{"id":13182,"date":"2026-04-28T10:46:14","date_gmt":"2026-04-28T10:46:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/13182\/"},"modified":"2026-04-28T10:46:14","modified_gmt":"2026-04-28T10:46:14","slug":"brit-who-ditched-uk-for-spain-says-1-thing-confuses-her","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/13182\/","title":{"rendered":"Brit who ditched UK for Spain says 1 thing confuses her"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Mother<\/p>\n

The mum is confused by the ‘rules’ around food in Spain (stock image) (Image: Getty)<\/p>\n

A British woman who upped sticks and moved to Spain two years ago is still finding certain things about her new life confusing – especially when it comes to food<\/a>. Many UK citizens choose to leave the country in favour of somewhere new, with Spain a popular choice thanks to its reliably warm weather, lower cost of living, better quality of life, and a more relaxed pace<\/a>.<\/p>\n

British mum Susie swapped the grey skies so commonly associated with Great Britain for life in the coveted Mediterranean climate. Despite moving two and a half years ago, there\u2019s still a few cultural differences that catch her off guard<\/a>. Like many people, Susie has taken to social media to document her experiences and in a recent video posted to TikTok<\/a>, she shared her confusion regarding \u201cunspoken rules\u201d around food<\/a>.<\/p>\n

READ MORE: Famous city in Spain to introduce major new rule for anyone moving there <\/a><\/p>\n

READ MORE: Brits flying to Europe with pets warned passport \u2018loophole’ scrapped by EU <\/a><\/p>\n

Susie began: \u201cThere seem to be all these unspoken rules about what you can eat and when you can eat them, and I\u2019ve lived here for two and a half years and I still haven\u2019t figured it out.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was talking to my husband today about what to have for lunch and I suggested, \u2018well, we could have pur\u00e9 de calabac\u00edn (a Spanish vegetable soup with zucchini, potatoes, onions, and leeks) for first course, and then we could have ensaladilla rusa (potato salad) for second course.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd he\u2019s like, \u2018no, those are two first courses – we can\u2019t have two first courses, can we?\u2019 And I\u2019m thinking, \u2018oh, I didn\u2019t realise that they had to specifically be for first courses. Can\u2019t we just have one, then have the other?\u2019 But no.\u201d<\/p>\n

Susie pointed out how this differs to the UK where meals including a first and second course are more commonly associated with \u201ca special occasion\u201d, and day-to-day evening meals are usually a single course with \u201ceverything all on one plate\u201d, possibly followed by dessert. She confessed Spain\u2019s so-called \u201crules\u201d about what\u2019s appropriate to eat and at what time has been \u201creally difficult to understand\u201d.<\/p>\n

Susie went on: \u201cI\u2019ve been told there\u2019s a general rule to help figure this out; if you use a spoon, it\u2019s a first course, and if you use a knife and fork, it\u2019s a second course – but what about ensaladilla rusa? I mean, I use a fork to eat that but apparently, that\u2019s a first course.<\/p>\n

“And what about croquetas (croquettes)? I mean, you use your hands to eat those, don\u2019t you? So where do they go? How do you categorise a first course and a second course? I need to know.\u201d<\/p>\n

She then shared her confusion about the popular rice dish paella, which \u201cyou can\u2019t eat for dinner in Spain\u201d, and wondered whether this applied to all rice dishes. Susie added: \u201cIt\u2019s these little kinds of things that no one really prepares you for when you move abroad, and I think you\u2019ll only truly understand when you actually live in the place for a while. I\u2019ve lived in Spain for two years and I\u2019m still figuring everything out as I go along.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the comments section, people were keen to share their thoughts and advice. One TikTok<\/a> user pointed out: \u201cYou have funny things too\u2026 like eggs are only for breakfast!\u201d<\/p>\n

Another said: \u201cI haven\u2019t figured it out either, don\u2019t stress about it lol.\u201d A third said: \u201cDinner is just usually lighter. Generally, second courses include a fish or a meat. Honestly, you can do whatever you agree on. We only do two courses on weekends.\u201d<\/p>\n

And another added: \u201cGenerally, in Spain, the second course is the most elaborate, usually a meat or fish dish. Ensaladilla rusa, for example, is a \u2018tapa\u2019 or starter meant to be shared with the whole table, just like croquetas. And yes, dishes that are typically eaten with a spoon, like soups and pur\u00e9es, are the first course.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The mum is confused by the ‘rules’ around food in Spain (stock image) (Image: Getty) A British woman…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":13183,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[7919,7918,7923,7924,3177,7929,1927,7922,7927,7926,7928,17,1152,7920,7921,3829,7925],"class_list":{"0":"post-13182","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-spain","8":"tag-cooking","9":"tag-food","10":"tag-how-to-move-to-spain-from-uk","11":"tag-life-in-spain","12":"tag-living-in-spain","13":"tag-making-food","14":"tag-mediterranean","15":"tag-move-to-spain","16":"tag-mum","17":"tag-paella","18":"tag-parenting","19":"tag-spain","20":"tag-spanish","21":"tag-spanish-food","22":"tag-tapas","23":"tag-weather","24":"tag-weather-in-spain"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13182","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13182"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13182\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13183"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13182"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13182"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13182"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}