I talked a little about Galician food when we were first setting out on the Lisbon Loop, but once we'd arrived back in Spain, food was elbowed aside by other points of interest.

So here's a quick catch-up:

In Cordoba, our host provided us with some pointers to local things to try:


I didn't manage to nail all of them, but I've done my best, and added a few more...

Here's salmorejo, a cold soup made with tomatoes, bread, garlic, and olive oil, topped off with eggs and serrano ham:


Another notable contender in the tomato corner is pisto, a ratatouille-reminiscent stew topped off with a fried egg.

For a big, literally meaty meal, try a flamenquin, a roll-up of pork and ham. Seriously sustaining stuff...


The above also illustrates the concept of the "plato combinado". Along with the "menu del dia", this is one of the most economical ways to eat out in Spain. It is, literally, a combination of several foods together on a plate.

Here's another good-value plato combinado: ham, salad, fried egg, fried potatoes, and a deliciously melty cheese croqueta:


Of course, a lot of the time we ate at home, because that's the best way to ensure you're not spending too much money, and are staying fairly low-carb. In the evenings we often did platters (they're easy, they go well with wine, and it's really easy to find good platter material):


(The cheese on the bottom right, by the way, is tetilla, a soft and unusual Galician cheese whose name refers to the shape. The one above is another of those delicious products that combine milk from goats, sheep, and cows.)

We don't do much sweet stuff these days, but not to be missed is pastel cordobes. This consists of two layers of puff pastry, topped off with sugar and cinnamon. But it's what's between the two layers that's interesting: angel hair squash. This is "cidra" in Spanish, but don't believe the apps that translate it as "citron". It's a squash. There's a good description here (the author calls it "spaghetti squash").


Of course, you can't be in Spain and not have churros... Don Pepe in Cordoba does really, really nice ones (pictured at the top). We'd kind of hoped that they might fall into the roti/croissant category in terms of minimal blood-sugar effect, but alas, they didn't (possibly because of the injudicious quantity...)

We very restrainedly didn't accompany the churros with chocolate. But I treated myself to a really splendid cup of hot chocolate (sans churros) at the Roma Cafe in the Sants area of Barcelona. Really hot, really thick, really chocolatey, and not too sweet. Heaven...

More generally, Spain has proved really good at chocolate. There are high-cocoa bars available in most supermarkets, and the napoletanos here (cousins of the French pains au chocolat) are just fantastic. (All were good, but special prizes go to the ones in Zaragoza and in Barcelona.)

In the desserts department, the Spanish versions of custard (natillas) and rice pudding (arroz con leche) are really delectable.

And Spain, as well as producing good-quality wine at an affordable price, also does some awesome beers. Four to single out:

-- from Andalusia, Alhambra Reserva 1925 -- the one in the really classy green bottle (no label, just embossing)
-- from Aragon, Ambar Avena -- the one with oat malt as well as two different toastings of barley malt
-- from Barcelona, Moritz 7 -- the one with just the right amount of maltiness to give it "forca i caracter", as the Catalan slogan goes
-- from Barcelona also, Estrella Damm -- the one that's not quite as epic as Moritz, but still accompanied my very last plato combinado (cuttlefish, tortilla, and salad) very pleasantly




So, our low-carb leanings have ruled out some of the experimentation we might have done in previous years, but it's still been quite a gastronomic trip.