Gastronomic selections

There are tonnes of food choices in Spain. For one thing, there's a lot of meat. Meat lovers, you are in for a treat. In Salamanca, their specialty is the suckling pig. No I did not try it. Poor piggy!

Blood sausage

There are lots of ham & sausages shops around.. Squint and you can see hams hanging on the ceiling. They emit an awful kinda smell..kinda rotten-ish. But lots of people love it. I'm not one of them!

Museum of ham ! (Plaza Mayor, Madrid)

I did try some of their local delicacies..being a sweet tooth, I attacked the desserts (los postres)! muahahaha

Pick your cacao (Plaza Mayor,Salamanca)

More of the sweet ones (Madrid)

There are lots of chocolate shops around..most of their chocolates are Swiss...and it's friggin' costly.

Chocolate is a girl's best friend

This is Chocolate con Churros (Churros with Chocolate). Churros are deep fried pastries..The way to eat it is to dip the Churro into the hot chocolate and eat it. The churro absorbs the chocolate and when you sink your teeth into it, you get a mix blend of pastry and chocolate warming your mouth. The one I tried was not very good..the chocolate was a not so chocolatey. It's usually taken fro breakfast..My housemate told me that people who have been out clubbing the whole night long will go to the churrerías and have Chocolate con churros before going home early in the morning.

Super big portion

Chicken breast with fries and rice and some mayo mix. It was HUGE! This pic was after some portion was taken out to be shared by another friend. I think this was his portion lol. muy grande!

This Cafe also has a wide selection of cakes ..and I tell you..their Tarta chocolate con galletas (Chocolate cake with biscuits) was to DIE for!. I Always look forward to POSTRES! (Desserts). My tummy magically has room for desserts no matter how full I am. Then it's happy =D I'm sorry I cannot recall what the cafe's called..although I went again with other friends to chat and eat their tummy tartas (what else). I had Blueberry Cheesecake..still couldn't beat the chocolate one!

Can you see how goo-ey the chocolate is? It tastes sooo yummy!

.House of Tapas, Meals.Sausages. Situated at one of the walkways leading to Plaza de Anaya (Where the cathedrals are)

Spain is also famous for their Tapas (snacks). Basically you can put anything on top of a small piece of bread and it's called it a tapa. You get free tapas when you order a drink in Granada - not so sure in Salamanca. One of the stories behind the existance of a tapas with drinks was because of a king. He used to drink a lot and he used to get pains in the abdomen because he drank on an empty stomach. So before he drank he used to eat a small piece of bread to layer his stomach. And I guess the tradition stayed. One more story was that they put a piece of bread on your drink to ward of flies. lol If you do know the story behind if, please let me know!

I tried Tortilla de Patatas - Main Ingredients includes potatoes and egg. Looks like a small portion but it was HUGE (yet again). Couldn't finish between us 2. This is a type of tapas too.

But ofcourse there has to be dessert! Flan con Nata (Flan with Cream). Flan is also a popular dessert here. There were so many selection of Flans...we simply chose one without knowing what Nata was! After that I checked the dictionary to realise that it's cream.. lol complimented the Flan well i might say!

Try the flanny

Paella

The best Paellas are supposed to be in Valencia. Unfortunatly I did not visit there so we had to settle for the ones they made in Salamanca. We were real lucky cuz that was the last plate left! We had a mix Paella - seafood, chicken and vege. I'm not much of a seafood fan - my friend had to eat most of it. Paella's mainly made out of rice, saffron - that gives the yellow-ish tinge on the rice, and olive oil. They put all the ingredients in a pan of water and let it cook for a looong time. Sorry really bad at recipes haha

Patatas Bravas

This dish, I love! It's called Patatas Bravas - the gravy is really yummy - think it's called ali oil (garlic, olive oil, herbs and ketchup) That was nice. Yet again..big portion.

The -place's called El Patio Chico los Bandos. A little off Salamanca's Plaza Mayor.

To celebrate a housemate's departure, we went for Pizza! At an Italian Restaurant. Pricey!! But Love the ambiance. They had black and white photos of past actors..Audrey Hepburn, Sophia Lauren among others (Sorry only recognised them!)

My Vege Pizza

We had chocolate tiramisu for dessert, but I forgot to take a pic of that! Was really good.

Crossainteria Paris IS THE BEST CROSSAINT SHOP EVER!!! He has the best selections of sweet and savory buns & breads. I tried pan de 4 quesos (4 cheese bun), raspberry and Philadelphia cheese (dynamite baby) and my culture class teacher recommended the Palmaderia - HUGE white n dark chocolate coated bun. . the chocolate melted and it tasted really good!

The Unity Bun. LoL

my fav shop - Cafe Novelty - I want my Ice-cream! Best Helados in Salamanca

Great business! Throngs of people visit this ice cream shop. There are other heladerias around, but this is by far the best.

In Valladolid I didn't really like the food there..I lasted on Lays lol. I picked at my food. But here's what my friend had:

Cangrejo something - crab thingy

Tuna mayo lagsana?

Empanadas! It's stuffed tuna and tomatoes. I had to eat tunas here =( sorry dolphins.

There are ofcourse, the fast food outlets as well. There are lots of Burger Kings around.

McD.

One of many Kebab outlets..yum!

Great place

I visited Granada for 2nights and 3 days. Both dinners we had at the same Café. And we had the same waiter. He was soo sweet! Waived off our drinks fee on the second night! ¡Viva Manuelo! We had some Castellano platter the first night and the second night we had pasta. I love their postres too! The service might be a little slow, because business is really good. You will be entertained by street musicians while waiting for your food.

My dinner

Free tapas!

Ice-cream!

In Porto, Portugal, I had chicken rice and they had these appetizers, something like empanadas as well.

I didn’t really eat much outside food in Salamanca. I mainly survived on my instant noodles and pasta. I cannot cook, but thank God for microwaves!

Pasta ala Mariposa

I think I mainly shopped for foodstuff ..ahahaha I frequented Eroski. I got hooked to their chocolate biscuits.

My homework buddy

Eroski even has ShinChan drinks. RoFL!

Cerveceria. Beer.

The Spanish Love their beer. You can order a caña (glass of beer) for a very cheap price. I observed they drink beer any time of the day..walk outside and you're bound to see folks relaxing at the cafes with beers and ciggies. And yet they have the longest living span..Go figure. Maybe their stress level is lower? They really seem to be enjoying life~

This is a drink made out of Chufa Beans - tasted a little something like Soy Milk.. but has a distinct taste about it. It's a summer drink. Another summer drink that's popular is the sangria (wine n fruit punch) and the tinto de verano (summer wine) -it's wine mixed with soda (like Sprite). My friend loved drinking the tinto de verano. She said it was really good. I stuck to my iced lemon tea. Love it. Oh and there's also Gazpacho..a summer soup made of blendered onions garlic and tomatoes - serve chilled.

I think that’s about it! Man this entry took up my whole morning!!