Tortilla de Patatas al Estilo Nórdico

Tortilla

I have prepared tortilla de patatas several times after I learned the recipe but this time I decided to modify the recipe of Spanish omelette. I thought what would be the typical Finnish/Nordic style to cook the tortilla and what ingredients I could use, that are typically used in a Nordic kitchen. Typically potatoes are deep fried in oil but I decided to boil the potatoes instead as in the north we eat typically boiled potatoes. After boiling the potatoes I peeled and cut them. Next I added some butter on the hot frying pan instead of oil because in Finland we use typically more butter than oil for frying. I also had some salmon left overs from previous day so I decided to add that as a substitute of chorizo. I added the potatoes, salt, salmon and mixed eggs on the pan and let it cook, flipped the tortilla around and it was ready to be eaten. I liked the final result, feel free to try and let me know how did you like it.

Calçotada

Calçotada served

Today we went to enjoy calçotada which is a Catalan gastronomic feast. It is a rural feast to enjoy long shaped onions called calçots which are prepared in barbecue until they turn black. You peel of the burned layer, then dip it to the romescu sauce and enjoy. The menu is typically eaten by hand and it is messy. Therefore you are given an aprin and plastic glowes. We took calçotada menu for 31 euros which included calçots and alcahofas with romescu sauce, bread with tomatoes and garlic, barbecued meat, beans, potato, wine, a dessert and nuts. At the end we were given a special bottle of very sweet kind of wine called moscatel which you pour straight to your mouth from the bottle. With this menu everyone will get full.

Vermouth

Vermouth (Vermut in Spanish) is a traditional alcoholic drink in Catalunya. It is typically enjoyed as an aperitif or with midday snack. It is typical to bring your own two liter bottle for a refill which costs about 6 euros. The drink is served with ice and olive. The taste of vermouth is sour. The base is wine and many different aromatic herbs are added to create the flavor. Naturally manufacturers have their own recipes. Probably the most well known internationally is Martini Rosso which is considered as vermouth if you want to try.

Comparing prices of grocery baskets in Finland and Spain

Oats, bananas and minced beef from Spain

I saw a table of grocery price comparison between Finnish supermarkets. From there I got an idea to compare Finnish prices to Spanish prices on the selected products. In the below table you can see that the selected food basket is 2,25 EUR cheaper in Finland than in Spain. The result is surprising to me as I expected the prices to be lower in Spain than in Finland. Though comparison is not 100 % accurate because of the differences in product specifications and package sizes. For example In Spain fresh milk was not available.I guess that the selected coffee is also different in each country.

There is a big difference between the oat and Edam cheese price. Oat is considered as a special health product in Spain and not as an every day ordinary product like in Finland. Edam cheese is not similarly consumed in Spain as in Finland and therefore it is more expensive in Spain. On the other hand tomatoes and coffee are cheaper in Spain. As basket includes products typically consumed by Finnish people it is understandable that it is cheaper in Finland. My guess is that if the basket would include products typically consumed by the Spanish people the basket would be cheaper in Spain.

	Finland	Spain
Oats/kg	0,75	1,78
Flovoured yogurt/1 liter	0,85	1,19
Minced beef/kg	6,83	6,2
Coffee/500 grams	3,25	2,5
Bananas/kg	1,25	1,29
Fat free milk/1 liter	0,65	0,6
Margarin 60 %/kg	1,18	1,7
Edam cheese/kg	3,66	6,35
Tomatoes/kg	1,79	0,85
Total	20,21	22,46

• Prices of Finland are taken from Prisma Helsinki by Kuluttajaliitto on days 24. - 27.5.2016. Prices from Spain are taken from Mercadona in Barcelona on 10.6.2016.

On 2010 I wrote about my living costs in Alcalá de Henares

Large containers of food

In each country you can find similar products in supermarkets but when you find some product in large container you can say that product is highly consumed in that country. In Spain you can find five liter containers of Olive or sunflower oil, in Turkey you can find five liter containers of natural yogurt and in Finland you can big variety of candies in 500 gram bags. In Poland sauerkraut is eaten a lot in different kind of forms.

Ice

In summer time Spanish have a habit to drink coffee with ice. Waitress brought a glass of coffee and also a glass with ice cubes if you wanted to drink your coffee with ice. When Spanish go out they always buy a bag of ice to put ice in their drinks. Usually I do not take ice because Spanish pass ice cube from hand to hand to your glass and I do not want anyone else to touch my food.

Paella

Paella

I tasted some traditional flavors from Valencia. The most known food from Valencia is paella and they are also very proud of it. Almost everybody in Valencia says that they love it and want to make you taste paella. Paella is prepared in a big frying pan. When paella is eaten you do not take it to your own plate, Everybody just eats with their own fork or spoon straight from the frying pan. Other thing what I tasted was horchata. Horchata is a very sweet drink and it is consumed especially in the summer time. I liked paella very much but horchata is a bit too sweet in my opinion.

