• Food Glossary

Andalucia is the deep south of Spain and home of flamenco. It is the land of salads, fried fish and seafood and the famous cold soup gazpacho, not to mention sherry.

Only the south (Andalusia) has the characteristics usually associated with all of Spain (gazpacho, flamenco, guitars, gypsies and manaña). Central Spain is the land of the serious Castilian with his castles and roast meat. Barcelona and the rest of Catalonia is almost a different country with its own language. The extensive north coast of the Basque country, Galicia and Asturias are much cooler than the rest of Spain, although the Spanish exaggerate the amount of rainfall there (from a British viewpoint).

• A la plancha - griddled and dressed with oil, garlic and parsley
• A la Sal - fish baked in a block of salt
• Abocado - medium sweet
• Adobo - marinaded in vinegar and spice (often cumin)
• Albacora - albacore, a small tuna
• Albariza - chalky soil that sherry grape grows on
• Albondigas - meatballs
• Alcachofa - artichoke
• Allioli - a "mayonnaise", classically with egg and garlic
• Alubias - haricit beans
• Almuerzo - second breakfast
• Amontillado - aged and oxidised dry sheery
• Anchoa - anchovy, sometimes sold fresh
• Angulas - Baby eels
• Ajete, Brotas or Ajo tierno - young green garlic shoots
• Al Horno - baked in the oven
• Arroz a la Marinera - seafood and rice simply cooked together
• Arroz - rice or rice dishes on menu
• Arroz Negro - squid ink rice
• Asador - charcoal grill.
• Asadores - restaurant or chef specializing in roast meat
• Azafran - Saffron
• Bacalao - Salt cod
• Banderilla - see tapa
• Becada - Woodcock
• Besugo - Red Bream
• Bocadillo - filled roll
• Bodega - sherry warehouse
• Bodegon - tapas bar serving mainly drinks
• Bogavente - lobster
• Bonito - Sarda sarda, a small tuna
• Brasa - cooking over embers
• Buey - crab
• Burgos - Blood sausage version with rice or onion
• Butifara - Catalan "soft" sausage
• Cabracho - Scorpionfish
• Cacerola - casserole pot
• Café - coffee
• Café Solo - strong black
• Café Ccordato - with a little milk
• Café con Leche - white
• Café Lleche Manchada - milk with a dash of coffee
• Café con Hielo - iced
• Calabacin - Courgette
• Caldo - broth
• Caldereta de Langosta - lobster stew
• Camaron - prawn.
• Caña - glass of draught beer
• Cap Roig (Cat) - Scorpion fish
• Carabinaros - large dark red prawns
• Cantaro - earthenware water jug
• Cangrejo - "river crab" or crayfish, Cangrejo de mar - shore crab
• Carnes - meats
• Cava - Spanish sparkling wine
• Caza - game
• Cazon (kath-on) - huss, dogfish, smoothhound
• Cazuela (cath-whaler) - earthenware cooking pot
• Cebolla - onion
• Cerdo Iberico - black Iberian pig
• Ceña - evening meal
• Centolla (sen-toy-a) - spider crab
• Cerveceria - bar specialising in beer
• Champiñón - mushroom
• Chato - glass of red wine from the barrel
• Cherne - wreckfish or stone bass
• Chiquito - small glass of wine
• Chilindron, al - cooked with red (bell) peppers
• Chiringuito - beach shack bar/restaurante, often with surprisingly good food
• Chistorra - Navarre sausage
• Chorizo - hard generally spicy sausages
• Choricero - (bell) pepperoften dried
• Churros - breakfast fritters
• Churreria - churros kiosk
• Cigala - dublin bay prawn,scampi
• Cigarra - flat lobster
• Coca - open tart like a thin pizza
• Cochinillo - suckling pig, speciality of Castile
• Cocido - classic country casserole
• Cocina casera - home cooking
• cordoniz - quail
• corvina - meagre
• Crema Catalana - a type of creme caramel with a hard caramalised sugar top
• Degustacion - tasting
• Desayuno - breakfast
• Dorada - gilt head bream
• Dulce - sweet
• Empanada - savoury pastry pie from Galicia
• Ensalada - salad
• Ensaimada - Mallorcan cake
• Entradas - starters
• Escabeche - a vinegar and garlic marinade
• Estafadas - stews
• Fabada - Asturian stew of white beans and pork
• Faisan - pheasant
• Fideua, Fideus, Fideos - seafood pasta
• Fino - dry sherry
• Flor - adventageous yeast growing on surface of sherry in barrel
• Frit or frito - Mallorcan liver and vegetable fry. Frito - fried in oil.
• Fricandó - Catalan veal and mushroom stew
• Freiduria - fried fish restaurant
• Galera - mantis shrimp
• Gamba - prawn
• Gazpacho - cold soup
• Grelos - turnip greens
• Guibelurdina - wild mushroom Russula cynaxanta
• Guisantes - peas
• Guiso - stew
• Guisos - the "stews" section of a (probably Andalucian) menu, as opposed to "fritos", fried
• Hierbas - Mallorcan herb liquer
