Why You Can't Translate a Spanish Menu
I couldn't think of anything to write for the blog, so I turned to Facebook. Rob suggested I tackle the mystery of why vegetables often go missing from Spanish restaurant dishes, and Ruth asked about translating Spanish menus. I started to see a link between the two, so let’s see how it goes. Cheap, excellent vegetables are everywhere in Spain, yet they often disappear once you sit down in a restaurant, especially at menú del día level. Menús are inexpensive set meals available all over Spain at weekday lunchtime. First, there's tradition and hierarchy. In much of Spain, vegetables remain culturally secondary to the main event. A proper main course demands substance—meat or fish—with veg relegated to soups, stews or garnishes. Vegetable-led dishes feel like home cooking to Spaniards, not something you pay good money for in a restaurant. It's exactly the same idea that my dad would have had: that a proper meal was meat and two veg. Well, you see the similarity even if the ve...