Salad cream or Olive Oil - have your eating habits changed?

I for one would say my eating habits have changed but in the beginning probably because of the difficulty I had in getting hold of typically British food stuffs. Now I don't really look for them except for a few things I just can't go without, such as a tin of Heinz Tomato soup, HP Sauce and Branston pickle, all a result of my student's diet many years ago and thankfully, all readily available in Carrefour! Everything else I have just learnt to make myself or conveniently forgotten about. However now and again I do get a craving for crisps, I'm a sucker when it comes to crisps and the variety available in the UK is second to none, so when ever I have the opportunity I do stock up, especially on Walkers Salt&Vinegar squares, God I love them! 
But on the whole my diet is now far more vegetable based, naturally olive oil and fruit play a much more important role in my diet than my UK days and I eat far more nuts and cured meats especially Jamon Serrano. Pre-prepared foods and tinned foods (apart from my tomato soup!) are a thing of the past as are frozen foods, which I vary rarely buy now. I would say my diet has become decidedly Spanish and only now and again will I delve into an English breakfast, normally when I'm at a hotel. Some say they have had their fair share of paellas and tortillas but it has become the norm for me now and I just love it and wouldn't change it for anything….maybe a pack of salt&vinegar squares from time to time and occasionally a vindaloo! :-)

Have you converted to the mediterranean diet here in Spain or do you still maintain similar eating habits as to when you were in the UK?

Like yourself Ian, I have changed my diet since moving to Spain. I eat more salad, vegetables and fruit and I cook more now than I did when I lived in England. However, I can't eat seafood, even the smell makes me feel sick so although my eating habits have changed, I haven't completely adapted to the mediterranean diet. 

Next week I'll be making the three hour round trip to one of the Iceland stores on the Costa Blanca to stock up on all the goodies I miss. I go just twice a year and I'm like a kid in a toy store when I get there, mind you, so is my Spanish partner. It's mainly biscuits, crisps, chocolate, beer, cider, sauces etc that we buy but we save them as treats and whatever we buy lasts a few months. It does make you realise that you we're spoilt for choice in England with just about everything. I have found that between Carrefour, Al Campo, the markets, the Chinese shops and the Indian shop in Valencia, I can get almost everything I need to cook whatever I fancy, if I fancy a change. But for everything else, there's Iceland.

Hi Fartharder!

I know what you mean when you say a kid in a toy store! BTW where is iceland? 

I live in Valencia, when you say the Indian store do you mean the one by the Taj Mahal restaurant on Manuel Candela?

cheers

Ian

Yes the Indian shop next to the restaurant. I love making Indian food and they've got everything in there. There are a few Iceland stores about and they are run by a company called overseas.es you can go on their website and see what they have and where they are. The nearest ones to Valencia are in Javea and Benissa. I prefer the store in Benissa and although further south than Javea, it's about equal time and distance from Valencia. We usually go down on the coast road, maybe make a morning of it, have lunch somewhere and then scoot back up the AP-7 quickly with the cool box full to the brim.

Thanks, will have to make a trip there! The Indian store is very good, I eat at the Restaurant from time to time as well and its not bad at all, but I always ask them to spice it up a bit as most dished have been adapted to Spanish palates! :-)

That's very true. We used to go to an Indian restaurant in L'eliana and the owner always spiced up the curries for the English customers. I think it's closed down now.

I want to use the olive oil in my cooking. 

Can anybody tell me it is good for the cooking purposes or I should use it in raw form?

You should cook with the light oil and use the green oil for salads and drizzling etc.  For info, the health advice in the UK now is that you use Olive Oil instead of almost everything else.

Alvin,

You can use any olive oil for cooking, it just depends on what your budget is. In fact the higher the polyphenols in the oil the better it is for cooking as it withstands the heat better. The "greener" the oil the more polyphenols it has in it as it is generally from an earlier harvest thus the content is higher, although the colour "green" is not a true guide of polyphenols (they cause the bitter taste in the oil), the colour is because of the high chlorophyll content which is usually asociated with early harvests of certain varieties of olives. Other varieties are always golden yellow no matter when they are harvested such as Arbequina.

Have in mind what you are cooking and if the taste of the oil will add to or take away from the final dish. That is all you really need to take into consideration and the price of course. But if you can afford to cook with early harvest high quality oil go for it other wise use normal cheaper extra virgin olive oil for deep/shallow frying and save the good early harvest oils for eating raw with bread, salads and drizzling over food etc as Roly mentions. If you want to read more about olive oil and how best to use it and cook with it have a look at my blog, it might help...

http://www.eyeonspain.com/blogs/ianandspain/8119/can-i-fry-with-extra-virgin-olive-oil.aspx

Don't laugh here but I also use this oil for my shredder, either by putting a slight run across the cutter blades, or dribbling some onto a clean sheet of paper and shredding that, makes the cutters last longer and shred better. 

Absolutely, olive oil is a great lubricant!  My father in law used it on his pocket knife and hinges too :-) 

Hello...

Olive oil is a natural oil and it is very good for your health. It is used for many purposes like cooking, massage on your body, massage on your scalp etc. There are no side effects of olive oil.

Thanks...