Iberico ham. If you have never heard of it, it is about time you start educating yourself. It is the meat from this wild Spanish pig that I always picture galloping in the fresh grass on a mountainside. Smiling while frolicking around the wildflowers, a spring melody playing in the background. Magical. Getting juicer and plumper the more they grow. Delicious. I have had it carved straight off the cured leg from a butcher and have ordered Iberico cheek from a restaurant twice. You can not go wrong with this animal. Any form of it will make your mouth water. This is going to get a bit meat-abundant so vegetarians look away.

You wouldn’t think it based off of the love affair I just had with Iberico ham in that last paragraph but I did eat other food in Spain. I tried to stick to traditional dishes in Cordoba so calm yo tits if you don’t see every Spanish dish known to humankind on here.

• Salmorejo- It is cold tomato soup so it is okay. I prefer my soup hot.
• Gazpatcho- This is a cold soup-type thing as well served out of a drinking glass. It is sometimes mixed with apples. Or at least the one I had was… at least I hope it was apple since it was green. Terrible, I stayed up all night vomiting from it.
• Rabo del toro- Bull’s tail. It is a bit fatty but the non-fatty bits were tender and nice. The sauce I had with it was fitting.
• Churros con chocolate- Churros in Spain are different to the ones you probably had at your local fair that are covered in sugar. In Spain, they are deep-fried and served with warm chocolate sauce on the side. They are quite soaked in grease so it isn’t a light fluffy doughnut. Nonetheless, it’s chocolate with a sort of doughnut so it is good and a must-try. You can go to places where they flavour the chocolate with fruit and other what nots which I highly recommend. When ordering milk as I did, remember that it will always come warm unless you ask for it “fria” (cold). That is the extent of my Spanish from four months of living there…
• Flamenquito- It is meat wrapped with cheese sometimes with a deep-fried shell of some sort. It is okay. I prefer Dutch kroketten.
• Calabacín y miel: This is YUM. It is zucchini with cheese and honey all warmed up. Definitely eat this. La Bicicleta in Cordoba does it spectacularly.
• Tinto de verano- is a drink that they serve when sangria isn’t available. It is YUM. They mix red wine with either lemon soda or sprite/ 7 up in a glass. Sangria was hit or miss for me in Cordoba. Some places, like in the Victoria Market (Mercado Victoria) did it well- they even added some liquor to it. Whereas other places added way too much sugar like Bar Moriles Pata Negra (their food is good though). But it’s sangria so quit your whining and drink up.
• Paella- this dish isn’t from the Cordoba area but I need to mention it because it’s a staple. So I had paella twice in Cordoba. Once in a restaurant it was very salty and obviously made without fresh seafood since it was made of chicken. The second time a Spanish family made it and it was loads better. I attempted to have it in Barcelona but it was on a tourist street and looked awful on someone else’s plate so we left before we ordered. According to my personal knowledge, paella comes from around the Valencia area. Naturally, I never tried it when I was there.

I will now list a bunch of places I ate at while in Cordoba and tell you what I thought.

• I stayed in the student housing area called Ciudad Jardin and there is this wonderful kebab place that I ate so often the lady knew my order. They were on special always for 2.50!!!! She is the sweetest lady so you should go there it’s on Calle Alcalde Sanz Noguer on the right-hand side when going north towards the train station. It may be called Kebab Cordoba but I am not sure. I swear it sounds dodgy but it’s not.
• I ate at this taco place called Taqueria el Azteca which was super expensive with small portions so I don’t recommend it.
• La Fabbrica is really good for pizza and it’s super chill inside.
• I was craving sushi so I went to Maneki Neko. It was pretty good but expensive as all sushi in Europe is.
• Everyone raves about the hot dogs at Lucas but they were meh. Don’t expect American style but the owner was the best. Super sweet.
• Onmundo de Alicia was good for breakfast, only the waiters were hating their lives and were a bit rude.
• The Salon de Te is rated really high. There are tons of good teas to try (a bit expensive) but stay away from their food. I ordered a small pizza as a snack and it was like a piece of cardboard with ketchup on it and cost 6 euros.
• La Plaza de las tendillas has a bunch of tapas restaurants around there so that is where we were told to go eat. Usually, you get a deal if you order a drink but they aren’t free like in some other smaller places in Spain.

Overall, go to La Bicicleta. There are freshly made juices and yummy dishes to try there.