Food for a 10 year old?

So, when she's at home does she live on just bread, cheese, and olives? What else does she like? Does she like spices? How about rice, beans, other vegetables? Does she eat seafood? When you take away the meat and eggs, Spanish food is pretty heavy on seafood, rice, beans, tomatoes, onions, potatoes.

Well, bread, cheese and olives...could be worse! She should be a able to get a mixed green salad at many places. Bread is served with lots of meals. You can also find "ethnic" restaurants in Spain...we at at an Italian place in Barcelona run by some Brits with Italian heritage. Good pizza and pasta.

Spain has some amazing vegetarian restaurants, as well as many ethnic establishments with just about any type of cuisine you would want. So, she won't have to stick to purely Spanish dishes. Perhaps her mother could view this as an opportunity to broaden the child's horizons and encourage her to try new foods. Don't worry, if children get hungry enough, they will find something to eat.

So, when she's at home does she live on just bread, cheese, and olives? What else does she like?

This is my first question. What does she eat at home? Given this answer, it may make replies easier.

With vegetable, rice, or pasta dishes, you'll probably have to ask to confirm that they don't contain bits of meat, fish, or broth. In markets, you'll certainly be able to pick up fresh or dried fruits, carrots, yogurt, nuts, and such. I assume she eats ice cream.

She's vegetarian, but doesn't like eggs, onions, most kinds of
potatoes, tomatoes in any form and she's not big on cake-type foods,
either. So, we have bread, cheese and olives. She does love olives.
Oh, and she likely has a mild citrus allergy.

How about chicken?

"He don't eat meat? That's okay, I'll make lamb." --My Big Fat Greek Wedding

Seriously, there are a lot of things for her to eat, and the purpose of travel is learning things about other cultures. I didn't like plain yogurt many years ago, but when it was served at breakfast with little packages of sugar, it wasn't so bad. I learned about how good octopus is on a trip to Italy. It's a question of hunger. If she is hungry enough, and is willing to try different things, you might be surprised at how her tastes can be expanded by exposure to different foods prepared differently. BTW, the olives in Spain come in so many different versions, she will be hard pressed to eat the same kind on more than one occasion.

I assume her mom is going too. Carrefour is a large supermarket chain all over Europe. There are many small grocery stores and markets. They can go shopping and buy the food she’ll eat. All restaurants have salads. Sounds like she’s just a picky eater.

I totally agree that kids will eat if they get hungry enough. And if their parents don't scare them about what they might encounter.

Our grandson, about 5 at the time, chowed down on the patatas bravas brought to our table at a local Spanish restaurant. The adults were chatting and ignoring him. He was hungry. He said nothing and ate them all before most of us had a chance to try them.

All your daughter needs to do is Google "food in spain" to learn about typical foods. Included in the results will be information on how and when the Spanish eat. This is an example of a good resource for that. When to eat may be more of challenge than what.

This is an example of typical foods. There are many similar resources and lots of pictures. FWIW, lots of places have pizza.

Spain is not the simplest place to be a vegetarian (especially a picky-eater vegetarian), partly because of the love of ham. Ham will appear in many dishes, rather as it does in the southern US.

Salads may be less pleasing than one might expect (to an American) because they are often served with separate cruets of olive oil and vinegar rather than a mixed dressing. This American, at least, has a hard time getting the balance correct at the table.

Lard is sometimes used in baking--at least in some cookies, so it would be a good idea to Google for the translation and check labels on baked goods.

Here are some vegetarian items I observed:

• Cups of cut-up fruit are often available at one or two stalls at high-end markets (like San Miguel in Madrid). You'll probably find such fruit at some fair-sized supermarkets as well.

• Small containers of flavored yogurt (though not the wide variety found in the US) are for sale at any little supermarket. If they aren't staying somewhere with a refrigerator, there may be some waste, because the yogurt is often only available in sets of four. I have no idea whether it's OK to split those up; I never saw individual containers from those packages in a cold case.

• Packages of roasted nuts are also to be found in the little food stores. Corn nuts are also popular, so take a hard look to be sure you're getting actual nuts. I think it's usually pretty easy to determine whether you're looking at something with seasoning (Cajun-style, etc.).

