¿Qué os apetece?

In January, I visited Spain for the first time (and Europe for the first time, too!). I accompanied a group of students who were participating in a five-week exchange program that our school set up with a colegio in Zaragoza, Spain. After the students' host families picked them up, my job was to visit, eat, visit and eat some more. We spent about 4 days in Zaragoza and 3 days in Madrid.

We visited many beautiful places, but the first topic I want to write about is FOOD! Perhaps the most famous food concept to come out of Spains is tapas. Tapas really refer to portion sizes--they are small plates of finger food typically served with some alcoholic beverage, usually wine or beer. The first night we were in Zaragoza, our hosts took us on what is called el tapeo, which is basically a tapas crawl. We went to one tapas bar and ate one tapa, and then we moved on to another bar and so on.


The first bar we went to only served tapas with mushrooms. The tapa in this bar was simple: a stack of sauteed mushrooms served on top of a slice of french bread. Also we all had a small glass (much smaller than what you would get in an American restaurant) of vino tinto, or red wine. Here is a picture of all the mushrooms being cooked. This is what heaven looks like! After the mushroom bar, we went to a bar called La cueva en Aragón. There we had a tapa that four of us shared that seemed more like breakfast to this American. It was fried sliced potatoes with ham and onions on top. There may have been other toppings, but I did not take a picture, so I cannot remember.
The next bar we sampled a few tapas that were slices of french bread with various toppings. My favorite was Queso de cabra con confituras (Goat cheese with jam). Delicious! For a final hurrah on our tapeo was a very interesting tapa that had I not been traveling I may not have had the guts to try it. It is called La Guardia Civil (which refers to the Spanish police). It is called this because whenever you seen anyone with La Guardia Civil, you see them in twos. With this tapa, most people order two. It was like a mini-sub sandwich, and the fillings were sardines, tomato, red pepper and a pickle. I have never tried a sardine before and never had wanted to try one. But I went for it. It was very salty, but not as bad as I thought it would be.

Other tapas enjoyed that we did not sample on our tapeo were:
Croquetas de jamón (Ham croquettes--on the left). These were my favorite. I first had them for breakfast but later we had them as a tapa in Madrid. It is pureed potatoes with onion, ham and cheese. Jamón serrano (the famous ham from Spain that is specially cured--similar to prosciutto) served with french bread and manchego cheese. In many bars, you will see pig legs

hanging from the ceiling or rafters. This is where the jamón serrano comes from. (Photo from www.wikipedia.com). La ensaladilla rusa is a salad that could be compared to American tuna salad or potato salad. The ingredients are potatoes, tuna, pickles and mayonnaise.