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[Gioconda Scott] Spain has world renowned cities
like Madrid, Barcelona, and Seville,
but there is a Spain that everybody is missing out on.
Official YIFY movies site: YTS.MX
To really experience a place,
you have to go off the beaten track.
If you travel just 20 minutes outside of any major city,
you'll experience a deeper, more authentic Spain
filled with great gastronomy, wonderful characters,
and a history of many different cultures.
My brother and I grew up in Andalucia,
the largest and southern most region of Spain.
It has a rich and fascinating culinary heritage.
And we want to show you where to eat the best food
in this magical slice of our country.
George and I are setting off
on a gastronomically inspired road trip to the coast.
We'll be starting in the hills where we live,
driving into the marshlands on the delta,
and we'll end up in Sanlucar near the ocean.
Here we will host a dinner for our friends
who provide the produce, fish, and wines
we serve in my restaurant.
We want to show you how to travel here, what to look for,
and more than anything,
how naturally hospitable and welcoming this country is.
We will start this journey in our hometown of Cazalla De La Sierra.
A typical Andalucian village
of white washed cottages
and orange blossoms,
nestled in the hills of the natural park north of Seville.
City dwellers retreat to Cazalla
for fresh mountain air,
a slow pace of life,
and in search of the various gastronomic delicacies that are from here.
My name is Gioconda Scott,
and I am a cook.
I've been cooking professionally for 25 years.
For ten of those years,
I've travelled around the world
cooking in the kitchens of the chefs
that most inspired me.
I realized at a certain point
that the best job I could do
was to bring all that knowledge and experience
and invest it in the place where I belong.
And having promised that I was never gonna open a restaurant,
I just did,
in Cazalla,
this town that I was born and raised in,
within this incredible building called the Casino.
[speaking Spanish]
[Gioconda in English] My restaurant is located in a casino.
Casinos in Spain
are not what we traditionally associate
with a word that conjures up images of slot machines and gambling tables.
Casinos here are social clubs,
they're often the cultural center of a town
and a great place to get into a local scene.
-[Gioconda speaking Spanish] -[man speaking Spanish]
-[speaking Spanish] -Si.
[speaking Spanish]
[in English] In my restaurant,
we serve many traditional Andalucian dishes.
We use Iberico pork products from the nearby farms,
mushrooms foraged in the woods,
and we serve a selection of classic tapas like tortilla Espanola,
the famous Spanish omelet.
Tapas has become a, sort of, form of eating,
an informal way of eating socially in the bars,
and generally, it's now referred to as
a small version of whatever the bigger dish might be.
Tapa means to cover, so what it was,
normally, it was a slice of bread with something on it,
like, maybe a piece of chorizo,
or a bit of, you know, sausage or cheese,
and it will sit on top of the glass, tapar,
and it would stop the flies from going into your wine.
You don't fill yourself with a tapa,
you kind of just, you know, share it with some drinks
with friends or alone,
and it could be more of a kind of social thing.
Luisa runs the kitchen with me here in the Casino.
She is the master fryer,
and what she's going over here
is she's sifting the flour out of the boquerones.
They are little anchovies,
fresh anchovies,
and they're just tossed in flour,
which is a mixture of chickpea and wheat flour.
And the chickpea flour gives
a little bit more texture to the fish when you fry it,
so you get a nice crispy bite there.
[speaking Spanish]
Mmm, Luisa.
-[Luisa speaking Spanish] -[in English] Delicious.
[speaking Spanish]
[in English] My brother George
shares my passion for food.
My name is George Scott.
I was born in Spain,
and although, I have an English name, I'm as Spanish as it gets.
[Gioconda] George produces olive oil
and takes people on journeys
through Andalucia on horseback.
He works with many local farmers
and artisans in the region.
[George Scott] I'm passionate about food,
about travel, and my country.
On my own doorstep,
I'm still discovering new places and new people.
You have so much to learn for not only
in their gastronomy, but in their ways of life.
The hills surrounding Cazalla
are famous for olive groves
and for their Mediterranean oak forests,
which produce the acorn,
the perfect habitat for the Iberico pig
and for its famous pata negra ham
and other cured meats.
