Oh, goodness, espagnola, so even WITH a dictionary I'm going to be lost? LOL. I don't eat shellfish anyway, but I'd never seen the word bogavante and the Spanish-English dictionary I looked at said lobster. Thanks for clearing it up .

And thanks for all the good hints about what can and can't be worked out!

I just looked at my journal from 2000. In 16 days in Spain, I had cheese rather than dessert a total of 5 times, one of those was as an assorted Spanish cheese plate in a parador. As I recall the others were mostly a single serving of cheese and I think were usually served with some fruit (maybe dried?). So those who say it is NEVER done, just have been to the wrong restaurants. Although in fairness, I don't suppose they normally offered the cheese, I asked for it and got it.

Didn't say NEVER done just "not usually". It would not usually be a dessert offering (such as in France). I guess you could ask for anything you wanted for dessert and the resturant could be accomodating. That said, ask, the worst they could say was no.

Ok, Patrick, maybe I've been going to the wrong restaurants all my life ;-)

Well, then, I should change the "you'll never be offered cheese" for "You'll be offered cheese as a menu del dia dessert in 1-5% of the restaurant you'll visit"

In Spain, cheese is usually eaten as a tapa or appetizer but rarely as a dessert (with exceptions: cheese cake, fried sweet cheese, cheese with "membrillo&quot.

But if you still want to eat cheese, out of the menu del dia, and ask for it as a dessert, they'll bring it to you. No problem, it's not a weird thing to do either.

Amapola, the thing is that we eat a lot of fish and seafood in Spain, so there are a lot of different names depending on size, origin, variety, etc...

Also, I learn "camarón" in Mexico is what we call here "gamba".

For us, a "camarón" is a much smaller shrimp tham a "gamba" and a "langostino" is even bigger.

Hi.i'm harsha,travelling in spain in mid may.Casa del sol,madrid and seville.
we are a group of 10 pax i.e. four families with kids.we prefer apartments to stay.Can any one help suggest reasonable accomodation for the group.preferablly the name and contact no. and email ids.alsoin the proximity to popular tourist destinations.Thanks.

Harsha, you should post your question as a new subject, not within an existing post. You will get more responses that way. Be sure to post with a clear heading such as "Madrid Apartments". Also, if you search Madrid and Apartments in the search function you will find lots of existing information. Have a great trip!

thanks,i'll take your advice and post it under a diff head

The one thing I noticed about most restaurant's "menu del dia" was that it was usually way too much food considering we had been drinking beer and having snacks earlier. We usually ordered some smaller dish alacarte for dinners.

Hi I'm a Spaniard living in Spain. In the "menu del dia" you usually choose between two or three desserts and almost always are : a piece of fruit, a flan and sometimes, an ice- cream I've never seen cheese as a dessert except as part of a more elaborated recipe Anyway, don't feel bad about asking !! The worst thing than can happen to you is a "no" but no one would feel bad about it )
You also can ask for any dessert a la carta and pay for it , they are usually not very expensive.
And yes, lobster is langosta !! ))

Why do I have so much trouble making myself understood?

la_espagnola, you'll notice I didn't say that cheese WILL BE OFFERED, in fact, I specifically mentioned that I don't remember it being offered. I merely said that you can sometimes order it or request it as a substitute for what was offered.

Just as you say, I suggest that you ask and it is likely you can get it. That's all. I have no reason to suggest you say anything as silly as "You'll be offered cheese as a menu del dia dessert in 1-5% of the restaurant you'll visit". I didn't suggest that is true at all; in fact, I doubt you will EVER be OFFERED cheese in Spain as a substitute for dessert!!!