Every single country has its own national dish, in Italy is the pasta Bolognese and in Germany are their famous sausages. As you may know Spain is divided in 17 different regions and each of them has its own cuisine specialties, which made extremely hard to conclude with just one national dish for the whole country.
👨🍳 Top 5 National foods of Spain
Although we could add a million dishes to this list, Spaniards must admit that these 5 can be eaten in every restaurant of the country. You may or may not like the foods we are going to mention, but absolutely all of them could be named as the Spanish national dish:
🍳 5) Tortilla de Patatas (Spanish Omelet)
We had to start the list with the most served food in Spain which is the Spanish Omelet or as people say in Spain: “Tortilla de Patata”. There is actually not any region of the country that claims the Spanish Omelet as their own, and that could be a great argument to consider it the official food of Spain.
The name of “Tortilla de patatas” means potato omelet and its recipe is basically eggs and potatoes, simple right? The one thing you must know about this dish, is that it generates a huge argument all over the country: “With or without onions?” We let you decide about your answer, but both are delicious!
🥩 4) Iberian ham (Jamón ibérico)
You must also talk about the Spanish ham when you are doing a list of national dishes of Spain. The “jamón serrano” is probably the most famous Spanish food out of the country. Imagine how much tourists love it, that some people just visit the country to try it and take some to their house.
In this case, although the Spanish “Jamón” is recognized for being very well produced in some areas of Spain like Extremadura, you can eat it as a tapa or find in a grocery store in every single region of the country.
What we like the most about this plate is that you can either buy the cheap or the expensive version, of course, the quality is way different.
🍘 3) Croquettes (Croquetas)
Although its origin is not even from Spain (Croquetas were invented in France), it´s still one of those Spanish national foods and the reason is very simple: People from Spain love it! Plus, there is nothing better than the “Croquetas de la abuela” (Grandma croquettes).
There are multiple types of croquettes, you can do “Croquetas de Jamón” (The most typical ones), croquettes with mushrooms, cheese, morcilla and many others. Again, in this case croquettes are common in every region of Spain.
🥨 4) Churros
I am 100% sure that you have heard about churros at least once in your life. These sweet fried doughs are very typical in Spain and especially in Madrid. Churros are now international, and you can find them at the breakfasts of international hotels. In case you didn´t know, Churros are also made in México, but they taste a little bit different.
You can eat churros almost during the whole year, but they are very typical in Christmas season and during the cold winter. People normally eat it with a cup of hot chocolate. The reason why churros is for many people one of Spain´s national dish is because its popularity.
🥘 5) The national dish of Spain: Paella
As we said, any of the 4 plates we have mentioned before could be considered the national food of Spain, but if we have to say which is the one that has more chances…We believe it would be the “Paella”.
The paella is a yellow rice that everyone likes, it is recognized by most of the tourists and although its origin is from Valencia, nowadays you can eat it everywhere you go.
There are many types of Paella, but the common ones are the Seafood Paella and the Chicken Paella. Many people argue about which one is the best, but the Seafood paella is the traditional one.
😋 Enjoy the Spanish national food dishes
That´s all you need to know, hope you have clear what are the national foods of Spain. Other than the ones we have said, the calamari, the Galician Octopus, the Spanish chorizo or the Gazpacho are also very famous and a must try when you visit Spain.
Enjoy eating any of these dishes, and if you have any other question about Spain´s national foods, please let us know.