steviedeluxe

The South does seem to have a poor rep for food. I know that there was always loads of choices on bar-restaurant menus in Madrid. Depending on season you could choose from grilled prawns, Pote Gallego, Ensalada Mixta, Russian salad, Zarzuela (Catalan seafood soup), Paella, a plate of embutidos (hams, salamis), various soups including garlic, noodle etc, Pisto, Fabada, pasta, Gazpacho, salpicon (sea-food salad), Melon with Ham, Alubias salad, soup of Cocido, Pintos (another bean), berenjas, Lentejas, calamares, etc. and that was just for starters. Ok, so you wouldn't be able to choose from all of those in one place, but just walking down one street you'd get the variety. One thing I did appreciate was the way they wouldn't for example mess about with the Ensalada Mixta - you'd know what you were getting and be able to eat it all, instead of some salads you get served with exotic looking lettuce leafs but very little substance. I enjoyed a lot of the soups (especially the Pote Gallego) but wished occasionally I could try a good Scottish soup - Cock A Leekie or Scotch Broth would have gone done well.

The best foods I've had in Spain however are those not on the normal mid-day menu. Mojama as a tapa is incredible, and a good jamon iberico with decent wine is excellent. Although not from Spain, the steak you get in Argentinian restaurants are fantastic I find. Other foods I've really enjoyed include lamb chops from Teruel, morcilla, and Gazpacho (got to be the healthiest yet tastiest food I've ever eaten). There again, if it's freshly prepared a good tortilla is a good eat, or even albondigas or croquetas (only when made correctly). The one type of food that is lacking inside or outside the cities is spicy food (well Indian) even if you have patatas bravas to sample. I never worked out why some Brits said they missed Fish n chips - a lot of menus would serve fish as one of their main course options and the accompaniment would be (yes you guessed it) chips! The chips were always very tasty, but the portions were never large unfortunately. I never missed British food out there (although I make a good Toad in the Hole or Shepherds Pie at home now) as there was so much great Spanish food to try out. Having said that, I did miss British tea and puddings! At least the coffee's very good in Spain.

chulo

I was wondering if it possible to have an opinion without the need for a debate on one countries better than the other.

Its not a BE trait, it seems rife on a lot of sites, as soon as the weather, politics or food is mentioned everybody seems to be a Nationalist.

I`m looking for a decent place to spend a few months every now and then before deciding on a more permanent stay, but it becomes difficult trailing through certain members attitude issues with other members.

Cultures differ, so does experience, I`d like to read as much as I can on both good and bad without others trying to score points against opposing opinions.

Fred James

Very true - more stars than in the UK.

However they don't cook "Spanish" food any more than Gordon Ramsay cooks "English" food.

In fact the best restaurant in the world (allegedly) - El Bulli in Gerona - cooks stuff that seems to have come from another planet!

Chiclanagir

The surprise for me moving here five years ago was that I expected any house that I wanted to buy would have electricity and a telephone. To find that the latter was a luxury was unbelievable and that I could very well not have the former was very scary. Back to the food question. I do find the food very similar wherever you eat and I do yearn for Nandos.

manamama

It was a surprise that Spain does not have a great variety of restaurants (not including the costas of course).

Up here in Asturias, if you want to eat out chances are it will be something Spanish. Thats fine as we don't eat out often.

Then another surprise was that it's hard to find anything spicy on a menu. I make spicy stuff myself but I would love to have a meal out and eat something with a bit of a kick.

manamama

I love Nandos - I wish......

cricketman

hmmm, having been to Nandos a number of times when I lived in London, that explains a lot

chulo

More stars than the UK, another tick for Spain then.

I love that food especially this dish,



You can view the whole meal here,

http://www.amateurgourmet.com/2009/0..._at_el_bu.html

manamama

Another surprise :

The bin men come everyday !! How great is that?

Chiclanagir

But not great is the amount of rubbish that is left around the bins for weeks on end and the fact that half the time the bag of household rubbish is just thrown in the general direction of a bin spewing out dirty nappies and food waste. Or just throw an animal carcass down too.

mikelincs

Something I really miss, with a once a fortnight collection, actually they come every week, but 1 week is recycling stuff, and the next the general rubbish

cricketman

I think this just shows that one can't generalise about Spain as much as one cant generalise about any country or group of people - cos I dont recognise the things you are saying in my experience of Spain.

Of course, they must just vary depending exactly where you live. After all, Spanish regional governments have tons of autonomy and Spain is very culturally diverse.

My OH is Asturian and says coming to Andalucia is just like going to a different country. She also says that about Catalunya... Some Asturian friends of mine say they feel more British than Andalucian... And my Catalan friends say they feel more French than Spanish (but above all Catalan!)

fionamw

Ref. refuse collection - I think a lot of folk overlook the fact that yes we (probably almost all if not all of us) in Spain get daily rubbish collection. However not all of us get what all of us expect in the UK, namely rubbish collection from our house. Those of us in my neck of the woods have to drive a minimum of 2 miles - many of us a lot more - to get our rubbish to the nearest bins (which admittedly are strewn with stuff all around, including unmentionables too foul to mention). Still hey ho the campo's great for other stuff!

Makingthemove

As I still only at the stage of holidaying in Spain, albeit 4 or 5 times a year, I am not yet fed up of the food, but could see how the restaurant menus could get a bit samey.

I have been surprised by the 'salads' in some of the Spanish restaurants. I expected that a smoked salmon and pinenut salad would include a range of leaves, tomatoes etc, but it was just chopped smoked salmon and pinenuts on a plate! Very nice, but a bit repetitive!

On the refuse collection - I work for a local council in England and if we were to suggest collections from communal bins instead of household collections we would be shot! I did suggest we did a study trip to Spain to see how the system works but couldn't get the accountants interested in paying for it.

chulo

We stayed in Madrid and got woken up by a huge crashing sound.

Somebody pulled over the bottle recycling bin, made a hell of a noise and mess.

The collections are also noisy, a few times we have the bins, although collected everyday, did wake us up everyday at 6am.

I guess we were unlucky in a few locations.