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<\/figure>\n\n\n\nI descend the plane stairs to a balmy windswept tarmac about 45 minutes north of Cadiz in Jerez de la Frontera \u2013 one of the iconic white hill towns of Andaluc\u00eda, the southern region of Spain. It is part of the Sherry Triangle, a trio of towns that produce the sweetened fortified wine. I planned on making this a stop of mine, but logistics got in the way, and I made a note to myself to revisit the area and learn about sherry. How did this region become known for Sherry, what is the history and how has it shaped the people and culture? I contemplate this as board the bus to Cadiz. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Cadiz is located and the southwestern tip of Spain, between Gibraltar and Portugal on the costa del luz \u2013 the coast of light. It is considered the oldest, continuously inhabited city in Europe. Yes, you read that correctly \u2013 it has been here for a very, very long time. The Phoenicians inhabited the strategic spot with a protected bay set between the Atlantic, the strait of Gibraltar \u2013 entrance to the Mediterranean and North Africa. It was a strategic piece of land that just happens to boast a huge migration of Bluefin Tuna as they make their way to the Mediterranean to multiply. The Phoenicians founded Cadiz – what they named Gadir in 1104 BC. When the Romans conquered the area in 200 BC, they called it Gades, at times it was the 2nd<\/sup> most populous Roman city, rivaling Rome itself. It continued to be an important port city through time, the Byzantines in 522 AD, Visigoths in 620 AD, Moors in 711 AD \u2013 calling it Qadis which led to its name today. Finally, the Crown of Castille in 1264 eventually secured it as a city of Spain. It has been burned to the ground and sacked so many times and is still standing. You can see the mark of these cultures layered upon each other when you are here. The white buildings with cobblestone streets, palm tree lined against a very deep blue sky, I was transfixed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I made my way, luggage clomping over the cobblestone streets to the bustling bar below my Airbnb, collected my keys from the owner and climbed the 4 stories of cool marble and tile stairs to my amazing rooftop room. Walking out onto my deck I discovered a sea of white rooftops, bright hued laundry drying on lines against the deep blue sky \u2013 I was transported to another place. How long has this building been here? How many generations of people have hung clothes on the line, bleaching in the bright sun? The stories of people lived and lost. I could hear the murmur and clinking of lunch in the cafes that lined my street below. I could see the market, Mercado Central below and hear the bustle of shoppers gathering. I want to know more about this the oldest city in Spain, the cultural changes over time, how did the fishing and salting industry make it thrive? What makes it thrive now?<\/p>\n\n\n\n I was starving and tired from a day of travel, I couldn\u2019t wait for 8:00 when the restaurants opened for dinner, and I looked forward to cooking for myself tonight. I think I have mentioned before that Spaniards love food and they eat a lot of it, I eat a lot and had a difficult time keeping up. There is a set eating schedule here and if you don\u2019t follow it, you will find most places closed \u2013 in the middle of the day. They eat about 5 times per day, and it takes some effort to adjust, especially when traveling. I love the schedule and wish we had it here in the states. Here you don\u2019t see people eating in their car in a parking lot, people take the time to eat, sitting down and enjoying their meals or sharing a snack chatting with a friend. Here is the schedule in case you make your way to Spain:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Desayuno \u2013 Breakfast 7am-9am This is a small sweet or savory pastry and coffee.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Almuerzo \u2013 Mid Morning Snack 10;30-12 Meant to tie you over to lunch, usually a boquadillo (small sandwich)<\/p>\n\n\n\n Comida \u2013 Lunch 2pm-4pm The largest meal of the day, usually many courses, and includes a rest afterward \u2013 Siesta!<\/p>\n\n\n\n Merienda \u2013 Afternoon Snack 5:30-7pm A snack to tie you over to dinner.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Cena \u2013 Dinner 8:00-11 Dinner is light and begins with Tapas. It can go late into the night with sobremesa (the time when eating is finished, and you sit with friends and family drinking and talking into the night.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Restaurants close or only serve beverages between these dining times. You will be hard pressed to find a meal between 4:00 and 8:30 pm and if you do beware, they are usually restaurants catering to tourists and not very good.