Camino Food

Camino Food

It’s a subject I’ve held off on writing about because each region that we walked through is slightly different. What was similar, was the dreaded ‘Pilgrim’s Meal’. I’ve ranted about that enough that the only thing I’ll say here is that it was the staple. From there, once you break free from the pilgrim staple, it gets much, much better.  (Camino Food)

Breakfast

At first we discovered that the breakfasts were, well, not really breakfasts…just an appetizer to get one interested in food early in the morning – toasted bread and coffee. So, the typical real breakfast was found later on the trail at the first open bar along the way. There, it was usually, coffee, a tortilla (kind of like a big potato quiche with eggs and meats and whatever was left over from the night before). That was usually topped off with a Napoleon Pastry, a flakey piece of bread with chocolate in the middle.

Lunch

Because I usually arrived at the destination between 1130-1300 I held off on lunch until after a shower and change of clothing. Usually, I had whatever they offered at the hostel. That was a bocadilla, a fresh loaf of bread with thin slices of fatty ham, I tired of these quickly. Some places had hambureisas…a kinda hamburger with a sunny side up egg on top of the meat. Eggs were on everything! Many places had the manufactured, frozen pallela or lasagna that rarely ever looked like the pictures on the menu. But, when tired and hungry, it all went down well with beer.

Dinner

Dinner, frustratingly was served at 1900. The Spanish eat late and their guests eat with them. I was told that dinner is normally around 2100 and our 1900 meals were considered the earliest you could eat. By then we were famished and hungered for the typical Pilgrim Meal.

Now, having giving the down side, the upside was fantastic. The real food was delicious. The vegetables had genuine flavors. The meats aren’t protein fed and also have real taste. The pastries are light and airy and to die for. The coffee is magnificent. The olive oil, on everything, is fresh. The house tinto (red) wines are as good as what we buy for big dollars back in our liquor stores. To top this all off, the prices are ridiculously low. It only gets better from there.

When in the cities, one gets to enjoy the Pinchos and Tappas, the little appetizers that accompany drinks. Or, you can go to a tapa bar and select any number of options from behind the glass counters. They come in millions of varieties and flavors, from potatoes, to salads to shrimps or pork or vegetable – whatever the culinary imagination can concoct. And they’re delicious, absolutely delicious. We often made a meal entirely of these and the wines while passing through the big cities.

Spain is resplendent in delicious foods and drinks. Although I initially lost a good deal of weight on the trail, towards the end, after I figured out how to tap into the ‘real deal’ of culinary delights, the love handles and midriff started to return. Part of the Camino was spiritual, part of it cultural. Enjoying the foods and drinks of Spain was both spiritual and cultural.

 

    

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Interesting Links (Camino Food)

• Photos along the Camino and throughout the Iberian Peninsula
• Return to the beginning of this Journal Blog
• Enjoy our Journal Blog about our travels throughout Italy

 

 

Camino Food