92 Fun Facts About Spanish Food

Which fortified wine takes its English name from the Spanish town of Jerez?

Sherry: English drinkers called the wine of Xeres 'sherris', and the final s was later dropped as if plural.

What are the sauce bases used across Spanish cooking called?

Sofritos, from the Spanish verb sofreír, 'to fry lightly', because garlic, peppers and tomatoes are gently fried first.

Which two ingredients of paella were probably popularised under Muslim rule in Iberia?

Rice and saffron: rice may already have been grown in Iberia, but its farming spread under Muslim rule.

Escabeche, introduced by the Moors, preserves food using what?

Vinegar: the word escabeche comes, through Arabic, from a Persian name for a vinegar stew.

The medieval cookbooks Sent Soví and Llibre de Coch were written in which language?

Sent Soví dates from 1324 and Ruperto de Nola's Llibre de Coch from 1520.

Adafina, a Jewish stew of medieval Spain, is the Sephardic counterpart of which dish?

Cholent: Jewish law bars cooking on the Sabbath, so both stews are left to simmer overnight from Friday.

Spain was the first place chocolate was mixed with what to tame its bitterness?

Cocoa arrived with tomatoes, potatoes, maize and peppers after 1492.

The Spanish potato omelette depends on an ingredient that arrived from where?

The Americas: potatoes crossed the Atlantic only after 1492, so no tortilla de patatas existed before then.

Madame d'Aulnoy reported 17th-century Spanish butter arriving preserved in what?

Pig's tripes, and the French baroness complained that the butter arrived full of worms.

Which stew from León province is eaten in reverse, meat first and soup last?

Cocido maragato: an ethnographer traces the order to Maragato muleteers, who ate the cooked pork they carried first at inns, then asked for hot soup.

Simone Ortega's 1080 recetas is Spain's third best-selling book after which two?

First published in 1972, it also included French recipes.

Spain's top grade of jamón ibérico comes from free-range pigs fattened on what?

Acorns: the pigs roam the dehesa oak pastures for months, and that exercise and diet shape the flavour of the ham.

What is the Spanish word for the leisurely table talk that follows lunch?

Sobremesa: Spain's large midday meal leaves time to digest, so diners stay on talking instead of rushing back to work.

What do Spaniards call the light afternoon snack between lunch and a late dinner?

Merienda: the Philippines took the custom from Spain, and there a late 'merienda cena' can even replace dinner.

Which ingredient divides Spanish opinion over the 'correct' tortilla de patatas?

Onion, and the version with it is more popular than the plain one, despite vehement purists on both sides.

Ensaladilla rusa, a Spanish staple, is better known internationally as what?

Olivier salad, usually credited to Moscow chef Lucien Olivier, whose sous-chef is said to have stolen the recipe.

Which Spanish region produces most of the country's olive oil?

Andalusia, whose Roman-era oil reached Rome in so many jars that the broken amphorae piled up into a hill, Monte Testaccio.

Which fruit from Calanda does Aragon traditionally infuse in red wine?

Peach: Calanda's peaches ripen on the tree inside paper bags, put on one by one by hand to shield them from pests and sprays.

Cachopo, an Asturian favourite, is a crumb-coated steak of which meat?

Carne gobernada, roasted veal, is another regional meat dish.

Cabrales, a pungent blue cheese, comes from near which mountain range?

It is typically eaten with Asturian cider.

Why is Asturian cider poured from a great height?

To aerate it: the thin stream hitting the glass mixes in air, so for a few seconds the still cider turns lively and fizzy.

Sobrassada and ensaïmada come from which Spanish archipelago?

The Balearics: ensaïmada takes its name from saïm, the pork lard in its dough.

Bacalao al pil pil is a Basque preparation of which fish?

Bacalao a la vizcaína is another classic Basque cod dish.

Txakoli, the Basque staple wine, is notable for what?

It is produced in Álava, Guipúzcoa and Biscay.

Gofio, still eaten in the Canaries, was a staple of which aboriginal people?

The Guanches, of Berber origin, are thought to have made it partly from fern roots; today it is toasted wheat or maize.

Canarian green mojo for fish is made from which herb?

The red mojo picón for meat uses chilli peppers.

On which Canary island are vines planted in pits dug into volcanic ash, each ringed by a low stone wall?

