Merienda -- what a great discovery

There's a lovely Spanish woman at work who is helping me prepare for our vacation in Mallorca in a couple of weeks. I try to say something in Spanish, and she laughs at the stoopid thing I've said and corrects me, which I then immediately forget. (Why do I even try?)

I was whining about late mealtimes in Spain -- they eat at 9:30 or 10:00 in the evening, and I'm ready to go to bed by then. "How can you stand to wait until 9:30 to eat?" Then she revealed that Spaniards actually eat about five meals a day -- so where I was thinking there were huge gaps between eating, she told me there's a wonderful thing called merienda at 5:00 in the afternoon that's sort of like afternoon tea here. I'd never heard of it before.

Five meals a day I can handle! Cristina, the helpful woman at work, said you start the day with these fried dough-y things that you dip in hot rich chocolate called Churros con Chocolate.

Here is the hot chocolate....

that is just waiting to have these churros dipped into it.


Cristina said these are especially good when you've been out partying all night and are just coming home in the morning. :) Then you have a little snack later in the morning and have a big lunch at 2:30.

Then comes merienda, which "can be anything from a piece of French-style bread with a piece of chocolate on top, to bread with chorizo, ham or salami...."

Then you have dinner later. Apparently Spaniards eat more than Americans but they space their eating out and walk much more. Check out the details of Spanish meals at this site: Meals in Spain.