You may know Barcelona’s iconic architectural landmarks (such as the Basílica de la Sagrada Familia, Casa Batlló, la Casa Milà, to name a few Gaudi’s creations), Granada’s Moorish Alhambra or Madrid’s museums (like Museo Nacional del Prado or Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, for example), but did you know that you can also get to know Spain through its most iconic recipes? Here, we propose a guide to get a taste of Spain’s most notable cities and its culinary culture.
Madrid
The recipes you can find in “Villa y corte” (Town and Court) show some of the most notable features of its culture: a combination between the ancient and the contemporary, a mixture of heritages such as the Jewish and the Arabic, among others.
The compulsory dishes in any food tour in Madrid include the salty “croquetas” (a roll made out of leftovers such as chicken, ham or cheese, coated with breadcrumbs and deep-fried), the “cocido madrileño” (a meat stew with beef, pork, chicken or chorizo, blood sausage, vegetables and chickpeas) or the “bocadillo de calamares” (calamari rings fried in olive oil and served with a baguette), just to name some examples.
If you like potatoes, this is the place for you: from the “tortilla española” (fried potatoes and onions mixed with eggs and fried in olive oil) to “patatas bravas” (fried or roasted potatoes served with aioli and a spicy tomato-based sauce), Madrid has a way to make potatoes stand out.
Other iconic mentions include “callos a la madrileña” (Iberian meat with Spanish sausage and tomato sauce) and “jamón ibérico” (ham with a very particular taste).
Do not leave before dessert, for you will miss out on the “churros con chocolate” (flour dough that is fried and dusted with sugar, then served with molten chocolate) and the “torrijas” (bread soaked in milk, sugar, wine, vanilla, cinnamon, citrus zest and honey, then fried). Where to get them? At Chocolatería San Ginés, to begin with.
You can have a taste of these culinary classics in culinary landmarks, such as the restaurant Sobrino de Botín (the oldest restaurant in operation), Mesón del Champiñón (known for their menu based on mushrooms), Bodega de la Ardosa, La Venencia or Casa Lucio.
Barcelona
This city is not only beautiful to walk in, but also a bite to taste. Barcelona has a way of making each recipe its own: it can take a Spanish classic, such as the “paella” (rice mixed with saffron, seafood and meat, among others) and give it a Catalan twist, like exchanging the rice for noodles (some call this the “fideua”).
You will also find the Barcelonian outtake on simple ingredients: from the “escalivada” (peppers, eggplant and onions chargrilled or wrapped in foil and cooked in hot coals) to “calcots” (eggplants and peppers without their charred skins and mixed with onions), the city provides an innovative recipe for well-known vegetables.
However, if you are looking for something you cannot find everywhere, make sure to add “cargols” to your food tour in Barcelona. This dish consists of cooking snails in tomato sauce mixed with onion and pepper or served with aioli (which is called “cargol alla catalana”), snails grilled and served with aioli (“cargol a la llauna”) or snails cooked in their shells (known as “cargolada”). You can even find a stew of rabbit and snails (“conill amb cargols”).
Seafood and meat also have their places in the city’s menu: go to Fishology to find chefs that use age-old techniques to cook fish and to Bardeni-Caldeni to try their iconic meat-based dishes.
If you are craving a sweet treat, grab a bite of “crema catalana” (also known as “crema cremada”), the Catalan approach to creme brulée: take egg yolks, sugar, citrus zest and cinnamon to make it a custard, which is fired with a blowtorch. The “crema catalana” is usually made with milk instead of cream and has a particular texture.
Still hungry? You can go to Seville and have the famous “tapas”, those small snacks made out of garlic, fish, seafood, pork and olive oil, for lunch. Then, for dessert, you can travel to Granada and have the iconic “piononos de Santa Fe”, a small cake rolled into a cylindrical shape, then soaked with sweet syrup and cream.
