Menu del Dia

Vic has already talked about Spanish food but I wanted to add my two cents re. Spain’s famous ‘Menu del Dia’ 

For €10 you get a starter, a simple main course, a postre,  a bottle of wine and water. So even before you eat anything it’s generally really good value, at least by  Irish standards. 

The first course usually includes a mixed salad and sometimes a soup or both. I would say the first plate is often better than the second plate which is the protein plate (fish, chicken, meat, eggs) that can really be hit and mss and the postre could be a yougurt, an apple, ice cream, flan or tart. 

As a sidebar, given I have been living in bars for the last six weeks, the way the Spanish drink - I’m talking  rural community now - is quite impressive. They are always drinking, but always in tiny measures. And then they have a menu circa 3pm, or 9pm and a bottle of wine. Some of the house stuff has been ok, some a bit iffy. But the rural men, they drink! 

For a nation that grows so many vegetables it’s amazing that they never put them on the first plate, always separate.