How We Keep Spanish Food Traditions Alive in the UK (And How We Get It Delivered)

Except lately, we’ve been getting better at the translating bit.

We’re not a Spanish family. We’re a thoroughly British family from South East London who just happen to be completely obsessed with Spain. We’ve been going back year after year – sometimes twice a year if we can swing it – and somewhere along the way, it stopped being just a holiday destination and started feeling like a second home.

You know how that happens? When you start having “your” restaurant in a town, when the kids can order confidently in Spanish, when you find yourself genuinely missing specific foods rather than just vaguely craving “something Mediterranean.” That’s where we are now.

When Holidays Become Part of Who You Are

I think it started about six years ago, when our eldest was eight. We’d rented a villa near Málaga for two weeks, and the owner had left us this incredibly detailed guide to local food markets and family-run shops. Not the touristy stuff – the real places where locals actually shop.

We’d wander to the market most mornings, the kids still in their pyjamas under their clothes (don’t judge, we were on holiday), and stock up for these long, lazy breakfasts that would somehow turn into lunch. No rushing, no schedule, just… being together around food.

I remember our middle one, who was about seven at the time and going through a phase of eating approximately three foods total, suddenly becoming adventurous. Something about the sunshine and the relaxed atmosphere made her willing to try things she’d have refused point-blank at home.

By the end of that holiday, we’d established these little food rituals. Specific things we’d eat at specific times. The way we’d linger over breakfast. The understanding that lunch was the main event, not dinner. The acceptance that eating was a reason to sit down properly, talk, and actually be present with each other rather than just refuelling between activities.

The Bit Where You Come Home and Everything Feels Wrong

Coming back to the UK after that trip was harder than usual. Not just the usual post-holiday blues – though there was plenty of that – but this specific feeling of something being missing.

Our kitchen felt wrong. Breakfast felt rushed and functional. The kids went back to being picky eaters. The flavours were all… off, somehow.

I found myself standing in Sainsbury’s, staring at the shelves, trying to find something that would recreate even a fraction of what we’d been eating in Spain. And it’s not that British supermarkets don’t have Mediterranean sections – they do – but it’s not quite the same, is it? The things you can’t easily find in UK supermarkets are often exactly the things that make a meal taste like you’re on holiday rather than trying to remember what holiday tasted like.

I became that person boring their friends about Spain. “The thing is,” I’d say, probably for the fifteenth time, “Spanish food culture is just different. It’s about taking time, it’s about quality ingredients, it’s about…” And my friends would nod politely while thinking, “Yes, Becky, we know, you like Spain.”

But it wasn’t about liking Spain. It was about the version of our family we became when we were there.

Making Those Moments Last

Here’s what I’ve realised: those Spanish food traditions we fell in love with aren’t actually about being in Spain. They’re about slowing down. About treating food as an event rather than a task. About creating space for conversation and connection.

And here’s the thing – we can do that in South East London. We really can.

It took some trial and error, admittedly. For a while, we tried to recreate Spanish meals using whatever we could find in local shops. Sometimes it worked. Often it… didn’t. You can’t fake certain flavours, and the disappointment of almost-but-not-quite was sometimes worse than not trying at all.

The kids would say things like, “This doesn’t taste like Spain,” and they were right. It didn’t. We were missing something fundamental, and no amount of enthusiasm could substitute for the actual ingredients we’d fallen in love with.

Finding What We Needed

I’m usually quite sceptical about online shopping for food beyond the standard weekly supermarket order. There’s something about not seeing and choosing ingredients myself that makes me twitchy. But last year, someone mentioned finding traditional Spanish food online and having it delivered to the UK, and I thought… why not?

I had pretty low expectations, honestly. I assumed it would be expensive, limited, or just not quite right. But finding a proper Spanish online shop that delivers across Europe turned out to be one of those small discoveries that shifts how you approach things.

