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What to Eat in Spain: Must-Try Foods, Drinks & Spanish Food Culture
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Jun 12, 2025
Heading to Spain and wondering what to eat? This video is your essential guide to traditional Spanish food and drinks, perfect for first-time visitors or anyone who wants to eat like a local. From tapas and paella to jamón ibérico and churros, we break down the most popular dishes you must try in Spain. We also dive into Spanish food culture, including meal times, eating habits, and what you need to know before dining out in Madrid, Barcelona, Seville, or anywhere across the country. In this video, we’ll cover: Must-try Spanish dishes and regional favorites Traditional drinks like sangria, vermouth, and tinto de verano Tapas culture: what it is and how to do it right Spanish mealtimes and what tourists often get wrong Desserts and snacks that locals love Whether you're a foodie or just hungry for knowledge, this guide will help you understand and enjoy Spanish cuisine like a pro. Subscribe for more honest travel advice and real food guides from around the world! #SpanishFood #WhatToEatInSpain #SpainTravelTips #TapasCulture #FoodInSpain #WoltersWorldEats Filmed in Barcelona & Cordoba, Spain Wolters World for Food! Our videos focus on helping travelers know what to eat when they travel, the traditional food that you always want to eat when you travel.
View Video Transcript
0:00
Hey there fellow hungry travelers, Mark here with Walter's World and today we're in Cordoba, Spain
0:04
And today we're going to talk about what you should eat when you come here to Spain. But we're not just going to talk about the food here in Spain
0:10
We're also going to talk about things you should know as a tourist coming here when it comes to eating times
0:16
how people eat, things you need to know about, so you're better prepared to enjoy all the great food that's here
0:21
And believe me, it's a lot more than tapas. And this time we're going to do a little bit differently
0:25
I'm going to have the tips from here in Cordoba, But then also I'm going to have this talking about the food when we're in Barcelona
0:31
So let's get this mixed together. First things first though, you might want to know is when do you go eat
0:35
Because the thing is in Spain they eat later. Okay, so like if you're used to going to have lunch at like 11 30 or something like that
0:42
it's not going to happen. The restaurants tend to open up for service at noon or maybe one o'clock
0:48
So if you want an early lunch, it's going to be very hard to find something. Okay, so just know lunchtime is like one, two, three o'clock
0:55
Okay, after three o'clock, some of the restaurants will close down their kitchen and they don't open up again till seven or eight o'clock at night
1:03
And that's when you have dinner. Dinner is more eight, nine, ten o'clock at night than it is earlier
1:08
So if you're coming from, you know, I'm from Illinois, used to having dinner at five or six o'clock
1:12
It's not going to happen here in Spain. Okay. Now, if you're going to go to a tourist city like Madrid or here in Barcelona or Sevilla, you will be able to get food any time of the day
1:22
won't be much of a problem but just saying if you want to get to really authentic places
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most of them won't be serving dinner until about seven or eight o'clock at night and they might be
1:29
closed in the afternoon okay so i just want to give you that kind of pointer to start off now
1:33
talking about starting off or starters the entradas maybe you want to have some snacks when you are
1:38
here and one of the great things about spain is they have this tapas culture tapas are little small
1:44
plates of food and it can be a lot of different things but in small portions like it might be
1:48
be some calamari or cuttlefish, which is chocos, or you could get patatas bravas, which are these
1:53
little fried potatoes with a special sauce on top. They're my favorite. They're to die for
1:58
And the thing is, you go to these tapas bars, and you'll have a beer or a wine or if you want a Coke
2:03
whatever, and you're going to go there, and people, they'll give you a little plate of food. Sometimes you'll get it for free if you're drinking. Most of the times you might pay a
2:10
little money to get that, and it is really cool because you have these snacks. You can try all these different things and you'll see in the cafes they'll have kind of like a glass thing out there
2:18
that has all the different ones out there and you say oh I want one of those one of those and one of those okay and pick it out and they'll serve it to you now if you want a bigger plate than just a
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tapas you want a bigger version of that you get a ración the ración is the big plate of it okay
2:31
and it's significantly more expensive but I just want to give you an idea for that okay one of the
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best parts of eating here in Spain is actually going out for tapas and there's a few things I
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think you should know before you go one tapas are just a small plate you know they'll give you a
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little sampling of a lot of the different foods you can have here. And back in the day, you used
2:48
to get a lot of tapas for free. And I want to tell you this, don't expect to get tapas, a little
2:52
treats for free. Many places here in Spain, you might get some potato chips or some olives for
2:57
free. But aside from that, it's not as common. Now, if you go to Granada, Granada is still famous
3:01
for its free tapas they give out. But if you're in Barcelona, Madrid, Sevilla, don't expect any of
3:06
those free tapas to pop up. But just know that if you do go to tapas and you have the tapas you go
3:11
out that's a great place to actually meet the locals and hang out and practice your spanish
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and meet people because everybody's there having the patatas bravas the croquetas and things i mean
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i talked about the tapas you want to have but you're here but that's just something to kind of know about when you go there and also when you're ordering there's tapas which is a small
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plate that you'll see sometimes racion or raciones that's a much bigger plate sometimes they call
