Cuisine in Spain
Spain has a huge number of regional culinary schools. But they all have one thing in common: stewing in wine, baking with sheep cheese and grilling, as well as the widespread use of sage greens and grated walnuts.
According to TOP-MEDICAL-SCHOOLS, Galician cuisine is famous for its “pote”, “caldeiradas”, boiled octopus “pulpo a feira”, pork legs with rutabaga leaves “lacun con grelos”, fish “merluza a la gallega” stewed in a clay pot.
Basque cuisine is similar to Georgian, but with more seafood. Dishes such as cod in pil-pil (Biscay) garlic sauce, marmitaco potatoes with mackerel, changurro clams with crabs, cocothas pike fins, huge grilled beef patties ”
In the north, an endless number of dishes are offered with excellent “chilindron” sauce of tomatoes, peppers and onions, such as chicken “pollo el chilindron”, partridge or lamb “cordero” and excellent ham from Teruel. In La Rioja and Navarra, sweet peppers with various fillings “pimientos rellenos”, spicy lamb ragout “navarro cocifrito”, young lettuce shoots and early vegetables or tender asparagus sprouts, as well as indispensable desserts made of cheese or cottage cheese, fresh fruits in chocolate are appreciated and traditional buns. Mediterranean cuisine is based on the traditions of the southern French and Greek schools of cooking, so there are many dishes from rice, vegetables, herbs, cheese, fish, meat and fruits, richly flavored with excellent olive oil.
Catalan cuisine is so diverse that it cannot be reduced to a few typical dishes. The most famous include the escudella soup, fried pork sausages with white beans “monjete am botifarra”, a salad of boiled cuttlefish with olives, rabbit with snails, Catalan partridge or wild boar roast, rapa fish soup (Monkfish) “souque de paix”, dessert “mel-and-mato” (cottage cheese with honey), as well as indispensable dishes of seafood cuisine. Local sauces “sofrito”, “samfaina”, “ali-oli” and “picada” are world famous. Another local dish is also famous – a kind of assorted seafood called “zarzuela” (“operetta”). And, of course, paella.
In Castile and León, vegetable cuisine predominates – “la banesa” and “el barco” beans, “fuenesauco” peas and “la armunya” lentils, as well as very “thin” cooked pork dishes (pigs are fattened here with acorns and chestnuts !) – “botillos”, various sausages and game dishes. Delicious roast calf, goat or piglet is considered the “calling card” of the local cuisine, local trout and cod dishes and a huge variety of excellent cheeses are also wonderful. In Murcia, especially cooked caldero rice is especially appreciated. The menu of the south of Spain is famous for tiny fried fish “pescatos fritos” (eaten straight with the head and bones), the local analogue of the pintxos morunos kebab, cold vegetable soup “gazpacho” and excellent ham ”
Wine is the most used and famous product of Spain, the country has a wide variety of excellent wines produced in 57 regions. Gorgeous “Vega Sicilia” from Valbuena del Duero, “Valdepenas” and “La Mancha” from La Mancha, “Utiel Requena” from Valencia, “Jumilya” from Murcia and “Satepa” from Aragon. Fine Catalan white wines “Penedès” and “Ampurdan”, as well as “Sangria” and local champagne “Cava”. From the city of Jerez de la Frontera in the southwest of Andalusia comes the most famous wine of Spain – “sherry” and its variants – “manzanilla”, “fino”, “amontillado”, “oloroso” and “dulce”. Each region of Spain produces its own liqueurs, in Galicia and Ibis – infused with herbs, in Cavarra – spicy “pacharan”, in the Levant – “absinthe”, in Andalusia – “casalla”, and near Madrid, in Chinchon, strong aniseed vodka is produced. Vodka “Orukho”, produced in the northern regions, is especially valued.
Money in Spain
The date of January 4, 1999 was an important milestone in the development of the world economy: the single pan-European currency – the euro – began its official existence.
11 European countries, including Spain, fixed the mutual exchange rates of their currencies, pegging them to the euro. New euro banknotes entered circulation in 2002 and were issued in seven denominations, namely 5, 10, 20, 50, 100, 200 and 500 euros.
Change coins are represented by eight denominations: 1, 2, 5, 10, 20, 50 cents and 1 and 2 euros. The former Spanish national currency is the peseta (ESP). In 2002, it was withdrawn from circulation, although on checks in shops the prices are both in euros and in pesetas.
It is unprofitable to carry dollars to Spain, the exchange rate is much lower than the official one, and not all banks will take 100-dollar bills.
Course: 1 Euro (EUR) = 1.05 USD
