Breakfast, lunch, tea and supper - eating at home.

A traditional puchero.

As I've travelled round the world, I've been guided by one principle:

'The best food comes from the poorest places'.

 The further we get from the processed food of the First World, the better  the meals we enjoy. Organic vegetables, free-range meat and poultry, traditional recipes honed by generations of cooks - we're most likely to find these in village diners with grubby tubular chairs and overhead neon lighting, frequented by sweaty field-workers and calloused artisans.

 Not so in Vejer. Despite being a modern, first-world town, the native food culture of the region is apparent in the many 'Spanish' restaurants, from the fancy ones in the old town to the no-nonsense places in the new part.

Adrián pays attention to his menu

 I took my co-author Adrián Brenes to lunch at the famous Vejer restaurant El Jardin del Califa, to get some insight into how Spanish people like to eat at home.

 He's a flamenco dancer with a metabolism like a runaway train. He eats around 3000 calories a day, except when he dances, when he steps up the consumption. And his mother, Pepi, is an awesome cook. 

 Adrian knows something about food. Ask him for a good way to cook fish or cabbage and he'll be back to you before you've closed Facebook.

'Spanish people usually eat their main meal at lunchtime', he told me, 'it's an important family occasion which we try not to miss. We usually eat lunch at about 2.45, later than in Northern Europe.'

'In my family, we are usually five for lunch - my grandfather, my parents, my sister and me, plus any visitors who drop in.'

A special meal for Christmas Eve

'In Andalucía, there was no tradition of women working outside the home, although the younger generation of women now work, even when they have children. The long lunch, followed by a siesta, is based on the assumption that the housewife will be at home to prepare the meal. Many older women still make a big lunch, often for several generations of the family. Our lunch typically consists of a large salad made with meat or fish. It's placed in the centre of the table and we help ourselves with a fork.

'There'll also be another meat or fish dish and probably some cooked vegetables. Afterwards, we might eat a postre, that is a pudding, or some fruit. Cheese is usually eaten first, maybe with some jamón, cured ham. We don't drink wine with our meals - I think more goes into the cooking than into the diners!'

'One thing that's very important in all our meals is bread. We put it straight onto the tablecloth or onto a paper napkin, which we use at every meal, and we also eat a lot of picos, those stubby little breadsticks. Water is also served with all meals.'

The traditional tostada

'Something I miss when I'm travelling is the tostada, the traditional Andalucían breakfast. It's a wonderful combination of bread, oil and tomato, crunchy and tasty. I usually drink a glass of orange juice to go with it, and maybe a cup of coffee.

 'Many people like to eat La merienda, the Spanish equivalent of tea, at about 6 p.m. It usually involves cakes or bread in some form, with a drink, though I prefer to eat fruit or yogurt. Merienda is also a good occasion for a family celebration. 

 'Supper is a fairly light meal, maybe some fruit, ham and cheese. We eat our supper late, 10 pm or later in the summer, and I'm going to be quite honest now, eating earlier than that is known as 'guiri' (foreigner) time, because many of our visitors eat much earlier.'

Preparing a family meal is often a co-operative venture

'We eat meat or fish with most meals, but often in small quantities, mixed with vegetables, lentils or garbanzos - chick peas.
  My mother still makes the traditional dishes that she learned from her mother and grandmother - things like puchero or potaje, warming and filling dishes. Many of our dishes, for example croquetas, are examples of how to make a little meat go a long way.

 'We don't eat tapas at home - those are for eating out - but we prepare at home many of the dishes that you can find in a tapas bar.'

 'Our food culture is really based on two creatures - the pig and the tuna fish, and below you can see the names for the different cuts of meat and fish as they are known in Spain.'

The parts of a Spanish pig

The parts of a Tuna