Spanish Vacation: Restaurant Differences

While dining in Spain, I ran into some interesting differences in their restaurants as compared to U.S. restaurants.

• Spaniards generally eat a light breakfast and then have a large lunch around 1-4pm. They will then have some Tapas around 8pm and then a light Dinner from 10pm-12am.
• Like much of Europe, it is very uncommon to get ice with your drinks. But, their bottles and cans are generally kept chilled.
• If you want water, it either comes "con gas" or "sin gas," which means either carbonated or non-carbonated. During meals, you often get a large glass bottle of water for the table.
• Bread rolls are commonly brought to your table during meals. They are usually harder rolls rather than soft. Curiously enough, you get charged a few dollars for the bread though you are never asked if you actually want the bread or not. They just bring it and place it on the table.
• Pork products are everywhere, by far the most common meat. Ham, sausages, lomo, pork loin, roast suckling pig, and much more. At morning brunches, there was often around 10 different pork items available. As the pork is delicious, this is not a problem.
• They waste no part of the animal, eating everything from snout to tail. All of these parts are readily available in the food markets.
• Different types of local seafood are available such as hake, spider crab, razor clams, gooseneck barnacles and angelerfish.
• A significant number of restaurants, especially those that see a lot of tourism, have menus in multiple languages including English, German and French.
• Different areas of Spain have varied culinary styles and specialties. Spain is not a homogenous whole, though there will be some similarities in certain matters.
• At a Tapas bar, it is common to stand at the bar while drinking and eating. You order a small drink and then pick which Tapas you want to eat. You then move onto another bar and have another drink and some more food. A glass of wine only costs a few dollars.
• Most wine lists contain only or mostly Spanish wines.
• Wine bottle prices at most restaurants seem very reasonable. The mark-up does not seem as high as it is in the U.S. I saw numerous wines that were only a few dollars over the retail price.
• When your server brings you a bottle of wine, they usually ask who will taste the wine. This is different than the U.S. where most places assume the man will taste the wine and thus don't ask.
• When you order coffee and tea, it is generally brought after your dessert, rather than with your dessert in the U.S. I prefer to have them with my dessert.

This is only a smattering of the differences, and I may expand on some of these matters in later posts.