The Spanish Dishes You NEED To Try: Spain Like a Local

Hola Spanish food lovers and it's that time of the day again, my favorite time of the day, lunchtime, which means that it's time to eat another incredible meal here in Spain. Today I'm diving into another meal deal, the menú del día, and I reckon this meal is going to impress. And by the way, there's a spoiler alert, the first course that I'm going to have today is an absolute standout, so let's go and sit down. Now if you think this restaurant looks familiar, it is. I was here about a month or so ago, 40 days or so ago, had a wonderful meal back again today to try these callos con garbanzos, and I'm going to be honest, I'm looking forward to it. Now all I have to do is wait for the waiter to come over, give me the menu and I make my choices, but I already know what I'm going to have. Los callos y luego cazón. Now again I've gone for the menú del día, which is the best value for money meal deal here in Spain. As you guys know, for around 11 euros, 12 euros, you get a three course meal, first course, second course, dessert, a glass of wine or beer included in the price. Fantastic, can't go wrong with the menu. Now I'm just going to explain the first dish that I have ordered today, a classic slow cooked meal here in Spain, another comfort food on these cold winter days. Basically it's tripe with chickpeas and that's what I'm really looking forward to today. Now I've got a bit of a problem and it is that there's a very big table here to my left, they're all coming into the restaurant just now, they're going to be seated in a moment and it's going to get very, very noisy, but hopefully you guys will be able to hear everything that I have to say today, despite the noise to my left. Fingers crossed. Wow, look at this dish, a classic dish, callos con garbanzos. Let me show you exactly what is inside this dish. So we have chickpeas, we have tripe, we have chorizo and we have this amazing broth and the colour as you can see is absolutely fantastic, I can't wait to dive in. Now callos or tripe has been part of Spanish cuisine for centuries and they do some amazing tripe dishes in this country. About a month ago I tried callos a la madalena, today callos con garbanzos and I'm really looking forward to it, let's dig in and give it a try. Wow, the flavours are absolutely amazing, a little bit spicy but not too spicy. The chickpeas are cooked to perfection, there's a smoky paprika taste in here as well that's most likely coming out of this chorizo, amazing mouth-watering dish. The tripe, let's try some. It's tender, it's flavoursome, it's not chewy at all, that is very very important. The chickpeas as you can see perfectly cooked and melt in your mouth and the chorizo as I said gives it that smoky flavour and a little bit of spice. Amazing, Spanish comfort food at its absolute best and what I love about this dish is the depth of flavours, the smoky flavour that you get, the deep flavour that you get from a meal that has been slow cooking for hours before it's put on my table, amazing and the combination with the wine, unbeatable. I can eat these cuchara meals here in Spain every day of the week, especially in the winter months. It's a little bit hot during the summer months, you want to try to avoid these meals but in the winter these meals are an absolute treat, platos de cuchara which basically means that you eat them with a spoon and Spain has lots and lots of different meals like this one here, an amazingly well cooked meal, delight to eat and remember that this is the first course of my menu today and if I only had to eat this meal I'd be happy because it's absolutely magnificent. Now I normally avoid bread during these meals because it's a little bit heavy and I don't want to put on too much weight but people have been saying that you need to dip the bread in the broth and that's what I'm going to do. Let's see if it adds anything to this meal, it does but I'm going to stick to my guns and not eat too much bread because I want to be able to fit in the second course which is coming up soon. A couple more mouthfuls of this, in fact I'm going to finish the whole lot off. Now I understand that a tripe dish might not be for everyone but this is a perfect example of how Spain turns very simple ingredients into a wonderful unforgettable meal. Now one more mouthful, maybe two and that is a dish that reminds me just how important food is in Spanish culture, unbelievable. Now let's wait for the second course. Muchas gracias. So what have we here, well I've gone for a fish dish, a fried fish dish, a dish that you'll see more so in the south of Spain but also here in the centre of Spain you'll see this dish quite a lot and it is Carthon and we can see the lightly fried fish with some spices in there as well. Salad on the side of the plate, very very simple and as I said this fish perfectly cooked. Let's break it open and see what we've got inside. Now there we go, I don't know what fish exactly Carthon is but I've had it before and I've liked it. I'm going to try it again because I do enjoy my fried fish. Let's give it a taste and what I will say is that you can really taste the marinade that that fish has been sitting in. Very very strong flavours, in fact a little bit too overpowering for me. I think if I could taste more of the fish it would be better but the marinade is the dominating flavour of this fish but again it's well fried, tasty nonetheless and I reckon I've made a good decision with my second course today. Let me know what you guys think in the comment section below. Now let's try the salad, it's here on the plate for a reason, no surprises there, stock standard salad and it's good to have some greens on the plate. Now another piece of fish, one more of these bite-sized pieces and that's me done because I've got to make room for dessert which is also included in the meal today. Looking forward to it, the noise levels now are through the roof. And of course no Spanish meal is complete without dessert, maybe with coffee as well but dessert an absolute must and today I've gone for what they call here pudding. The consistency as we can see quite thick, it's been thickened with bread, it's got a nice caramel layer on top, whipped cream and I'm really looking forward to digging in to this dessert, let's go. So here in Spain the word pudding is a type of dessert, it's not a generic name like we have in English for pudding like rice pudding and things like that, here it is a specific type of dessert and fairly widespread, you can find it on virtually every menu in the country. Let's dig in and see what we've got here, wow, sweet but not too sweet, the consistency unbelievable and the caramel on top gives it a very very nice touch indeed. Another bite, it's creamy, smooth and the perfect way to finish the meal today and I reckon this is the standout dessert in this restaurant because last time I had the rice pudding and I wasn't all that impressed but this dessert here has definitely made up for that first one, wow. So the meal is done, time to ask for the bill and I'll give my verdict on today's food outside where it's not so noisy. Now that is a lot better out here where it's actually quiet believe it or not out here on a Spanish street because inside the restaurant there the noise was unbearable towards the end of group of around 20 people having a Christmas lunch, very very noisy indeed. So my final thoughts on the meal today, the price 11 euros and 50 cents, one of the better value meals in my neighborhood here because some menus they'll be you're paying 13, 14, 15 euros for basically the same thing but here in this place here 11 euros and 50 cents, fantastic and I'm going to be honest the meal today was worth it for the first course alone, the callos, the broth was unbelievable, the callos were perfectly cooked, the chickpeas were tender, what more can you ask for, it was smoky, there was a bit of spice in there as well from the chorizo which made it an absolute treat to eat and I'm very very satisfied with the first course today. The second course the cazón en adobo, a little bit overpowering was the taste, a little bit too vinegary if that makes sense but the fish was nice, it was well fried so can't complain. The dessert well that was one of the better desserts that I've had in recent times from a place that I didn't like the dessert when I first came here the arroz con leche a few weeks ago but this dessert definitely made up for that, the pudding because the flavors of the pudding were also very very tasty indeed so I reckon today I had a very good quality decent priced menú del día here in Spain. Let me know what you guys think in the comment section below if you think the meal today was good value for money or not. Questions and comments please leave them in the section below if you have anything to add to the conversation today please the comment section is the place for you. Have you tried callos here in Spain, have you tried tripe? Let me know if it's a dish that you would try or if you have tried it on your travels here in Spain. Give the video a thumbs up if you liked it, thumbs down if you didn't. I'll see you in the next one. Hasta luego from the outskirts of Madrid.