These secret treasures can be found for sale
in many little local butcher shops, just like this one,
a block away from my sister's restaurant.
[speaking Spanish]
[George in English] This is quite something.
A small shop you'd probably walk past in the street,
you've got a gem.
The peculiar thing about this particular family business
is the Jamon.
They not only raise their own pigs,
but Paco here, in 2015,
became the champion of Spain Jamon Carver,
which is a huge thing,
it's a price that you get once in your life,
he's kind of a national hero.
[Diedre speaking Spanish]
[George in English] The year that he won top carver,
he also won in presentation.
For example, here, with the first layers of fat on the pig,
he's created a rose,
but every plate is completely different as you can see.
In Jamon itself,
the things that you wanna look for
is that it has a very thin wrist,
which means, it's 100% Iberico,
and the incisions of fat,
so it shows that the pig has actually eaten acorns
in the right quantity.
What that's so important about this pigs?
It's the only pig in the world
with a metabolism which can turn the acorn
into a fat which is beneficial for you,
[chuckles] it's fantastic.
So you can eat as much as you like of it,
and even doctors recommend it to people
with high cholesterol in Spain,
which is, can you imagine what a delight?
Talking about family businesses,
I went to school with Diedre.
[speaking Spanish]
[in English] He went to school with my brother,
so we've known each other since we were children.
I do wanna, well,
ladies and gentlemen, the most important thing
in Spanish gastronomy in my view.
I wish you could taste this right now.
[speaking Spanish]
[George in English] You'll see this everywhere in Spain,
but everybody has their secret recipe,
and this particular shop
have a very, very good one.
People come up from Sevilla and stock up.
Well, this is also a cured meat,
so you can hang it in your pantry or where ever for ages
And this is Paco, who is the father,
so he's been here for 59 years in this shop.
-[chuckles] Which is-- -[speaking Spanish]
[George speaking Spanish]
[in English] Since he was 11-years-old.
-He's-- -[speaking Spanish]
[George speaking Spanish]
[in English] So I think we should probably buy some stuff
and take them back for Gioconda, so...
[George speaking Spanish]
[Gioconda] In addition to Iberico pork products,
Andalucia is the largest producer of olive oil in Spain.
My brother makes organic olive oil on his farm,
and I'm hoping he might've saved some for me.
I've come to make dinner tonight,
celebrating the local ingredients of the season.
Now, we are surrounded by wild aromatic herbs,
olive trees, and cork.
Everyone is on their way back from a trail ride.
I'm making Sunday supper for our friends from the village
before George and I head out of town in the morning.
Tonight, I'm making a lamb dish.
It's a really simple dish and typical of the area.
The lamb roams all the country side around here,
and I'm convinced
that they marinate themselves
as they ruminate the hills
with all the beautiful wild herbs.
Wild thyme, wild oregano,
delicious,
and bay leaves.
We're gonna roast the lamb in the wood fired oven here
using the last of the summer tomatoes
and adding some fresh herbs that grow wild in these hills.
Before I braise it, I'll add a slug of George's olive oil
and some beautiful sherry wine that is typical of the area.
So, I thought the perfect way to end dinner tonight
would be with another fruit
which is optimum in this season,
the quince.
Quince is a widely used fruit in Spain
and a sort of cross between a pear and an apple.
Scatter a generous amount of sugar on top
and straight on to the plancha.
just like that.
Wonderful.
Look at this wonderful
golden caramel on the quinces, it's fabulous.
And what we're gonna do is serve that
with a lovely touch of acidity from the Greek yogurt...
...a scattering of roasted almonds,
and some fresh mint just to finish it off.
Absolutely beautiful.
[speaking Spanish]
[George speaking Spanish]
[Gioconda in English] Oh, my God, that looks so delicious.
The tomatoes have all confited in there with the olive oil,
and you can get this amazing perfume from all the wild herbs.
It's gonna be fantastic.
