Sing for your supper, and you'll get breakfast

Breakfast—desayuno.  I’m realizing that through this blog, for the sake of explanation, I am sharing much more information than I would otherwise divulge—information that only those closest to me actually know.  ¡Que escandaloso!  One of these unimportant details is that I don’t particularly care for sweet foods.  I don’t mind the occasional piece of cheesecake or pumpkin-spice cookie, and I do like fruit, but I definitely prefer the savory to the sweet.  That being said, I don’t like breakfast foods like toast, cereal, pastries, jelly, etc.  Here, breakfast every morning consists of a pastry, four or five cardboard-flavored digestive cookies, two pieces of toast, my choice of strawberry or peach jam, instant coffee, and a carafe of boiled milk.  Mmmmmm.  Mmm.  The first two weeks were tolerable, but I can’t tell you what I would do for some scrambled eggs and a cup of brewed coffee for breakfast.  Unspeakable things.  Otherwise the meals are good.  Some are better than others, of course.

Lunch—comida.  Dinner—cena.  As I mentioned before, we eat lunch around two o’clock.  It usually consists of a salad, the main dish, which varies, and a piece of fruit.  Again, comida is the biggest meal of the day, so the main dish is usually a hearty soup, some combination of vegetables and meat (chicken, turkey, or fish), or Spanish tortilla (which is sort of a potato egg omelet, and is delicious).  A few days ago, she prepared a meal that made me smile a bit, because it was Moscow, Idaho in an entrée.  Moscow, the lentil capital of the universe, and Idaho, esteemed for its potatoes—the dish was a lentil and potato soup and I loved it.  Cena is basically the same, with slightly smaller portions.  Instead of salad, we have a small cup of noodle soup and we get chocolate pudding for dessert. 

I expected rice to be a staple of every meal, but have found that potatoes are the preferred side dish.  She makes French fries every other day, I think.  I haven’t figured out if this is a typical menu, or if she makes them because she thinks Americans really like fries.  Maybe, probably, it's both.  Everything is prepared in olive oil, which I appreciate.  One of the stranger dishes she makes consists of one fried egg, sunny side up, two pieces of bacon, a scoop of white rice, and a portion of very bland marinara sauce.  The first time we had it, I ate each item separately and wasn’t impressed.  I figured out, though, that all mixed together, it is actually quite tasty!  She makes paella on Sundays.  My roommate went to some fancy restaurant to try the “best paella in Valencia” and she said it tasted just like Isabel’s.  I guess we’re lucky in that regard.  [Maybe I'll remember to take some photos of the food and post them.]