Torremolinos in 64
These words are worth as the most sincere love letter to you, Andalusia.
Although this, we already warned you, is not just that everyone who steps on you falls hopelessly at your feet. And we say it for that of your endless beaches, your rich history, your white villages full of charm or inside you, with its snowy peaks and Hollywood deserts. No, my dear: you already know that very well.
This letter is addressed to that other thing that everyone talks about when they visit you: to your flavors. to your gastronomy.
Because as the great once said Ángel León, “cooking is an act of love for others” , and you know that very well. The passion with which you deliver everything your domains produce is immense. Almost as much, look, as the landscapes full of olive trees that throughout your geography give away that liquid gold that is your greatest treasure: the olive oil . Almost as much, too, as the immensity of the waters that bathe your shores: whether in the Mediterranean or Atlantic , in them comes the life of all those delicacies that fill our dishes, our souls and our stomachs with power.
Eight extra virgin olive oils from Spain among the ten best in the world
With you we learned that happiness is the crunch of a shrimp omelette when we take the first bite. It is the unique experience —and obligatory— of having a good cartridge of fried fish in front of La Caleta. It is a tapeíto with some Shrimp from Motril or white prawns from Huelva —and these, if they are together with a glass of County wine, better than better—. With you "we get fine" cuttlefish, nettles and cod pavías. Marinated dogfish The one that makes you squint your eyes and anchovies that taste like glory. The sardine skewers, yes, we reserve them for a beach bar in Malaga: with your feet sunk in the sand and the saltpeter clinging to the skin, everything always tastes better.
From here we claim your almadraba bluefin tuna as a universal delicacy. Three thousand years after the Phoenicians devised this peculiar fishing technique, there you continue to honor it. Gastronomy with history to taste in Conil or in Barbate, in Zahara de los Atunes or in Vejer.
Zahara of the tuna
We also have to talk about your meat retinta cow, your bull's tail and your Iberian pig . From the beautiful meadows where you take flavor Jabugo ham and Valle de los Pedroches ham . And speaking of being happy, what better ritual to start the day than with the smell of freshly toasted bread? The art of adding a good splash of olive oil and a few slices of Iberian ham to a muffin should be a World Heritage Site. Although be careful, you shouldn't be disgusted by a loin zurrapa or a good colored butter.
Your land is the place where everything is celebrated around a table. Homeland of popular recipes, those that our grandmothers prepared so well, great mistresses of the kitchen, who always knew when and how to pull the spoon . We stay with him aroma of a good stew with its little bit of mint and its bread soaked in the pringá : that's magic and the rest is nonsense. And beware, whoever says pout says some potatoes with cuttlefish, some gurullos with rabbit, a sherry cabbage or a gazpachuelo.
That in winter, of course, that for the summer we already throw in the cool: we die for your ajoblanco, for your gazpacho and your salmorejo. Our mouths are watering with your aliñás potatoes, your artichokes, your raf tomatoes and your pipirrana . With the beloved mangoes and avocados that sprout in your Costa Tropical.
Long live the salmorejo!
You throw yourself into the evenings in which, between snacks on a terrace, night falls. And then you beat us with a bowl of snails in any little square in Córdoba. Land that, like all of you, pulls roots to conquer.
Because your ancestors, Arabs and Jews, Romans and Phoenicians, have a lot to say about gastronomy... In fact, it was the latter who started to grow vines on your land, the same ones that now allow you to boast of having some of the most acclaimed wines in the world. You demonstrate it well in Jerez and Sanlúcar, in Córdoba with its Montilla-Moriles or in Málaga , where sweetness wins the bet: with a Moscatel for dessert, success is assured.
By the way, when it comes to confectionery... no one can beat you either. Two tears fall to us before some crescent moons from Almería, before some piononos from Granada. Tasting the tocino de cielo de Jerez is just that: touching the sky with your hands . How to contain the hornazos from Jaén, the mostachones from Utrera, the Steppe shortbread , to the flakes or pulleys.
The best beach bars in Malaga to have a good 'Sardine Experience'.
We celebrate with you your high altitude cuisine: the one that reaches the stars. 18 **to be exact. **And they shine so brightly up there, that you even have double and triple them: we didn't expect anything less from you.
That is why these words are worth, Andalusia, as the most sincere declaration of love. A letter of gastronomic devotion with which to feel, with which to taste yourself. With which to taste your flavors from corner to corner, from east to west and from north to south.
That's how you enjoy life, right? And you, for a change, know that very well.
Typical Andalusian paper cones