Getting your questions ready
Getting your questions ready
Beat the crowd
10 questions No timer
50 free Spanish Food trivia questions with answers — food & drink quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
Spanish food is really a dozen cuisines sharing an olive-oil supply: the cold soups of Andalusia, the bean stews of Asturias, Basque cod and txakoli, Canarian mojo and gofio, Catalan calçots, Extremaduran smoked paprika, Galician scallops and queimada, Valencian paella with rabbit and chicken. Then there is the shared culture of tapas, two-hour lunches, sobremesa and a surprisingly fierce argument about onions. This quiz travels the whole map and the whole timeline: the Phoenicians and the Moors, rice and saffron, the Columbian exchange that made the tortilla possible, butter preserved in pig's tripes, olla podrida as a national dish, the 1984 TV cooking show, cider poured from a height, cheeses curdled with thistle, the world's oldest restaurant and the brothers behind El Celler de Can Roca. Fifty questions with four options each and a short explanation after every answer. Play on your phone or print it for a food-and-drink quiz night.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Spain is the world's largest producer of which cooking staple?
Olive oil
It forms the base of the vegetable sauces known as sofritos.
Q 02What are the Spanish vegetable sauce bases used across the cuisine called?
Sofritos
Parsley, oregano, rosemary and thyme are the most common herbs.
Q 03Which two ingredients of paella were probably popularised in the Al-Andalus period?
Rice and saffron
The Byzantines are believed to have introduced rice in the 6th century before the Arabs expanded it.
Q 04Escabeche, introduced by the Moors, preserves food using what?
Vinegar
The Moors also laid the basis for Spanish pastry-making.
Q 05The medieval cookbooks Sent Soví and Llibre de Coch were written in which language?
Catalan
Sent Soví dates from 1324 and Ruperto de Nola's Llibre de Coch from 1520.
Q 06Adafina, a Sephardic Jewish stew of medieval Spain, is a local version of which dish?
Cholent
Jewish cooks observing kashrut drained meat of blood and avoided pork.
Q 07Spain was the first place chocolate was mixed with what to tame its bitterness?
Sugar
Cocoa arrived with tomatoes, potatoes, maize and peppers after 1492.
Q 08The Spanish potato omelette depends on an ingredient that arrived from where?
The Americas
Gazpacho, salmorejo and pan con tomate likewise rely on American tomatoes.
Q 09Madame d'Aulnoy reported 17th-century Spanish butter arriving preserved in what?
Pig's tripes
Foreigners sneered at Spain's preference for olive oil and lard.
Q 10Dr. Thebussem proposed which rustic stew be served at royal banquets as a national dish?
Olla podrida
The move was a step away from the French paradigm that dominated 19th-century Europe.
Q 11Simone Ortega's 1080 recetas is Spain's third best-selling book after which two?
Don Quixote and the Bible
First published in 1972, it also included French recipes.
Q 12Spain's first televised cooking show, Con las manos en la masa, began in which year?
1984
Its title means 'with hands in the dough'.
Q 13What is the Spanish word for the leisurely table talk that follows lunch?
Sobremesa
Lunch usually starts around 2 or 2:30 p.m.
Q 14La merienda, Spain's afternoon snack, typically happens at about what time?
Q 21Fabada asturiana is a stew built around which ingredient?
White beans
Chorizo, morcilla and pork complete the traditional recipe.
Q 22Cachopo, an Asturian favourite, is a crumb-coated steak of which meat?
Veal
Carne gobernada, roasted veal, is another regional meat dish.
Q 23Cabrales, a pungent blue cheese, comes from near which mountain range?
Picos de Europa
It is typically eaten with Asturian cider.
Q 24Why is Asturian cider poured from a great height?
6:00 p.m.
Dinner, la cena, is eaten between 8:30 and 11:00 p.m.
Q 15Which ingredient divides Spanish opinion over the 'correct' tortilla de patatas?
Onion
Views on either side are described as highly opinionated.
Q 16Ensaladilla rusa, a Spanish staple, is better known internationally as what?
Olivier salad
Croquetas, paella, gazpacho and tortilla are the other nationwide staples.
Q 17Which region uses the most olive oil of any in Spain?
Andalusia
Its most famous export is gazpacho, the cold tomato-and-pepper soup.
Q 18Andalusian caldillo de perro is a fish soup flavoured with what?
Orange juice
Its name literally means 'little dog broth'.
Q 19Asado de ternasco, a signature Aragonese dish, is a roast of which meat?
Lamb
It is cooked with garlic, olive oil, laurel, thyme and parsley.
Q 20Melocotón con vino, from Aragon, infuses which fruit in red wine?
Peach
The Calanda peach is the regional variety used.
To aerate it
The drink 'breaks' in the glass and is drunk straight away in tiny shots.
Q 25Sobrassada and ensaïmada come from which Spanish archipelago?
The Balearics
The islands also claim Mahón cheese, Menorcan gin and mayonnaise.
Q 26Bacalao al pil pil is a Basque preparation of which fish?
Cod
Bacalao a la vizcaína is another classic Basque cod dish.
Q 27Basque changurro is a dish of stuffed what?
King crab
Fig leaf quail and marinated goose are among the region's meat dishes.
Q 28Txakoli, the Basque staple wine, is notable for what?
High acidity, low alcohol
It is produced in Álava, Guipúzcoa and Biscay.
Q 29Gofio, still eaten in the Canaries, was a staple of which aboriginal people?
Guanches
It is a flour made of various toasted grains.
Q 30Canarian green mojo for fish is made from which herb?
Coriander or parsley
The red mojo picón for meat uses chilli peppers.