• A scrambled-egg dish is often available as first-course option on the menu del dia. This may include ham, but sometimes it's just vegetables. I can offer no assurance as to what sort of fat the eggs are cooked in, however.

Perhaps take along a jar of peanut butter? It would probably need to go in a checked bag.

Thank you for all the replies-some very helpful suggestions in them. As for not going until she is older and wiser, with all due respect, that is one of the silliest things I have heard of in a long time and I am shocked it would be expressed here. I have been on many trips with older, "educated" people who don't read up ahead of their trip, who only want to know what the guide tells them and who only eat in the hotel dining room. Older doesn't make you wiser.

The whole purpose of traveling with children is to interest them and educate them about the world we live in, especially those parts that are different from our own. This kid has been to England,Scotland and Greece, has traveled extensively in the US, has been camping since she was five, has a pretty good working knowledge of ancient Egypt and just completed a long report on pangolins just for fun. There's more and I'd be happy to brag, but we consider ourselves very lucky that we are able to expose her to world cultures and wonders.

Anyway, thanks for the food suggestions

My daughter was 10 when we took her to Spain. She loved it. My son only wanted to see castles and play basketball and my daughter just wanted to go swimming. We ensured we did some things they wanted to do. On that trip we arrived in Merida later in the evening and they thought it was great when we sat down for dinner at 11:30 pm. Your granddaughter will have a nice trip.

I suggest that you self cater rather than stay in hotels if the food is a big issue. Wherever I have been in Spain, it's difficult to avoid onions and tomatoes in dishes, the staples of the Spanish diet, both hot and cold dishes, particularly if meat isn't an option either.

As the mother of the child in question, for those asking about her dietary preferences as home, she relies primarily on dairy products (of all kinds), beans and lentils, vegetables (favorites: brussels sprouts, beets, cauliflower, edamame), and olives (her favorite food). Favorite ethnic food is Indian, followed by Mexican. She is not a strict vegetarian (a food using chicken broth would be okay, for example), but would never intentionally eat a piece of meat nor seafood. Knowing that she does not care for eggs, tomatoes, and other prevalent vegetarian foods in Spanish cooking, I'm trying to figure out some foods that may be reliable for her while we are there.

I am renting apartments in each place we are traveling-Madrid, Segovia, and Palencia, so we will have access to a refrigerator.

Many thanks for your comments thus far. And yes, she likes ice cream. :)

How about chicken?

I truly hope that was an attempt at humor. Chickens may not be the smartest animals in the barn yard, but they are not vegetables.

Vegetarians, at least real ones, don't eat meat of any kind. Meat is not just beef. It is chicken, lamb, turkey, venison, fish, anything that is not a vegetable. Some do eat eggs and cheese, some don't.

Dear OP

I'm not sure what your daughter does eat at home, other than bread, cheese and olives. With a little more info, we could possibly make better suggestions.

As a sideline, I applaud her for being a vegetarian. I was brought up in a household that was half vegetarian, half carnivore. It made mealtimes fun. ;-) But I had an advantage on her when I was that age. I did eat potatoes in almost any form. I refused tomatoes in most forms. But now when I'm older? I love (mostly) all versions of each vegetable.

You can do a decent job with bread and cheese and olives. How is she on peppers? Nuts?

Vegetarian food is easy enough. The bigger concern will be with potatoes, onions, eggs, and tomatoes. Those are extremely common. Note that tortilla in Spain often means an omlette and potato dish - not the same as a mexican tortilla.

Bread, cheese, and olives are quite common. At any restaurant she could get bread and a cheese plate and ask what vegetable sides they have. Worst case is that for one meal she eats only bread and cheese. Not the end of the world. I have no particular dietary issues and have done this! But I would advise using grocery stores to supplement - even if you don't have a kitchen you can keep fruit, prepped veggies to eat raw, nuts, or snack bars. Cereal is available, and my kids wanted Nutella every day (not helpful on the health front, but easily available!) With a mini fridge you also have the possibility of yogurt, milk, juice etc. That way you don't worry about an unhealthy bread-and-cheese only meal once and a while, and she is happy eating in the restaurant with you.