My Life in Food: Do I Really Need This Much Protein?

I just got done eating lunch (la comida). Today we had a ham, lentil, and vegetable soup, followed by pimientos rellenos (stuffed peppers with fish, egg, onion, lettuce in a spicy sauce). It was amazing! The pimientos rellenos are my new favorite food. The cuisine here is in some ways very much the same as in the U.S., but in many ways it is very different, and much better. There are definitely specialties here, and most of these specialties contain seafood or beans. I’ve had a lot of bean stews (fabadas) and soups that have different types of beans, including lentils, garbanzos, and alubias blancos (white beans? I don’t know what we would call them in English). Of course, there is paella, a rice dish that can contain chicken, seafood, any variety of vegetables, and the very distinctive saffron. I tried paella the second week I was here, at one of the aforementioned “casetas”, but I didn’t like it. When my host mom, Carmen, made it for me, it was much better. But I still think you have to be in the right mood for it. I’m not sure if it is the saffron that is strange to me, or if it’s the fact that it is very fishy- tasting. I’ve had garbanzos in a stew/soup (not sure how you distinguish between one or the other) and also in a lettuce salad with tuna.
I’ve gone into a lot of detail here, but let me backtrack and just describe in general how one eats in Spain. We’ll begin with breakfast, el desayuno. One can eat breakfast (desayunar) anytime of the morning, unless of course one sleeps until lunch (la comida) around 2pm. Breakast consists of some sweet, cookie-like crackers and a mini-muffin or some other small pastry. My host mom started setting out the peanut butter for me, and I just assumed that I should put it on my crackers. Much as I enjoy this, I'm not sure how authentic peanut butter is to Spanish culture. Let's move on to the second meal of the day. As I said, lunch is the biggest meal of the day, and is comprised of three “courses”. The first is usually a large plate of pasta, salad, or a bowl of soup or stew. When I had my first meal here, I thought that when I finished my huge quantity of pasta, I was done, but I was wrong. The second course is usually meat or fish, served as a filet. The third course is optional (although mi madre seems very concerned if I’m too full to eat it) and is usually just a piece of fruit or yoghurt. I have had some fancier desserts, but not many. One time we had these ball-shaped pastries filled with some kind of sugary cream. I’m not good at describing food, obviously, but you get the idea. It’s pretty dang good. Side note: Apparently, the three course concept is one of the many contributions of the Arabic culture in Spain.
Finally, there is dinner (la cena). This meal is consumed anytime between 9pm and 10:30pm usually. Sometimes it just depends on when I get back to the apartment. Carmen usually just heats up leftovers from lunch or from another day. Though as always it is a generous serving, it is only plate of food. La cena definitely lacks the fanfare of la comida, especially since we almost never eat together. Like I said, sometimes I will just be served whenever I get home, so I almost always eat alone.
Generally, I like everything I eat here. Every time I try something new, Carmen says “¿Te gusta, Estif?”, and I say “¡Me gusta mucho!”, so she is definitely under the impression that I will eat anything and everything. Which is true, but it reveals that I lack a distinguished palette. Oh well.
Let me add a caveat emptor: I am only describing my host family’s habits, and one can hardly make a generalization for an entire culture from these observations. The point is simply to inform you of my day to day lifestyle here in Valladolid.
¡Hasta luego!