Spanish Cuisine...

[Arnelos]

Here's what I've been able to find regarding Spanish pan-regional cuisine and different regions' distinctive additions to what is apparently held in common. Remeber that "Spain" was never a single country until (historically speaking) rather recently and has retained a very strong sense of regionalism. So different regions have different cuisines...

The following only points out distinctive food items (or meals) that I could find commonly listed on various websites that talked about Spanish cuisine (as in Spain, not its many colonies).

SPANISH CUISINE

PAN-REGIONAL ITEMS:

- Olive Oil
- Garlic
- Wine
- Bread

CASTILE (Central Spain):

- Lamb
- Pork products (especially sausages)
- Stews (particularly beef stews)
- Garlic Soup
- Cheeses

CATALUNA AND VALENCIA (Mediteranean Coastline):

- Seafood and Poultry as center of diet
- Dried fruits and nuts

GALICIA (Northwest):

- fresh shellfish (scallops, muscles, delicacies: spider crab, octopus, squid)


ANDALUCIA (Southern, formerly Islamic, Spain):

- Garlic Almond Soup
- Fruits and Vegitables (asparagus, apples, strawberries, tomatoes)

[Arnelos]

I assume that Senor Hernan de Calamari is a Galician, given this description

btw, Aragon's cuisine seems to be basically the same as Castile's in terms of major items, but it seems they have different cooking styles, etc, etc, etc. The regionalization makes it difficult to pin down anything of a unified cooking style and selection of foods. We can either model that regionalization or we can just meld them together into something pan/quasi-Spanish Doesn't really matter

[Arnelos]

btw... assume (from the various descriptions I got) that:

"Castile" here probably means Castile, Leon, Asturias, Aragon, and even Navarre to some extent. Beef stews, lamb, garlic, etc. The popularity of cheese and pork seem to be particular to Castile proper, however.

"Cataluna" and "Valencia" mean just those two areas, not other areas, however.

The cuisine listed for "Galicia" probably is also shared in parts of Asturias and/or Leon along the north coastline along the Bay of Biscay.

"Andalucia" referring to basically the entire southern 1/3 of the country (the area last retaken from the Moors in the reconquista).

[Arnelos]

I have decided, based upon this information, that the Clemente clan of merchants traffics primarily in buying the fruits (and some vegetables) from the outlying areas to market and selling it there (as I previously said in my character's bio). The particular products the merchant clan works with are:

Olives (and the making of Olive Oil)
Garlic
Apples
Strawberries

I assume that we're already a major supplier to the Iberian Delight Tavern, no?

[F-PRO]

Originally posted by Arnelos
I assume that we're already a major supplier to the Iberian Delight Tavern, no?

Of course you are . These products will greatly enhance the delicacy of squids. I am already brainstorming with my cook about new meals.

[Nuclear Winter]

I am a wine producer, as stated in my Bios. Tough, I mix roman specimes of grape with spanish ones.
I´m also a grape seller. They make delicious fruit, and I´m looking forward to buy some wheat fields (waiting to see were we will start to see if its viable), if manage to buy them , I´ll be producing bread, too. And I´m also looking forward some shrimp-business if we are coastal.

[History Guy]

Why, yes, Senor Clemente. It is a well known fact that my grandfather, Juan de History Guy Calamari, the great lawmaker for the Calamari Clan, and the first to eat squid, was from those regions of the northwest. He was, like all of us, a nomad and a wanderer until he joined Madrid as one of the first of the five original families (which have grown to nearly twenty-five!).

We sell squid, and, like our partner Nuclearius Winterius, we hope to begin the harvest of shrimp and fish depending on how near we are to the coast.

Hernan de History Guy Calamari

[Ninot]

Ninot is a Valencian name

thats a fact