The dining room is a great place for people watching. Whilst I would say that dining in the UK has elevated itself in recent years from the perspective of the quality and variety of the food itself, I think in the context of dining as a sociological function, it still seems a very significant element of the Southern European way of life. I note this from eating al fresco in street cafes in the various places we visited (and from prior experience). In fact, we ate most nights in the Paradores themselves and invariably chose the Galician option from the menu, including always going for the local wines. I am a slight sceptic when it comes to artisan and peasant staple foods. Freshness is important, so base ingredients are a good start to a tasty dish, but some dishes, like pulpo (octopus) with potato can be bland if thought and skill hasn't gone into the sauce. Two country's foods which I believe are lauded for their peasant origins but which in fact are, to my mind, hugely over praised, are Mexican and Greek, which variously are either bland pap personified or tasteless cheap meat, over spiced purely to disguise its mediocre quality.