Paella may be one of Spain’s most recognisable dishes abroad, but Spaniards themselves have chosen another national favourite. A new CIS survey reveals which dish they believe best represents their country — and offers a surprisingly decisive answer to one of Spain’s longest-running culinary debates.
Spain Expat Press Editorial Team
Ask many visitors to name the quintessential Spanish dish and paella will probably be one of the first answers. In Spain itself, however, the humble tortilla de patatas has narrowly come out on top.
According to a new survey on tourism and gastronomy by Spain’s Centre for Sociological Research (CIS), 62.7% of respondents selected the Spanish potato omelette as either their first or second choice for the country’s most typical and representative dish.
Paella was only just behind, chosen by 61.1%, while jamón ibérico came third with 42.7%.
There is, however, an interesting twist in the figures. Paella actually received more first-choice votes, with 36.5% compared with 30.9% for tortilla. The potato omelette moves ahead only when first and second choices are combined.
The provisional findings are based on responses from around 6,000 people across Spain.
The great Spanish debate: onion or no onion?
Few apparently simple culinary questions can divide a Spanish dinner table quite like this one: ¿con cebolla o sin cebolla? — with onion or without?
On this issue, at least, the survey produced a rather convincing majority.
Some 71.2% of Spaniards believe tortilla de patatas should be made with onion, compared with just 22% who prefer it without.
There is another potentially contentious question: how well should it be cooked?
Here too, Spaniards expressed a clear preference. 56.3% favour their tortilla poco hecha — lightly cooked, leaving the centre soft and moist — while 27.2% prefer it more thoroughly cooked.
For newcomers to Spain wondering what might constitute the closest thing to the majority-approved tortilla, the answer appears to be fairly straightforward: with onion and still slightly soft in the middle.
A different Spain on every plate
The survey also highlights just how difficult it is to speak of a single “Spanish cuisine”. Regional identity remains deeply connected to food, and the answers change considerably when people are asked about the dishes that best represent their own part of the country.
In Andalusia, pescadito frito — the region’s famous fried fish — takes first place with 40%, followed by gazpacho at 34.6% and salmorejo at 19.6%.
In Asturias, fabada dominates, while Aragón strongly identifies with ternasco and the Canary Islands with papas arrugadas con mojo picón.
In the Valencian Community, meanwhile, there is little doubt about the regional favourite: 78.2% name paella as the dish that best represents their region.
Madrid looks to cocido madrileño, the Basque Country to bacalao al pil-pil, and La Rioja to patatas a la riojana.
The results offer a reminder of the extraordinary diversity hidden beneath the broad label of “Spanish food”.
So, what is Spain’s national dish?
Internationally, paella is unlikely to lose its status as one of Spain’s great culinary symbols any time soon. But when Spaniards themselves are asked — and first and second choices are counted together — a far simpler dish narrowly takes the crown.
Potatoes, eggs, olive oil and, according to a sizeable majority, onions.
Tortilla de patatas requires few ingredients and little ceremony. Perhaps that simplicity is precisely why, for so many Spaniards, it remains one of the dishes that tastes most unmistakably of home.