Lanzarote: the ash holds in moisture and the walls shelter each vine from the wind.

Morteruelo, a kind of foie gras, is typical of which region?

Garlic dominates the region's cooking, as in ajoarriero and ajo mataero.

Jamón de Guijuelo is a cured ham from which province?

Rueda whites and Ribera del Duero reds are the region's major wines.

Which thin cured sausage comes from the town of Vic?

Fuet, whose white coat is an edible mould that helps the sausage mature as it cures.

Calçots and escalivada are dishes based on what?

Vegetables: calçots are banked with extra earth as they grow, so their stems stretch long and white.

What gives the paprika of La Vera, in Extremadura, its distinctive flavour?

Drying over wood fires: the slow smoke-drying also gives La Vera paprika its lasting colour.

Extremadura's torta cheeses are curdled with an infusion of which plant?

Thistle: pistils of the cardoon curdle the milk and lend the cheese a subtle bitterness.

Galicia's zamburiñas are a small species of which shellfish?

Scallops, whose shell became the badge of pilgrims to Santiago de Compostela and later spread into heraldry.

Galician queimada is a flambéed ritual drink based on which spirit?

Orujo, set alight while a spell is recited, which is said to protect drinkers from evil spirits.

Which Madrid restaurant does Guinness World Records list as the world's oldest?

Sobrino de Botín, which Guinness dates to 1725, though a historian argues that founding story is a legend.

Pacharán, a typical liqueur, belongs to which region's cuisine?

Navarra, where pacharán was a homemade village liqueur until firms began bottling it for sale in the 20th century.

Paella was originally topped with which two meats?

Rabbit and chicken, and the dish takes its name from the wide, shallow pan it is cooked in.

All i pebre, a Valencian fish stew, is typical of which wetland?

Albufera, where eel fishermen are said to have first made the stew from what they caught and grew.

Christmas nougat, turrón, is traditionally made in Alicante and which other town?

Jijona, whose ice-cream makers are away selling in summer, so the town holds a second Moors and Christians festival for them.

El Celler de Can Roca, named world's best restaurant in 2013, is in which province?

Girona, where the Roca brothers first opened it next door to their parents' Can Roca.

Which Spanish chef hosted Made in Spain on PBS and runs Minibar in Washington DC?

José Andrés, who also founded the disaster-relief charity World Central Kitchen.

Which Surrealist painter designed the logo of Chupa Chups, the lollipop brand born in Spain?

Salvador Dalí designed the Chupa Chups logo in 1969. The brand's name comes from chupar, the Spanish verb meaning to suck.

Which fruit do Spaniards eat twelve of at midnight on New Year's Eve, one for each chime of the clock?

Grapes are eaten one per bell strike, each standing for a month of the year ahead. Vine growers from Alicante pushed the custom in 1909 to sell a bumper harvest.

Tapas, in one story first set on top of drinkers' glasses, are named after a Spanish word meaning what?

Cover or lid is the primary meaning of tapa, from the verb tapar. In one popular tale, a Cádiz waiter laid a slice of ham over King Alfonso XIII's wine to keep out blowing sand.

Which ridged sticks of fried dough do Spaniards order at cafes to dip in coffee or hot chocolate?

Churros get their ridges from the churrera, a syringe-like tool with a star-shaped nozzle. Where the snack first came from is unclear.

Which chilled Spanish soup of raw blended tomato, cucumber and peppers is a summer favourite?

Gazpacho only turned red in the 19th century, when tomatoes joined a much older soup built on bread, oil and water.

Which punch of red wine and chopped fruit may carry its name only when made in Spain or Portugal?

Sangria is a protected name under EU rules, reserved for drinks made in Spain or Portugal. The word itself means bloodletting in Spanish.

Manchego, the Spanish cheese with a zigzag-patterned rind, may only be made from which animal's milk?

Sheep of the Manchega breed, raised on registered farms, must supply all the milk. The zigzag comes from the plaited grass baskets once used to press the curd.

Jamón serrano, Spain's everyday dry-cured ham, has a name that means ham from which kind of place?

The mountains gave the ham its name because its curing sheds, called secaderos, are usually built at higher elevations.

Which Spanish pork sausage owes its deep red colour to pimentón, a powder of dried red peppers?

