Food in Spain through the day
The main meal is usually early in the afternoon.
City life in Spain usually means a light breakfast, something at mid-morning, a hearty meal early in the afternoon, some snacking and a late supper.
Breakfast is a rushed affair, usually toast, cookies, churros or some pastry, and chocolate or coffee with milk, which means an inch of strong, aromatic coffee in a glass full of milk; sometimes a glass of juice is added. After a late supper, Spaniards are not very hungry when they wake up.
As the next meal is still hours away -probably around two in the afternoon, certainly not before one in the afternoon. People tend to have a mid morning break and a snack, which can be a second breakfast, with more coffee and churros, or time for a small sandwich or to tuck in the first pinchos of the day, depending how close to the breakfast or lunch hours are to snack time. This break can be the first social meal of the day, as it would be likely shared with colleagues at work.
Food in Spain at lunch time
This early afternoon meal is the main one in the day. Not so many years ago, schools, shops and workplaces closed for lunch, and people went back home to eat. Not these days. Lunch break is shorter and people need to eat closer to their workplace, and, while sandwiches or burgers are options, many will still go for a menu del dia, a traditional three-course meal with a fixed menu, which changes every day of the week. Lunch break is not a fifteen minutes issue.
Spaniards shrink from eating on their own and don't like to think of anyone eating alone. If you happen to drop by, you'll be quickly asked to stay, a chair added and the table shared.
It is common to have an aperitivo before the meal, may be it is an excuse to bring forward the late lunch hour, especially if there was no coffee break during the morning. If you have been invited to lunch, your host will certainly offer you some munch before the formal meal. This aperitivo is a light tapas session including food, sherry, beer or your favorite wine, some vegetable juice if you don't feel in the mood for wine. Food and wine seem to go hand in hand in Spain. Very few times you will see anyone just drinking. Unless, is brandy or liquor after a very abundant meal.
If you are meeting with friends for lunch, you will also start with aperitivos. On weekends or vacation days, it is very common to go out and meet with friends over aperitivo before heading back home to share the meal with the family. Sometimes, if there is no family waiting for you -they might enjoying aperitivos with you already- and the company is congenial and the conversation good, the short tapas session will become a long one no further food will be required.
Soup is a typical starter for a Spanish meal followed by a main course, maybe a roast or as simple as steak and fries, and a simple salad. Fruit is the dessert of choice in most Spanish households, unless is a special occasion, for a family meal, the fruit bowl will be brought to the table, everyone will choose their favorite and prepare it.
For a formal meal, some kind of soup is still one of the favorite starters, but it will be a cream, puree or consomm. You are very likely to have an extra course, an egg dish or souffl, before a main course based on fish, one of the former or a light fish dish before meat based main course. Your dessert will come from the stove or oven; if it is fruit, it will be as fruit salad or some fruit that comes to the table already clean, cut and prepared. The meal will last for an hour, plus aperitivo time; a very formal meal can take up to two hours. Only celebrations with large number of guests last longer than that.
Having such a variety of food during a meal, Spanish portions are not large. It is common to expect guests with different levels of appetite and any host foresees a number of second helping requests. This is one of the best compliments you can offer.
Spanish people grab any chance to chat over food they can, so meeting only for coffee and pastries, right after the meal, is another possibility, and something you can be invited to share. They will do it if there is no time for anything else, because of previous compromises, personal or job related. And it is very possible for a Spaniard to mingle with three separate groups of people all over lunch break. Spain is very social country, this will not the last you hear about it.
Food in Spain during the afternon
There is an afternoon snack time, or second coffee break, as you like it. Food to be had ranges from sandwiches and juice to chocolate milk, tea or coffee with cakes. If you are invited for "merienda" -tea time- you can expect either light sandwiches, pastries and cakes, very much like an English tea, coffee and pie, or the luscious Spanish thick chocolate -don't expect this one during the blazing hot in the summer- with churros or picatostes -fried bread with sugar- if your host is of the traditional sort.
Know that one very popular option in Spain, when meeting for merienda in a coffee shop, are pancakes; fluffy pancakes smothered in chocolate or caramel sauce and mountains of vanilla flavored whipped-cream.
Food in Spain at the evening
The evening meal is light when eaten at home. Steamed vegetables, omelets, fish, croquettes and other typical Spanish fried food will be the preferred option. Their famous flan, yogurt, rice pudding, served cold, are the desserts of choice at this time.
But being such social people, Spaniards will be out for another tapas session, a longer one this time, before the evening meal. The day is done and there are no pressing matters. It is time to enjoy each other's company and conversation over great food and good drink. Tapas are as much about walking from bar to bar, chatting, greeting, seeing and being seen as they are about drinking and eating; always food and chat.
People would go back home for their meal or the evening may progress to dine on tapas and nothing more. In this informal exchange, someone may say, "Let's eat something!" on the spur of the moment. Which means, we are having a great time, the company is awesome, let's sit down for a proper supper to enjoy all this for a bit longer. Fine; almost everyone will go for it. You might be ignorant of the fact, well known to locals, that without a prior reservation, dinner at a popular restaurant can be tricky. I would not be surprised if you sat down for your evening meal well past eleven, even midnight. Spaniards don't think much of it, but if you visit the country for the first time, it can come as a shock to you.
If one of your Spanish friends invited you for dinner at a restaurant, a reservation would have been made and you will sit down at a more reasonable time, reasonable is between nine and ten in the evening. The event will have aperitivos, and a meal with two or three courses, though the dishes served tend to be lighter in the evening. So would it if you are invited for dinner at home, unless they count you as more than a mere acquaintance and you are treated to the relaxed style of entertaining Spanish prefer: tapas style dinner at home.
Spanish are very laid back about wine, they like beer with their tapas, and they may drink wine with their meals. Only in the late evening they go for the long drinks and cocktails.
Squid rings fried in batter are a favorite among tapas. Make a sandwich with rings in a sub roll or French baguette with strips of fried green peppers.
The benign climate allows eating outdoors most of the year.