Before I arrived to Spain, I had to pick my preferences for what I valued the most in a living environment. There were four different choices: Non-Smoking, No Pets, Host Family, and Food/Dietary Restrictions. In order I chose: Host Family, Non-Smoking, Food/Dietary Restrictions, and No Pets. So, going into my time abroad I was expecting to be very flexible with the food that was being offered as I cared more about the unique relationships that could be made within my home, and not having to constantly inhale toxic fumes.
January 21, 2016: The first meal that was served at my new home that I would be staying at for the next four months. Carmina then asked with the limited Spanish that she knew, “Is pasta okay?” Not only did she serve an incredible dish of pasta, but there was also a freshly made side salad to top it off. I thought to myself, “Maybe she is just trying to impress with the first meal. The second meal is going to be the real test”. Well, I found out that I did not even need to get to my second meal in order to find out if Carmina’s cooking was legitimate or not. Later that night Carmina had told me that she spent 10 years teaching her employees how to cook in San Francisco…I was a happy man.
Eating in Spain is quite a bit different than in the States. Breakfast is served around 8 AM and that solely consists of bread and coffee. Every morning. Bread and coffee. Lets just say that I no longer am eating bread in the mornings :). Lunch is served anywhere from 2-2:30 PM and I usually eat with my host parents. Lunch is the supposed to be the biggest meal of the day. Well, that is what they tell me at least, but man I am just as stuffed after lunch than I am at dinner! Dinner is served between 8:30-9:00 PM, which is actually on the earlier side when comparing to the Spanish norms.
I have tried to do a good job of remembering the foods that I have eaten, but to be honest with you that goal stopped becoming a reality right around week 2 due to the variety of meals Carmina has served. Some of the stuff that has been served: different kinds of soups (lentil, potato, meats, etc.), pasta (with meat, carrots, mushrooms, pepper), meat and rice, eggs and french fries, fish, home made pizzas, tortillas, paella, and many other things that I have probably forgotten about. All of these meals are either served with a side soup or a side salad. Most of the time I am too full to eat a side soup and Carmina jokingly gets mad at me. It has even gotten to a point where she says, “no sopa, entonces no postre (dessert) para ti”. I crack up every time because that is totally something that my mom would do. At lunch the dessert encompasses some sort of fruit and after dinner the dessert usually consists of yogurt, flan, or fruit. A couple of examples of fruity desserts have been strawberries with sugar, strawberries with condensed milk, and pears with honey.
Now Carmina is not only an incredible cook to me, but she also does an incredible job for my roommate as well. You are probably wondering why that would be any different. Well, because my roommate is a vegetarian. So every time that she cooks me a meal that includes some type of meat (which is fairly often), she makes my roommate a separate meal to accommodate his eating needs. I have never seen someone love so well through their cooking. This is why it is often scary if you are not a fan of something of Carmina’s cooking because she kind of takes it personally! She is that good! She once told me, “I made this with love. Everything that you do with love will be good”. That quote embraces the woman that she is and I am so thankful for the time that she has put in the kitchen just to make her “hijos” happy.
