Valencia Insights

In this category you will find stories by guest writers who will give insights into Valencia. These insights can be about specific things in Valencia, but also about life in general.

Subjects of writings about more specific things can for example be an interesting sight, a trip to a vineyard in the province, a recipe of a typical Valencian dish, a more subjective restaurant review, etc.

Breakfast in Spain

I‚Äôve always found the etymology of the English word breakfast quite charming. I can‚Äôt remember when I learned that it literally meant to break the fast of the night, but I do remember wondering why this simple explanation had never occurred to me before. In Spanish …

Spanish Fast Food

One of the Spanish words that corresponds to the English ‘counter’ is mostrador. In most bars and cafés in Spain you will find a glass case running part of the way – or all the way – down the main bar. This crystalline enclosure can contain untold wonders.

Las Fallas

I have never experienced Las Fallas and so what I can report on the subject is all quite theoretical; I have yet to live the experience. La Cridà marks the beginning of Valencia’s famous Fallas, but the real party doesn’t start until the 15th of March.

Tapas

A large portion of my Spanish was learned over a small portion of some delicacy or other in the bars of Madrid. If not for tapas, I may never have learned the language at all.

Testing the waters: Agua in Spain

Agua may be one of the first words that most people learn in Spanish, but there doesn’t seem to be any last word on the subject. Visitors’ opinions about whether or not to drink the water vary greatly. Some scoff at worrying about the safe and clean supply of drinking water in Spain’s cities while others cringe at the mere sight of a glass of tap water. So – what to do?

Where Spanish and Hispanic cuisine converge, Part 1: Cuba

What do you think of when you hear the term Latin America? What does that mean to you? The first answer from more than a few people was la comida.

How to Eat in Spain as a Visitor – Part 3 of 3

The history of coffee is a fascinating subject but I doubt that there’s a coffee drinker in the world who wants to hear about it before that first cup in the morning. This list should help you find what you are looking for.

How to Eat in Spain as a Visitor – Part 2 of 3

There’s no reason that you can‚Äôt enjoy the many delights of Spain if you don’t speak Spanish, but a few key terms and phrases might make things a little easier.

How to Eat in Spain as a Visitor – Part 1 of 3

Most of the time, restaurant etiquette is about social norms that are common knowledge for the locals and often impossible to discover for the casual visitor. I’m not a local – yet – but I do have some experience in Spanish restaurants and I may be able to help.
This short series is aimed at helping first-time visitors to Spain get more out of eating out.

Slow Start, Strong Finish?

I blame World War II for the two and a half misguided years of vegetarianism that I laboured through in the 1990s. That may seem an odd statement from someone born in 1974 and raised in Canada, but the truth isn’t always a simple matter to understand, is it?
If this were a court [...]