Tapas!

I’m going to take this opportunity now to fill you in on a few things that I didn’t get to mention before. My classes have not yet started, because I have been in orientation. We’ve done many activities such as getting to know things around the city and sitting through informational sessions about our classes, homestays, safety, etc. During orientation, we’ve been assigned alphabetically to groups with a guide who is a college student in Sevilla (I think some of them may have graduated, but I honestly don’t know). I love my group and guide. My guide’s name is Fran. He is hilarious and is very patient with our Spanish while we communicate to him and while he teaches us about the city and los sevillanos. He speaks more clearly than many of the others. Also, he loves food! For several nights, we’ve had dinner with our orientation groups, trying different tapitas at some of the best restaurants en El Centro (the down-town region of Sevilla). We’ve tried so many tapas! Since I’ve brought this up, I’ve decided that now would be as good a time as any to discuss with you the things I’ve eaten here. I can’t remember what most of the dishes are called and I’ve tried too many to list or to keep anyone’s interest, but I can explain the food that I’ve had with my family since I’ve been here…


miercoles

el almuerzo:

     - First course—puchero (a soup with a simple broth, garbanzo beans, and little pasta that’s the size and shape of toothpicks)

     - Main dish—carne ______ (I forget the name)…(beef that’s like a pot roast with what I’m pretty sure was fat…you break bread and mash the fat into the beef so that it sticks together, and use the bread as a spoon as you eat it and the bread)

     - Postre—melón (it’s kind of like our honeydew melon, but shaped like a small watermelon. It’s the consistency of honeydew, but is sweeter. It’s so good!)

jueves

el desayuno:

     - yogur del sabor macedonia (like a Danon yogurt, but a very mild tropical type flavor. It’s less sweet than yogurt en los EEUU)

     - tostada con mermelada de fresa (toast with strawberry jam)

     - zumo de naranja (an orange juice juice box)

el almuerzo:

     - First Course—gazpacho de Andalucía (a cold tomato-based soup…more flavorful than the gazpacho I’ve had in the US)

     - Main dish—sopa (a soup made from the same broth as the puchero, but with rice, pieces of hard boiled egg, and pieces of serano ham)

     - Postre—heladitos (an ice cream bar…so good!) y melon

La cena:

     - Side salad containing lettuce, shredded carrots, some sort of crab meat (I’m pretty sure it was crab meat, but I guess it could have been lobster?…I’ve never had lobster)

     - The Spanish version of Chicken Cordon Bleu (breaded chicken with a thin slice of ham and some cheese inside…mis padres told me that you can buy these at the carnicería made up, and you just fry it)

     - Potato chips

viernes

el desayuno:

     - yogur del sabor macedonia

     - tostada con mantequilla (their version of I Can’t Believe it’s not Butter)

     - zumo de naranja

     - some sort of sweet cake-like “pastry” that said it contained marmalade, but none was found

el almuerzo:

     - First Course—soup, I forget the name of it (it had a creamy broth and contained small pasta that was bigger than the toothpick pasta, and baby shrimps were in it)

     - Main Course: bocadillos (sandwich made of thick bread and meat—salami/pastrami-like meat)

     - Postre—melón

la cena:

     - A crab meat salad with pineapple in it (like a crab dip; very rich in flavor) with bread/potato chips (because my sister likes them)/picos (little dry breadsticks)

     - Pizza de queso y jamón (there was barely any sauce on the pizza and the cheese was different. creamier perhaps)

     *My sister and I ate alone because my parents were out, so the salad was in a store-bought package and the pizza was like a frozen pizza


The food schedule is much different here than back in the US of A. Americans eat when they’re hungry and snack all the time. Spaniards work around their eating schedule, and do not eat unless it is during a scheduled meal (I mean, they snack here and there, yes, but it’s not the same). Each family is a bit different. Most people do not eat a big breakfast. It’s usually cereal or toast with juice, for example. Lunch is the big meal. And everyone goes home for the lunch that the madre prepares. There are three “courses.” After lunch with the family, they take a siesta. Lunch is generally eaten between 2PM and 3PM because the common siesta time, in which many shops are closed, is 2-5PM. They take naps because they go to bed late and wake up early for work. And because it’s hot (at least, this is the conclusion I came to). Dinner is usually a smaller meal and is eaten late, but it depends on the family. For example, bigger families usually have a smaller dinner because there are more mouths to feed. My family eats lunch at 2:30PM and dinner at 10PM.