Spanish Steps - Fact file - Breakfast specialities

El desayuno, breakfast, in Spain can be as filling as any of the main meals, though most Spanish people will start the day with a light breakfast of una tostada, a toasted roll or slice of bread, or un bollo, a pastry. You can put a variety of things on the tostada including la mantequilla y la mermelada, butter and jam. Note mermelada isn't marmalade - this is known as mermelada amarga, sour jam.

A particular favourite among cake lovers is la magdalena, the Madeleine, a dainty cup cake recognisable by its distinctive pointed shape. At the other end of the scale, la ensaimada, a large wheel-shaped pastry, is essential breakfast eating in Catalonia and the Balearic Islands.

The best-known breakfast combination is churros con chocolate, plain deep-fried fritters dipped in hot chocolate. These incredibly fattening items are sold in cafés all over Spain. They are a great way to round off a heavy night on the town, and you will find many street corner churrerías, churros stalls, doing a roaring trade at the crack of dawn.

La tortilla, omelette, is also popular, as are los huevos, eggs, done in a variety of ways - revueltos, scrambled, fritos, fried, pasados por agua, soft boiled or poached, or cocidos, hard boiled.

Other interesting breakfast dishes are pan con tomate, or in Catalan pa amb tomaquet, bread rubbed with olive oil and tomato. Further afield in Mexico the breakfast equivalent of the vindaloo curry is huevos a la ranchera, scrambled eggs with chilli, guaranteed to kick start the morning. In Costa Rica there is Gallo Pinto, the national dish of fried rice and black beans, while in Venezuela you can try una arepa, corn pancake filled with eggs and tomato, or un cachito, a hot croissant filled with chopped ham or cheese. Argentina, usually the home for meat-based dishes, also has their version of la magdalena, called la medialuna, a small croissant-like cake.