[speaking Spanish]
[Gioconda in English] Gatherings like this at George's farm
only happen a few times a year,
and I love creating a menu
that's an expression of the season in the area.
This evening is a true celebration of this time of year.
[speaking Spanish]
[in English] Everybody, thank you for being here.
Thank you for this incredible dinner that you have fed us all.
[woman speaking Spanish]
-[speaking Spanish] -[woman speaking Spanish]
[George in English] We can't linger too long tonight.
Tomorrow, our journey to the coast begins,
and there are so many more
secrets to the region to discover,
there is so much to explore.
Don't you find it unbelievable
how varied the landscape is here,
-it's just incredible. -In Andalucia, no?
[Gioconda] Yes, you come from Cazalla,
it's hills, cork trees, olive trees,
-forests, green, you know? -Rice fields. Yeah.
And then you come down, and you got this,
-like, marshlands, flat, the skyscape. -Coastal.
It's a pretty a pretty special place.
[Gioconda] Many things you may think of as distinctly Spanish
like flamenco and bull fighting
are Andalucian in origin.
But in Spain, we know that
Andalucia is recognized for its raw material
and the purity and quality of its ingredients.
And we are off to meet the people responsible
for making this wonderful food.
Our journey will end in Sanlucar de Barrameda,
a beautiful town on the Atlantic coast
situated right at the mouth of the Guadalquivir River.
Not only of enormous historical importance,
but also home to a very special variety of wine
unique to this area.
Not to mention that this is where the explorers set off
to discover the new worlds
in the 15th and 16th centuries.
But before we get too far down the road,
we want to share a favorite food secret of ours,
the Venta.
A Venta is our version of a truck stop
or roadside diner.
What's so surprising about these humble and unassuming canteens
is how well you eat here.
They originated in the 11th century
and are virtually unknown outside of Spain.
The are small, no-frills restaurants
found off the highways or country roads.
A place where many people pass through
to have a quick coffee, a snack, or home cooked meal,
you'll even see fruit and vegetable vendors
coming in with their fine produce,
families gathered for a big lunch
or celebrating a birthday party.
George and I love a good Venta,
and they tend to be lively.
Even amongst us Spaniards,
knowing a good Venta is sacred local knowledge.
The word venta translates literally
from the word to sell, vender.
-[Gioconda] Yes. -Venta, a place where you sell.
[Gioconda] Venta, exactly.
And normally it will have, like, a very simple menu of the day,
-maybe eight or ten euros. -Yeah.
That's what I would recommend anybody to order.
-And this, this is a, this is a great thing. -Even the table cloths.
A nice paper table cloth,
-you know you're in the right place. -Yes.
You know you're in the right place.
-Neon strip lights. -Yeah.
A lot of noise.
How would you describe this one,
-it's like marisco, some stew, no? -It's like a--
Yeah, like a fish stew with corvina,
which is a wonderful fish from the area,
and little gambitas, shrimps.
-Let's have a little, -And plenty of garlic by the looks of it.
Mmm.
This potato salad is absolutely delicious.
It is a very good one.
I mean, I would travel for a potato salad.
-We got a big lunch, no? -People, people travel--
I know, but I couldn't let the moment go by without ordering one.
[man singing flamenco]
Can you hear that?
Yeah, that's incredible.
So great, man. [stammers]
[speaking Spanish]
-I don't think you'll get this anywhere else in the world. -No.
It's fantastic.
[man singing flamenco]
[all applauding]
We better hit the road, no?
-We really better. -Okay.
[George] That was really good.
[Gioconda] Another favorite insider tip.
Don't be shy to approach the local farmers
you see along the road selling their wares
maybe under a canopy stand or from the back of a van.
It's sure to be inexpensive, fresh from the farm, and delicious.
We're heading south away from the Sierra Norte hills
and into the flat lands surrounding Seville.
This is home to the rice paddies of Andalucia,
the biggest in all of Europe,
a great secret that, even here, many do not know.
But before head into the marshlands and our lunch destination,
we have to pull over to fill up.
What most people don't realize
is that in Spain,
unassuming gas stations like this one,
especially independent ones or in rural areas,
sell incredible food.