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platos and so you want to be aware because the tapas might be two three four euros but if you
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a ración or a plato like the whole plate then it could be you know 8, 9, 10, 12 euros and all of a
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sudden it's not as cheap as you think it is. Now some of the other toppings you might have or some
3:47
of the little snacks you might have when you're here my personal favorite combination is manchego
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cheese which is a goat cheese a dry goat cheese it's fantastic you'll definitely want to have that
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when you're here also you have jamón iberico or iberian like ham it looks like kind of like
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a cross between ham and and bacon and not cooked and stuff but it is fantastic those are two things
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you got to have together because they just go perfectly together. Another thing, if you want to
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get a little snack, they have what are called croquettes, which is my personal favorite is a
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ham croquette, which is like match up chopped up pieces of ham and mashed potatoes kind of smooshed
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together into a ball or maybe an oval thing and they fry them up and oh my god they are so good
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If you get somebody's grandma, abuela to cook one for you, cook some for you, dude they are to die
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for it. Okay, so definitely try the croquettes. Another thing you might look out for when you're
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you're looking for this snacking kind of stuff is what we call pinchos. And pinchos, it's a piece
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of bread and they'll have stuff on top. It might be meat, it can be some kinds of cheeses, it can be
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some kind of vegetables, all kinds of different things. Here in Barcelona, it's very popular to
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have pinchos and cava, which cava is the bubbly sparkling wine they have here in the Catalonia
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region. And you have those. So that's another really tasty like little treat to have. If you're
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looking for something light, especially from Andalusia, it's gazpacho. It's the cold vegetable
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tomato soup that you hear about. Look, on a day like today where it's a little cool and wet
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maybe not the best day for gazpacho. But if you're gonna be here in Spain when it's 30 degrees Celsius, you know
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95 degrees Fahrenheit, and it's hot, and you like oh I just want something cool gazpacho makes a really great like lunch snack whatever cold soup it really like refreshes you so that really nice okay now here the thing when you going to be here in
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spain you're going to see a lot of tourist restaurants and tourists like picture boards
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of food i will tell you this the more pictures they have probably the more touristy is so do be
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aware of that however don't think you can't use that to your advantage because you can look on
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those tourist food boards to know what some of the food is and then go to another local restaurant
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that doesn't have pictures and you at least know kind of what you're going to be getting when you
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do order that food so that can be helpful so don't think those tourist restaurant pictures aren't
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going to be helpful because they can help out sometimes and one of the things you get here like
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the jamon iberico i was talking about that's the expensive ham like that's the two or three times
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more expensive than like the jamon serrano which is another ham you can have so do be aware if you
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want to get the nice stuff you ask for jamon or spanish ham you know it's gonna be pricey ask for
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the other ones you can save money that way but i do recommend you have the jamon iberico at least
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one time because that's the good stuff and i'll be honest with you when you're here in spain you'll
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notice they love their cured meats the salamis the chorizos the the the jamons like this is a
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thing here so uh just know when people ask you what's true spanish food just go to your local
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deli that's that's true spanish food and if you go to the grocery stores here you will see aisles
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and aisles of deli meats like the cured meats here because they love it and it's not just jamon okay
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so be aware of that and one thing some tourists mentioned to me they were kind of upset with
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they're like mark why do they keep giving us these small beers and i'm like well one thing to realize
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you get the small beers here especially the south of spain because it's so hot in the summertime
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your beer heats up too fast so you want to drink the smaller beer so it stays cold because they do
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like their cold beer here they like their cold wine here because you know what they don't like
