk; con leche, solo with milk added; and manchado, coffee with lots of milk (sort of like the French cafe au lait). Starbucks is the only national chain operating in Spain. Locals argue that it can't compete with small local cafes in quality of coffee and only visited by tourists. Can be found only in larger cities: Barcelona (18 outlets), Madrid (20 outlets), Sevilla (7 outlets) and Valencia (2 outlets)--as of Oct 2007. It is not present in smaller cities.
Alcohol: The drinking age in Spain is 18. People under this age are forbidden to drink and buy alcoholic drinks, although enforcement in tourist and clubbing areas is lax.
Bars: Probably one of the best places to meet people in Spain is in bars. Everyone visits them and they are always busy and sometimes bursting with people. There is no age restriction imposed to enter these premises although children and teenagers will not be served alcoholic drinks. Age restrictions for the consumption of alcohol are clearly posted at bars and are enforced most of the time. It is not uncommon to see an entire family at a bar. Bars are mainly to have drink and a small tapa while socializing and decompressing from work or studies. Usually Spaniards can control their alcohol drink consumption better than their northern Europeans and drunk people are rarely seen at bars or on the streets.
Beer: The Spanish beer is not too bad at all and well worth a try. Most popular local brands include San Miguel, Cruzcampo, Mahou, Ambar, Estrella Galicia, Keller and many others, including local brands at most cities; import beers are also available.
Cava :is Spanish sparkling wine and was invented after a long lasting dispute with the French about the right name for the sparkling wine. The Spanish called it for a long time champan, but the French argued that champagne can made only from grapes grown in the Champagne region in France. Nevertheless, Cava is a quite successful sparkling wine and 99% of the production comes from the area around Barcelona.
Cider: Can be found in the Basque Country, Galicia and Asturies.
Sangria: Sangria is drink made of wine and fruits and usually is made from simple wines. You will find sangria mainly in touristy places prepared for tourists. Spanish prepare sangria for fiestas and hot summer, and not every day as seen in toristic regions like Mallorca. Sangria in restaurants aimed for foreigners are best avoided, but it is a very good drink to try if a Spaniard prepares it for a fiesta!
Sherry (Fino): he wines around Jerez are very high in alcohol and they produce the famous sherry. If you would like to have one in a bar you have to order a fino.
Wine: Spain is a country with great wine-making and drinking traditions: 22% of Europe's wine growing area is located in Spain, however the production is about half of what the French produce. White, rose and red wines are produced, but the red wines are certainly the most important ones.
Grapes: The primary red grape used is Tempranillo, the primary white grape used is Albarino, and the privary Jerez grape used is Pedro Ximenez but others can be found. The grapes used are quite delicate and thus there is a reduction in yield.
Specific names: Whites: Belondrade Y Lurton regarded as greatest white wine in Spain.
In a bar: For red wine in a bar, ask "un tinto por favor", for white wine "un blanco por favor", for rose: "un rosado por favor".
Wine-based drinks: Young people in Spain have developed their own way to have wine. When having botellones (big outdoor parties with drink and lots of people), most of them will be mixing some red wine with Coke and drink such mix straight from the Coke bottle. The name of this drink is calimocho or kalimotxo (in the Basque Country and Navarre) and is really very popular... But don't ask for it while in an upper class bar, or among adults, since they will most certainly not approve of the idea!