this is the yogurt salad

Yogurt Salad??

A friend of mine is currently studying abroad in Alacante, Spain, but visted Valencia last week ffor her birthday. I tried to find out some of her favorite things she ate while she was there and one the most bizzar ones was YOGURT SALAD! Yes, if you can tell by the picture it is bits and pieces of carrot, lettuce, tomatoes and other normal salad ingredients, but they were stirred around in yogurt! I guess no salad dressing is needed but what an unusual combination. She said you eat it with a fork (or spoon) and that it is actual quite delicious and the temperature can be much cooler than salad often is served.

Paella

Paella is probably the most well known Spanish dish--it makes me hungry just thinking about it. The dish is made of rice as the main food with a mixture of just about anything (shellfish, fish, snails, beef, veggies, buts, etc). It is served hot out of the oven and devoured immediately :).

Here is a video from about.com that shows a NY chef cooking the popular dish.

http://video.about.com/spanishfood/Paella-Valencia.htm

Paella was first created by poor servants in the mid 19th century who would collect the leftovers from the king's large feasts or parties and take it to go. So people believe that the name "Paella" is derived from another word that means "leftovers" while other theorists think that the name migth come from the pan that is used to cook it.

The Royal Disease

Tapas in Spain are kind of like the English's tea time. The closest example in the U.S. would be "snacks". This summer in Barcelona, Spain, we had delicately crafted tapas in the late afternoon each day. All of the necessary ingredients of a "healthy well-rounded diet" were available from the many finger-food tapas. Some were meaty, some sweet, others loaded with veggies or fruits and some resembled jello pudding.

I just looked at a website http://www.arrakis.es/~jols/tapas/indexin.html that tells a short history over the origin of Spanish tapas dating back to the Spainish King, Alfonso the 10th, who had a disease requiring him to eat small sized portions of food between meals. He thought this would be a great solution to having his people drink their empty stomachs to the point of being full and suffering malnutrition and drunkness. This mid-afternoon heavy "snack" led to the next cultural tradition of siestas (naps). What a wonderful combination toward the pursuit of happiness each day!

voy a ir

My inspiration for writing about spanish food comes from my preparation for studying abroad there this coming spring! I can barely contain my excitement and it also seems appropriate to relate this upcoming adventure with this class topic of FOOD...therefore I am also going to plan out my palette. I barely know anything about favorite spanish dishes besides paella and sangria which I had the one time I visited...there has to be more. I look forward to finding out how meal times fit into the spanish culture because I have a hunch they are as imperative as their siestas if not more important.

So to sum things up right now I plan to start looking at types of foods, the culture around it and the importance in daily routines. Also, why dont I (or the average joe) know more about what is famous there???