{"id":13266,"date":"2026-04-28T13:00:57","date_gmt":"2026-04-28T13:00:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/13266\/"},"modified":"2026-04-28T13:00:57","modified_gmt":"2026-04-28T13:00:57","slug":"brit-mum-living-in-spain-still-confused-by-unspoken-rule-about-spanish-food","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/13266\/","title":{"rendered":"Brit mum living in Spain still confused by ‘unspoken rule’ about Spanish food"},"content":{"rendered":"

A British woman who moved to Spain two and a half years ago has shared the “unspoken rules” around Spanish food and dining customs that she finds “really difficult to understand”<\/p>\n

13:37, 28 Apr 2026Updated 13:37, 28 Apr 2026<\/p>\n

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The woman has struggled with so-called “rules” around food in Spain (stock image)(Image: Justin Paget via Getty Images)<\/p>\n

A British woman who moved to Spain two years ago still finds certain aspects of her new life “difficult to understand” – particularly when it comes to food. Lots of UK residents opt to leave the country<\/a> in search of pastures new, with Spain proving a favoured destination thanks to its consistently warm weather<\/a>, reduced cost of living<\/a>, enhanced quality of life, and a more leisurely pace of life.<\/p>\n

British mum Susie exchanged the overcast skies so commonly linked with Great Britain for life in the sought-after Mediterranean climate. Despite moving two and a half years ago, there’s still several cultural differences that take her by surprise. Like many others, Susie has turned to social media to chronicle her experiences and in a recent video uploaded to TikTok<\/a>, she expressed her bewilderment regarding “unspoken rules” surrounding food.<\/p>\n

Susie began: “There seem to be all these unspoken rules about what you can eat and when you can eat them, and I’ve lived here for two and a half years and I still haven’t figured it out.<\/p>\n

“I was talking to my husband today about what to have for lunch and I suggested, ‘well, 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.’<\/p>\n

“And he’s like, ‘no, those are two first courses – we can’t have two first courses, can we?’ And I’m thinking, ‘oh, I didn’t realise that they had to specifically be for first courses. Can’t we just have one, then have the other?’ But no.”<\/p>\n

Susie pointed out how this contrasts with the UK, where meals including a first and second course are more commonly associated with “a special occasion”, while everyday evening meals tend to be a single course with “everything all on one plate”, possibly followed by dessert.<\/p>\n

She admitted Spain’s so-called “rules” about what’s appropriate to eat and at what time has been “really difficult to understand”.<\/p>\n

Content cannot be displayed without consent<\/p>\n

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

“And what about croquetas (croquettes)? I mean, you use your hands to eat those, don’t you? So where do they go? How do you categorise a first course and a second course? I need to know.”<\/p>\n

She then shared her confusion over the popular rice dish paella, which “you can’t eat for dinner in Spain”, and wondered whether this applied to all rice dishes.<\/p>\n

Susie added: “It’s these little kinds of things that no one really prepares you for when you move abroad, and I think you’ll only truly understand when you actually live in the place for a while. I’ve lived in Spain for two years and I’m still figuring everything out as I go along.”<\/p>\n

In the comments section, viewers were eager to weigh in with their thoughts and advice. One TikTok user pointed out: “You have funny things too… like eggs are only for breakfast!”<\/p>\n

Another said: “I haven’t figured it out either, don’t stress about it lol.” A third said: “Dinner 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.”<\/p>\n

And another added: “Generally, in Spain, the second course is the most elaborate, usually a meat or fish dish. Ensaladilla rusa, for example, is a ‘tapa’ 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.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A British woman who moved to Spain two and a half years ago has shared the “unspoken rules”…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":13267,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[17,8011,7991],"class_list":["post-13266","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-spain","tag-spain","tag-tik-tok","tag-viral"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13266","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=13266"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13266\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13267"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13266"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13266"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13266"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}