Olive oil, dried beans,
honeys, preserved fish, wines, liqueurs,
and locally made cheeses unique to the area.
They can make for some of the best fine food shops,
and George and I are unable to stop at one
without stocking up for local produce.
During hunting season, partridge here is plentiful.
It's usually cooked in a light sauce with a touch of vinegar,
and it's so popular, they even sell it by the tin.
What I love is also getting all the things like
the honey, for example, just from here,
which has been awarded.
I've even saved a couple of Sunday lunches coming here.
-Also? -Yeah. [laughs]
You know, I think we should definitely get the Iberico sausages.
-Yeah. -Absolutely, I want to do
a little picadillo with chorizo and egg.
[George speaking Spanish]
-[speaking Spanish] -[Gioconda speaking Spanish]
[shopkeeper speaking Spanish]
[Gioconda speaking Spanish]
[speaking Spanish]
-[shopkeeper speaking Spanish] -[George speaking Spanish]
[George in English] What I love is that
you can buy all these things at a gas station,
even a five liter extra virgin olive oil
produced down the road,
and it's here at the checkout counter
[speaking Spanish]
Okay.
[speaking Spanish]
So many, everybody who comes to Cazalla
takes some of the stuff from the town,
and it's such a great gift to take back
without having to...
I mean, people come when they come on the holidays,
and they, like, stock up,
-and they take it to where ever else they live. -I do.
That's what's so great about travelling around Spain,
it's picking up all the things,
and then you take them back, put them as gifts,
but you have your little selection of things that you want for yourself.
[speaking Spanish]
All right, let's get on the road.
This is our favorite thing about this country.
You find quality ingredients at every turn.
We're back on the road.
I have surprise for George
in a sleepy little town called Villamanrique de la Condesa.
Located 45 minutes south-west of Sevilla,
it's a town you'd probably never hear about.
I was recently introduced
to an extraordinary tavern here
called El Bolero,
a 300 year old wine dispensary full of character,
and a place most tourist might overlook.
For a few euros,
you can enjoy a home cooked meal
and glass of house wine with the locals.
This is a guaranteed slice of authentic life in rural Spain.
[indistinct chatter]
[singing in Spanish]
[Gioconda] So we're in this completely unbelievable place
that I've just bought George to,
and I'm with my friend, Manri.
He has a restaurant about 20 minutes away from here,
and on his days off, he decides to come and cook.
And today, he's gonna make
this incredible duck with rice.
It really is the dish of the area.
You've got the rice paddies,
the duck fly down, they eat the delicious grains of rice,
and so they make the perfect marriage for the pot.
Manri is cooking the lunch that is served today,
and I'm here to help him.
I'm preparing a few simple tapas to open the appetite
using the delicacies we picked up the gas station.
I thought it would be interesting
to serve something refreshing with this rich duck rice.
To drink, there is Mosto on the menu.
Mosto is a young wine, a fermented grape juice with low alchohol content,
it's light and refreshing, and will pair perfectly with a rich rice.
[speaking Spanish]
[Gioconda in English] So what Manri does
is he makes the broth at home,
and he comes here with his ducks and his broth.
So this is smelling amazing now.
[speaking Spanish]
[in English] I've just thrown some onions into the ashes,
and I'm going to cook them in there in their skins,
and then I'm gonna make the most incredible salad with them.
[George speaking Spanish]
[man speaking Spanish]
[man 2 speaking Spanish]
[in English] No, no, I'm playing here with the--
I'm never gonna win this game.
[speaking Spanish]
[George speaking Spanish]
[Gioconda] So, Manri has poured the rice,
and it tastes so delicious.
Mmm.
[George] What's going on here?
-Ooh... -Manri's just made this unbelievable duck with rice
that he's bought from the arrozales.
[George] I can already taste it.
-Yeah, you can. -[in Spanish]
[Gioconda] So simple.
So...
[in Spanish]
What else have you made here?
[Gioconda] We've made some little tapas.
I really wanted to bring Manri some products from where we're from, from the Sierras.
