Food

My family is food-centric — everything we do revolves around food. So naturally, travelling abroad means exposure to a whole new set of food and that is the most exciting thing for me.

Staying with a host family means that I get a taste of authentic, local dishes that families would eat on a daily basis. In our first lunch we had merluza (hake, a type of fish I did not know before this), with some garlic flavored potatoes. I thought it was fantastic and I was ready to eat the rest of Spain. Some of the other highlights of my homestay food have been Sopa de Marisco (a seafood soup), tortilla española (Spanish omelette), arroz negro (rice with squid ink), and of course, the fresh bread we have for breakfast every morning. I’ve eaten more breakfast in the last week and a half than I did all of last semester. Unfortunately, my roommate is a bit of a picky eater so a lot of the time in the homestay we have normal, non Spanish food, which is not a problem, but I am really eager to taste as much of Spain for the short time I am here.

On our second night, we had a ruta de tapas, where we went to various tapas bars. Tapas are small plates of food and the benefit of them is that you get to try many different dishes at once. Each tapa in Seville is usually around 3 or 4 euros. That night, we tried super tender pork cheeks, pork cooked in an interesting whisky sauce, croquetas of mushrooms (a fried roll), the most unique fried goat cheese that was sweet and decadent, and many more delights. I was shocked that after the second restaurant, the group was too full to go to the third restaurant — I have never turned down the third restaurant in my life. We have had other group dinners and I think the best plate that I had while in Seville was patatas bravas with a garlic aioli and some kind of salsa at a restaurant in the town that we live in. It was addicting.

Food is my main interest when it comes to travelling so at times I was even stressed that I was not trying enough local foods. But on our last lunch in the house, our host brought us paella in the large, iconic metal bowls that it is cooked in. That itself reassured me that I am having the food experience of a lifetime, and it is sure to continue in Barcelona.