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the insane heat either, hence why you have the break from two to four in some places to get out
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of that heat. So just know that when you're eating that, yeah, if you're having a drink
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it might be in a smaller cup, so you might need to order more. Now, if you're looking for something
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a bit bigger, you know, you want to get your full meal going on here. One thing I will say is if
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you're going to be having your big meal, I recommend having it at lunch because they have
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these things in Spain called lunch bins. And it's actually a law saying that every restaurant has to
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have a two-course meal that can be accessible, i.e. financially accessible, to the average everyday
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person, okay? And what's cool is you'll get a starter and a main course for a really good price
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And you can go to really good restaurants and they still have to have it. But one thing I will warn
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you, some restaurants and waiters sometimes forget to tell the tourists about the lunch special
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So make sure you ask for the lunch menu just so you can see what's on there. It gives you a chance
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to experiment with new things. Now what are you going to eat when you're here for those main dishes
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obviously the most popular dish you hear about is paella. Paella is rice and seafood and all kinds
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of stuff mixed together. If you get the original one from Valencia, there's like some chicken in
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there maybe, all kinds of different stuff that goes into it. And it is fantastic. But I will warn
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you, you will see a lot of restaurants and cafes by tourist destination, tourist spots, right? And
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they'll have a whole window of different kinds of paella that you can buy. Basically, it's a
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microwave paella okay it tastes horrible if you're gonna have paella make sure you find a friend
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go to a restaurant and they'll say look it's at least for two or three people because then you get
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the big huge walk of it and it is fantastic and if you get to meet some of the fantastic spanish
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people here and they invite again abuela mama gotta love her she can cook that for you you will
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die of happiness because it is so good so that's the first thing i always recommend to have but not
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in some kind of tourist destination all right or tourist spot the other thing you want to have when
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here is seafood. You can have garlic prawns or garlic shrimp. That's a really popular one here
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There's all kinds of great seafood. Grilled fish. Oh man, the fish here is fantastic. All throughout
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the country, we really enjoy it. Javsleven says like, Mark, you've got to talk about the fish here
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I love the seafood in Spain. It is great. However, I will warn you, when you go to a restaurant
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especially in tourist areas, they're going to say, oh, would you like our fish of the day
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And they'll show you, oh, it's this fish. And you see the price and you think, wow, that's really
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good. That's the price per grand. Okay. We've actually gotten nailed this way. I thought we
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were going to spend about 15 euros for our fish. And we ended up spending 80 euros for the fish
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I was like, oh my God. So just watch out for that. Now the fish is worth the money, but just know
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that maybe look on the menu to see the prices better there to see what's going on. Grilled
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octopus is good here too. If you want to get some other seafood stuff. And if you want to get meats
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they have some really good meats here, but I recommend if you want to get like steak and beef
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kind of stuff, like really hearty food, go to a Basque restaurant, man, that stuff is to die for
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It is so good. I know what the Basques do with their meats, but holy moly, that is some good
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stuff, okay? I think it's really important to mention when you're talking about food in Spain
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you have to mention the regionality of the food because no matter where you go in Spain
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the local produce will influence, the local production will influence what is popular to
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have there. So for example, here in Cordoba, there's a lot of dishes you just find here
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like flamencín, which is a pork loin wrapped up in a roll basically with ham and cheese in it
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and they deep fry it. It's something that's very special from here. You don't get it very much out of other parts of the country
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Piminos de Padrón from Galicia, like those are a little bit more popular these days