He doesn't have the Iberico pork that we have.
So I made probailla,
spicy chorizo with fried egg on top
and with a bit of fresh mint to lighten it up,
some of that delicious white cheese with the anchovies,
and got a couple of delicious refreshing salads to have with the duck.
I put the onions in the ashes and served it with that lovely sherry vinegar,
and this is just my type of salpicon,
just a very simple vegetable salad.
That's very nice.
All right, you've got quite a hot crowd here,
so I'm interested to see what they think.
[singing in Spanish]
-I mean, this is just... -How did this happen on a Monday?
-[laughs] -On a Monday.
[Gioconda] Sevillanas are a type of folk music and dance unique to this area.
We learn these songs and dances when we're children,
and they're danced at any given opportunity.
Whether in a small neighborhood plaza
or at a wedding or family party,
everyone present will join.
It's sort of like a classic square dance of the Americans.
[men singing in Spanish]
The trick in sevillanas is just if you don't know how to dance,
you just copy what the person next to you is doing.
[singing continues]
[Gioconda] We're back on the road
and fast approaching Sanlucar,
about an hour south of Sevilla.
This is a favorite area of ours.
It's just brimming with culture, history,
delicious food and wine,
and we'll be setting off to explore all of it.
[George] What is so special about this region
is how much award-winning produce it is known for.
From its fish to its wines to its salt,
all are unique to this area.
Sherry is a very particular thing,
as only the wines produced with the grapes from here can be called sherry.
[Gioconda] The salt is the cleanest in Spain
because it's cultivated in a national park called Donana.
Even the common potato has its own varietal
that makes it as unique as a truffle.
George is taking me to meet Juancho, a local farmer here,
and he's excited to show us around.
[in Spanish]
Oh my God, George, that's amazing!
[in Spanish]
[Gioconda] Seashells. This is amazing.
[George] Like digging up gold, isn't it?
[Gioconda] Oh, George, this is the most exciting thing
-I think I've seen all year. -[George chuckles]
[in Spanish]
[Gioconda speaking]
-[George] You just peel it with your thumb. -[Gioconda] It's amazing.
Do you know what was really cool?
In all the cooperativas,
they always have a canteen
which is where they go and eat, and I had this...
They made patatas there in different ways, like a la plancha.
Have you ever had patata a la plancha?
Never had patata a la plancha.
[in Spanish]
[George] I'm taking Gioconda to a recent discovery of mine,
a cantina found at the local farmers' co-op.
[man speaking Spanish]
[George] Most cooperatives in Spain, whether vegetables, olives, or grapes,
will have a local cafe where the farmers and people from the area stop by
to have a quick bite or sample the recent harvest.
All who know to look for these places are most welcome here.
Imagine, we've been where all of this is grown.
The first place it arrives is here.
So fresher than here, you couldn't have it.
So we have courgettes, the new first potatoes of the season,
they're sweet potato,
and some of those delicious tomatoes.
Top quality raw material,
-bit of olive oil and salt. -That's it.
-All from the area. -And you can do it at home.
-[in Spanish] -[George laughs]
[Gioconda] The jewel in the crown.
-[Gioconda] Peel it... -[George] Little bit, and open it up.
[Gioconda] ...and scatter it with a little bit of salt
which comes from the salt plains in the area.
-Chin-chin with the potatoes, I like this. -Cheers.
[both laugh]
Mmm. Sublime.
Perfectly seasoned.
-I'm gonna offer some of these to our friends, eh? -Yeah, definitely.
[in Spanish]
[all laughing]
[Gioconda] When we travel in a town or city,
I always like to find the central markets.
Aside from visiting castles, churches, and museums,
I find the way I truly enjoy drinking in the life of a place
is walking its streets and going to its markets.
Sanlucar has a splendid market,
and I'm off there now to collect ingredients
for the dinner I'm preparing tonight.
Isn't this amazing?
I haven't been here. I can't believe it.
[Gioconda] You're not gonna believe it.
-Each stand looks better than the other, doesn't it? -[George chuckles]
[George] Look at this one.
