Eat before you eat

Me and my girls have become spanish in our eating habits. Well, not completely... we still prefer a swedish breakfast with bread that takes more than 2,7 seconds to eat and cereal that is made of something other than sugar. But for "comer" and "cenar" we all like the spanish way! Last thursday we had a great dinner with some friends in central Valencia. While Thorine and I enjoyed talking to our spanish friends and eating great food, the children had time to present the swedish and the spanish Eurovision contestants to each other. Stella and Aina showed Loreen, and Maria and Inez showed the spanish winner, on the computer.

Today we were with some friends in the antique city of Xativa and enjoyed Gaspacho. Not the cold tomato version that comes from coast, but the hot pasta/chicken/meatball/vegetable-version that they make in the same oversized frying pans where they make the paella. It was delicious!

If you ever eat with some spanish people, but you are not sure if the food is spanish, this is how you can tell:
You eat before you eat! If the actual meal is Gaspacho or Paella, before the meal you eat peanuts, oysters, mushrooms, chips, peppers, yellow things, pickles, cheese, sausages, ham, brown things, peas, beans, onions, more sausages, green things, more cheese, bread, olives and maybe some red things. Then you eat the actual meal. It works very well for the Arenius family, because it means a lot of time to chat with good spanish friends!