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Spicy Foods?

michael heitzman

^^^That's me
Time of past OR future Camino
Le Puy to Santiago (June 2016)
Did a quick Google search on spicy foods in Europe the other day and it came up with a couple of articles about spicy food not being very prevalent. And when I say spicy, I mean make you want to eat some ice cream and cry spicy. I'm not trying to flex my "spice muscles" here but I'm Asian and I like to indulge in some hot foods, damn near every meal. The articles made mention of not wanting to mask certain flavors or ruin organic ingredients which is understandable. I might bring a bottle of Tobasco to liven up some meals. Obviously none that are homemade, don't want to be rude altering someone's hard work. Any dishes in France, Spain, and Portugal I should keep an eye out for?
 
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If a meal in a Portuguese restaurant has "piri-piri" added, it's for you. There's a lot of grill restaurants that have piri-piri sauce for chicken (frango do churrasco) and ribs (costelinhas).
Sooo good with a cold beer!
 

Hi Michael, I am a chilli addict and eat some form of chilli/chilli sauce every day, and I mean the very hot stuff too! I crave it if I go without. You do not find much hot spicy food in Spain so I carried a bottle of fiery chilli sauce with me, it was worth carrying as I made a lot of friends with it! You can however buy tobasco sauce in the larger supermarkets in Spain but I preferred my own stuff.

Davey
 
Camino Way markers in Bronze
The one from Galicia (the round) and the one from Castilla & Leon. Individually numbered and made by the same people that make the ones you see on your walk.
michael heitzman said:
... I might bring a bottle of Tobasco to liven up some meals. Obviously none that are homemade, don't want to be rude altering someone's hard work. Any dishes in France, Spain, and Portugal I should keep an eye out for?
Click to expand...

Really spicy food isn't common in Spain, but you can buy Tabasco everywhere ;-) Buen Camino, SY
 
You will be the one in a thousand that finds a spicy Padron pepper but they are very tasty whether grilled or fried. There is a very famous Basque pepper, Piment d'Espelette, usually used in a powdered form and while it not especially hot it adds a special flavor to foods. My favorite is chiperon, calamari tubes grilled with piment d'Espelette.
 
I love squid, especially if it's spicy(ish). I love peppers too! They don't always have to be hot as I love bell peppers and sweet ones too. I keep typing "love", I just love food. Might not be able to make it to Santiago as I'll probably eat my bank account away.
 
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Fellow Asian here! Definitely bring a small bottle of Tabasco sauce (or buy it there). Two items that I found helped with my spicy cravings: patatas bravas (tapa: fried potato with spicy tomato based sauce) and chorizo "picante" (spicy pork sausage). I also found small cans of spicy chili peppers in the stores and would buy a pasta sauce and add the garlic and peppers to make a really spicy pasta when I cooked...although I remember one night when some other peregrinos were happy to be invited to share and almost choked on the spice!! On my last camino I found a few Koreans with secret stashes of spicy stuff which they shared with us spice-deprived pilgrims. In general, I ate what was available and loved all the food...I just satisfied my cravings a few times.
 
I would like to say that I like ghost peppers but I don't believe in ghosts.
 
Once you get to Santiago, there's a Mexican restaurant that provides spicy salsas on request! It's very close to the train station: https://www.tripadvisor.es/Restaura..._de_Compostela_A_Coruna_Province_Galicia.html.

Of course, you have to get to Santiago first . While you're walking the Camino, you could also always check out some of the Chinese restaurants along the way (especially in the larger cities) and see what spicy dishes they have.
Buen Camino!!
Faith
 
Camino Way markers in Bronze
The one from Galicia (the round) and the one from Castilla & Leon. Individually numbered and made by the same people that make the ones you see on your walk.
Looks like I'll be depending on my Asian brethren for the spicy hookups as well as the patata bravas and chorizo picante. Thank you for the info.

I didn't even think about there being Chinese restaurants along the way. I'm curious as to what they serve. I'd hope it wouldn't be anything like American Chinese (though I'd still eat it) and more traditional or maybe like a fusion. Now I can get my white rice fix because I'm addicted to rice too.
 
michael heitzman said:
......I'd hope it wouldn't be anything like American Chinese.....
Click to expand...
Maybe more like Spanish Chinese. In any event, don't forget that a lot of restaurants, at least in my experience, are closed on fiesta days, and there seemed to be a lot of fiesta days.
 
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