Have you ever woken up in the morning and had a hankering for ham?  If you answered affirmatively to that question and you live in Spain, [...]]]>

The butcher shops here in Spain come complete with hanging "legs of ham" to entice customers to buy (especially look where the red arrow is pointing).

Have you ever woken up in the morning and had a hankering for ham?  If you answered affirmatively to that question and you live in Spain, you’re in luck: a nice “leg of ham” is waiting for you just around the corner at your neighborhood deli.  Yes, you heard right… here in Spain “ham legs” like the ones pictured above are suspended from the air and sold in places like grocery stores and delicatessens. 

As an American, I was a little put off the first time I saw one of these ham legs literally “hanging around” in a grocery store.  In fact, I remember asking myself how these things don’t go bad after being stuck in the middle of the store with no refrigeration whatsoever for days (or even months) on end.  I later learned that these patas de jamón are cured much like beef jerky and thus don’t require refrigeration.

Now that I’ve been living in Spain for close to two years I have to admit that, despite their bizarre appearance, I’ve acquired a taste for these delectable “ham legs.”  In case you are curious, this type of ham comes from a special Iberian pig that is native to Spain and these ham legs are sold with much success throughout the Iberian Peninsula.  In fact, most families here in Spain buy a pata de jamón once or twice a year and slowly shave ham off of it with a special knife until nothing is left but the bone.  The ham from these legs can be used in recipes or in sandwiches.

Let’s use the comments of this post to talk about ham and other foods that are “typically Spanish.”  Please, leave me a note below describing both the strangest food you’ve ever eaten in Spain and the best food you’ve ever eaten here.  I look forward to hearing from you!

Hasta luego,
–Chris
http://abroadinspain.com

The winter has finally arrived to Burgos. The days are darker, the temperatures are lower, and the people of the city are [...]]]>

During the winter, churros stands like this one begin to crop up all over Burgos. It’s easy to eat these delicious delicacies; however, it’s somewhat more complex to order them.

The winter has finally arrived to Burgos. The days are darker, the temperatures are lower, and the people of the city are sporting their “Eskimo attire” to combat the cold. Of course, if you don’t like bundling up to stay warm, you could try another “heat-seeking” technique: eating freshly made churros.

Since the weather has begun to get colder, churros stands (like the one pictured above) have been popping up all over the place around the city. For those of you who don’t know what churros are, they’re basically rod-shaped pieces of fried dough that are covered in sugar — the Spanish version of the doughnut. The truth is, nothing quite warms you up on a winter day like some freshly fried churros along with a little hot chocolate to accompany them.

Despite their delectable goodness, ordering churros from a street vendor posed a bit of a problem for me when I first moved to Spain.  It turns out that ordering churros is more difficult than you might think.   

You see, before coming to Burgos last year, I had never seen a churros stand anywhere. I had eaten churros in various bars and restaurants before; however, the whole “street churros experience” was something new to me.

When you’re in a bar and you want churros, the “norm” is to tell the waiter or waitress that you want “churros for one person” or “churros for two people.” In other words, you tell the waiter how many people are going to be eating the churros and then let the staff in the kitchen decide exactly how many to give you (they typically allot three or four churros per person). At the stands on the street, on the contrary, churros are ordered by the piece. The first time that I went to a street vendor to order churros, I applied my “bar logic” and asked the employee for “churros for one person.” Of course, the worker promptly responded with a puzzled look. He later asked me exactly how many churros I wanted.

Since my first “churros mishap” last year, I have ordered churros from street vendors many times. After so much experience ordering them, I have come to realize that the “norm” for buying churros off the street is to ask for them by the dozen or by the half-dozen.  I wish I had known that last year when I visited my first churros stand — maybe I could have saved the churros guy his puzzled look.

In any event, I’d like to dedicate this post to the discussion of Spanish snacks. What is your favorite Spanish snack for a cold (or warm) day?  Leave your response below.

Hasta luego,
–Chris
http://abroadinspain.com

Just within the last week or two, lots of odd-looking, brown booths like the one pictured above have mysteriously appeared around the city of Burgos.  At first, I wasn’t really sure what these little booths were for since they were [...]]]>

Ice cream stands like this one have been popping up all over the city of Burgos recently.

Just within the last week or two, lots of odd-looking, brown booths like the one pictured above have mysteriously appeared around the city of Burgos.  At first, I wasn’t really sure what these little booths were for since they were all closed and locked up very tightly.  Later, however, when the weather began to break here, these strange little buildings that resemble tool sheds began to open their “hatches” and I soon realized that they were ice cream booths designed to keep passersby cool on those hot, summer Burgos days.

I think it’s a cool (literally “cool”) idea to have ice cream booths strategically placed around the city.  I guess, in a way, these booths are the Spanish version of the familiar “ice cream truck man” that I grew up with in the States.  Speaking of the ice cream truck man, does anybody know if there are ice cream trucks in Spain?  Personally, I’ve never seen one here… I guess the booth is as close as they get to the whole “mobile frozen treats” thing.

Here’s something fun for this post.  Would everyone who reads this post please write a short comment below telling me what your favorite ice cream flavor is? When I get enough comments (hopefully in about a week’s time), I’ll make a definitive list of the “top ten” ice cream flavors according to abroadinspain.com readers and will publish the list here on the blog. 

Hasta luego,
–Chris
http://abroadinspain.com

Ever since arriving in Spain in September, I have been eating my spaghetti without sauce.  I would put butter on it, or maybe some cheese, but never spaghetti sauce.  Why?  Here in Spain spaghetti sauce is only sold in boxes [...]]]>

Nothing like some spaghetti sauce from a box rather than a jar. Yum!

Ever since arriving in Spain in September, I have been eating my spaghetti without sauce.  I would put butter on it, or maybe some cheese, but never spaghetti sauce.  Why?  Here in Spain spaghetti sauce is only sold in boxes – not in jars — and until recently I just couldn’t bring myself to eat “fried tomato” from a cardboard box.  In the USA when you want to have some sauce with your spaghetti, you buy a little Ragú in a jar and have at it.  For the longest time, I just couldn’t comprehend how “cardboard box sauce” could be the same.   

Anyway, things have changed now.  I finally got tired of eating my spaghetti dry and bought a box of “fried tomato” at the supermarket down the street.  As you can see in the above photo, the box came complete with a picture of a tomato on the front (for us foreigners to easily recognize it) and there was even an “easy open top.” 

Of course, once I had made my “boxed sauce purchase,” I didn’t really know what to do next.  Since I had never prepared spaghetti using sauce that literally came from a cardboard box, I didn’t know if there was something special I had to do like add water.  Luckily, the same person who put the picture of the tomato on the front of the box for the foreigners also put directions on the side of the box detailing how to prepare it.  Really, the directions were pretty simple and basically told me to “heat the sauce and then dump it on the spaghetti.”  So, I heated up some sauce, boiled some spaghetti, and dumped the sauce on top of the spaghetti just as I had been instructed in the directions. 

Really, the sauce tasted pretty close to what I’m used to having in the USA.  I guess it was just a mental thing with me for a while: box sauce didn’t sound appetizing to me so I refused to try it.  Maybe that’s the moral of this blog post: give things a chance before you come to a conclusion about them (and I suppose that can be applied to any cultural difference — not just food). 

In any event, are there any Spanish foods that you just find too different to try?  Have you ever been surprised by a Spanish food that you thought you wouldn’t like?  I’d love to hear about your experiences with Spanish cuisine in the comments section of this post. 

Hasta luego,
–Chris
http://abroadinspain.com