Both Spain and Thailand like sour flavours, but they reach for different sources. Spanish cooks use wine vinegar to preserve, marinate and finish dishes. Thai cooks often turn to lime and tamarind for sourness, and use vinegar at the table and in sauces. Knowing how each side uses it helps when you read a menu in either language.
Spain: vinegar from wine
Spain's best-known vinegars are wine vinegars, and the most famous comes from sherry country. Vinagre de Jerez is aged in oak casks, often in the same solera system used for sherry, which gives it a dark colour and a rounder, nutty taste. It has protected designation of origin status, as do two other Andalusian wine vinegars, Condado de Huelva and Montilla-Moriles. Longer-aged grades are labelled reserva or gran reserva.
Plain red and white wine vinegar are common in Spanish kitchens, and cider vinegar is made in Asturias and the Basque Country.
Five Spanish dishes that depend on vinegar
- Escabeche: fish, mussels or game cooked or fried and then kept in a mix of vinegar, olive oil, garlic and bay, often with pimentón. It has long been used as a way to preserve food.
- Boquerones en vinagre: anchovy fillets cured in vinegar, then dressed with olive oil, garlic and parsley. Vinegar does not kill anisakis parasites. In the EU, the hygiene rules in Regulation (EC) No 853/2004 require fish served raw or marinated, as boquerones are, to be frozen first; the regulation sets the temperature and time and allows some exceptions. Our boquerones and anchoas guide explains how they differ from salted anchovies.
- Cazón en adobo: a Cádiz bar classic of dogfish marinated in vinegar with garlic, cumin, oregano and pimentón, then floured and fried.
- Gazpacho: the cold tomato soup traditionally gets a splash of vinegar along with olive oil and garlic. See our cold soups guide.
- Encurtidos: pickles. Basque piparras peppers, pickled onions and other vinegar pickles appear on bar counters, and the Gilda skewer combines piparras with an anchovy and an olive.
Thailand: vinegar on the table
Thai noodle shops usually put out a set of four condiments, known as khrueang prung: fish sauce, sugar, dried chilli flakes and phrik nam som, sliced chillies steeped in vinegar. Diners season their own bowl, adding sour and heat to taste.
Vinegar also goes into relishes and dipping sauces. Ajad, the cucumber relish served with satay and fried fish cakes, is cucumber, shallot and chilli in a vinegar and sugar syrup. Nam jim kai, the sweet chilli sauce for grilled chicken, is made with vinegar and sugar too.
For sourness inside a dish, Thai cooks often use lime juice or tamarind instead. In the Spanish dishes above, vinegar supplies the sourness.
How the two compare
- In the Spanish dishes above, vinegar preserves, marinates or seasons; in the Thai examples, it seasons at the table or goes into sauces.
- Spain's protected vinegars are wine-based, and vinagre de Jerez is aged in oak. Phrik nam som is plain vinegar with sliced chillies in it.
- Both pair vinegar with fat and frying: escabeche and cazón en adobo in Spain, ajad with satay and fried fish cakes in Thailand.
Where to try it
These venues' own records mention vinegar or a dish that, in its classic form, uses it. Menus change, so ask how a dish is made.
- Barcelona Wine Bar: the group's record lists vinegars among the Spanish flavours on its menus, alongside olive oil, pimentón, piquillos and cheeses. Our Barcelona Wine Bar spotlight covers the group's listings in our directory.
- Socarrat, Mexico City: its record lists marinated dogfish among its tapas, alongside papas bravas, Catalan meatballs and croquettes.
- Tapárna, Prague: its record lists boquerones with tomato; ask whether they are the vinegar-cured kind or fried.
- Ajoblanco, Mexico City: its record says its name refers to the almond gazpacho of Málaga and Extremadura and lists gazpachos among its specialties; ask which gazpachos are on the menu.
- Taburete, Bangkok: its record mentions a watermelon gazpacho alongside paella and croquetas. Classic gazpacho takes vinegar; ask whether this version does.
