Spain has so many wonderful qualities, but among the top is the food. It’s fresh, available, simple and delicious, and we have been thoroughly enjoying it…

We take almost daily trips to the local marketplace, which has smaller shops selling their specialties, as well as a big grocery store with a variety of everything. We have especially enjoyed fresh fruits and veggies, cheeses, meats, and seafood!

  • There are baskets with wheels that you pull along on the floor. Right now citrus is in season!
  • This is an olive bar- an amazing amount of choices!
  • We haven’t tried the smoked fish, yet, and are not sure what this variety is…
  • So many varieties of cheese, we have a hard time picking favorites.
  • An abundance of seafood. Fresh fish, mussles, shrimp, squid, and some we don’t know!
  • This has been our favorite so far… at 8 euro/kg we have bought an entire salmon so far! (They only sell them in halves, ha!)
  • We bought some shrimp for Christmas- the kids didn’t enjoy peeling and deveining, but they were delicious.
  • This is one of the many shops selling legs of ham for Christmas- see the rows of them hanging? Spain is famous for it’s jamón!
  • Our first grocery haul from the market.
  • Paul has been our water-man, carrying jugs of water home for us to drink. We can drink the tap water, but it smells strongly of chlorine…
  • Hauling home the groceries! It’s a little over a mile walk each way, so we are building up our strength, but enjoy the forced exercise.
  • Getting to eat our baked salmon, salad and fresh baguette outside on a sunny afternoon!

We have also enjoyed getting to visit some of the local restaurants that seem to pop up everywhere! We are still not sure how to know when each is open or closed, but the locals all seem to know, so I’m sure there’s a pattern somewhere… Also, it seems like most of the small places do it all- espresso in the mornings with baked items, tapas and drinks late into the night, and food and drinks in between!

  • Enjoying café con leche with Croissants, a typical Spanish breakfast, on a lovely Saturday morning at the restaurant down the street.
  • The kids enjoyed a leche manchada, milk with a dash of coffee. Noah was thrilled 😉

We enjoyed a nice dinner a few days into our time here. Down by the beach there are so many restaurants, so we picked one that seemed nice and were very happy with the choice. In Spain, the largest meal of the day is the mid-day meal, called “la comida”, which means “the food”, eaten around 2pm. Restaurants often offer a “Menú del día” (menu of the day), which includes a drink, an appetizer, 2 courses and dessert, all for a reasonable fixed price (usually about $15). So, Paul and I each ordered one and shared with the kids. What a great way to taste Spain!

  • Starting with olives and fresh bread.
  • We ordered extra water for the kids, which was almost as expensive as the meal! Tip, order tap water 😉
  • Red wine and Spanish beer.
  • Our meal! Calamari, Mussels, Lamb and Shrimp.
  • I
  • A meal well eaten!
  • Catalan Creme Caramel (similar to Creme Brûlée), and Flan for dessert.

We have spent a bit of time looking up how to cook with the variety of ingredients we have gathered (anyone know how to properly fillet a squid? Just ask Paul!), and have already gone through 2 bottles of fresh olive oil. While we have had our challenges of being unfamiliar with ingredients and techniques, and a temptation to stick to what we know, it has been deliciously rewarding to enjoy the flavors of Spain!