• Hojaldre - puff pastry
• Horno - oven
• Huevos - eggs or menu category for egg dishes
• Jamon Serrano - unsmoked cured ham from the mountains (Jabugo is considered the best)
• Kokotxas - Basque speciality of Hake cheeks
• Langosta - spiny lobster
• Langostino - large prawn
• Lubina - Bass
• Manzanilla - Camomile tea and the very dry sherry that has taken its name from it
• Marinera - fisherman style
• Membrillo - quince, a quince "jam" is popular in Spain (with cheese)
• Merendero - open air restaurant
• Merienda - afternoon snack, merienda cena - high tea
• Merluza - hake
• Mero - grouper
• Migas - sauteed breadcrumbs with bacon, served at breakfast
• Mojo (mo-ho) - Canarian sauces for potatoes and fish (red and green)
• Morcilla (more-see-a) - Blood sausage or black pudding Burgos
• Montadito - minature bocadillos, delicacies on bread
• Moros y cristianos (moors and christians) - rice and black beans, often served with meat
• Necora - swimming crab
• Ñora - dried small red peppers "dulce" sweet or "picante" hot
• Oloroso - an aged aromatic sherry type
• Olla - deep cooking pot
• Pachero - stew pot
• Pa amb oli - bread with olive oil and (optionally) rubbed with tomato and garlic
• Papas Arrugadas - Canarian potatoes cooked in seawater
• Perca - perch - aborre *
• Parilla (a la) - grilled
• Paella (pie-ay-a) - strictly the curved metal pan used to cook the dish of the same name
• Pargo - Sea Bream
• Perdiz - Partridge
• Parrillada (par-ee-arder) - grilled mixed dish (usually fish)
• Pasada - aged manzanilla
• Patatas Pobres - "poor man's potatoes" fried with garlic and spices
• Pescados y Meriscos - fish and seafood
• Percebes - goose barnacles, a superb delicacy of the northern coast
• Pez de San Pedro - John Dory
• Picata - pounded ingredients used to thicken sauces - liver, bread, garlic, pine kernels etc.
• Picadillo - A chopped sauce. For example: diced tomatoes, onion and peppers in olive oil
• Pil-pil - sauteed in oil and garlic with constant shaking
• Pimiento - Sweet red pepper
• Pimienton - Paprika
• Pinchos - see tapa
• Piperade - Sweet pepper omelet
• Pisto Manchego - ratatouille type stew
• Plancha (a la) grilled on hot-plate
• Polvorones - Andalucian cake like biscuits, made from finely ground almond and icing sugar
• Postres - desserts
• Potaje or sopa - soup
• Quisquilla - small prawn or shrimp
• Racione - larger than a tapa, eaten with knife and fork
• Raf - an excellent uneven shaped fleshy tomato
• Rape - monkfish or angler fish
• Rellenas - stuffed
• Revuelto - scrambled eggs
• Rodaballo - turbot
• Romesco - sauce of bread, garlic, tomato, almonds, hot peppers and paprika with olive oil
• Salsa - sauce
• Salsa Mahonese - mayonnaise, reputedly invented in Mahon, Menorca
• Salmorejo - Cordoban gazpacho
• Samfaina - Catalan ratatouille
• Sargo - a bream type fish, diplodus sargus
• Seco - dry
• Setas - wild mushrooms
• Sidra - Asturian still cider
• Salchicha - fresh sausage
• Salchichon - cured sausage
• Salmonete - red mullet
• Salmorejo - Cordoban gazpacho
• Saltén - thin frying pan
• Serrano - cured ham
• Sobresada - Mallorcan pork sausage
• Sofrito - onion, garlic and tomato cooked down in olive oil to form base for a dish
• Solera - series of butts
• Solomillo (sol-o-me-o) - centre fillet of beef, lamb or pork
• Sopas Mallorquinas - brown bread soaked in soup
• Suquet - Catalan fish stew
• Tala - Maize cake
• Tasca - bar or tavern, serving food
• Tapa, Tapas
• Tortilla - (Spanish Omelette) (tor-tee-a) - potato, onion and egg "cake"
• Tortillitas - flour based fritters a little nearer to the South American tortilla
• Tumbet - Mallorcan Aubergine, courgette and potato fry
• Turron - hard nougat like sweet
• Txakoli - Basque petillant wine
• Txanqurro rellenos - Basque stuffed crab
• Txistorra - Basque spicy sausage
• Vapor - steamed
• Verduras - vegetables
• Vichy Catalan - strong flavoured water from Caldes de Malavella
• Vieiras - scallops
• Xampanyeries - Catalan cava tapas bars
• Yamas - dessert of raw egg yolk and sugar
• Zamburiña - (vieiras) scallops
• Zarzeula - literally a musical comedy of fish, a fish stew
• Zizak - wild tricholoma mushroom (Basque)
• Zurito - a small beer

Note: Several words translate as "prawn" (USA shrimp) due to the lack of specific words in English

Note for USA readers
US shrimp = European prawn (large)
US prawn = European shrimp (small)
so a Spanish quisqullia = European shrimp
a Spanish langostino = Dublin bay prawn or scampi
and a Spanish gambas = European prawn