Smell of the food

Seems that Spanish do not like the smell of the food. Here I will give three different examples. Spanish guy wanted to cook in a hotel room but he did not want the smell of the food to spread all over his room so he decided to move the stove next to the window to prevent the room from smelling food. I have been cooking in a kitchen and then my flatmates have advised me to close the door to stop the smell of the food spreading to living room but it is not problem to take the plate to the living room and eat there. The last one is that I suggested to make a one big room by removing the wall between the kitchen and living room but Spanish did not like the idea because then the smell of the food would spread to the living room

Tapas bar

El Tigre

One of the most famous tapas bars in the center of Madrid is called El Tigre. The bar is almost always full of people like popular discos on Saturday nights. There are no chairs to sit down and just small tables on the wall. The reason why El Tigre is so popular is that they put various different tapas and glass of a drink for 2,5 euros. El Tigre is the place to go if you want to eat and drink well for a good price.

Bread

Spanish do not use olive oil only for cooking. They put olive oil also on bread and to salad. I had never imagined that someone would put olive oil on the bread. In Finland you always cut the bread to pieces with knife but in Spain people like to just break a piece of bread by hand. Bread in Spain is usually the same form as French baguette but of course sliced bread for toasting is also sold.

Coffee

Finnish have been topping the coffee drinking statistics last years. The coffee what Finnish are drinking is not strong compared to the coffee called espresso what people drink in Spain. Spanish have even said that Finnish coffee is like drinking water. No wonder then if Finnish people drink much more coffee. In Spain coffee was served from glasses instead of cups.

Croquettes

Croquettes (croquetas in Spanish)

Great that also here in Joensuu is Spanish people who can teach me how to prepare Spanish food. Now I know how to make croquettes. Croquettes can be prepared in different ways with different ingredients but I will explain what we did. We heated the frying pan with some olive oil. After that we added little by milk and flour in turns. We also added cut boiled eggs and ham. After the dough was ready we let it to cool down to form the shape more easily. In the end we dipped them in mixed egg and then in breadcrumbs before frying in the olive oil.

Cooking oil

Spain is a big producer of cooking oil. Spanish people use a lot of olive oil and sunflower oil for cooking. You can find even five liter cooking oil bottles in the supermarket which cannot be found in Finland. Finnish people use canola oil for cooking but Spanish people do not use it because in the 80's there was a big tragedy. Over 1000 died and 60 000 got poisoned because of canola oil which was accidentally produced to be toxic and sold for consumers.

Sunflower seeds

Spanish people enjoy to eat sunflower seeds. Peeling them is one part of the fun because they actually prefer to buy seeds which they have to peel by themselves and they do not buy the already peeled seeds. There is some salt added to give you some taste when cracking the peels with your teeth. In Finland you can find sunflower seeds which are meant for birds in the winter time but the people do not eat them.

Tortilla in Finland

Today student restaurant served Spanish tortilla as a vegetarian option. I decided to give a try for tortilla. Tortilla looked a bit different and it had some green spice but it was recognizable. Probably it was prepared in a oven and not fried like it should be done. The taste was not as strong as in Spain but it was fine. Also one Spanish person tried the tortilla and he liked it though he said that it did not taste like Spanish tortilla.

Churros

Churros with chocolate

Finally I have eaten typical Spanish breakfast churros with chocolate. I expected them to be sweeter but the taste was not that sweet and some like to add some sugar. Dough of churros is made of flour, water, salt and sugar. Then the dough is prepared by frying in the olive oil. You can get churros early in the morning at seven therefore it is typical to go eat churros for breakfast after the party before going to sleep and wake up next day at two to eat the lunch.

in Spanish family

Machine to make French fries

I am staying my last days in Spain in the house of Chencho. Here I can observe how is Spanish family life and I have tried new Spanish food. Eating French fries is so popular in Spain that people have special machine to prepare them. In Spain olive oil is used for every food what is prepared and the breakfast is sweet. For example bread with chocolate, donuts or cookies.

Kiosk

In Spain all the kiosks are held by Chinese people therefore kiosks are called "Chino" which means Chinese. They are open during all the holidays when other places are closed and they keep doors open until midnight. Chinos sell illegally strong alcohol after ten o'clock when supermarkets are not allowed to sell it anymore. Alcohol is hidden so people have to ask it from the counter and then they bring it from the stock. Everyone knows about their illegal business and it seems that the police cannot do nothing about it. Tobacco is not sold in supermarkets you have to buy it from the machines in bars or from shops specialized only for selling smoking products but also Chinese kiosks run little illegal business by selling cigarettes.

Milk

After being nine months without drinking fresh milk I decided to buy one bottle to try it. Instead of fresh milk I have been drinking milk which is kept at room temperature before opening. I did not know before Spain that there is milk which can be kept out of the fridge. Expiration date is two weeks in fresh milk and few months in the other milk. Fresh milk is two times more expensive than the other one. I did not notice big difference in the taste so I will keep on drinking this cheaper milk last month.

Drinking milk is not as popular in Spain as in Finland. Here water is much more popular drink with meal. In Finland all the children drink milk with meal and it is considered unhealthy if children choose water instead of milk.

Tortilla

I am going to introduce you one typical Spanish dish which is called tortilla. Tortilla is very simple to make and you need only four ingredients to prepare it. The ingredients are eggs, oil, potatoes and salt. Finding these ingredients is not hard therefore you can prepare it almost anywhere. Different versions of tortilla can be made by adding sausage, onion or other ingredients.