Chorizo comes as picante or dulce depending on the pimentón used, while its cousin salchichón swaps the red pepper for black peppercorns.

Alioli, the pungent Spanish sauce for grilled meat and seafood, has a name meaning oil and what?

Garlic and oil is all the name means, and the basic recipe simply crushes the cloves in a mortar before working in the oil.

Which Spanish tapa of fried potato cubes comes under a spicy red sauce built on paprika?

Patatas bravas simply means spicy potatoes, and the same brava sauce is sometimes poured over mussels instead.

Pulpo a la gallega, boiled in a copper cauldron and sprinkled with paprika, is which Galician seafood?

Octopus is dipped into the boiling water three times first, held by the head, so that the tips of its tentacles curl.

Which small green Galician peppers are a tapas gamble, as most are mild but the odd one is fiery?

Padrón peppers inspired a Galician saying that some are hot and some are not; plants short of water tend to grow the fiery ones.

Which Spanish sparkling wine, made by the traditional method, comes mostly from the Penedès area?

Cava means cave or cellar, after the places where early bottles were aged; EU law no longer allows it to be sold as Spanish champagne.

Which Spanish wine region is divided into three zones known as Alta, Alavesa and Oriental?

Rioja reds labelled crianza must age for at least two years, a minimum of one of them in oak barrels.

Cocido madrileño, the traditional one-pot stew of the Spanish capital, is built around which legume?

Chickpeas, or garbanzos, are the main ingredient, and the earliest versions of the stew were kosher and left out pork.

A cortado, ordered in cafes across Spain, is an espresso 'cut' with a roughly equal amount of what?

Warm milk is added to take the sharp edge off the coffee, and it is steamed but never frothed as in many Italian drinks.

Morcilla, the dark sausage of Spanish stews and tapas bars, is filled chiefly with which part of the pig?

Blood from the pig gives morcilla its colour; the best-known version, from Burgos, comes in cylindrical and gut-shaped forms.

Albóndigas, named from an Arabic word for hazelnut, are which staple of Spanish tapas menus?

Meatballs took the name because the Arabic word also meant any small round object; the dish is thought to date from the period of Muslim rule.

Paella takes its name from the Valencian word for which everyday piece of kitchen equipment?

Frying pan is what paella means in Valencian, where the word is used for every kind of pan; the traditional one is steel with two side handles.

Which Basque bar snacks, usually fastened to bread with a toothpick, are named after a word for spike?

Pintxos are traditionally washed down with a small glass of young local wine or a zurito, a quarter-pint of beer.

In which Spanish city did the bar La Viña create the crustless cheesecake known as 'burnt Basque'?

San Sebastián chef Santiago Rivera created it in 1988; locals call it tarta de queso de La Viña and seldom use the word burnt.

Which Barcelona food market, entered from La Rambla, grew out of medieval meat stalls by a city gate?

La Boqueria is first recorded in 1217, later hosted a pig market, and for a time was known simply as the straw market.

Roscón de Reyes, a ring of sweet brioche topped with candied fruit, marks which holiday in Spain?

Epiphany, on 6 January, is when the ring is shared; whoever finds the dried fava hidden inside traditionally pays for the cake.

On a Spanish menu, fish described as 'a la plancha' has been cooked in which way?

On a metal plate is the literal meaning: plancha is the name Spaniards gave to the flat-top grill.

What do Valencians call the layer of scorched grains left stuck to the bottom when a paella is cooked?

Socarrat is also the name of the baked clay tiles, painted in red and black, that filled medieval ceilings around Valencia.

Horchata, the sweet, milky drink associated with Valencia, is made by soaking and grinding what?

Tiger nuts were brought to Iberia in the 8th century, during Muslim rule, and became a staple crop around Valencia.

Which chef linked with molecular gastronomy ran El Bulli, five times named the world's best restaurant?

Ferran Adrià began as a hotel dishwasher and joined El Bulli as a line cook at 22; the restaurant closed in 2011 to become a creativity foundation.

Dulce de membrillo, a firm, sticky reddish paste eaten across Iberia, is made from which fruit?

Quince paste gave English a word too: marmalade comes from the Portuguese marmelada, meaning a quince preparation.

Kalimotxo, a party drink christened at a Basque town festival, mixes red wine with what?

