What do people eat in Spain?
Spaniards eat a small breakfast, a big lunch from about 14:00 and a lighter dinner from 21:00 or later, with tapas and drinks in between. Typical dishes are tortilla de patatas, jamón, gazpacho and paella.
Typical dishes and their calories
Breakfast
Breakfast (desayuno) is small: a café con leche with a magdalena, or pan con tomate, toast rubbed with tomato and olive oil, about 250 kcal for two slices. Many people have a second bite around 11:00, often a bocadillo or a slice of tortilla in a bar. On weekends churros dipped in thick hot chocolate are a classic, about 380 kcal for four churros before the chocolate.
Lunch
Lunch (la comida) is the main meal of the day, usually between 14:00 and 16:00. On weekdays many people order the menú del día: a first course, a second course, bread, a drink and dessert or coffee for one fixed price. Paella comes from Valencia and is a lunch dish, often cooked for the family on Sunday, about 500 kcal a plate.
Dinner
Dinner (la cena) starts late, from about 21:00 and often at 22:00, and in big cities and in summer restaurants keep serving until 23:30. It is usually lighter than lunch: a salad, a slice of tortilla, grilled fish, soup or a few tapas shared at a bar.
Starters
Tapas are small plates eaten with a drink, before lunch or in the evening. Tortilla de patatas is the most popular tapa in the country, about 250 kcal a slice, next to jamón ibérico, croquetas, patatas bravas, olives and pulpo a la gallega, octopus with paprika. In summer a bowl of cold gazpacho, about 120 kcal, starts many meals in the south.
Desserts
Dessert is often just a piece of fruit. Restaurants offer flan, a caramel custard, crema catalana with its burnt sugar top, and arroz con leche, rice cooked in milk with cinnamon. At Christmas every home has turrón, an almond nougat, and churros with chocolate work as a dessert or a late snack.
Drinks
Coffee is a café solo, a cortado with a dash of milk or a café con leche. In bars people order a caña, a small draught beer of about 200 ml, or wine from Rioja or Ribera del Duero. Locals drink tinto de verano, red wine with lemon soda, more often than sangria (about 160 kcal a glass), and a vermouth around Sunday noon is a habit in Madrid and Catalonia.
Street food
In Madrid the bocadillo de calamares, fried squid rings in a baguette, is eaten standing at the bar near the Plaza Mayor. In the Basque Country bars fill the counter with pintxos, small bites on bread, and you pay for what you took. Churros are sold from stalls at fairs, and Galicia is known for empanada, a large filled pie cut into squares.
Normal there, odd elsewhere
Dinner at 22:00 is normal, and children are often out with their parents at that hour. Between lunch and dinner many eat a merienda, a snack around 17:00 or 18:00. In some cities, such as Granada and León, a tapa comes free with every drink. On New Year's Eve people eat twelve grapes, one at each stroke of midnight, for luck.