Suddenly, we weren’t waiting for our next Spain trip to stock up on things. We could decide on Thursday that we fancied a proper Spanish breakfast on Saturday and actually make it happen. We could recreate those holiday mornings without the complicated logistics of trying to transport food home in our luggage (which, let’s be honest, I’d definitely been doing and feeling slightly ridiculous about).

What the Kids Think

Our youngest, who’s eight, has grown up with this dual food culture – British weekday meals and occasional Spanish-style weekends. She doesn’t see it as exotic or special; it’s just how our family does things.

But our teenagers have become quite protective of these traditions. Our fourteen-year-old will actively request Spanish breakfast on weekends. Our thirteen-year-old, who claims to hate everything we do as a matter of principle, will still wander into the kitchen when something’s cooking that reminds him of our villa holidays.

Last month, our eldest had friends over for a sleepover, and she insisted on doing a Spanish-style breakfast in the morning. Her friends were confused by the late timing and the amount of food and the leisurely pace, but they loved it. She was so proud, explaining where everything came from and why we do it this way.

That moment made me realise we’ve actually created something meaningful here. It’s not about pretending to be Spanish or appropriating a culture that isn’t ours. It’s about taking the best bits of what we’ve experienced – the joy, the connection, the emphasis on quality time around food – and making it part of our family story.

The Everyday Magic of It

What I love most is how these Spanish food traditions have changed our normal weekends. We’re not rushing through breakfast to get to the next thing. We’re sitting together, talking properly, letting time stretch out in that holiday way even though we’re in London and someone probably needs to go to football practice later.

We’ve started doing these long Saturday or Sunday lunches fairly regularly – properly Spanish timing, around 2pm, taking our time over it. The kids moan initially about eating “so late,” but they always end up enjoying it. There’s something about the ritual that brings out better versions of all of us.

My husband jokes that our kitchen smells like we’re permanently on holiday now. He’s not wrong. The particular combination of good olive oil and whatever we’re cooking has become our weekend signature scent.

Why It Matters to Us

I think about this a lot: why do these Spanish food traditions matter so much to us when we’re not Spanish? And I’ve decided it’s because they represent something we want more of in our regular lives.

Time together without devices. Conversations that meander. The understanding that eating is about more than just consuming calories. The permission to slow down and be present.

British food culture has so much to offer – I’m not dismissing it at all. We do roast dinners and proper afternoon teas and all of that. But incorporating Spanish food traditions has added this other dimension to how we think about meals and family time.

Having access to authentic ingredients has made this sustainable rather than just something we do occasionally when we remember. It’s woven into our routine now. Some weekends we have a full English. Some weekends we have the products we grew up with, well, that the kids have grown up eating on holiday, anyway.

Making Your Own Food Traditions

Here’s what I’d say to anyone who’s fallen in love with a food culture from your travels: you’re allowed to bring it home with you. You don’t need to have married into that culture or have family connections. If it brings you joy and brings your family together, that’s enough.

For us, Spanish food traditions have become part of how we define ourselves as a family. We’re the family who eats lunch at 2pm on Saturdays. We’re the family who takes breakfast seriously. We’re the family who believes food is a reason to slow down and connect.

Our next Spain trip is booked for this summer – same region, probably the same villa if we can get it. The kids are already talking about their favourite restaurants and the market we’ll visit. But now, we don’t feel like we’re completely leaving Spain behind when we come home.

We’re bringing it with us, one meal at a time.

And honestly? That makes both the holidays and the everyday feel richer. We’re not just counting down to the next trip. We’re living a little bit of what we love about Spain right here in our South East London kitchen, grey Tuesday afternoons and all.

Some mornings I’ll be making coffee and notice one of the kids has pulled out the good olive oil without being asked, or they’re setting the table more carefully than usual, and I’ll think: yes. This is exactly what I wanted. Not perfection, not authenticity in some rigid sense, but this lovely hybrid life we’ve created that takes the best from everywhere we’ve been and loved.

Food is never just food, is it? It’s memory and identity and connection and joy. And having found a way to access the actual ingredients that make our Spanish food traditions feel real rather than approximate? That’s been the key to making all of this last beyond the holiday glow.