Spanish cuisine

Spanish cuisine is made of very different kinds of dishes due to the differences in geography, culture and climate. It is heavily influenced by the variety of seafood available from the waters that surround the country. As Spain has had a long and vast history and has suffered many different cultural influences, the richness and variety of its cuisine is overwhelming, but all these ingredients have made up a unique and differentiated Spanish cuisine with thousands of recipes and flavours. The international influences are nowhere more obvious than in Barcelona. Next door to a shop selling ready made falafels is an Asian food restaurant, which is next to a tradicional tapas bar, and on and on in amazing variety.

Daily meals eaten by the Spanish are still very often made traditionally, by hand from fresh ingredients bought daily from the local market. This is more common in the rural areas and is of course much less common in the large urban areas like Madrid, where supermarkets are beginning to displace the open air markets. Even in Madrid food can be bought from the local shops, bread from the paneria, meat from the carniceria, etc.

One very interesting custom when going out is to take tapas with your drink (beer, wine, coke...). In some places like Granada tapas are given for free with your drink and have become very famous for that reason.

Typical spanish foods include

• Paella (saffron rice)
• Mariscos (shellfish)
• Gazpacho Soup
• Tortilla de patatas