I know this is not strictly a UK question, but it seems to be quite a popular holiday destination from here, so I thought I might get the most useful replies here.



Basically I am going to Spain for 2 weeks next week, travelling around a bit, and dont speak any of the language at all. I hope to be ok in Barcelona, but some of the rest is a bit off the tourist track, so I was wondering if anyone could suggest any things that are common in Spain that I can order safe in the knowledge that they are vegetarian.

If I figure out how to tell the waiter in Spanish that I am vegetarian, is the understanding of the concept good enough over there that they could help me out (last resort really, as having tried it here once I was pointed to the fish section...)

Any advice anyone has that can help me not live of Margarita pizzas for the whole holiday would be very gratefully appreciated.

Barcelona is easy, lots of choice there: http://www.happycow.net/europe/spain...ona/index.html



Just telling your waiter you are a vegetarian and expecting them to create something for you will lead to dissapointment, I'm thinking. I haven't been all around Spain but outside of Barcelona and Madrid I found very very little understanding of vegetarianism.



I would suggest you study up on Spanish cuisine to find out what is traditionally vegetarian and what is not. But even then, some Spanish restaurants seem to actually season their food with ham! Here's an overview: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish_cuisine If applicable, you may be able to order items 'sans meat' or whatever but don't count on it. You may find an item will have been cooked in stock and the chunks of meat are simply fished out of the dish by the chef/waiter.



I would also suggest learning the Spanish words for menu items. I found that the English translations of some Spanish restaurants would accidentily omit non-vegetarian items from time to time so reading the Spanish listing really helped me choose what to eat.



I mostly ate out of markets. I'd buy olives, bread, fruit and the like and just nosh all day. I also found a buffet type place once and just ate what looked veg (not much). But I'm vegan, so you may fare better.

Thanks for the reassurance about Barcelona. It was looking at traditional spanish options that made me think about the food at all, as a lot of the things I read about seemed to contain some kind of dried fish or chorizo.

In England, Tapas restaurants seem quite good for veggies, so I thought Spain would be ok as a holiday destination without really looking into it properly. I hadnt thought of happycow, but I will also try that to see if it has anything listed for the other bits of spain we are visiting.

One of our Mods, Skylark, spent a semester in Spain in 2003. She was lacto-ovo at that time. I don't know when she'll be back on VB as she's been traveling recently and may not have access to the internet at the current time, but if you go to Advanced Search, enter Spain as the keyword, and Skylark for the specific poster, you'll pull up matches of her advice about how to manage in Spain as a veg*an.



I hope that helps you.

I haven't been there myself but a vegetarian I know told me Spain was terrible, that even if you ask them for no meat (and he spoke Spanish) they still put it in! Hopefully it has changed a bit - this was a few years ago.

I lived on Subway and egg omelete when i was veggie in spain.



Since being vegan, i packed loads of nuts, gorged on lollies and bought bread/jacket potatoes from the supermarket out there and pot noodles (beef and tom) and beans, and fruit. Not so much their salads because they rinse it in their water so didnt want to risk a bug. so its do-able!

But not exactly what you turn vegan for!!!

Barcelona has a lot of expensive restaurant and those guys do not really cater for vegetarians with the exception being the Italian restaurants.



A few years back the best place I found was a small deli type establishments on the Ramblas (main road) that did very tasty salads and falafels. Cheap, clean and healthy!

I'm from Spain.. in fact i'm currently in it.. about 2 hrs from Barcelona. I haven't been there since becoming Vegan but I can give you a few hints.



Are you vegetarian or vegan, to start?



vegan:



gazpacho will be vegan



a green salad should be vegan, make sure to ask if it has eggs or meat just in case. "Amanida Verda" (They speak Catalan primarily in Barcelona) "Sense ous, y sense carn." You don't need to worry about dressings--salad dressings aren't something spanish at all. We use olive oil and salt



escalivada is grilled veggies, and would be vegan--make sure to indicate again you want the dish without eggs or meat, just in case (i'd be surprised to see them there, but there are always wierd restaurants.)



baguette will be vegan, as well as most white breads. "Ous" is eggs "llet" (pronounced lee-et) is milk--you can always ask.





What I would definately do is go to El Corte Ingles, if not some actual health food store if you should find it, and buy some non-dairy milk to have at breakfast; I usually also buy cereal and fruit (even when I wasn't veg) when travelling cus eating out three times a day is tiring, but maybe thats just me.





If you're vegetarian:



Omlettes are quite good in spain. Pans & Co. has a potato omlette sandwich, for your days on the go... It also will have a Bri sandwich, if Bri is vegetarian (I don't know which cheeses are and which aren't..)



Um, yeah, actually potato omlette is something very Catalan, so you can likely get it almost anywhere. Pastis de Verdures is really really good, and its this cake of vegetables and eggs and likely milk--was definately a favourite of mine before I went veg.



Barcelona has a decent vegetarian following so you wont have trouble finding restaurants there--Catalan food is not very veg-friendly though, if you're not in a veg restaurant... It's expected to have a first plate, which often can be veg. (and even then..) and a second plate, which is either "meat poultry or fish" typically...