Spanish Cuisine

I am Ashley, lover of fresh fruit, vegetables, whole wheat bread, banana pancakes, kashi cereal, gelato, PB&Js are my staple, and I don’t eat much meat. My first taste of Spanish food (which I know is not the same as Mexican but I must admit I still had hope it would have some of my favs, beans etc.) was interesting. It was really fun because of the great company, George and Marisa – new friends I was introduced to before I arrived in Spain, they we very gracious hosts who took me to different places around Madrid and ordered different dishes and drinks at each place. Thank goodness they did the ordering since I couldn’t read the menus! Tapas sounded like a great thing but it turned out that many of them were fried…not my thing. I tried everything and sampled different dishes along the way. Turns out my favorite Spanish food was the tortilla. A tortilla in Spain is simply an omelet! They have Spanish omelets (potato and ham) or French omelets (plain).

I enjoyed many jamón bocadillos (ham sandwiches) the sandwiches in Europe are much better than the States for some reason…


and countless café con leches throughout the trip! Niki and I must have stopped for café at least once a day! It was a great time to rest and pick our next destination.

Barcelona has a famous market – La Boqueria (Mercat de Sant Josep) Oh My God! It was amazing! The colors alone when you walk in are too die for. In every direction all you see in luscious ripe fruits, delectable veggies and even I checked out the amazing meats! I was in heaven! I was leaving for Germany so I couldn’t buy anything but I had one of the yummy pre-

cut fruit packages to go!

My favorite meal in Spain was actually at a Pan Asian place WagaBoo in Madrid! George and Marisa took us; it was in a great shopping area and reminded me of a trendy place you’d see in NYC. The food was delicious, they made the pasta upstairs from scratch and you could watch them stretch the dough through the glass! The prices were great too! Overall I loved Spain and would move there in a second! I might even take up eating fried food to stay in España!

Us having tapas on Easter after a day shopping on el Rastro (a huge flea market in Madrid)