I was able to sit down with Xabier Granja to speak about Spanish national cuisine and some cultural differences he’s experienced from his home in Spain and his home here in America. He is a professor at the University of Alabama who first immigrated to America on August 16, 2007. He came here for his Masters and as he said, “Life happened and I’m still here.” He is originally from the city of Algorta located near Bilbao in Spain. He also runs a food and technology blog in his free time.

 

Is there a national cuisine in Spain?

Absolutely. It tends to have that flavorful usually tends to be more moist dishes. Nothing is very dry and soft flavors that blend well. But nothing in Spanish cuisine likes to be aggressive and of course I’m ignoring modern cuisine where they’ll do crazy things. Soft flavors that blend. Nothing like tabasco or hot sauce.

Spanish food is very different regionally supposedly. Can you speak to those differences and how much they contrast each other?

Regionally it’s very different because of the geography. The lower 2/3 are very dry and they’re hotter. The top part, where I’m from, the Basque area, is very wet and colder. There’s a reason why when the Moors invaded all of Spain and they took over most of the country, they never bothered to do the North. There’s a giant line of mountains that are really hard and rocky to climb. They thought ‘oh, just leave it there’ so we never got that influence from the Arabic world whereas most of Spain did and that’s already creating differences culturally, geographically, and culinary.

There’s also a lot of herbs where I’m from. A lot of parsley used which you don’t see very often in many countries and most of Spain doesn’t use much. Most of Spain makes fried things and uses oil. In the North, we do much more sautéing and boiling or stewing, but there’s not that much use of oil and there’s are more herbs used. And of course seafood because we live right there. Seafood is everywhere.

How many regions are there in Spain distinctly?

Northern area- anything seafood-y related. Then I would tell you the lower coast which is seafood and a lot of fried stuff and tapas. Tapas, you can get them everywhere in the country. The north does their own versions of tapas which are much more elaborate tapas. Tapas might just be some potatoes with some tapa flavoring, but in the north you’ll have a pizza with something cooked in a specific way with this bread and a garnish of some kind. That’s a whole- mega tapa. Towards the east side of the country you’re going to see a lot of northern seafood fish and foods and towards the middle of the country I would say there’s much more of drier foods. Meats and cereals. So about 4, in very big strokes of course

Do you have a favorite food memory?

Lentils. It’s one of the things that I miss here. I don’t miss much of the food because it’s a globalized world and I can get access to many ingredients. As long as I learn how to cook them I can make it or a similar thing, but lentils is something that I really miss. They’re very different here than in Spain and I mean, everything is different. Even the lettuce tastes completely different. It’s not better or worse; it’s just different and for some reason lentils is something that I just really miss because it’s something that my mom used to make. She always does it perfect. That’s the standard. That’s what everybody wants. It took me many years to actually get somewhat close to making good lentils in that way and that’s something that I miss very much. And when I have it here, when I cook it, it’s good, but every time I go back, that’s the thing I want. And it’s not complicated to make, but you have to have a good measure. You have to know exactly how the timing and its practice. It’s an art.

I also want to try and cook garbanzo beans with codfish and spinach, but it’s too hard for me. I’m overwhelmed by it. My mother can do it. It takes hours.

What makes it so difficult?

It’s getting the flavors to blend right and it’s not easy because you have garbanzo, a legume, you have fish, and you have herbs. Those flavors react very differently so to get that mix right, I don’t have the ability to do it. I don’t know how.

Any family recipes?

Definitely lentils. Definitely garbanzo beans with codfish and spinach. We have the typical fish soup. There’s a specific fish called rape. It is a type of red fish that when you cook it, will get very fibrous so you can erode it into threads of fish. When you cook them, mixed with some clams for example, it creates a super flavorful soup. You get the taste of the sea and the fibers and it’s all delicious, but that takes easily 7 to 8 hours. When my mother does that I feel bad because I know she’s going to spend all day in the kitchen.

Is a lot of food that labor intensive to cook?

In the North, definitely. I think with Spanish cuisine in general, there’s a lot of attention to detail for food. There’s not a lot of efficiency, but that’s just starting to change now in the modern world. There are no more siestas. People have the same 8 to 5 work schedule. That didn’t used to happen before so there was a lot of time for cooking. Now food quality is going down in the sense that most people just don’t have time. They cook faster, simpler. There’s still a level of quality that Spaniards expect, so it’s still not that bad, but food used to take longer because you assume you have the time and Spaniards, in general, enjoy cooking.

Have you ever worked professionally with food? I know you have a food blog, but do you have any other experience?

Yes, but… I hesitate to say I worked in the food industry because my experience is McDonalds. Which is not food. When I was 18 I would work every summer there to save up for my license which in Spain is about $1,500. It’s such an urbanized country that driving is a luxury.

So is McDonald’s…?

Gross. Yes. Ever since I worked there I have never been to one again. I’ve seen enough things to know. (Laughter)

I meant is McDonalds different there from here?

They’re mostly the same. There are some regional differences I haven’t been in so long that I honestly don’t know what they sell anymore. There used to be the same exact products: Big Mac, quarter pounder, fish.

What was the first thing you ate when you come to America?

So when I got here, I was completely alone. I rented an apartment in Chicago from Spain. It was hard in the beginning. My landlord had a small restaurant in the building and this sounds so stupid to say, but I think I first had a burger and fries. It wasn’t a chain or anything. It was this mom and pop shop. Very good burger. Decent burger. Very good fries. I remember this woman and I remember her being so excited and saying ‘Oh! The European arrived! You look hungry. Let’s make you something. You like burgers? I’ll make you a burger!’

Was there any shock when you got here?
Size. I’m used to it now, but when I got here it was crazy. The buildings are huge; parks are huge; cars are huge; food portions are huge. I wish everything was 1/3 less price and 1/3 less food.

Are there any stereotypes of Spanish food that you’ve encountered?

Hot food. No! That’s Mexico. People assume that ‘You guys speak Spanish! You must be like Mexico, Argentina, Spain!’ but those are all completely different cuisines. People will meet me and say they made something extra spicy for me. I’ll eat it because I don’t want to be rude, but I’m dying every time I do.

Are there any foods here that you absolutely love that you can’t find in Spain?

There’s not one food. There’s a variety of food. You cannot find that in Spain. Variety now in Spain counts as different parts of Spain, Mexican, Japanese sushi, Chinese (Spanish Chinese- a Spanish version of Americanized Chinese). That’s my favorite thing. I wish that were there. Things are starting to get there since we’re globalizing more, but not yet.

That’s surprising considering Spain is in Western Europe. There aren’t a lot of French or German restaurants?

You would think so, but it would cost you 40 bucks to fly to Paris. Why not just make it a weekend? We have some things, parts of their culture like baguettes, but there’s not much point since a lot of it is even within driving distance.

How much does food influence the culture in Spain?

It’s a food based culture for sure. Food as in flavors and experiences. Not on eating. I don’t want to say the culture in Spain is all about food, but things run around food. Family and friends. Festivals. Chorizo, bread, seafood. So many festivals. Food is especially a social thing. But I feel like that’s not very different than it is here in the states.”