Spanish Food Trivia
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92 free Spanish Food trivia questions with answers — food & drink quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
Spanish food is really a dozen cuisines sharing an olive-oil supply: the cold soups of Andalusia, the bean stews of Asturias, Basque cod and txakoli, Canarian mojo and gofio, Catalan calçots, Extremaduran smoked paprika, Galician scallops and queimada, Valencian paella with rabbit and chicken. Then there is the shared culture of tapas, two-hour lunches, sobremesa and a surprisingly fierce argument about onions. This quiz travels the whole map and the whole timeline: the Phoenicians and the Moors, rice and saffron, the Columbian exchange that made the tortilla possible, butter preserved in pig's tripes, olla podrida as a national dish, the 1984 TV cooking show, cider poured from a height, cheeses curdled with thistle, the world's oldest restaurant and the brothers behind El Celler de Can Roca. Fifty questions with four options each and a short explanation after every answer. Play on your phone or print it for a food-and-drink quiz night.
30 of 92 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Which fortified wine takes its English name from the Spanish town of Jerez?
Sherry
Sherry: English drinkers called the wine of Xeres 'sherris', and the final s was later dropped as if plural.
Q 02What are the sauce bases used across Spanish cooking called?
Sofritos
Sofritos, from the Spanish verb sofreír, 'to fry lightly', because garlic, peppers and tomatoes are gently fried first.
Q 03Which two ingredients of paella were probably popularised under Muslim rule in Iberia?
Rice and saffron
Rice and saffron: rice may already have been grown in Iberia, but its farming spread under Muslim rule.
Q 04Escabeche, introduced by the Moors, preserves food using what?
Vinegar
Vinegar: the word escabeche comes, through Arabic, from a Persian name for a vinegar stew.
Q 05The medieval cookbooks Sent Soví and Llibre de Coch were written in which language?
Catalan
Sent Soví dates from 1324 and Ruperto de Nola's Llibre de Coch from 1520.
Q 06Adafina, a Jewish stew of medieval Spain, is the Sephardic counterpart of which dish?
Cholent
Cholent: Jewish law bars cooking on the Sabbath, so both stews are left to simmer overnight from Friday.
Q 07Spain was the first place chocolate was mixed with what to tame its bitterness?
Sugar
Cocoa arrived with tomatoes, potatoes, maize and peppers after 1492.
Q 08The Spanish potato omelette depends on an ingredient that arrived from where?
The Americas
The Americas: potatoes crossed the Atlantic only after 1492, so no tortilla de patatas existed before then.
Q 09Madame d'Aulnoy reported 17th-century Spanish butter arriving preserved in what?
Pig's tripes
Pig's tripes, and the French baroness complained that the butter arrived full of worms.
Q 10Which stew from León province is eaten in reverse, meat first and soup last?
Cocido maragato
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.
Q 11Simone Ortega's 1080 recetas is Spain's third best-selling book after which two?
Don Quixote and the Bible
First published in 1972, it also included French recipes.
Q 12Spain's top grade of jamón ibérico comes from free-range pigs fattened on what?
Acorns
Acorns: the pigs roam the dehesa oak pastures for months, and that exercise and diet shape the flavour of the ham.
Q 13What is the Spanish word for the leisurely table talk that follows lunch?
Sobremesa
Sobremesa: Spain's large midday meal leaves time to digest, so diners stay on talking instead of rushing back to work.
Q 21Why is Asturian cider poured from a great height?
To aerate it
To aerate it: the thin stream hitting the glass mixes in air, so for a few seconds the still cider turns lively and fizzy.
Q 22Sobrassada and ensaïmada come from which Spanish archipelago?
The Balearics
The Balearics: ensaïmada takes its name from saïm, the pork lard in its dough.
Q 23Bacalao al pil pil is a Basque preparation of which fish?
Cod
Bacalao a la vizcaína is another classic Basque cod dish.
Q 24Txakoli, the Basque staple wine, is notable for what?
Q 14What do Spaniards call the light afternoon snack between lunch and a late dinner?
Merienda
Merienda: the Philippines took the custom from Spain, and there a late 'merienda cena' can even replace dinner.
Q 15Which ingredient divides Spanish opinion over the 'correct' tortilla de patatas?
Onion
Onion, and the version with it is more popular than the plain one, despite vehement purists on both sides.
Q 16Ensaladilla rusa, a Spanish staple, is better known internationally as what?
Olivier salad
Olivier salad, usually credited to Moscow chef Lucien Olivier, whose sous-chef is said to have stolen the recipe.
Q 17Which Spanish region produces most of the country's olive oil?
Andalusia
Andalusia, whose Roman-era oil reached Rome in so many jars that the broken amphorae piled up into a hill, Monte Testaccio.
Q 18Which fruit from Calanda does Aragon traditionally infuse in red wine?
Peach
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.
Q 19Cachopo, an Asturian favourite, is a crumb-coated steak of which meat?
Veal
Carne gobernada, roasted veal, is another regional meat dish.
Q 20Cabrales, a pungent blue cheese, comes from near which mountain range?
Picos de Europa
It is typically eaten with Asturian cider.
High acidity, low alcohol
It is produced in Álava, Guipúzcoa and Biscay.
Q 25Gofio, still eaten in the Canaries, was a staple of which aboriginal people?
Guanches
The Guanches, of Berber origin, are thought to have made it partly from fern roots; today it is toasted wheat or maize.
Q 26Canarian green mojo for fish is made from which herb?
Coriander or parsley
The red mojo picón for meat uses chilli peppers.
Q 27On which Canary island are vines planted in pits dug into volcanic ash, each ringed by a low stone wall?
Lanzarote
Lanzarote: the ash holds in moisture and the walls shelter each vine from the wind.
Q 28Morteruelo, a kind of foie gras, is typical of which region?
Castile-La Mancha
Garlic dominates the region's cooking, as in ajoarriero and ajo mataero.
Q 29Jamón de Guijuelo is a cured ham from which province?
Salamanca
Rueda whites and Ribera del Duero reds are the region's major wines.
Q 30Which thin cured sausage comes from the town of Vic?
Fuet
Fuet, whose white coat is an edible mould that helps the sausage mature as it cures.