Comida!

Is it too late to make a new year's resolution?  This morning after breakfast I decided that I need to make a new year's resolution to drink a fresh-squeezed glass of orange juice for breakfast every day for the rest of my life :)  There's really nothing better in my opinion.  I had a lengthy discussion with my host dad this morning about the health benefits of orange juice in the winter and the inferiority of store-bought juice. In case you aren't picking up on this back home, food is a Really big deal here.  One of the first things my host mom asked me when we first met was what food I like to eat. 
In Spain there is a Desayuno (breakfast) when you wake up in the morning, a Cafe (Coffee haha, not too interesting) in the late morning, el Almuerzo (lunch) between 2 and 3 pm.  Now the almuerzo is the biggest and most important meal of the day and should be treated as such.  All the stores except major ones close between 2 and 5 so the employees can go home and eat their meal and rest (siesta).  Then everyone goes back to work until 8 or 9, comes home, and eats a light Cena (dinner).  My family tends to eat closer to 10 or 11pm.  For this reason it's also culturally acceptable to have a Merienda or something like that, which essentially means late afternoon snack. 
Now when it comes to what we eat in the US and what we eat in Spain there are distinct differences.  In place of butter here everything, and I really do mean Everything, is cooked in olive oil.  The other day for lunch I had this delicious Sopa con Carne, which was basically beef, potatoes, carrots, onions, and olive oil.  I ate it with fresh bread, fruit, and yogurt.  Now to me this was way too much food and I couldn't finish it all.  This happens daily, however.  They just have such a big lunch it's impossible to eat all of the food!  But my host mom Maria keeps worrying that I hate the food or there's something wrong with me.  I constantly have to reassure her I just need smaller servings or less courses of food! 
Another thing is that they don't really use a lot of salt in their food here.  It tends to be seasoned with herbs or vegetables or not really seasoned at all.  At least in my home. 
When you go out to eat the popular thing to get here is Tapas.  For anyone who's ever eaten at Graze it's essentially the same thing.  You order a few plates of a few different things and everyone shares.  They have a lot of different dishes, but they tend to all include potatoes.  People eat a lot of potatoes here!
Also, dessert.  Now in my house we don't actually have dessert ever (which is good for my sweet tooth :)), so I'm planning on baking them something.  But if you go out to any of the restaurants or to a pastry shop your mind will be blown.  Everything is just sooooo good!  The chocolate is incredible, the pastry fillings are incredible, the Churros aren't my favorite but they are by far better than American doughnuts.  I'm pretty sure they've got us beat in every way, America.  
Oh one last thing, yesterday my host Dad Leandro offered me wine with my lunch and it took me off guard for a second.  I turned it down because I'm not a fan of wine but I was excited that I had the choice to say yes!