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but that a thing from there And wherever you go in Spain you going to want to eat the local dishes because they will be significantly better than just the overall plain Spanish dishes so do be aware of that and going along with the regional like like food there also regional tapas you going to
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have when you go to different spots that might be different you know like pinchos which are
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bread with you know meat or cheese or seafood on top that's very popular in the Basque country but
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if you have pinchos here in Cordoba those are little skewers of like pork or maybe chicken
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you might have. And so it does really change from the tapas, the eating, to also the wine
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So if you're here in Cordoba, they like their sweet wines, the Pedro Jimenez. And if you
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go to Sevilla, there's a different kind of wine they like there. It's also sweet wine
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but different places you go, they focus on different things. Like cava is very popular
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in Barcelona because that's where it's from. However, if you're in other parts of Spain
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you're not really drinking cava very often. It's more of a celebratory or kind of like
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end of meal thing, whereas in Barcelona, you might have it right away. And the drinks when you come
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to Spain, there's some things that are kind of everywhere. You know, there is the sangria, which is popular with tourists, but also locals will have it sometimes as well. But I've noticed
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locals will like to mix it up a little bit. Maybe you have it with cava instead of the red wine
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or you might have a white wine version. I've seen a lot of different versions of it, so you can have
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that. A popular summer kind of refreshing wine is Tinto de Verano, which is basically red wine
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mixed with, I would say, like a Sprite kind of drink to make it a much more refreshing thing
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The beer you have here will be really cold because they know it's really hot here in the summer
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So do a very, very good job having really cold beer. And when you go around, there's also non-alcoholic
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drinks you're going to get. Their favorite chocolate drink to have is Cola Cao. And if
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you say Cola Cao is not better than, if you say Nestle Quick or something is a better chocolate
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milk than Cola Cao, you will not have friends when you're here in Spain. That's like a really
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important thing to remember. So if you're a Coke drinker and you come here to Spain and you order a
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Coke, they a lot of times will default to Coke Zero. So if you want like a normal Coke, make sure
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you make sure it's not a zero because what I've seen the last couple of years, it really is, it
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defaults back to, oh, Coke Zero. You're like, no, no, just a normal Coke. So that's one thing, but
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you don't have to drink unhealthy drinks when you're here. I mean, they do have, you can drink
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the water. It's just fine. I do recommend when you're traveling around, especially in the summer
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like you're here in Cordoba, Granada, Sevilla, Malaga, where it's really, really hot in the summertime
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So it's important to stay hydrated and you can drink the water here. No problem. Just get a water bottle and refill it up
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So if you're looking at service in Spanish restaurants, you also need to know don't expect fast service
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And that means getting your seat, getting your food, getting your drinks, or getting your bill
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No matter how much you look like you're ready to leave, they will not bring your cuenta until you ask for la cuenta
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Okay, so make sure you ask for your bill. Otherwise, you might sit there for a while
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And even if you do ask for La Cuenta, it might take some time to get it because I saw a few people here this square get a little upset with the servers
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I'm like, dude, you got to specifically ask them. Sometimes that means you got to walk up to the bar and pay
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But do be aware of that service can take a little time. And you do need to ask for La Cuenta, the bill, sometimes to get what you need
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Also, if you need to use the restroom, remember Los Haceos is the bathroom or servicios, toiletas
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There's lots of different words for it. but a lot of times a lot of restaurants and cafes the toilets are only for paying clients so sometimes
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you might need to grab a coffee or something to use it some places though they're pretty you know
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pretty friendly like yeah go ahead it's not a big deal but don't be surprised if you need to use the
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bathroom you might have to wait a bit or buy something the only thing I think you should know
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when you go out to eat here in Spain is the bread a lot of times it might be free and sometimes it
