Food/Drink options in Spain
 

I'll be traveling in Spain for a couple of weeks (Madrid, Cordoba, Granada, Sevilla) and am concerned about my food and drink options. I am allergic to shellfish, so I naturally worry about unknowingly ingesting it via sauce or additive. Should this be a problem? In general, I stay clear of seafood because I don't like its taste. What meat options are commonly available?

What about to drink? I don't care for soft drinks, so I assume that's good, as they are probably expensive. I usually drink water, coffee, tea, dark beer, and red wine. Is coffee served throughout the day or just at breakfast? Is wine or beer more common? Is "table wine" routinely available?

Thanks!

There is a whole world of pork and chicken. Beef is always my last choice in Spain. Coffee is more commonly consumed than tea and there is also a whole world of wine, as the Spanish are proud of their tradition.

Here are the Spanish basics

Light breakfast-if there is a place that makes churros and hot chocolate try it

Lunch-the big meal of the day. Look to see if a restaurant has Menu del Dia. This is prix fixe meal that usually offers the best food value. What each restaurant offers differs but most with include a salad, entree, and dessert.

Tapas-between 5 and 7 tapas bars offer small dishes and wine.

10 PM-a light dinner.

You should google Spanish cuisine to learn more and print out a card or piece of paper that reads:

No puedo comer marisco o pescado
Soy alérgico a los mariscos y pescados

I cannot eat seafood and fish.
I am alergic to seafood and fish.

Wine and beer are ubiquitous. Bottled water is everywhere. Strong coffee is everywhere. Tea, including some herbal, is readily available in cafes. Coffee is much stronger than in parts of the US (Ohio, Deep South) where people drink it along with meals as a beverage, but you can always thin it.

You can easily make a dinner of tapas if you prefer not to wait until 10 or so for dinner.

There isn't really any shellfish that might "sneak" into a dish, as long as you are aware that some classic Spanish dishes like Paella usually include shellfish and that the most advanced Spanish chefs are doing some wild things now. Just skip the cutting edge restaurants!

If you look through a library book on Spanish food (the old Time-Life series would be excellent) and learn Aduchamp's phrases, you will be in great shape.

having a "caña" draft beer can cost less than bottled water many places. sitting at the bar is less that outside at the terrace or inside at a table most places.

You can have what you want all day long.

Bocadillos are a delicious inexpensive meal. Baguette bread filled with what YOU want, made to order most places.

I like

fried onions ( cebolla frita)
Pork ( lomo)
pimientos rojos (red peppers)

queso (cheese)

and have them grill the bread, too, to make it juicier ( con el pan a la plancha)

should be about four euros and pretty big.

Vino de la casa can be by the glass. probably 1.5/2E at a bar/café. maybe more if the place is really cute.

The non-descript bars/café/restos in spain are sometimes the best places do do these quick stops. They are family-owned and tend to be very acceptable price and quality-wise.

Do not be afraid to go into dungy looking places that have a lot of workmen or people at the bar. Usually the tapas are a fair price and good survival quick food. Busy time may be from 10-11.30 ( morning snack time) and later merienda time from 5.30-7pm.

In larger cities el Corte Inglés department stores have nice eateries with photo menus and the quality is quite good. When you buy something in the shop recently they also give you a ticket for a promotion up in their café.. so pay heed to that extra little piece of paper!

Have fun!

If you now how you want your coffee, better toa sk here because you rarely find "drip" coffee. Everything is espresso. You may become adept at asking them for Café americano con mucha agua.. and un poco de leche ( if you add a little milk). But this is a challenge if you are stuck on "your" type of brewed coffee.

If you do take milk in your coffee i would start out with cafe con leche and take it from there. If you are like me, and like to "nurse" your coffee, then make sure you say "muy calientet".
Spaniards are not really finicky with drink or food temperatures which you will find out. They eat lukewarm food without complaining.

Thank you one and all...I feel reassured in particular about my shellfish allergy. A big thanks for the translations of my specific situation. Believe me. I will print it and present it each time we order.

A couple more questions about coffee drinking...do they readily refill your cup or is it like everywhere else in Europe (my experience)where there are no free refills and, will they bring me a cup of hot water and a bigger cup for diluting the very strong coffee? I drink mine black rather than with milk, so sometimes I need to thin it down with hot water. Maybe ordering it Americano would solve the problem.

You could do what I do and simply eat only Serrano ham, chorizo, olives, and Manchego cheese and drink only Rioja wines the entire time.

Good gosh I'm hungry

Spain is great meat country, and I wouldn't be too worried abouth the shellsfish allergy. My wife has got it too, and we've travelled intensively in Spain for some 25 years without any allergy problems. You should of course ask if you're up for a fish soup (not very probable) or a very elaborate salad, but Spanish chefs don't normally "smuggle in" shellfish into their dishes.

