Before coming to Madrid, I was really panicked about food. I'd done some research and noticed that Spaniards love their meat, especially pork. I'm a very picky person, but in a very different way than most picky eaters. I love almost all fruits and vegetables and I'm a huge fan of seafood. I like meat but only chicken and turkey (and it must be white meat) and a small amount of red meat (that has to be cooked well done-if I see even a little bit of pink I'll gag). I don't like sausage or hot dogs and I do not eat pork except for the occasional slice of almost burnt bacon. Another odd thing about my food tastes is I hate all condiments. I hate ketchup, mustard, relish, mayonnaise, barbecue sauce, honey mustard, etc. Thankfully these condiments aren't very popular in Spain. What worried me the most about the food in Spain was that I'd have to eat all of my meals with my host family. I would never want for my picky palate to offend anyone.
Overall I've been pleasantly surprised by the food here. Spanish food is, as a general rule, very bland, but that's not a bad thing for me. For breakfast I usually have a bowl of cereal. Although the brands are different, the types of cereal are almost identical to those in the US. If I don't want cereal then I'll have some toast. Breakfast is not big here. Spaniards eat a small breakfast and move on with their day.
As far as lunch and dinner go there's really only one thing that I wasn't a huge fan of. Lentils. Lentils are a popular dish in Spain. It was served as a stew. There were lots of vegetables, which I was fine with, but there was also quite a bit of weird looking meat. Monica, the study abroad student that I live with, told me it was sausage, but I'm not convinced she understood Emperatriz, the house assistant who only speaks Spanish, correctly. It looked more like organ meat to me. Either way, I avoided the meat. The lentils themselves tasted fine but the look of the meat was very unappetizing. The lentils were also served with blood sausage. It looked like a blob of black ground meat. Needless to say, I didn't even try it.
I've really enjoyed a lot of the other meals we've had. We've eaten meals like pan fried fish, breaded chicken, salad, paella, canalones, tortilla Española, a soup with yellow broth and garbanzo beans, pasta carbonara, small meat patties, rice, and lots of vegetables. In case you didn't know, paella is a rice dish flavored with saffron and an assortment of seafood; it's delicious! Canalones are similar to cannelloni. They are basically rolls of pasta stuffed with cheese and different things like beef, spinach, or squash. Tortilla Española is basically an egg and potato omelette. Another dish that I eat quite often with my host family is pasta salad. However, this pasta salad is very different from the pasta salad you find in America. This salad contains noodles, of course, but also lettuce, tomatoes, bell peppers, corn, tuna, sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, walnuts, chickpeas, apples, and loads of other yummy things and it's all tossed with olive oil. I love the pasta salad here!
My favorite meal so far has been arroz con pollo (chicken and rice). It was a very simple meal but so tasty! There were bell peppers and onions and small chunks of chicken in the rice. I could eat that every day! I don't think it's a typical Spanish meal, but the housekeeper/chef, Emperatriz, is originally from Nicaragua and has lived in Mexico so the meals sometimes have Mexican or Latin American twists to them.
For dessert, we get the option of fruit or yogurt. I like this because both options are healthy and they really are sweet enough to be considered dessert. This is not to say that Spaniards never eat sweets for dessert. There are ice cream and chocolate shops on every street. Desserts are just not an everyday thing. One night for dessert, my host mom gave me turón. Turón is a very typical Spanish dessert that is served during Christmastime. It is a hard almond candy and is very tasty.
Thankfully the food in Spain hasn't been bad. There are a lot of meals that I even really like. While I'm in Spain I will make an effort to not be so picky and to at least give new foods a try (but honestly I would kill for a decent slice of pizza).