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might not be free so do look on the menu because a lot of times they'll say oh for the bread and
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the little things it's a euro or euro 60 or two euros so don't be surprised there's like a little
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add-on on your bill for that bread so if you don't want the bread to say no no no gracias no
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necesito el pan no i don't need the bread because that can you know add a little bit on there also
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don't be weirded out if people just put the bread straight on the table like when they grab the bread
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from the basket they put their bread next to their plate on the table that is a total normal thing
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here. I've seen tourists going, oh my gosh, that bread's on the table. That's gross. What are they
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doing? That's just how they eat it here, okay? So don't be freaked out about it. And also
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don't expect butter with that bread. If you get some oil, that's great. But a lot of times, you just use them to sop up some of the great food and stew stuff that comes along with your
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great food, like the oxtail here in Cordoba. Now, when you're looking at eating times
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when you come here to Spain, there's some things you need to realize. One, breakfast
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desayuno, is not really a big thing here in Spain. So if you're going to be staying at a hotel
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make sure they have breakfast and if you're going to be doing an airbnb are you going to be doing
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apartment rentals you're gonna be here for a while make sure you're going to the store to pick
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yourself up some breakfast stuff because a lot of the restaurants and cafes don't open in the
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morning so there's not a lot of stuff for you to get i mean you might be able to get a coffee and
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maybe a little pastry or something but this isn't a big breakfast culture so be aware of that because
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that will impact you know the food you have at restaurants the food options you have at breakfast
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that's one thing i think also i need to mention this about paella when you're going to have paella
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when you're here, that is more of a lunchtime thing because it takes so long to prepare. A lot
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of restaurants won't even have it as an option at dinnertime. So do be aware of that. So if you
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want to have a good paella, if I have a paella place and have it for lunch, okay? Now when it
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comes to dinner, a lot of restaurants don't start serving until eight o'clock at night. And you
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notice people might not show up until 9 30 10 o at night for dinner because eating dinner here is much later than probably within where you from And you do need to adjust for that Now if you in very big tourist places like Barcelona or Malaga the coastal there will be places that are open the whole time to eat
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But if you're into smaller towns, if you're a place like here in Cordoba, or if you're in smaller villages or you're going to a place like Hirona
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if you're doing day trips from Barcelona, that can be an issue. Also, those late night dinners, don't be surprised if you see it like, you know
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some small kids and some grandmas out eating dinner at 10, 11 o'clock at night. That's not an uncommon thing
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So don't freak out about it. No little cultural thing you need to know about eating in Spain
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And that is you're never really eating alone. Even if you're sitting at a table by yourself, there's the table next to you and you're kind of like a team
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So when their food comes, you give it a look and give them a nod. When your food comes, they give you the nod
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They'll tell you buen provecho and you tell them buen provecho, which is like enjoy your meal kind of thing
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And it's funny because like you will comment on their food and they will comment on your food sometimes
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So do be aware that you're never truly alone when it comes to eating in Spain
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Now, after you've had all your meats and your tapas and things like that, you might want something sweet
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And they've got some really good sweets here in Spain. Some of the ones I like to have, I love flan
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It's like a pudding with a caramel pudding with a little caramel sauce on top. It is one of my favorite things to have when I am here
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Pretty much every restaurant will have some version of it. Or you can go to one of the mini subaracados around the cities
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They'll have it. You can just get some there. It's a really great treat. creme catalan or catalan cream or we call it creme brulee but don't say creme brulee here they might
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smack you creme catalan is a really good one too another thing you might see at christmas is turon
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which is kind of like a nougat i don't know like sometimes it looks like a peanut brittle sometimes
