El desayuno

Spanish breakfast menus are pretty complex, so I figured I could give you all the low-down. For food options, we have toast with butter, toast with jelly, or toast with olive oil. You could probably get just plain bread instead of toast, but I haven’t ventured that far into the menu…yet. I only just found out that the metal canister my Señora puts on the table every morning is olive oil, so I’ll have to venture into that soon!

For drinks, water, coffee, hot milk, or hot milk with ColaCao are your options. I’ve heard that in some houses juice is also an option, specifically orange juice, but I haven’t seen it on the table at la Casa de Chari…

And that’s about it. Every day. You may think I’m kidding, but I’m 100% serious. If you’re a carb-o-holic, you’ll love it. If you’re a friend of Atkins, HAH! Good luck. I tried tracking down some peanut butter for my toast, but that’s not sold in Europe, I hear… ¡Qué raro! I broke down and bought some Nutella, which is something I have avoided all my 23.5 years… Honestly, I’m not impressed. Maybe it’s been hyped up by so many people that I figured it’d be better? Either way, it is way too sweet to eat more than a little bit of it without getting overwhelmed, in my opinion. Maybe it’ll grow on me?

There is a dish called Tortilla Española that Spaniards love that’s kind of like hash browns, but that’s ate for lunch or dinner, not for breakfast. No eggs. No sausage. No bacon. I repeat, NO BACON. No pancakes or waffles. No cereal. Ironically, Spaniards LOOOOVE their toast and it never gets old do them. Ever. They eat it 7 days a week, 365 days a year. (366 days on leap years!)

Actually though, I’ve grown accustomed to it and it’s grown on me already, but you bet’cha I’ll be enjoying scrambled eggs, hash browns, sausage, bacon, waffles, pancakes, chocolate milk, breakfast sandwiches, and anything else I may be forgetting in my first weeks back in the States!

Until then, ¡VIVA PAN TOSTADA!