Cooking for Spanish Friends

My name is Fraser Bowen, I’m from the UK, and I studied BA French and German

On my Erasmus year abroad in Switzerland, I was cooking for a small group of Spanish people. I made the assumption that Spanish people love spicy food, and I made them a very spicy meal. However, it turns out I had got Spanish food mixed up with Mexican food. Mexicans love to put chilli everywhere, but the Spanish have herbs and spices that aren’t chillis. The Spanish people couldn’t finish my food, which I had put extra chilli into, because it was too spicy! It was pretty embarrassing when I said that they should like spicy food, they’re Spanish! It turns out that all the American TV I watch which paints all Hispanic people as Mexican hasn’t helped me develop a very good idea of the different cultures present in the Spanish speaking world.