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looks like a candy bar but it's kind of an almond based candy thing that's a really typical dish
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especially at christmas it's not a dish it's like a bar of candies kind of stuff that you'll break up
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and stuff kind of like peanut brittle another thing is you want to have churros con chocolate
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So you have like this really thick hot chocolate. It's almost like chocolate syrup and hot is so good
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And then you take the churros, which are basically fried donut batter. They just cut it off in this tube, fry it up right there, give it to you
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Oh my God, they are so good. And you'll see a lot of stands that will sell churros and chocolate on the streets
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And you just get it there and enjoy it that way, okay? Now, if you want another little snack on the street, you have what are called bocadillos
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I know it's not a sweet thing, but it's another snack you're looking at. A bocadillo is just a baguette, you know, half a baguette
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And inside, they either put jamón, ham, or they might put cheese in it, or ham and cheese
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Or you might get tortilla española. In tortilla española, it's egg, onion, and potato, and olive oil
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And they cook it, it becomes this, like, hard egg thing. And sometimes you'll have it by itself, or sometimes they'll put it in the sandwich
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So do you see that egg sandwich, like, subway thing, out there, sub-sandwich thing
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That's tortilla española. It's just eggs, onion, and potato and a lot of olive oil, okay
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So there is that. Now, if you're looking at what you're going to drink when you're here, obviously the big thing here is wine
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Wine in Spain is really good and it's really affordable. So if you want to get a crianza, you can have that
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That's going to be good. The vino de la casa, the house wine, you'll be fine with that pretty much anywhere you go
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So I'd stick to that. But different regions have their own kind of wines and stuff like that
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Here in Catalonia, you want to have cava. Cava is sparkling wine, so like a champagne kind of thing
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but here in the it's kava though okay and that's really famous here there's actually kava bars
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where you go have your tapas and kava and stuff like that here in barcelona it is really cool
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other things you might drink the beers that are here there's san miguel there's cruz campo
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they're not i mean if you're coming from you know germany in the czech republic you probably will
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not be too impressed so you might want to stick to the wine or the kava and the thing is wherever
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you are in spain make sure you ask your hotel concierge or at the restaurant what's a traditional
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local dish because by eating the local stuff you get a lot more fresh and they have some pretty
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different things out there here you have butifada which is a kind of blood sausage thing that you'll
20:01
eat with beans very traditional dish here do you like it do you not like it it doesn't matter it's
20:06
a traditional dish of here you might want to try that one thing i like when i go to santiago you
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know if you're going to do the camino de santiago to santiago de compostela you go there and they
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have pimentos de pedron if you come in season there's these little these little peppers that
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They're usually mild. But every like 15th one is like, oh my God, that's hot. And that's one thing I always love when I go up to Santiago
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Obviously, the gazpacho en la dulcea is probably the best. But you do have, you know, and the meat and Basque, like I told you before
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each region has kind of its own thing. So make sure you do try that there
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So if you want the best paella, you know, go to Valencia where it's from and all kinds of stuff like that
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Anyway, I hope this kind of helps you get an idea of what you should eat and drink and things like that when you do come to Spain
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Oh, one thing, if you're looking to pay, you can pay with a credit card. You can pay cash, you know, euros for your food here
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No big deal. I will say, though, you do not have to tip. There's no tipping here
20:55
Sometimes they don't even give you an option when you play with a credit card to put a tip on there. But if you do want to leave a tip, 5% is plenty, okay
21:02
But you don't have to leave a tip here in Spain. So I hope that helped whet your appetite for coming to Spain
21:06
If you want to learn more, maybe the don'ts of visiting Spain, mistakes that tourists make when they come to Spain
21:11
check us on our website at waltersworld.com. We're also on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube
21:15
And we really appreciate your like, subscriptions. If you like food videos like this that tell you the food, but also the culture that goes along with food
21:22
why not hit that subscribe button? We put out one or two videos every single week to help you enjoy eating around the world
21:27
Bye from here in Spain
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