I've come to realize that nearly half my opinion of a foreign country comes from food. Sad, I know, but its true. But I'm okay with it. And since eating is inevitable in a foreign country, it might as well be good.
Spain, at least in the central plains region around Madrid, has two basic food groups: pork and beef, or some combination of the two. That may be an oversimplification but it sounds better that way. I'm pretty sure you could spend an entire summer in Madrid and never eat the same meat dish twice. Now, personally, I'm a meat lover, so I'm in paradise right now. Literally. There's a Paradiso del Jamon (Ham Paradise) right down the street. There's just something about meat that drives madrileños wild. Thankfully I got a host mom that could cook. Food costs money and while there is cheap, good quality stuff out there, but there's nothing quite like a home cooked meal, and all the abuelas here can cook like nobody's business.
The only thing that messes with my brain though is the schedule. I was used to not having a big breakfast, and that's pretty much the rule of thumb here as well, but lunch isn't until 2 o'clock. And dinner not until 9 or even 10 o'clock at night. Thankfully, Pilar stuffs us so full of food at lunch that I usually can wait that long until dinner. The readjustment is gonna be a nightmare though, I can feel it. I'll be craving food in the middle of the night and not eating until mid afternoon.
Speaking of which, its almost dinnertime here now. I'm hankering for some seafood (Madrid has way wider culinary variety than I'm letting on). I'm gonna head out for now. Stay hungry
--Matt
