I was alarmed on a recent visit to a favourite restaurant of mine. I asked for its superb hot and spicy fish soup. The chef came out to warn me: “Sorry, but we’ve had to reduce the quantity of spice in the soup. The Spanish customers just don’t like it that spicy.”

I was tempted to suggest that he didn’t make concessions for the indeginous population. I like my food spicy. So why don’t the Spanish?

After all, some of the finest spices in the world originate in Spain. Saffron (azafrán) is used widely in Spain, despite being the most costly spice to produce. For just 1 kilo of saffron you would have to use 85.000 crocus sativus flowers. Arabs brought saffron to Spain in the 16th century and its bright red stamens have been valued since long before that. It is one spice that the Spanish do use freely, especially in paella, where saffron gives the rice its yellow colour.  It is also used often in stews and the aforementioned fish soup.

Cinnamon (canela) is used in many a Spanish desert, such as arroz con leche (rice pudding). Paprika (pimentón) is used widely in potato based dishes and in soups. I can never get enough of cinamon or paprika. I go to one excellent bar and restaurant in Granada, Bodega La Antonio, where a favourite dish of mine Pulpo a la Gallega (Galician octopus) is served with a generous amount of paprika. It is spicy enough for me, but the owner admits that Spanish customers could not take it the way i like it.

When it comes to using more powerful spices, Spanish chefs have to be more conservative. And that doesn’t stop with Spanish food. Chinese restaurants are very popular with the Spanish. But any north European entering a Chinese restaurant throughout Spain will be taken back by how bland the food is. Spicy Chinese food is also toned down in Spain.

Spanish food historian and author, Luis Benavides Barajas, tells me: “I’m afraid my fellow Spaniards cannot take hot spices. None would eat a spicy curry, the likes of which British people enjoy. If a dish of any kind is too spicy, Spanish diners will send it back to the kitchen and complain. It makes life difficult for restaurant chefs who have to cater for both Spanish and British customers. I know that when i ran restaurants in London I had to up the level of spices used in, for example, paella and hot and spicy prawn dishes such as prawns with garlic and chilli” (gambas pilpil).

It seems that when it comes to sampling spicy food in Spain, some do like it hot. But very few of them were born and bred in Spain.

Tagged as: cinnamon, octopus, paella, paprika, saffron, soup