Cola was added to rescue soured festival wine, in the popular story, and the name blends the nicknames of two friends in the crew that served it.

Percebes, a costly delicacy gathered from rocky Atlantic shores for Spanish tables, are which creatures?

Goose barnacles anchor themselves to rocks with a fleshy stalk, and most of the catch along their Atlantic range is sold in Spain.

A sandwich sold in bars all around Madrid's Plaza Mayor is a roll filled with which battered, fried seafood?

Squid battered in flour and fried is the whole filling in Madrid, while bars in Zaragoza add a spicy tomato sauce.

Polvorones, Spain's very crumbly holiday shortbreads, are named after the Spanish word for what?

Dust, or polvo, is the root of the name; the biscuits belong to a wider family of Spanish shortbreads known as mantecados.

Torrijas, Spain's version of French toast, are a traditional treat of Lent and which other observance?

Holy Week and Lent are their season, and they are old: the playwright Juan del Encina mentioned them in a songbook published in 1496.

Which Spanish sauce of tomato and dried nyora peppers was first made by fishermen to go with their catch?

Romesco is traced to the fishing quarter of Tarragona and has no single correct recipe; a close cousin is the classic spring dip for chargrilled calçots.

Migas, once a shepherds' breakfast and now eaten across Spain, turns which leftover into a meal?

Stale bread is the base, and migas simply means crumbs; shepherds cooked it on small braziers as they moved their flocks.

Boquerones, a Spanish bar staple whose fillets change colour as they marinate, are which small fish?

Anchovies start out with brown flesh; a salt bath and a long acidic marinade slowly bleach the fillets pale.

In Málaga, espetos are long thin rods threaded with which fish and roasted on the beach sand?

Sardines are threaded through the back, one beside another; restaurant cooks now fill a raised boat with sand so they need not crouch for hours.

Which Spanish city, like Germany's Lübeck, has its marzipan protected by an EU geographical indication?

Toledo has written records of marzipan from 1512 and eats it all year round, while the rest of Spain saves it for Christmas.

Fideuà, a seafood dish invented by a boat cook from Gandia as a twist on paella, is built around what?

Noodles went in because, the story goes, the cook hoped his greedy captain would find the dish less tempting and leave more for the crew.

Papas arrugadas, the Canary Islands' small potatoes with wrinkled skins, were originally boiled in what?

Seawater was used, the story goes, because fresh drinking water was scarce on the islands; cooks now add plenty of salt to tap water instead.

Spanish croquetas, unlike potato croquettes elsewhere, are traditionally bound with which thick sauce?

Béchamel made thick is the traditional base in Spain, which even has restaurants called croqueterías that specialise in croquetas.

Which Spanish beer brand was born from a deal with a brewery of the same name in the Philippines?

San Miguel was first brewed in the Philippines in 1890; a Spanish firm signed the Manila Agreement in 1953 and filled its first bottle in 1957.

Marmitako, a one-pot stew first cooked aboard Basque fishing boats, combines potatoes with which fish?

Tuna from the summer season went into a lidded pot called a marmita, which gave the stew a name meaning from the pot.

Tocino de cielo, a rich custard first made by nuns in Jerez whose name means heavenly bacon, is mostly what?

Egg yolks were left over in bulk because wineries used the whites to clarify their wine; the bacon in the name refers only to its looks.

What are the Basque Country's txokos, closed societies whose rules usually forbid any talk of politics?

Cooking clubs known as txokos traditionally let women in to eat and socialise but not to cook; members prepare meals for friends and family.

Olla podrida, a meat-laden stew that is a speciality of Burgos, has a name that literally means what?

Rotten pot is the literal reading; a popular but disputed theory says podrida began as poderida, a pot for the powerful.

What is a porrón, which lets a group in Spain share wine without touching it with their lips?

A spouted pitcher made of glass, the porrón pours a thin stream of wine into the mouth; beginners hold the spout close and tilt it slowly.

Angulas, a Spanish delicacy sautéed in olive oil and priced like a luxury, are the young of which fish?

Eel in its juvenile form, the elver, was once a cheap meal for fishermen; shrinking stocks have since turned it into a luxury.

Cecina de León, a protected cured meat that resembles ham, is made from the hind legs of which animal?

Cow hind legs are salted, smoked and air-dried in León province; elsewhere in Spain cecina can also be horse meat.