[in Spanish]
[laughing]
-You want some? -Yes.
[man speaking Spanish]
Mmm.
He's showing us all the different varieties
of tomatoes that are grown in the area here,
so we're gonna buy a selection of everything.
These are the sweet potatoes that along with the potatoes
are grown locally in this area.
-Look at that. [laughs] -[Gioconda] And they were just roasted this morning
in a wood-fired oven.
There's one man, apparently, who's responsible for roasting all the sweet potatoes
that are sold in the town.
Delicious vegetarian breakfast.
Mmm.
It's sweet, caramel, a little bit salty,
and you've got the aroma of the wood-fire coming through, as well.
Absolutely delicious.
[George] I get too excited in these places.
[in Spanish]
I've got Cristian to prepare a couple of fish
-that I'm gonna bake in salt for dinner. -Oh, lovely. Oh, lovely.
Look at these. Fantastic.
This is one of the king products of this area, of Sanlucar.
It's famous for it, the langostino.
I'd like to give you a little tip
when you come to markets
on how to cook your fish if you don't have my sister,
and that is ask the fishmonger.
The fishmonger knows the amount of time it needs to be in the oven,
the temperature it needs to be,
and how much salt if you're cooking it in salt.
They really know what they're doing, and they've learned...
They're multi-generational, as well.
So they are 40-year-old recipes from their grandmothers.
-[in Spanish] -[chuckles]
So we're here at this amazing stand, Yuste, of Juan Carlos,
and he sells a little bit of everything,
and everything is delicious.
-Look at the hams. We should learn to... -[George] Wow.
[in Spanish]
Mmm.
That's a really good olive oil.
You can tell how green it tastes.
In olive oil, you talk about the greens in olive oil.
It could be green banana, it could be artichoke,
green apple, freshly-cut grass.
It's always a green,
and this one is what I would call a green leaf olive oil.
So if you bit the leaf of the olive tree,
it's got that taste.
It's more of a bitter type of olive oil.
In Spain, there's about 300 varieties of olives.
[in Spanish]
Gracias, mmm.
The delicious products we just bought made us a little hungry.
We're gonna pull over and build a sandwich
before we take you to the most unexpected
and authentic place for dessert.
[George] Let's just make it here, no?
Yeah, perfect. Why not?
[George] The easiest places.
-So you can do this anywhere in Spain is the great thing. -[Gioconda] Mmm.
They're the best, the markets.
You go shopping to buy everything to make your lunch,
-and you've already had lunch before you've left it. -Fresher stuff.
-Exactly. -[Gioconda chuckles]
-[George] So we've got the delicious tomatoes... -[Gioconda] Mmm.
[George] ...the tuna, this delicious manchego.
-It's like a manchego, yeah? It's a cured goat's cheese. -[Gioconda] Yes.
[George] No, it's sheep's cheese, yeah?
-[Gioconda] From those payoya goats. -[George] Mmm.
-Perfect! Wow. -[Gioconda laughs]
[in Spanish]
-Wonderful, cheers. -Chin-chin.
Mmm.
[Gioconda] Here's a secret.
Convents make delicious sweets.
Sanlucar has many convents,
and this particular one is cloistered.
How to buy sweets from a lovely nun you can't see?
An ingenious system called the torno,
just like a lazy Susan.
[in Spanish]
Place some money on the turntable and spin it around.
On the other side of the panel,
a nun collects the payment,
places sweets on the turntable and spins it back to you.
The thing that's so special about Sanlucar and Jerez in this area,
is that what they make is...
-[in Spanish] -My favorite.
And it's because they have such an excess of the egg yolks
because they use the egg whites to clarify the fortified wine
-and the Manzanilla sherry... -No way.
Yeah, so they clean it.
So all these excess yolks come to the nuns of Sanlucar.
Similar to a rich caramel custard,
this traditional Spanish dessert dates back to the 1300s
and originates in this area.
It's a wonderful thing to know, support, and enjoy.
I think that was the best tocino I've ever had.
Oh!
It really is "lard of the heavens," isn't it?
