(NAPSI)—People with a taste for travel—Including the armchair variety—may be glad to know about travel guides featuring such fascinating food facts as:

• Small plates with big taste in Spain: Tapas are small snacks that originated from a bartender’s practice of covering a glass with a saucer or tapa (cover). In Spain, it’s customary to move from bar to bar, sampling the specialties of each. Tapas are usually eaten standing.

• Enjoy a morning feast in Ireland: Traditionally, the Irish start the day with a huge breakfast: bacon, sausages, black pudding, eggs, tomatoes and brown bread. In Northern Ireland, add potato cakes and soda farls for an “Ulster Fry.”

• Take your time in Italy: Lunch is generally between 12:30 and 2:30 p.m. and, particularly in the south, all other activity stops between these hours. Dinner is at about 7:30 p.m. and goes on until 11 p.m. or later.

• Beer for breakfast in Germany: The Bavarians’ hearty, no-nonsense dishes are what the world considers German cuisine. Weisswurst (white sausages with a beer pretzel) are enjoyed in the morning, often with a beer, while dinner might be soup with liver dumplings, roast pork, sauerkraut and a pile of potato dumplings.

• Take your pick in London: Borough Market’s busy stalls of regional and continental food are a microcosm of what Londoners eat. There are English and Irish cheeses, Scottish beef, Welsh lamb, Devon cider, Suffolk oysters and more.

These tasty tips come from DK Eyewitness Travel Guides, the genuine “all-in-one” guides for detailed information on food, sights, history, entertainment, shopping, transportation, maps, hotels and restaurants. Known for rich illustrations, custom-drawn cutaways, floor plans and reconstructions of major buildings and museums, they’re available where books are sold.