Peasant food

[Mr. Tea]

Tut, you'd be better off using bacon if you haven't got pancetta. I bet you put cream in it as well.

I'm all outta bacon, sadly. That will be remedied tomorrow. But whatever, it was fine for a throw-it-together-in-five-minutes-with-whatever-you've-got lunch.

It may have involved cream.

 

[Benny Bunter]

 

[Mr. Tea]

In my defence, my girlfriend dated an Italian guy for some years before we met, and spent a fair amount of time in Italy (I've never been), and she OK'd the cream.

So don't look at me!

 

[Benny Bunter]

The carbonara thing is weird, there's only like 3 or 4 ingredients in the original dish, why do people add all this extra shit into it to making more laborious to prepare and taste worse?!

 

[Benny Bunter]

Swap out the pancetta for bacon and the parmesan for cheaper gran padano or something is alright but adding cream and wine etc is fucked up imo.

 

[WashYourHands]

Italians don’t seem and this might sound weird a paprika nation. Spanish, Hungarians, some French food, Middle East. They indulge cinnamon, but it drops off on the boot

paprika is a favourite flavour bomb, goes with pork like Jesus and the cross

 

[Benny Bunter]

Yeah that's strange cos their cured pork game is also strong, though not a patch on Spain

 

[WashYourHands]

What’s a typical munch day @Benny B , you’re in Spain aren’t you? The people who turned pork into art

 

[luka]

pork scratchings, 10 bottled lagers

 

[Benny Bunter]

Jamón on toast with olive oil for breakfast.

Hearty (greasy) stews with chorizo, chick peas, potatoes, veg at lunch at 2pm.

Merienda at 5pm (coffee, sweet pastries or a bocadillo)

Dinner at 10pm, usually a bit lighter, not too much meat.

So many great pork products - jamón, salchichón, morcón, chorizo etc etc.

Oh, and seafood when you can afford it. Prawns, squid, octopus. Fried and battered is big here too.

 

[Benny Bunter]

pork scratchings, 10 bottled lagers

There is an equivalent of pork scratchings here that they put on at the bars, chicharrones. Best beer snacks ever, tons of salt

 

[Mr. Tea]

Italians don’t seem and this might sound weird a paprika nation. Spanish, Hungarians, some French food, Middle East. They indulge cinnamon, but it drops off on the boot

paprika is a favourite flavour bomb, goes with pork like Jesus and the cross

And you can get smoked paprika, too, for extra awesomeness. I use it a lot - perhaps too much, if that's possible. But it's so good.

 

[Mr. Tea]

Smoked things in general are great. There's a shop on Cowley Road in Oxford that sells foods from all over the place, including this halal beef sausage from Albania that lists 'smoke' as one of the ingredients.

 

[Benny Bunter]

And spicy paprika.

But isn't all paprika kind of smoky?

 

[Benny Bunter]

Paprika with lentils is a good one

 

[Benny Bunter]

Snails and tripe (not together) are big here too but that's where I draw the line

 

[luka]

new avatar for Benny B

 

[luka]

whats your figure like on the euro diet Benny? 10 lagers a day and 'greasy' stews

 

[Benny Bunter]

Same as ever -more or less, quite skinny, but with a paunch now, but that's more due to the beer than the food.

Putting pork aside, one thing is fruit and veg here actually tastes of something unlike in UK. You have to go to the right place, but I don't think I'd actually experienced the taste of a real tomato before I came here.

 

[william_kent]

I didn't realise how good pineapples taste until I visited Taiwan, also, that was the point I found out they don't grow on trees..