[George] While Gioconda's gone off to start preparing dinner,
I am picking up some wines to pair with the food.
This part of Andalucia is known as "the triangle of sherry,"
and includes the towns of Jerez, El Puerto de Santa Maria,
and Sanlucar de Barrameda.
I'm on my way to one of my favorite family-run bodegas
in Puerto de Santa Maria called Bodegas Obregon.
Traveling from town to town around these parts,
you'll see acres and acres of vineyards.
There are hundreds of family-owned wineries here.
Bodegas and tabancos are two mainstays
to enjoy sherry in the most authentic and local way.
Bodegas are places where sherry is put into casks,
fortified and aged.
You can stop in for a quick drink and a homemade tapa
or pick up a bottle of the many varieties of sherry
right from the barrels.
It's the perfect stop for an ultimate sherry tasting experience.
So I've come to one of my favorite places
probably in the world,
[chuckles] which is called Bodegas Obregon,
and it's in El Puerto de Santa Maria.
And in these beautiful barrels sits this [chuckles] wonderful product,
which we have all over here which we're about to taste.
I'd like to learn a little bit more about what we can pair
with the things that my sister's cooking this evening.
So I'm waiting for a friend of mine who's an expert.
For somebody who's never tried a jerez before,
how would you explain it, because...
What is it?
Sherry is a wine.
-Some people forget that it is sherry wine. -It's a wine. Yeah.
[Almudena] It's a fortified wine.
That means that it has distilled wine alcohol added to it.
[in Spanish]
This is something typical from this area.
-It's called berza. -[George] Berza.
[Almudena] And it's got chickpeas, beans,
broad beans, and peas.
They are stewed with meat.
Then they take the meat out and it's minced up,
-and that is perfect. -[George] That is the perfect thing.
Please, will you take the honor?
I was never a coward.
You know what I love about this place?
-Mmm. -Or any places where you order a drink,
and they just bring you a little tapa.
In this part of the world, you don't serve alcohol
without either olives or lupins
or even some crisps.
This is an aperitivo place.
You'd never come here for lunch.
We have this incredible wine which is so particular,
only from this region.
For me, I always say it's as important
-as Champagne is to the French, right? -Oh, absolutely.
-It's covered by Denominacion de Origen, a DO... -[George] A DO, yeah.
...which guarantees quality.
-And it can only be made here, like this. -Here, absolutely.
-Unique to this area. -Because the microclimate, it's unique to here.
We have a very dry sherry,
-which is the lightest, no? -Yes.
[George] And they go in escalation,
and all of it's to do with the aging
that we're talking about it.
[Almudena] And the sugar content.
And the sugar content and the alcohol content.
-So this has, it's a very dry wine. -So this is good for me?
-It's very good for you. It's very good for you. -[chuckles] Okay.
[Almudena] Okay, so that's a cream sherry.
[George] Look at the difference of the color, as well.
[Almudena] And look at the different viscosity of this wine.
Okay, I think definitely this one.
-The Palo Cortado. -Palo Cortado and something sweeter.
And something sweeter, I would go for medium sweet,
-which would be the cream. -The cream.
-Yeah, yeah, yeah. -Gioconda will love that, so we'll take those three.
-So these three. -Before I forget.
Now while bodegas are a great place to learn about the sherry,
tabancos is where the fun is at.
Tabancos are also local wine dispensaries
that serve a sampling of wines from the area,
and you'll even get a tapa with your drink.
Also, a great place to see local color.
Our brother Jackson's come to town to join us for this dinner,
and we're making a little pit stop on the way.
[singing in Spanish]
Have you been to this place before?
I've never seen this place, man. Pretty cool.
It's the kind of place where anything could happen at any moment.
The great thing about tabancos is it's like, local people on a Sunday night...
[in Spanish]
-Yeah? -But I hope it doesn't happen tonight.
I had no idea.
Gracias.
-[George laughs] -[man speaking Spanish]
[laughs]
Cheers.
They're pretty obsessed with these here.
A really good potato.
[George] Tabancos are also known
for spontaneous performances of music and dance.
