Food in Granada is probably too broad of a topic to attempt to cover in one post. I am not a picky eater at all (besides my strange aversion to bacon), so I will try absolutely anything and usually like it. While I was here, I probably had some of the best, worst, and most interesting foods I have ever tried in my life.
Let's start with homemade food. I was lucky to have a Senora who cooked all my meals for me, and they were (almost) all delicious. In fact, one of Erin and my daily conversations was what our Senora's had made us for each meal. Some things I had absolutely no idea what they were, but I ate them anyway and loved them (it took me a while to realize the soggy objects floating atop soup were chunks of french bread).
For breakfast I always had french bread toast with butter (or peanut butter my mom had sent me from home), fruit, or breakfast cookies (which taste like animal crackers). For lunch, if I didn't have time to make the forty minute trek home during siesta, my Senora would pack me a bocadillo (sandwich on a french baguette), and fruit. My bocadillo was either ham and cheese, or atun con tomate (like tuna salad but with tomato sauce instead of mayo--sounds weird but its totally delicious). Erin and I would sometimes supplement our lunches with aceitunas (olives), Lay's campesino chips (taste like a combination of sour cream & onion, barbeque, and tomato basil), and principes. Bocodillo time was a highlight of our day, when we had our picnic lunches on benches in the plaza near Cegrí, visited by our nub-footed pigeon friend.
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| nub-foot pigeon |
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| Bocadillo time |
If I went home for lunch around 2 pm, my Señora would always prepare a large meal with french bread (served at every meal), usually soup, a main course, and fruit for dessert. My favorites were her lentil and potato stew, spinach and egg soup, chicken and papas fritas (french fries), fish, pasta with hard boiled eggs, and paella. Dinner is usually the smallest meal of the day, eaten around 9 or 10 pm. Sometimes my Señora would make ensalada (lettuce, tomatoes, and avacado), tortillas (omelettes) with cheese, or tortilla española (potato omelette), manchego cheese, tomato, chorizo, pasta, ensalada rusa (potatoes, tuna, olives, onions), a salad of cheese, apples, and a mayonaise-like sauce. Sometimes, if my host parents weren't eating dinner, Filo would make me refrigerated pizza (this is common, intead of frozen pizzas like in the US, microwavable pizza is refrigerated. It is usually thin crust pizza with ham, olives, or plain cheese). Yogurt was usually for dessert, and for some reason yogurt in Spain is the most delicious yogurt ever, especially their greek yogurt. I was always excited to have yogurt for dessert, even though it was pretty much everyday.
Another point to make about food is that the Spanish are OBSESSED with jamón (ham). It is common to see entire ham legs hanging from the ceiling of shops and restaurants, this is Jamon cerrano, which is the most popular meat in Granada. Lomo (a fatty cut of ham) is also very popular.
Chips are also interesting here because the brand Lay's has different flavors in Spain than in the US. For example Campesino and Queso are common flavors, I also found Mojito, and Cheeseburger.
Aceitunas (olives), specifically green olives are super popular in Spain, and I became even more obsessed with them than I already was.
For some reason, most of the food I ate in Spain tasted like the Best Food Ever. Foods that were unbelievably amazing in Spain. For example, all fruit was generally sweeter and better-tasting than in the US (especially pears and oranges). And this is wonderful since fruit is eaten quite frequently, including for dessert. As a chocolate addict, anytime fruit tastes like dessert to me, that is a great thing.
Speaking of dessert: pastries. It is impossible to walk down any street anywhere in Spain without passing a pastelería (pastry shop). In a country that considers cookies, magdelanas (breakfast muffins), and french bread common breakfast foods, you can imagine the abundance of pastries. Churros con chocolate, turrón, various chocolate filled pastries, doughnuts, bombas, tortas, chocolate croissants, and mucho más. My favorite place to get pastries was from the "bread lady," a local woman who set up a stand in a plaza near Cegrí every morning and sold fresh bread and pastries. They are hands down the most delicious pastries I have ever eaten. This became such a popular spot among our program that we referred to this plaza as "bread lady plaza." I had a pastry from here at least once a week. Another treat we indulged in quite often, especially once it got warmer was gelato. There were ice cream stores all over, usually displayed quite decoratively. Coconut and cookie flavor were my favorites, as well and the chocolate and nut covered cones.
Tapas are probably one of the most widely recognized Spanish foods. Tapas small, appetizer portioned snacks served with drinks. Granada is one of the only cities in Spain that still offers free tapas with beverage purchase (excluding tea and coffee). Some common types of tapas are jamón on bread, mini hamburguesas, papas fritas, piece of tortilla española, patatas bravas (french fries or potatoes with sauce), albóndigas (meatballs), olives. Some places even let you choose your tapa. Going out for tapas is a great social activity because you can eat and drink all for one low price!
There were only a few foods I tried that I did not like. I was not a fan of jamón cerrano or lomo because I don't like fatty meat. While I love fish, I did not like some of the fish my senora served me that had tiny bones in them (like bocal; these bones were impossible to pick out completely, so I felt like I was ingesting tiny plastic strings, which kind of grossed me out. Not completely horrible, just different. Which brings me to the strangest thing I have ever eaten. One day for lunch, my Señora served me chicken broth soup with a few noodles. She also gave me a small dish of pomegranate seeds, which are delicious on their own. However, she proceeded to insist that I dump the pomegranate seeds into my soup. Now, I love soup and I love pomegranate seeds, but together they made a very strange combination. The hot, salty liquid infused with fruity, crunchy little seeds was not something I would say I enjoyed. I'm not exactly sure if this is a common thing, or just something my senora was into. It was definitely interesting to try, but not something I would eat again.
