Food in Spain

Avoiding ham or pork is a challenge in Spain. Almost every restaurant and bar has dozens of ham hocks hanging from the ceiling. And tapas are heavy with those items. Good luck.

Agreed with Frank -- Spain is not my area of expertise, but eating kosher there will be very difficult. Even seafood dishes will pose a challenge as many traditional Spanish dishes mix scaled fish with unscaled fish.

In a couple of the larger cities you could go the vegetarian route to have some safe meals -- I recall seeing another thread on the Helpline that identified vegetarian places in Barcelona and Madrid. (I know vegetarian doesn't necessarily meet kosher -- but people who run vegetarian places are normally very accomodating for special requests.) ...besides... if was good enough for Daniel...

Edit: I found the vegetarian thread I was thinking of here. Down the page about half-way.

In bigger cities you shouldn't have much difficulty finding halal places. (I'm neither Rabbi nor Imam, so can't comment on the similarities and/or differences in the two diets.) You should be ok on the fish front, but should probably check with the waiter before ordering. The ubiquitous "tortilla de patatas" (egg and potato omlette) will become a mainstay. As far as regional stuff goes, you'll find world class lamb in La Mancha, good fish on the coasts and, as another poster mentioned, pig legs everywhere. Keep in mind that much of the Spanish diet has evolved as a means by which to assert publicly one's non-Jewishness. (Spanish "purity of blood" laws, requiring that one be of an old Christian family, rather than a convert family, were in place until the mid-1800's. For almost three centuries, one's ability to advance in society was determined by being able to prove never having had a Jewish relative. Ostentatious public pig consumption was as good a technique as any.)

Don't be too worried, however. Remember that all towns will have an open market (frequently only in the morning) and that you have the option of making your own fresh meals. Also, one of the benefits of globalization is the growth of that old standby institution, the Chinese restaurant, which can now be found even in fairly small towns. Be creative and flexible and you shouldn't have a problem. Enjoy the trip and "buen provecho"!

Thank you all for the feedback and advice. Adynata provides hope and concrete leads. I am sure the joy of Spain will make any eating challenges more than worth solving.

I Googled--Kosher Spain--and got a lot of hits.

And don't forget, southern Spain has a heavy Muslim influence and Halal laws are similar to Kosher laws.

Calamari and sangria?

I googled "Vietnamese Spain" and I got alot of hits as well...

You'll be just fine. The tapas served at many bars covers a wide variety of food... I've had many cheap lunches of a simple potato sandwiches. Ham and pork is everywhere, but I would imagine it is easily avoided as well. The point about the Muslim influence in southern Spain is valid... the cuisine becomes more Mediterranean.

Okay, what does "Vietnamese Spain" have to do with anything? Halal/kosher and Catholic/Buddhist I understand. Confucianism, and Daoism also make a little sense. Vietnamese/kosher doesn't seem to fit in the same sentence.

Late edit: never mind, being thick-skulled I missed the joke.

If you draw a line across the map from Salamanca to Tarragona, you'll get a pretty good idea of the way in which the term "southern Spain" is being used. The Moors really did occupy the lower two thirds or so of the peninsula. Now, flash forward 500 years and you'll find a dynamic, modern country with a fairly typical European migratory pattern. Whether north of the invisible line we just drew or not, you'll find plenty of Halal food, not because of past history, but because living, breathing Muslims live and work here. While this reality is not, perhaps, as interesting as the Moorish character imprinted on the popular imagination, culture, etc. it is vastly more important to a hungry person looking for a place to eat.

When I was in Madrid, I ate at a chain buffet called Fresc Co. It's not a typical American buffet, but its menu is largely vegetarian with a huge salad bar option, and has a few rotating entrees including pizza, pasta, chicken etc. I don't eat pork either so I was happy to find this place. While it's not gourmet, the prices are decent and there are usually at least one or two of these in Spain's larger cities.

The website http://www.frescco.com/ is in Spanish, but you can click on the 2nd photo on the left sidebar menu and it will give you the locations through out the country and includes a map so they are easy to locate.

I was in Spain two years ago. In Barcelona I found fresh fruit readily available in the Boqueria Market; I also found excellent pizza there. Fresc ca was another favorite, and can be found in various cities in Spain. I saw produce markets in other Spanish towns. Fresh fish is available many places. The department stores, El Corte Ingles, have groceries on the lower level. You can probably find Kosher foods there.