Merienda

In Spain

Spanish lunch is at two or three and dinner rarely before nine, so the merienda fills a gap of six hours or more. For children it is a sandwich in a split roll, fruit, biscuits, or bread with chocolate. Adults may have coffee with a pastry, toast, or a small sandwich. In cold weather, thick hot chocolate with fried dough strips is a classic afternoon order. Cafés and bakeries are full at this hour, and it is a common time to meet friends.

In Argentina and Uruguay

Here the merienda is close to a second breakfast. It is served from about five to seven. The drink is milky coffee, tea or mate, the bitter herbal infusion sipped through a metal straw from a shared gourd. With it come small sweet pastries bought by the dozen, crescent rolls, toast with milk caramel spread or jam, and toasted ham and cheese sandwiches. Cafés offer set merienda deals. Dinner follows at nine or later.

In the Philippines

Filipinos take merienda twice, mid morning and mid afternoon. It can be sweet or savoury and is often substantial. Typical foods are rice cakes steamed or baked with coconut, fried banana rolls, sweet stewed tofu, noodles, filled buns and shaved ice desserts. Street vendors and small eateries do much of their trade at merienda time. Offering merienda to visitors and to workers in the home is part of ordinary hospitality.

How to do it

1. Plan for it. If dinner is at nine thirty, eat something at six.
2. In Spain, order a coffee and a pastry, or chocolate with churros.
3. In Argentina, ask for a café con leche with medialunas.
4. In the Philippines, try a rice cake or a noodle snack from a local stall.

Good manners

• If mate is passed round, drink the gourd dry, hand it back and do not stir the straw.
• Say gracias for mate only when you want no more.
• Keep it small. Merienda is not meant to replace dinner.

What is eaten

ChurroRidged, deep-fried dough sticks often eaten hot with chocolate or coffeeBocadilloA Spanish sandwich made with a baguette or similar bread, filled with meats or omeletteTuronBanana slices wrapped in pastry, fried and glazed with caramelized sugarBibingkaBaked rice cake cooked in banana leaves, often enjoyed warm at ChristmasPutoSteamed Filipino rice cake, often eaten plain or with savoury dishesAlfajorSweet biscuits or pastry joined with a filling, often dulce de leche or honey and nutsEnsaïmadaSweet, coiled bread from Mallorca made with flour, eggs, sugar and pork lardHalo-haloA layered Filipino dessert of crushed ice, milk, and sweetened fruits and beansMateHot infusion of yerba mate leaves, drunk with a metal straw from a gourd

Also part of it, and being written: Medialuna.

Sources and further reading

• Merienda on Wikipedia
• Spain.info: official tourism site of Spain
• Visit Argentina: official tourism site