10 Facts about Spanish food and its cuisine

Spain owns around 44% of the olive oil in the world, it´s by far the most important producer in this subject. For the same reason, locals can´t argue that olive oil is the most necessary ingredient in their cuisine.

Paella, croquettes, Spanish Omelette…all these famous dishes are always made with olive oil, it may not be needed but Spanish people prefer to cook with it. They really do miss it when they travel to other countries!

One of those fun facts about Spanish food is related with the fuet. Spaniards love their fuet, there are a million commercials talking about how much Spanish people need the fuet on their diet, but…Tourist never appreciate it!

Whenever you heard about the Spanish food, the first names people normally say are Spanish Omelet, Jamon Serrano, paella…but they never mention the fuet, and that´s the reason why it hasn´t become so popular. Every single person who tries fuet, ends up loving it (Remember those words).

Spaniards may not admit this, but they are meat lovers and the make really difficult a veggie diet. Morcilla, jamón, fuet, chorizo, seafood/ chicken paella, octopus…are just a few of the uncountable number of dishes with fish or chicken on their ingredients.

If it´s the case and you are vegetarian, we recommend you trying the Spanish omelet and of course, the mushroom croquettes.

Saying that the Spanish wines are the best would be unfair as it´s a matter of taste and we all know about the Italian and French wines. The one thing we can say for sure, is that Spain is the champion in terms of area covered by vineyards. It owns 15,55% of the total.

The Sherry or the Rioja are by far two of the best wines in Spain…Try both of them!

Almost everyone on earth knows about the famous fish and chips…right? Well, in case you don´t, this dish is everywhere in the Uk. You can´t visit the country and not try it, literally they would not let you!

Well, although it´s really popular over there, its origin comes from the Iberian Peninsula and especially from the South of Spain. Historians say that British got inspired by the authentic “Pescaito Frito” from Andalusia.

One of the most interesting Spanish food facts is that Spaniards introduced many foods to Europe after “discovering” America. Potatoes, tomatoes, cacao are just some examples, but there are many more.

Just so you can have an idea, the Spanish omelet was not created until Colon came back from America as it needed potatoes to be done.

After using these ingredients and foods for their own recipes, the rest of the Europeans started to do the same.

When you are talking about the “Spanish food nutrition facts”, you can´t miss their eating schedule. Spanish people eat really late, and if you realize, they spend their whole day eating.

Their lunch time doesn´t start until 14:00 or 15:00 and in the majority of the countries it starts at 12:00. The same happens at dinner time, until 21:00 they don´t have their dinner. During the summer months they do it even later.

One of the coolest facts about the Spanish cuisine is that Spain occupies two spots in the ranking of the top 10 cities with most bars in the world: Madrid and Barcelona.

Literally, you will find a new bar every two steps in Madrid! People go to bars and restaurants at any time of the day, no matter if its early in the morning to have a coffee or very late at night.

Did you know that around three quarters of the world´s saffron is grown in Spain? It´s probably the reason why Spanish people use it so much, especially for their rice like the famous paella.  

Saffron tends to be very expensive in most of the countries, that´s why we recommend you buying it if you ever visit Spain, as over there is way cheaper.

To finish the top 10 facts about the food in Spain we needed to mention the popular paella. Tourists love to eat the seafood paella, as normally you eat it in an area located near to the ocean, plus, it´s delicious! Well, the truth is that seafood paella is not the original one, the first paella was made with rabbit, chicken, or pork.  You can still eat it, don´t worry, no one will judge you!