Food translations

olive

 

Aceitunas: olives

Alcaparrones: pickled capers

Caracoles: small snails

Cabrillas: large snails

Croquetas: croquettes made with bechamel and various fillings (chicken, ham, spinach, seafood), breaded & fried

Vegetables

  • Alcachofas – artichokes
  • Calabacín – courgette/zucchini
  • Espinacas con garbanzos – spinach and chick peas mixed with garlic, olive oil & sometimes cumin
  • Habas con jamón – broad green beans with chopped serrano ham
  • Berenjenas rebozadas – aubergine/eggplant battered and fried in olive oil
  • Berenjenas tapadas – fried breaded aubergine topped with bechamel
  • Patatas bravas – fried potato wedges with spicy tomato mayonnaise
  • Patatas alinadas – small boiled potatoes marinated in vinegar, olive oil & chopped spring onions
  • Patatas alioli – fried potato wedges in garlic mayonnaise
  • Ensaladilla – potato & mayonnaise salad usually with tuna or prawns
  • Champiñones – mushrooms
  • Setas – oyster mushrooms or wild mushrooms
  • Pisto – ratatouille, often served with a fried egg on top
  • Calamares del campo – breaded and fried onions and peppers

Soups

  • Ajo Blanco – white garlic soup with almonds
  • Caldo – chicken broth
  • Gazpacho – cold tomato soup made with cucumber and garlic
  • Salmorejo – thick, creamy gazpacho served with chopped serrano ham & hard-boiled eggs

Sandwiches

  • Montatitos – small buns with various fillings, served either hot or cold
  • Serranito – toasted bun filled with serrano ham, chicken breast or pork loin and grilled peppers
  • Tablas – toasted thick-sliced country bread topped with salmarejo and serrano ham

Eggs

  • Tortilla – thick potato & egg omelette
  • Reveulto – scrambled eggs mixed with various ingredients
  • Huevos codornices – quail eggs
  • Huevos rellenos – hard-boiled eggs filled with tuna
  • Huevos rotos – fried eggs with soft yolks with potatoes, chorizo and jamón

Rice

  • Arroz – rice of the day, usually with meat and seafood
  • Paella – slow-cooked rice with saffron, tomatoes, meat and seafood

Cured Meats

  • Jamón Ibérico – thinly sliced, cured ham from free-range acorn-fed pigs
  • Jamón Serrano – less expensive jamón
  • Caña de Lomo – cured loin of pork
  • Morcilla – black pudding
  • Morcilla de Burgos – black pudding with rice
  • Pringá – mixture of pork, morcilla and chorizo(delicious!)
  • Chorizo – spicy sausage

Cheese

  • Manchego – cured sheep’s cheese (La Mancha)
  • Cabrales – blue goat, sheep or cow cheese (Asturias)
  • Idiazábal – hard sheep’s cheese (Basque country)
  • Torta de serena – soft sheep’s cheese (Extramadura)

Pork

  • Carne con tomate – stewed pork loin in tomato sauce
  • Carrilladas – tender stewed pig’s cheeks
  • Flamequines – breaded & fried rolls of pork loin, serrano ham and cheese
  • Lomo – pork loin
  • Solomillo al Whisky – pork tenderloin in whisky & garlic sauce
  • Pinchitos – spicy pork kebabs
  • Presa, Pluma, Secreto (see pork cuts diagram below)

Poultry and Game

  • Conejo – rabbit
  • Cordonices – quail
  • Duck – pato
  • Perdiz – partridge
  • Pollo al ajillo – chicken pieces cooked in olive oil and garlic
  • Pollo al la plancha – grilled chicken breast
  • Pavo – turkey
  • Venado – venison

Beef

  • Albondigas – meatballs
  • Rabo/cola de toro – bulls tail (usually stewed)

Fish

  • Acedias – small sole
  • Cazón en Adobo – fried marinated dogfish
  • Bacalao – cod (usually salt cod)
  • Bonito – tuna
  • Boquerones – fried or marinated anchovies
  • Caballa – mackerel
  • Corvina /Lubina – sea bass
  • Lenguado – sole
  • Merluza – hake
  • Pez espada – swordfish
  • Pavía – battered and fried salt cod
  • Pulpo – octopus
  • Rape – monkfish
  • Rodaballo – turbot
  • Salmonetes – red mullet

Seafood

  • Almejas – clams
  • Berberecho – cockles
  • Bogavante – lobster
  • Langostas – rock lobster (no claws)
  • Cangrejo – crab
  • Calamares – fried squid rings
  • Calamares en su tinta – squid in ink
  • Chipirones – small squid, usually fried or grilled whole
  • Chocos – cuttlefish
  • Cigalas – large prawns
  • Coquinas – wedge shell clams
  • Gambas al ajillo – peeled prawns served in sizzling olive oil with garlic
  • Gambas a la plancha – unpeeled grilled prawns
  • Gambas rebozadas – battered & fried prawns
  • Navajas – razor shell clams
  • Mejillones – mussels
  • Ostras – oysters
  • Puntillas – tiny fried baby squid
  • Vieira – scallops

Because there are often no English translations for the many parts of the pig and tuna that are used in Spain, here are a couple of drawings showing you where they come from.

partes de cerdo