Since I have lived here I have been introduced to so many different fruits, vegetables, types of meat and fish, ways of preparation and cooking along with customs and traditions, what is eaten when and where, etc. It has enabled me to appreciate the culture so much more in its depth and diversity and if I had to live anywhere outside of Spain I know that one of the things I would miss the most would be its gastronomy.
The breakfast that I like to order when I go to a cafetería or bar is so simple but I had never had it nor thought of it before living here. You can only really order it in east and southern Spain because whenever I have asked for it on my trips to Catalonia or the north like Santander or Bilbao I was told it wasn't what they serve for breakfast.
You ask for: "media tostada con tomate, zumo de naranja y café con leche"... and maybe you should add "por favor" at the end.
The toast
People don't really use sliced bread over here. You can buy it in supermarkets or in some bars or restaurants it will be the bread for a sandwich (same word as in English). But people generally buy a stick of bread (where I'm from in the UK we would call it a French stick) or barra de pan. There are many types of these barras but that will be another post. This is the type of bread they typically use for the toast and it is a media because it is only one half. If you want more you can skip the "media" part of the sentence and they will give you both halves.Tomatoes are extremely important to this area in Spain with the Murcia region being probably the largest producer and exporter. Also, if you see in your supermarkets in the UK the tomatoes from Muchamiel or Muxamel (in Valencian language) then they are from the huge greenhouses you can see if you go up the Santa Barbara castle in Alicante, as Muchamiel is a small town on the outskirts of Alicante city. There are many different types of tomato with some new species being created too with commercial success. I will highlight some in a later post.
So what's on the toast is basically a tomato pulp of squashed, peeled tomatoes, although in some areas of Spain they serve it with a lot less quantity as they simply cut a tomato in half and rub the toast with the inside part. (In some places as an appetiser for lunch I have had pieces of toast rubbed not only with tomato but they firstly rub a clove of garlic over it a few times before rubbing the tomato to give it a kick. It's delicious!)
You will notice two sachets on the plate too. One is olive oil and the other is salt and if these condiments are not already on the table you have them there to put on top of the tomato to your liking. I put salt first then drizzle a little olive oil over.
The juice
Freshly squeezed orange juice is widely available in bars and cafes in this area and the south as there are many orange groves producing oranges for domestic consumption and export. They sometimes serve the orange juice in stemmed glasses on a little plate and also give you a sachet of sugar to add if you like the juice really sweet.The coffee
And finally the coffee. It's another world. Coffee can be prepared in many different ways and I will have to go over it one day in a post. A cafe con leche is literally a coffee with milk. If, like me, you like your coffee quite milky then ask for a leche manchada. This means 'stained milk'. If the waiter knows you are ordering a coffee they understand that you want them to add just a little coffee to the hot milk, enough to 'stain' it. However when ordering this anywhere outside the south eastern corner of Spain I had to be specific because this term was not used to describe this type of preparation there. Coffee on its own in Spain is much stronger than your usual type in the UK so be prepared that if you order a simple coffee with milk it could still be stronger than you are expecting.The time of day
As for the time of day that they have breakfast here, most Spanish leave home without eating anything and their first break of the day in their work schedule is the breakfast (desayuno) or morning snack (almuerzo) one and is usually from 10am to 10.30am. You can usually order this kind of breakfast or morning snack detailed above until about 12pm. After that you might as well just go for something bigger like a bocadillo!If you love tomatoes, like I do (as over here they are rather tasty), and want something refreshing and relaxing try to order this breakfast combination next time.
