When are mealtimes in Spain? A guide for visitors

Then despite its name, aperitivo or vermut doesn’t strictly mean a drink. It does involve a drink, but while it can be a vermouth, most people would instead have a beer, some wine, soda, fruit juice for the kids, and hey, some people may even order an expresso, cortado or cafe on hielo and nobody will bat an eyelid at it (although a latte or a capucchino would be a bit weirder). But the point is that when you go for aperitivo or vermouth, you’ll always order some food to go with your drink. Without the food, you can’t say you having an aperitivo – you are just having a drink.Then, aperitivos can be two different things depending on where you have it. You can go to a bar – noon or later for vermouth, aperitivo is more likely to be 1PM or later. Going to a bar usually means that you are planning to socialize with friends and family joining you. Maybe you went together on a morning activity and are having vermouth or aperitivo before you part and each goes back home for lunch. Or maybe you wanted to see each other, and vermut/aperitivo is the perfect excuse to get together – which might or not be followed by lunch at a restaurant together.Common things to order as an aperitivo or vermuth are olives, potato chips, cubes of cheese or ham (known as “tacos” – but not the Mexican ones, these are just diced food), canned seafood such as cockles (“berberechos”) or mussels (“mejillones”), anchovies… And for a heavier pre-meal, you’ll also see people ordering patatas bravas, Spanish omelet, Russian salad, fried fish or croquettes.At home, though, it’s usually appetizers served right before lunch, usually as an excuse to entertain your stomach while the food is being cooked. The more people joining the meal, the more abundant the appetizers will be. So while on a normal weekend with just parents and kids the aperitivo may be limited to chips and olives, on a larger family gathering they are likely to go all out and serve two or three types of chips and similar, more than one type of olives, one or more types of canned seafood, diced cheese, dice ham, slices of salchichón or fuet (popular cold cuts), a variety of nuts such as almonds or peanuts, and maybe even pate or cream cheese spreads.Because this is served while the meal is being cooked, most of the time the aperitivo will be eaten while standing around the table, or while coming and going from the kitchen (remember to bring some chips to the cook, who is likely to miss the aperitivo otherwise). It may also be served on a different table – be it a table outside in the garden or terrace, or a “mesa camilla”, an accessory round table.