Adios Spain, 2 of the minor problems we experienced

After being in Spain for almost a month, I do think someone can travel through the tourist areas in Spain knowing zero Spanish if they wanted to.  I don't think that is a good way to travel the country though because you will miss some good authentic eats and people will not be as friendly.  Some of the most enjoyable meals we have found were at places where they did not have a readily available English translation of the menu.

A couple days ago in San Sebastian, I saw a backpacker from Australia order pintxos off the bar top by pointing and grunting a few times.  (I considered taking pictures or some video as evidence, but decided not to given risk of starting a fight.)  The caveman communication seemed more rude to me than using English or his native language.  Surely, the bar man could interpret Australian English?  

We haven't had any major problems traveling through Spain as Laura is relatively fluent in Spanish.  A couple waiters have commented she is able to speak with no/minimal foreign accent.

My language problem with frittata:

I took Spanish for a couple years in middle school and high school.  I can speak very basic sentences.  I can understand enough to get by if someone is speaking to me and not going too fast.  If I am reading a menu, I can decipher what the gist of the dish is.

What do you call an egg omelette with potatoes and onion?  I traditionally call it a frittata.  Don't do that in Spain.  They call it a tortilla in Spain.  For some reason, I couldn't fix the vocabulary error and I ordered it wrong at least 5 times.  Every time I ordered frittata, I was met with a confused look and elaborating questions.  To me a tortilla  is a flour tortilla that I try to avoid.   The Spanish tortilla is the most basic dish for any restaurant or cafe serving food to have and a dish I seek out.  It is almost always under 2 euro for a piece and it was good at every place we tried it at.

A sampling of the Spanish tortillas we had:

the top tortilla from Bar Nestor in San Sebastian

tortilla at Casa Federica in Madrid

tortilla at Tertulia in Barcelona

Language/culture problems with verduras:

I try to eat healthy and make a good portion of my meals comprised of fresh and healthy verduras of various colors.  This was quite difficult in Barcelona and Madrid.  The main veggie dishes we found in the first couple of days were fried peppers, mushrooms, iceberg lettuce salad, and stuffed mushrooms.  

A few times we asked in Spanish what verdura dishes were available and they would tell us either fried peppers or stuffed mushrooms.  Those dishes are delicious, but not my idea of healthy.  When we wanted other options to those, the waiters would inquire whether we were vegetarian and try to accommodate us.  

At one point, I had a doner kebab sandwich that had a healthy assortment and fill of vegetables.  I considered ordering more doner kebab sandwiches just to get my vegetable fill.

After a few failed attempts, Laura came up with a good solution.  She asked for a dish of grilled vegetables which she had seen on the menu as part of an entree.  The waiter was very friendly and told her he could definitely accommodate the order, but given he knew we were not vegetarian, he was quite amused that any one would want a dish of just grilled vegetables.  He had his cook execute a dish of freshly grilled vegetables with a simple vinaigrette that hit the spot.

It was a bit tough to get my normal quantity and variety of vegetables in Spain.  I am NOT looking forward to the next time I find a scale.  It was a little too easy finding jamon though as there are stores dedicated to the product and at every restaurant and bar they have jamon and chorizo.