Ham, on the other hand, is quite another story. Since the expulsion of the Jews and Muslims (starting in the late 14th century and getting dead serious from 1492) ham was introduced into all kinds of dishes in the most imaginative ways. Eating ham was of course "eating Christian" and this was a way to test the alleged converts. This trait has travelled through the ages, and even today you might find ham in the most unexpected dishes, as a kind of seasoning special ingredient.

Having said that, the jamón ibérico (Spanish cured ham from acorn fed pigs) is the best in the world. Don't settle with the perfectly fine and affordable jamón serrano, at least some times you must try the best jamón ibérico de bellota (acorn), very expensive and worth every cent. http://www.jamon.com/iberico.html

I've had the best steaks in my life in Spain, and you'll find cordero/lamb and cerdo/pig in all kinds of tasty local variants in most places. And it use to be no problem to find an extermely juicy grilled chicken.

Here's some suggestions for restaurants that do fabulous meat in "your" cities.

Madrid:
Traditional Casa Paco, an institution in town and as good as it gets: http://www.casapaco1933.com/
http://www.tripadvisor.com/Restauran...co-Madrid.html
You'll find some of the best steaks in Madrid in Basque places such as Julian de Tolosa: http://www.casajuliandetolosa.com/PAGINAS/eentrada.html
Delicious grilled chicken in 124 year old Casa Mingo: http://www.casamingo.es/
Watch the video, and you're sold:
http://11870.com/pro/casa-mingo/videos/bc313f19

And you might enjoy the meat, sausage and vegetable Cocido Madriléño/Madrid stew: http://www.spain-recipes.com/cocido-recipe.html

Delicious specialities in Andalucía includes
- Presa Ibérica, fillets of the finest Iberian pig in a dark and sweet sherry (Pedro Ximenes)sauce/reduction.
- Espinacas con garbanzos/Spinach with chickpeas (Sevilla) in an out of this world seasoning.
- Salmorejo (Córdoba) is a thicker variant of the famous Andalucian tomato, vegetable and garlic soup gazpacho. Often served with a topping og ham, peppers and hard-boiled eggs.

In Seville you get the best Presa ibérica at Enrique Becerra:
http://azahar-sevilla.com/sevilletap...rique-becerra/

You can't go much wrong at El Rinconcillo from 1670, the oldest existing tapas bar/restaurantin the country. They do great espincas con garbanzos: http://azahar-sevilla.com/sevilletap...l-rinconcillo/

In Córdoba there are many traditional, affordable and local feel tabernas in the area around Plaza de la Tendillas some 300 meters North of the main tourist attraction, the Mezquita. Here you can have great Salmorejo or many delicious meat dishes. Michelin guide recommended Taberna Salinas is one of them, had a great meal for two with wine and brandy some months ago for about 30€. http://www.tabernasalinas.com/

This coffee thread was started by me because of your original post!

http://www.fodors.com/community/euro...t-in-spain.cfm

KImhe

You know I love Spain but I have never had good beef in Spain. Maybe I have been going to the wrong palces all these years, but they still seem to be cutting the wrong end of the cow.

Last trip we went into the hills near San Sebastian just to eat at one of those ciderias where they specialize in cider, of course, and steak and the beef was just tolerable.

Aduchamp1,

I'm perhaps a bit spoiled after having stayed so much in San Sebastián. I've only had fabulous steaks here and in the Basque country as far I can remember, done "a punto" (I like a bit on the raw side) and as tender as it could be eaten by spoon.

The sidrerias are fun, but not necessary great food places. Next time in San Sebastián/The Basque Country you should take a trip to Tolosa just outside San Sebastián, here they're absolutely dead serious about their meat. Casa Julian (with the branch in Madrid) and Casa Nicolasa are competing for the throne. http://www.time.com/time/magazine/ar...691115,00.html

The best places in Madrid for a great steak are also often run by Basques.

Ashcannanie...coffee is a serious thing over here. We would never ever let someone "free refills" from a pot that´s been lying on a weird coffee machine for ages. Coffee here is served from a real Italian coffee machine, ready made, short, strong, hot...no messing around with it. I guess that if you don´t like it that way, you can order some water and spoil it at your liking (sorry for being rude, but coffee must be real coffee :), not that strange black thing you drink over there in paper cups!!!!)

Thanks so much for your many responses. I will print and insert in the multi-pocketed folder that will go with us. As for drinking coffee in Spain, I will definitely give it a go as is and see how it goes down. I'm not a coffee-weakling by any stretch of imagination...always grind the beans just before pouring hot water over them for dripping through a gold filter, no cream, no sugar, just straight up, and I hate paper cups! I like my coffee like I like my Kentucky (my State) bourbon...straight, smooth, sippin-style. BTW: I've been to Brazil several times and they know a little something about coffee!