And if you're lucky, you might find one in action.
Hey!
[all singing]
[George] A tabanco is as fun as it looks,
but we better get going, or we're never gonna get out of here.
No, no...
[in Spanish]
[Gioconda] Through these iconic and beautiful Mediterranean pine forests
lies our final destination.
In this region of Andalucia
known for producing some of the best food and wine in Spain,
it's salt that stands out
as the most ancient ingredient cultivated here.
The history of salt in this area goes back to the second century
when the Phoenicians discovered that salt occurred naturally in these marshlands.
They used salt to preserve food,
a technique that continues to this day.
I could not think of a more perfect setting for tonight's dinner
than within these spectacular salt mountains.
What a place, this.
-How did you find this place? -[Gioconda] Well, it was introduced to me
by a fantastic biologist that looks after this area, all the beautiful marshlands.
First time I came here, I knew I wanted to make a dinner here.
-It's one of the best settings I've ever been into. -It's so dramatic.
-Also, your favorite way of cooking, outdoors. -[Gioconda] Exactly.
Cooking over wood-fire is the natural way
we've cooked throughout the world throughout time.
In some places, like South America,
this tradition has remained strong
in a contemporary world.
When I returned from cooking in Uruguay and Argentina,
I was determined to keep this way of cooking alive at home.
It slows you down and keeps you present
and attentive to what you're preparing.
The gentle smoke and rich embers enhances the wonderful flavors
of the ingredients from this land.
The first we're gonna do is we're gonna pack some salt into these trays.
Wetting a little bit the salt so that I can pack it down.
With the intensity of the heat from the fire,
the water's going to immediately evaporate
and help make more of a solid crust with the salt.
We picked these up in Sanlucar.
They're a very particular fish local to here.
So what we're gonna do is we're going to fill this with some wild fennel
that I found growing on the roadside
and a little bit of fresh lemon.
And I'm gonna pack them into a salt bed like this,
and George is gonna cover them with salt.
There you have another one.
Perfect.
The way that this contraption works
is to have a fire underneath and a fire on top,
and that's what creates the temperature you want inside.
We're taking some of the embers
out from underneath to cool them down,
and we're gonna cook the potatoes in the ash.
Now I'm gonna do the salsa.
It's using up the last of the summer vegetables
which we've picked up at the cooperativa today.
I'm going to throw them into the deep heat
on the top of the fire,
and I'm going to char them entirely.
They're going to steam inside,
and they're going to absorb all the flavors from the delicious wood smoke.
This is exactly the effect I'm looking for here.
Now, this is really a kind of inspiration of my own
based on a traditional dish.
Sort of ratatouille of Andalucia, if you like.
When I went to work in Mexico a long time ago,
I really loved this concept
of a salsa being used a bit more like a sauce,
so loosening it up a bit.
So I kind of merged the pisto with the salsa.
Finally, I'm gonna dress that with a little of the fantastic salt
that I literally just pinched out of the mountain next to me.
Wonderful, it's exactly what I'm looking for,
this kind of smoky sauce
that we're going to have to eat with the beautiful sweet potatoes
and the divine orata.
Baking the orata and the sweet potato in salt
means they'll be perfectly seasoned
and need nothing more than some delicious fruity olive oil.
A spoonful of the smoky vegetables
will finish it off beautifully.
Concluding our journey in this extraordinary saltscape
surrounded by rural, beautiful nature and sea
seems quite fitting an end to this chapter.
It sums up so much of what we've wanted to express
about how varied the food, history, and culture of Spain is
and how much there is to see and experience.
[in Spanish]
[man] You read my mind.
[in Spanish]
[all chattering]
[laughs]
[Gioconda] Sometimes, the best secrets are not the ones you keep,
but the ones you share.
Imagine, we've just traveled through a small corner
of our region here in western Andalucia,
an area probably half the size of the state of Delaware,
and yet, there's so much ahead to discover.
To come back to Spain and build this story
with you, George, is such a treat,
and I'm really excited.
[George] Not only a treat, but it's an honor
and a huge responsibility.