One of my favorite things to do for dining in Spain is going to the food markets. Food markets are essentially large collections of food stands, specialty grocers or actual restaurants with a counter-top. They are in every city and it's a great way to taste the local cuisine without having to order one large dish. When I went to Barcelona with my family, my sister wanted to try the Mercado de La Boqueria, the city's most famous market. We arrived at 12 in the morning and had such a good time we decided to go back the next day!
I had a chorizo breakfast burrito at the market (how very Spanish, I know). Being away from home for the past 6 months, I am beginning to miss some food I might eat in the U.S. I really miss the Mexican and Chinese food from California and Chicago. I also had some slices of Jamon Iberico (Iberian Ham) from my father's dish. Jamon Iberico is a Spanish specialty, and the butchers will slice the meat straight off the leg in front of you. I took mine from my father's dish. He had ordered, in his words, "a cone of sausages" from one of the meat vendors. The jamon was delicious, as were all the other sausages in my father's cone.
