Differences in food tastes between Spain and the U.S.

Food in Spain is a lot more bland compared to the food at home. Sometimes when my host mom gives us our food it tastes like the only spices she uses is pepper and salt (she uses a lot of salt). My friends have said similar things, that their families don't use much for spices either.

Spaniards differences in tastes don't stop there though. Their opinion of "spicy" is not spicy at all. Their spicy is our normal type of seasoned food. There is a Mexican restaurant that I have gone to with my friends and a dish that said on the menu it was "spicy" was not spicy whatsoever. I was slightly disappointed because I was looking forward to having something with a little spice.

Even the sweets here don't seem as sweet here as compared to the U.S. I can never put my finger on it but every time I have chocolate it doesn't taste quite the same, almost like there isn't as much sugar (this is probably a good thing though) in it. One of my favorite sweets here are Principe cookies. They are two wafer crackers with a bit of chocolate in between creating a sandwich. They are sweet enough for my tastes.

The ice cream tastes different here too. It almost seems that there is more sugar in it than ice cream from home, but you can't taste the extra sugar. It is weird, but I cannot explain it much better. I'm not a fan of the ice cream here for that reason.

I realize that I didn't explain the differences in food here very well, but it is very difficult to explain. One almost needs to visit Spain in order to experience the taste differences for their self.