Foods and Wines of North Spain

This one is about food.  There won’t be a lot of talking here, just a lot of photos of the foods and drinks we enjoyed in Northern Spain.  In about a week, we will be in far South Spain.  The food may be similar there but our experience says although, in the same country, the distance will show us a different culture and different foods.

Fish is supreme in Northern Spain.   Virtually anything edible that comes from the sea is featured here.  We learned about limpets and actually found some on the rocks in tide pools today, sea snails, crabs of all types, and curious-looking gooseneck barnacles – considered a delicacy here.  Beef, pork, and chicken dishes are offered every day too.  But Northern Spain stews are often the best items on the menu.  We’ve greatly enjoyed Cocida Montanes (white beans and sausage cooked for hours and flavored with just a bit of strong greens) and Marmita de Bonita (the most delicious lightly flavored fish stew imaginable).  Cocida lebaniego is one dish I never found at the right place and time, but I’m still looking to try this stew of chickpeas, collard greens, pancetta, and sausage . . . real comfort food especially with a chuck of the incredible bread baked here.

Most restaurants begin serving lunch at 2 pm.  Most offer a menu del dia.  That’s always a good choice.  It’s a lot of food for one reasonable price.  When the check arrives, the amount is exactly as posted on the board. There are no surprises about extra bread, dessert, beverages. or tax  If the board says the menu del dia is 18 Euros, the check is exactly 18 Euros.  Stan and I usually choose one of the menu del dia suggestions of the day, share it, and still leave stuffed.  Tipping is interesting here too.  Five percent is normal, ten percent is the max, but don’t try to be overly generous with 20%.  They will think you’re arrogant and just throwing your money around.  It can be an insult.

Pan is supreme as well.  Everyone buys fresh bread every day.  The fragrance of pan just baked in a panaderia is hypnotic!  Almost every person walking down the street has a baguette poking out of their bag or tucked in its little paper sack under an arm. It’s such a curious European thing to see. One of us usually says, “look, he’s got his bread.” Or “She’s got her bread!,” We’ve seen people carrying their pan with the end broken off because they simply coludn’t wait and had to enjoy a piece along the way. Moms here occupy their fussy toddlers with a hunk of good chewy bread too. I get it.  I could be easily occupied with a chunk myself!  The fresh rustic bread is drive-you-crazy good. I almost find myself with arms extended in a dazed trance walking toward a panaderia when the fragrance hits me.  Here’s the odd thing.  Good Spanish bread is not served with butter or olive oil.  Its primary purpose is sopping up the sauce.  And that’s very good!

Riojo wines are the favored wines here.  This red wine is grown in the vineyards of nearby La Riojo region, a tiny province in the Ebro River Valley.  Certified as some of the oldest wines of Spain, the Riojo wines have a taste and fragrance very similar to Cabernet Sauvignon.  Offered most often here, however, especially for non-wine snobs, is a young but certified table wine, Vino Tinto.  These wines are produced in mass by large wine cooperatives consisting of many Northern Spain growers; they are high-quality, inexpensive wines. 

The practice here is to have white wines as a late morning drink and with lunch with reds only in the evening.  While I will occasionally have a glass of white wine at lunch, I don’t often because it makes me drowsy and slows me down.  My preference is to have red wine at night, every night.