Going on vacation to Spain? Want to try eating some unusual Spanish foods? Our guide to the less common items on the Spanish food menu gives you a rare insight into the cuisine of Spain.
Spanish food is known to be a tantalizing treat for the taste buds. For first timers however Spanish food can be just as surprising as it is tasty. The Spanish cuisine is known to possess a unique mix of diverse cultures from around the world. These included people from different races, language, religions and regions. Each nation brought with it its own style of cooking and established itself in the land of Spain. From the Romans to the Moors one can see the traces of all these cultures giving the Spanish cuisine its color. This has made Spain very unique as you have such a wide range of strikingly different food items all under one roof so as to say. With the passage of time and improvements in means of mass communication the regional cuisines have intermingled and so have the cuisines of the different nations. This has resulted in a fusion of the different culinary heritages to give us a very unique cuisine which may even seem unusual to an outsider.
Unusual Spanish Seafood
The meal that is taken a couple of hours after breakfast is known as tapas. Tapa dishes are light and experimental and you will find some of the most unusual things to bite into for this time of the day. We’ve all had eggs but the tortilla Espanola is a special Spanish omelet that combines eggs with potatoes and onions. For an outsider this dish may seem quite unusual but it is a true treat for the taste buds. What about the garlic shrimp? This is a finger food for this particular time of the day. It is quick to make and it is not something that you commonly get to eat in other cultures. Stuffed, breaded and fried mussels known as the Mejillones rellenos is another unique Spanish dish. Not many people would be accustomed to try something like the Clamares a la Romana. This dish is basically rings of fried squid.
There are some interesting foods that the Spanish devour for lunch time. After the first round of appetizers comes in some sort of a unique soup which could be anything from the Sopa de pescado y Marisco which is the fish and shellfish soup to the Sopa de Ajo garlic soup. Such entrants are uncommon in the cuisines of other cultures especially the west where the trend is more towards fast food. The Spanish have a love for fish and they can cook it in some very interesting ways to produce unusual dishes. Some of their popular yet unique fish dishes are the Bacaloa con tomate- cold fish with tomato sauce or another version with onion sauce. Then you have the baked snapper a la rotena and the satander style sardines.
The Spaniards’ love for fish by no means overwhelms their love for meat. They have some very unique and unusual meat entries like the filetes empanados con ajo which are breaded beef fillets. The estofado de conejo is not something that people foreign to the culture of Spain would be willing to try because this is a stew made out of rabbits. Other unique items include the garbanzo and spinach soup, asturian bean and sausage casserole and the famous Valencia rice dish.
