Spain Cuisine

Spanish cooking has popular roots. It is the people's cuisine. Most of it is down-to-earth, uncomplicated food, based on the ingredients available locally or the crops grown regionally. Mountains run through Spain in several directions, acting as natural barriers to communication and making transportation difficult until the last half of the 20th century. This is one of the reasons why cooking differs so much from region to region. Many dishes are prepared today using the same cooking methods and ingredients as they were two or three hundred years ago. Other dishes sprung up from European and American influences and were adapted to the Spanish taste. Food in Spain is fresh, abundant and full of taste and the Spanish love their food dearly.

Fish is a very popular food in Spain so is sausage, ham and cheese. One of the most popular dishes is called paella It's made with rich broth with some fruits. What they mostly eat everyday are potato corn and rice with some soup. The spices that are used in Spain is pepper.People get food by fishing, planting crops like grain.  They grow the crops themselves and they cook by themselves. Some people buy food in the store and some people grow it.

Spain was divided into small kingdoms; each one with its own language, culture and cuisine. Even today, Spain remains divided into 17 Autonomous Communities, each one with its own unique cuisine. However, there are a few dishes that have gained popularity all over Spain and some internationally:

• Tortilla Española (Spanish omelette) made of eggs, potatoes and onions. 
• Gazpacho (Andalusian Cold Tomato Soup) This refreshing dish originated in the region of Andalucia, but is served everywhere during the hot summer months.
• Paella de Marisco (Spanish Seafood Rice) originated in the fields of Valencia, where country folk mixed rice with rabbit, snails and vegetables and cooked it over an open fire. It has evolved into Spain’s most well-known dish, where fish, shellfish, meat, pork and/or chicken may be used.
• Jamon Serrano (Spanish Ham) several regions are known for the ham they produce, but it is eaten all over the Peninsula.
• Chorizo Sausage (Spanish Pork Sausage) wide variety of chorizo sausage is eaten in every corner of Spain on a regular basis.

The two basic ingredients of all Spanish food are olive oil and garlic. However, because Spain has very distinct geographical regions, settled by different ethnic and cultural groups, and because the weather varies from province to province, the regional cuisines are very different. Many times the only common ingredients are olive oil and garlic.

Spaniards continue their socializing in their neighbourhood cafés or go out to a nightclub or disco-pub after dinner.

Churreria (Churro) is typical Spanish desert. Churros are fried pastries that look something like huge fried potatoes, though they have nothing to do with potatoes. Fresh churros are bought from a street vendor or sidewalk café, served hot and sprinkled with sugar are delicious and very light.

To accompany churros, hot chocolate is the drink of choice! Chocolate in Spain is NOT like the chocolate in the USA. It´s not like Mexican chocolate either, which has cinnamon and other flavors in it. Spanish chocolate is made hot and is very thick made from fresh whole milk.