The short version
- To say food tastes good, use estar: está buenísimo, está muy rico.
- Soy más de dulce or soy más de salado is a very natural way to talk about what you like.
- Learn flavour words in opposite pairs (soso and salado, jugoso and seco) and you'll remember them faster.
If you want to talk about food in Spanish, you'll have plenty of chances. In Spain, food comes up at almost every meal and a lot of the time in between: what you had for lunch, where to get the best croquetas, how someone's grandmother makes the tortilla.
It's also one of the friendliest topics for a learner. Everyone has an opinion, nobody expects you to be an expert, and the other person usually has plenty to say, which gives you time to listen.
This post covers the words and phrases for talking about the food you like, describing what you're eating, cooking and diets. For ordering in a bar or restaurant, see how to order at a bar in Spain.
Saying what you like
Start with a few ways to say what you like and don't like. Me gusta and me encanta are the basics, and there's more on them in me gusta vs me encanta. These make you sound more natural.
| Spanish | English |
|---|---|
| Me encanta el queso. | I love cheese. |
| Me encantan las croquetas. | I love croquetas. |
| Soy más de dulce. | I've got more of a sweet tooth. |
| Soy más de salado. | I prefer savoury things. |
| No soy muy de pescado. | I'm not really a fish person. |
| Me chifla el chocolate. | I'm crazy about chocolate. (informal) |
| No puedo con el cilantro. | I can't stand coriander. |
| Lo como, pero no me vuelve loco. | I'll eat it, but I'm not mad about it. |
Soy más de… is worth learning well. It works for food (soy más de carne que de pescado) and for almost anything else: soy más de playa que de montaña, soy más de café.
Describing flavours
When someone asks ¿Qué tal está? or ¿Te gusta?, "good" gets old quickly. Here are the words to go further.
| Word | Its opposite | English |
|---|---|---|
| soso | salado | bland / salty |
| dulce | amargo | sweet / bitter |
| picante | suave | spicy / mild |
| jugoso | seco | juicy / dry |
| crujiente | blando | crunchy / soft |
| tierno | duro | tender / tough |
| ligero | pesado | light / heavy |
They change for masculine and feminine like any adjective: el pollo está seco, la carne está seca.
When you learn a food word, learn its opposite at the same time and say both out loud: jugoso, seco. Crujiente, blando. Pairs are easier to remember than single words, because each one reminds you of the other. When you're eating, say the one that fits: Está muy jugoso. Next meal, find something that fits the opposite.
To say food tastes good right now, use estar: Está buenísimo, Está muy rico, Está un poco soso. You're describing how it tastes at this moment, not what it is.
Picante means spicy. Caliente means hot as in temperature. La sopa está caliente is fine. If you say esta salsa está caliente, people will think it's just come off the heat. Spanish food is usually mild, so ¿Pica? (Is it spicy?) is a useful question when you're served something unfamiliar.
Meals and when people eat
Meal names in Spain can confuse people at first, mostly because comida means both "food" and "lunch".
| Spanish | English | Roughly when |
|---|---|---|
| el desayuno | breakfast | first thing |
| el almuerzo | mid-morning snack (or lunch in some regions) | late morning |
| el aperitivo | a drink and a bite before lunch | around 1 pm |
| la comida | lunch (also "food") | around 2 to 3 pm |
| la merienda | afternoon snack | around 6 pm |
| la cena | dinner | often 9 pm or later |
So ¿Qué has comido? usually means "What did you have for lunch?" It's a very common question, and an easy one to answer: He comido lentejas or He comido fuera, un menú del día.
Talking about cooking
If you cook, you've got an easy conversation ready. Spanish people often have strong opinions about how things should be made, and asking about it is a great way to keep someone talking.
- Me gusta cocinar.I like cooking.
- Me gusta cocinar, sobre todo pasta.I like cooking, especially pasta.
- Me gusta cocinar, sobre todo pasta, pero la tortilla todavía no me sale bien.I like cooking, especially pasta, but I still can't get the tortilla right.
No me sale bien (it doesn't come out right) is a handy phrase. It's modest, it's honest, and it almost always gets you advice.
Whether a Spanish tortilla should have onion in it is a long-running friendly argument in Spain. Asking ¿Con o sin cebolla? is an easy way to start a conversation, and you'll usually get a strong opinion back.
Diets, allergies and things you don't eat
These are worth having ready, especially if you'll be eating at people's houses.
- Soy vegetariano / vegetariana. I'm vegetarian.
- No como carne. I don't eat meat.
- Soy alérgico a los frutos secos / alérgica. I'm allergic to nuts.
- Soy intolerante a la lactosa. I'm lactose intolerant.
- La leche no me sienta bien. Milk doesn't agree with me.
No me sienta bien is softer than an allergy. It's a polite way to turn something down without making a big deal of it. For saying you're hungry or thirsty, the post on tener expressions covers tengo hambre and the rest.
Practise it this week
Learn the words in pairs
Put the flavour pairs on flashcards and say both words every time.
Prepare three answers
Your favourite food, something you don't like, and whether you cook. Two or three sentences each, out loud.
Describe what you eat
At one meal a day, say one sentence about it in Spanish: Está un poco soso or Está buenísimo.
Practise the questions
¿Qué has comido?, ¿Tú cocinas?, ¿Con o sin cebolla? Run both sides of the dialogue.
Share it
Record yourself talking about your favourite dish for a minute and post it in the 100 Spanish Conversations community on Skool.
Recap
- Use estar for how food tastes: está buenísimo, está soso.
- Soy más de… is a natural way to talk about what you prefer.
- Learn flavour words in opposite pairs.
- Comida means lunch as well as food.
- Have a sentence ready for anything you don't or can't eat.
Food is one of the themes in 100 Spanish Conversations, where you build the words, sentences and conversation step by step and practise them out loud, one theme a week.
Leeroy studied Spanish for years before moving to Spain and finding he couldn't hold a conversation. He built Basically Spanish around the method that fixed it. Questions? leeroy@basicallyspanish.com