Hola, amigos!
In order to do any type of justice at all to the Spanish people, I really must rave about their food as often as possible. The downside to this is that (a) you can't taste what I am discussing, and this might make you jealous and (b) it's tres-sketchy to photograph every time I eat at home, much less in restaurants. But for you, my loving family and friends, I will do my best!
So to begin...
Starve, starve, starve... EAT EAT EAT!!!
The first thing that you may note upon arriving in Spain is that they really do not eat breakfast. Despite all of the recent health hoopla about the "most important meal of the day", a true Spaniard will take some coffee, and maybe a "tostada" (aka toast), and this will hold him over until 12 or 2pm. In my humble opinion, this feat of habitual starvation is possible because (a) they are still digesting from dinner last night and (b) many of the younger folk are a bit hung over, but that is just my personal guess. We will see if it still stands at the end of the semester.
By the time the average Madrileno eats for the second time, somewhere around 1pm, the average tourist has died of hunger. But really, this city panders too much to tourists anyway (so many signs in English!), so let them starve. They will survive. My family calls lunch "comida", aka "food", and at least on the weekends it's enormous. I haven't really grasped which meal is supposed to be larger yet, comida or cena (dinner), but let's just suffice it to say that they're both enormous. I might give one up for Lent. These people are crazy!
Finally, "cena" (dinner) is the most astounding of all, as it is eaten around 9 or 11 pm!!! I'm not kidding! 11pm, and Madrilenos eat a sizable dinner! This comes in handy when you want to go out on the weekends, because here the discotheques don't even open until 1am, but on a normal day they mostly eat and go right to sleep! I maintain this is why they don't need breakfast, but truly, it's a remarkable feat, because I have yet to meet a ton of fat Madrilenos, they all look pretty skinny to me!
Secret treasures from a Madrid kitchen
So... let me give you a brief tour through some real gems I have tried in the last few days!
YOGOURTH- aka yogurt, but so much better! It's way thicker, and many times you can purchase it unflavored and add your own sugar on top, which is (a) way healthier and (b) way tastier!
CREMA- vaguely approximate to a creamed soup. I'm not sure what was in it, but I know that there were peas, cream, and other ingredients involved. My host mom is a big fan of the food processor- it makes everything easier!
CROQUETTES- made at home from scratch! Again with the food processor, you beat up a good paste, then fry them in olive oil... so good.
CHOCOLATE CON CHURROS- I mentioned in the previous post, but it bears repeating... bread like funnel cake, with your own cup of chocolate as a fondue!!! (I will totally buy this for anyone who comes to visit me... :) )
Dream of chocolate until we meet again! Adios!
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