What to Eat in Spain in 2026: The Best Food and Drink

Spanish food operates on the terroir principle in a way that makes the country almost impossible to summarise. The Basque pintxos bar — small skewered bites on slices of bread, covering every ingredient combination from anchovy and olive to Ibérico ham and aged Manchego — is the world's best bar food culture, and San Sebastián has more Michelin stars per capita than anywhere else on earth. Jamón ibérico de bellota, the acorn-fed black-footed pig cured for 36 months in the mountain air of Extremadura or Huelva, is one of the great cured meat products in the world — the fat at room temperature melts on the tongue and the flavour lasts minutes. Paella valenciana (chicken and rabbit, not seafood, as Valencia insists) and the late lunch culture that Spanish cities build their entire social schedule around complete the picture. Rioja, Priorat, Ribera del Duero, and sherry from Jerez cover the wine range. No rush.