Eating in a foreign country can be a challenge, even for adventurous eaters. Even when you find menus in English, the words can still be unknown and the interpretation can still be confusing. Here are a few things I learned about eating on the Iberian Peninsula.
1. Tomatoes are often served grated, mixed with olive oil and salt and either spread over toast or served in a little cup so you can spread it yourself. Pan con Tomate, or tomato toast, can also come topped with ham or cheese.
2. Ham is serious business. Jamón ibérico Is a cured ham made from the rear leg of free-range, acorn-fed Iberian pigs. It is usually served sliced paper thin, similar to the way prosciutto is sliced.
3. Chocolate is everywhere. You can find chocolate stores or chocolate pastries on nearly every street. Try one of the chocolates made in Portugal from imported Ecuadorian chocolate.
4. Speaking of chocolate, cups of thick, rich, dark hot chocolate are often served alongside crunchy fried churros. Buy churros where they are fried to order, not premade.
5. Take-away means take away. Don’t even think you can order take-away and then go sit at one of the restaurant's sidewalk tables to eat. Go find your own table.
6. Order the orange juice. It will be delicious and freshly squeezed from sweet Valencian oranges. But don't eat the oranges from the beautiful, but bitter Sevillian Orange trees. They are loaded with oranges and our tour guide told us you will not die from eating one, but you will wish you were dead. He said they send those bitter oranges to the US and the UK because Americans and Brits like marmalade and that is the only thing those oranges are good for. I did not see marmalade in a restaurant even once the entire time I was in Spain and Portugal.
7. You are going to pay for water. And you need to specify if you want still, sparkling, tap or mineral. It will come to your table in a pretty carafe or bottle and will usually be cold.
8. Ice. You might have to ask for it and you might only get one cube, but the cubes are huge. I was so happy with the big ice!
9. There are stores and stalls dedicated to selling tinned fish. The tins are beautiful and there are lots of kinds to choose from…tuna, smoked salmon, sardines, anchovies, trout, mackerel, cod, caviar, etc. The Conserveira de Lisboa, in Lisbon, is a lovely little store that has been selling tinned fish since 1930. You should check it out even if you don’t like fish. The tins are so pretty.
10. Speaking of fish, beware. It can crop up when you least expect it, especially when you don’t quite understand the language or terminology. We ordered potato salad and it was mixed with chunks of cod. If the menu says bacalao or bacalhau, it is cod.
11. Get the eggs. Europeans know how to cook eggs. We found this to be true all over the UK, and Spain and Portugal are just as proficient. I could probably live off the eggs and orange juice, if I didn’t like anything else. I wish America would take egg cooking lessons from the Europeans.
12. Coke...You may not find Dr. Pepper, at least not easily, but Coke is everywhere in Spain and Portugal. And they will even serve it cold with ice.
13. Pina Coladas are served freshly made in pineapples. We saw them in several places and they are refreshing in the hot Spanish sun.
14. Pastry shops are on every street. Portugal is famous for Pastel de Nata, a custard filled pastry. Do not listen to all the travel pages that tell you to get a pastry from Pastéis de Belém. From online reviews, I know I'm in the minority here, but I found it to be a tourist trap with pastries that look better than they taste.
15. Pizza is a good bet all over the Iberian Peninsula. For the most part, I found the pizzas to be fresher than most American pizzas, with thin, delicious crusts.
16. Portugal and Spain have lots of markets selling beautiful fresh produce. I badly wanted to bring bags of it home with me.
17. Paella can be found on menus all across the peninsula and many restaurants are dedicated paella restaurants. I would like to go back and try paella again. I didn’t love the one I ordered, but I feel like I might have if I had ordered from a different restaurant.
18. Gelato shops are much like the chocolate and churro shops, meaning that they are on nearly every street. We even found a shop that makes gelato cones that look like flowers and they will add as many “petals” of as many different flavors as you like.
19. Patatas Bravas are fried or roasted potatoes with spicy Bravas and aioli sauces drizzled over the top.
20. Tapas are small plates of food and allow you to sample more items than you can with larger servings. Many people order several tapas and share.
Bonus…American Fast Food…even if you never eat at McDonald’s at home, after days of chocolate, churros, paellas and cod, you might find yourself craving something familiar from a familiar source. We found McDonald’s, Burger King, Kentucky Fried Chicken, Five Guys and Taco Bell almost everywhere we went.