Ham, eggs, bacon and ham.

The Spaniards are crazy for ham. They are famous for their ham. You can go into an eatery and be given a ham menu. 

It's not the ham we eat in America; it's been aged for a very long time and it's cut super duper thin right off the whole leg and they dangle from the ceilings of thousands of cafes, taverns, cervecieras and shops all over Spain. I call it pre-jerky. It is dark and paper thin. The Iberian version of prosciutto.

It's expensive, as meats go. But they love the stuff. There is even a chain called "Museum of Ham." 

Plus, pork is on every menu served several different ways - loins, chops, cutlets and cheeks.

Here's why. 

Back in the middle of the last millennia, when the Christians were slowly taking over the peninsula from the Moors, they decided to expel the Jews and Muslims and confiscate everything they had except for those who converted and became Catholic.

But they didn't trust the converts, knew that some were probably faking it because they wanted to stay where they had lived for generations and keep what they had accumulated, which was often substantial. 

So they made them eat pork to prove their sincere conversion. Pork eating became equated with sincere Christianity. 

And now you know he rest of the story.