La Comida Though: Delicious

I was given an assignment to interview my host mom about buying, preparing, and eating food. First of all let me say that my host mom is one of the hardest working people I've ever met. She wakes up before me every morning and makes delicious coffee and tostada. As soon as we finish eating breakfast, she starts cooking lunch. While I'm getting ready for school, she turns the radio on to listen to the news while cleaning, cooking, and doing laundry, all at the same time. Although it is a lot of work, my host mom says she loves to cook. She first learned how to cook when she was 18 and her mother and grandmother started to teach her. She still uses their recipes and it is a cool way for the family to stay connected with the past.

Now when she goes to buy the food, my host mom goes with an idea of what she wants to cook, but she doesn't keep any sort of schedule of meals. She just decides what sounds good to make and then goes shopping with that in mind. She shops as both supermarkets and the local stores in the neighborhood. At the supermarket, to which she goes 1-2 times a week, my host mom buys the basics: milk, beer, yogurt, packaged cheese, etc. But for the specifics, my host mom prefers to frequent the local stores that specify in one thing and she buys those every day. She buys bread the local panaderia, fish at the local pescaderia, meats at the local carneceria, fruit at the local fruteria and so on and so forth. She said that those things are sometimes a bit more expensive but often better quality. You also have more opportunities to buy exactly what you want exactly the way you want it. At the carneceria for instance, she asks for her chicken not to be cut up because she prefers to do it herself the way she likes it.

It is getting harder and harder to buy the fresh, local food that she wants to however because the cost of food is quite high compared to what it used to be. My host mom and dad think it is because of the change from the Peseta (the original Spanish currency) to the Euro in 1999.  1 Euro was worth about 166 Pesetas. My host dad said that a cup of coffee used to cost 100 pesetas, but when Spain switched to the Euro when it joined the EU, a cup of coffee cost about 1 euro, so it was almost twice as expensive! Today my host mom thinks that she has seen the biggest price increases in fruit and vegetables, which are obviously important staples in their diet so she said there isn't much she can do about it.

Despite some financial strains, food is still a very important part of my host mom's and my whole host family's life. My host mom's favorite dish is the Paella that she makes for Sunday lunches. Her favorite kind of Paella is con carne, (with meat). She also enjoys watching a few cooking shows on Canal Sur including "Cómetelo".

Mealtimes with my family will be one of the things I miss the most when I have to leave. The food is delicious, the conversation is fun, and it is some of the best time I've spent with my host family. Later this week my host mom is going to teach me how to cook tortilla de patata. I'm very excited to learn but when she tells me it's very easy I think she is overestimating my ability in a kitchen. Regardless, it will be fun to learn how to make one of Spain's most iconic, and yummy, dishes from my favorite cook in Spain.