As a caveat to my food entries: Common cuisine drastically varies across Spain, even within the same regions. Accordingly, I will be focusing on Andalusian foods, specifically what I have been exposed to in Sevilla.
For the most important meal of the day, Spaniards keep breakfast very simple; the most common Spanish breakfast is toast and coffee. Although seemingly straightforward, toast can come with a variety of toppings, either an open-faced tostada or in a bocadillosandwich.
My personal favorite is tostada Catalana, which comes with tomato, cured ham, olive oil, and manchego (sheep’s milk) cheese. Other common toast toppings include tuna, peppers, chorizo, or just plain olive oil or butter.
One of the most beautiful parts of Sevilla is the abundance of orange trees planted across the city. During the spring, the trees blossom (pictured below) and fill the entire city with a sweet, floral smell. Curiously, Sevillian oranges are sour, bitter, and inedible. Instead, they must be processed into a pithy and punchy marmalade that is another common topping for tostada.
Spanish coffee is closer to Italian espresso, with concentrated flavor, high caffeine, and smaller portion sizes. The most common kinds of beverages include café sólo, similar to a shot of espresso, or café con leche, a more concentrated version of a latte. For non-coffee drinkers such as myself, I would highly recommend a café bonbon, a shot of espresso over sweetened condensed milk.
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