Everything tastes better in Spain!

[DietStartsToday]

Day 2 of holiday and I'm in love with this country! and especially the food and drink ...

Grapes - tase a million times nicer here than UK! So so sweet, cotton candy taste. Delicious!!

Wine - so cheap!! So delicious! And no hangover!! (What crap do they put in the wine at home? And why?)

Nuts - so full of taste!!

Tomatoes - so sweet!!

Bread - soft and delicious!!!

Always thought UK food was nice, but now I don't want to return !!

AIBU to question why we pay so much money for such rubbish, headache inducing wine and bland food when elsewhere does it so much better!! (I guess I am! Spain grows the gorgeous grapes and has the climate I suppose!!)

Fruit and veg from the garden tastes great but it goes off very quickly. Fruit and veg from the supermarket tastes of nothing but lasts for weeks. What are they doing to food to make it last that long??

Spanish tomatoes, oranges and peaches are delicious.

I'll drink wine from anywhere!

Grapes - tase a million times nicer here than UK! So so sweet, cotton candy taste. Delicious!!
I expect they're fresher.
Wine - so cheap!! So delicious! And no hangover!! (What crap do they put in the wine at home? And why?)
Tax mostly. When you pay £5 for a bottle of wine in the UK, more than half of it is tax. There are, however some very good wines from UK vineyards (I love Pant Du wine). Because of the need to have a margin after all the taxes (not to mention the labour costs as we have a living wage here), it's much more expensive.
Tomatoes - so sweet!!
Again, fresher and not grown under plastic.
Bread - soft and delicious!!!
There are plenty of good bakeries in the UK, just steer away from the sliced mass produced stuff from supermarkets.

Tomatoes - so sweet!!

Again, fresher and not grown under plastic.

Whatever. Spain has many many many farms that grow produce under plastic.

I agree that all the fruit in France/Italy/Spain at this time of year is fresher. They grow a lot more fruit than us so it doesn't travel as far and isn't chilled in the same way. Most of the fruit in the UK supermarkets is picked before it is ripe so it lasts longer. The fruit in the French supermarket recently was delicious but because it is already fresh it doesn't last more than a couple of days. In the UK we have got used to our food lasting a long time, although I have to say I find the "ripen at home" fruit you get here is hard for 5 days, ripe for 1 day then it goes rotten.

I had the best nectarine in the world a few years ago. I ran back to the stall and bought a bag full. Covent garden!

Love Spanish tomatoes in Spain. Won’t buy them here as tasteless.

Spain is defiantly the home of the poly tunnel but i suspect people generally holiday in more rural area where local produce is still used. Also everything tastes better outside and in the sun!

I have been underwhelmed by restaurant food in Spain. I've seldom had a good meal out there, and have been to Madrid, Barcelona and Malaga. I mean, decent enough, but very mediocre.

I do love Spain though!

But in Spain - you have to eat Spanish food, in Italy it's Italian and in Greece it's Greek etc (in all but the largest cosmopolitan cities) At least in the UK even in our modestly sized nearest city I can eat French, Spanish, Italian, Chinese, Indian, Thai, Japanese etc etc

I agree Dieu

Although I am currently being underwhelmed by restaurant food in Croatia

Spain grows most UK tomatoes; using hydroponics [water and chemicals] and then shipped over here.

They'd never eat those tasteless orbs of red water in Spain. Yuk.

We are currently on holiday in Italy and i am going hold my hands up and say i don't like the pizza here 🙈 pasta is lovely. Bread also .And small bottles of milk we got through that in couple hrs .But a beautiful country just have be very forceful when it comes to crossing the road .

dieu-go to the market in Malaga. Next time you are over- incredible delicious (simple) and cheap sea food and fish. Skewers of pulpo dusted with pimenton, tuna and ali oli, pimientos Padron - yum am salivating at the thought. If you know where to go Spain has some incredible, affordable and delicious restaurants- yes- often the menu is predictable, but when it is cooked well it is well worth it.
I have had disappointing food all over the UK, again its about knowing where to go 🤷‍♀️

Bread is a bit shit though!

LimitIsUp that is exactly what my DS has said there are no Chinese or fish and chips here in Italy. It is first thing he is having when we get back 😂.

If I want fish and chips the best place is Godfrey's in Harpenden. Their gravy is amazing, so much so I used to buy a tub on Saturday to have on Sunday.

If I want sardines I'll have them fresh from a Spanish beach barbecue.Delicious.

A lot of fruit and veg grown for the UK market is produced from varieties that are intended to look good on the shelves, or survive long transport periods, or both. Taste is secondary to unblemished appearance and uniform size/shape.

We also insist on buying fruit and veg whenever we want, even if not in season. It follows that a good proportion of produce will have been picked at a sub-optimal stage of production just to get it on the shelves, never mind survive the journey.

The other problem we have is our obsession with unit and package pricing rather than pricing by weight, as is practised almost everywhere else in Europe. If the supermarket wants to sell tomatoes at £1.50 for a pack of six, then the tomatoes are picked when they are the size of a 25p tomato, not when they are ready.

It's because you're on holiday! I developed a taste for tinto de verano there a couple of years ago. I loved it, it was delicious, it was my new favourite drink. I brought a bottle of it back to the UK and amazingly cheap red wine mixed with lemonade tastes like shit when you're drinking it in a scrubby little terrace in Barnsley rather than on a sunny patio admiring the sea view. Who knew?!

youre right about spanish wine. I dont think ive ever had a bad one. Even the really cheap ones are super drinkable

Im glad youre having a lovely holiday

@Fuma whack a shot of red vermouth in it 👌

LimitIsUp I don't agree , the choice is limited but I have lived in Spain and in our town we had Chinese, Thai and a superb Gurka curry house . Also I've just come back from France and had one of the best meals I ever had - but the chef was from NZ 😂

Spanish strawberries (in season in March/April), Mangoes (Spanish), plum tomatoes, avocados, globe artichokes, beef steak, and Spanish pork, all absolutely superb, bought from the municipal markets found in most towns. They also have the most enormous potatoes I've ever seen and spring onions are also huge. The veg here is yum compared to the very mediocre stuff available in the uk and usually half the price.