One of the most amusing aspects of living here continues to be discovering the differences in how Spaniards and Americans eat. We humans hold our eating habits very near and dear to our hearts, both individually and culturally, so it almost always produces strong reactions when we are confronted with something we consider strange in the food world.
While trying not to place positive or negative value on these differences, I do nonetheless get quite a kick out of them.
In honor of tomorrow's holiday dedicated to stuffing our faces, here are a few of my food-related observations:
1. Cookies are an acceptable breakfast food...
2. However yogurt is a dessert.
3. And I've only seen people eat eggs for lunch or dinner.
4. Oldest thought it was gross I had a glass of milk in the afternoon with my bizcocho (essentially like coffeecake)...
5. But doesn't think orange juice is primarily a morning drink.
6. Neither does Oldest believe in the wonder of leftover pizza... My American college student sensibilities are deeply troubled by this.
7. Cups of coffee (which you would assume rarely spill) get their own plate...
8. But bread (which leaves a pile of crumbs without exception) is placed directly on the table.
9. Nobody seems to eat or drink on the go. I don't even see to-go mugs for drinks in anyone's hands. (No Starbucks holiday cup crisis in Spain, at least...)
10. Coffee- apparently always in the form of espresso- can acceptably be taken with or without milk, however people are universally shocked that I like mine without sugar.
11. Breakfast is whenever you wake up, lunchtime is around 2:30, and dinner is never earlier than 8:30.
12. Still trying to figure out what exactly is "dried fruits" (frutas secas) vs "nuts" (nueces). Unlike in English where fruit is fruit and nuts are nuts, some of what we Anglophones call nuts are in the category of frutas secas. Lots of confusion over this one.
Happy Turkey Day to my fellow estadounidenses!
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