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I navigated the bustling market booths using mostly Spanish, it was a bit easier here since Euskara and Catalan languages were not used. I noticed there were a lot of locals, the market and my apartment were far enough from the cruise ships and popular tourist plazas and I was surrounded more by locals than visitors. It was interesting, everyone lining up at the stalls chatting familiarly with the vendors and each other, grabbing their food for the day. This market is open every day \u2013 and each day I loved seeing the people with their rolling cart bags shuffle from stall to stall, stopping when they see friends \u2013 there was as much visiting with each other, if not more, than actual shopping. It was clear this was a social center for the community.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I made myself a simple dinner of some pork loin with beans, garlic, olive oil and a sprinkle of the piri piri I got in Barcelona over rice with a fresh salad and spring onions. It was just what I needed, I tucked in for the night watching the sunset on my rooftop.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The next day I was excited to explore. Breakfast was leftovers with an egg \u2013 you will notice this is my favorite breakfast. I have never felt good with standard sweet American breakfasts, I would rather have a savory bite. And as much as I would love to here in Spain I can\u2019t take eating a pastry every morning as the locals do. I spend the morning getting a lay of the land, this city is easy to wander about \u2013 cobbled streets, white and pastel buildings. I am in the Old Town, which is surrounded on three sides by the sea, if you\u2019ve gone too far you will run into water. I made it back to the market before they closed at 4:00. I bought some fruit; I am not much of a fruit eater but here in Spain they eat a lot of fruit. I wanted to take some to the beach and make some sangria for later. I got some melons, apricots and cherries and some nisperos. I had no idea what nisperos were \u2013 they are loquats. They were interesting, a sweet and sour flavor with a creamy texture. Of course, I dove into some research and found that they came to Spain about 2000 years ago, native to Asia and Japan and they grow well in the Mediterranean climate. My apartment is so wonderful I decided to cook dinner at home again, so I bought shrimp and peppers for this evening. <\/p>\n\n\n\n I packed a snack of fruit and crackers, made sangria to refresh me when I return home from the sun and headed out. The main beach in Cadiz, flanked to the north by a late 16th<\/sup> century Castillo de Santa Catalina, a star shaped fortress for defense of the city and to the south my Castillo de San Sebastian, where it is said the Phoenician temple of Kronos or Hercules stood around 1100 BC and has been built upon by countless inhabitants. Both are now used as event spaces for the community. The bay is still full of little dinghy boats of the fisherman, you can see them come in at different times of the day with their buckets of catch that they take to the market. As you walk along the walled city you can see them freediving along the rocky coast and at night the bay is dappled with little lights bobbing as they catch their evening squid<\/p>\n\n\n\n I did as the locals did, took in some sun with a light snack from the market. Parked in the warm sand, I bought a 3-euro cold beer; the beer with ice falling off as the vendor plucked it from his bright rolling ice chest was chilly and refreshing. I observed as children splashed and listened to the quick Spanish of a group of women who sat in a circle in their travel chairs with attached bright umbrellas gossiped. And I contemplated all the history of this place, how many different people crossed its shores?<\/p>\n\n\n\n It was late and I stopped for some tapas along the palm tree lined street that led home, amazing; blistered peppers with sea salt and lemon and gambas aljio \u2013 shrimp in olive oil and garlic \u2013 with bread. It was fresh and delicious and the perfect meal for the warm sunny weather. <\/p>\n\n\n\n I made my way home \u2013 what a lovely place to land – and I started cooking. Red Calabrian chilies I got at the market, garlic, olive oil and onion sofrito \u2013 my apartment smelled amazing. The doors open the whole length of the wall, so it felt as if I was cooking outside on the rooftop. I pan fried my shrimp from the market, added some carrots that looked delicious and simmered it in the sofrito. I served it over some rice with my leftover fried peppers \u2013 so good and soo good with an egg on it for breakfast the next day! (See recipe here) My sangria came along nicely. Some of the fruit I got at the market, orange and lemon slices muddled in a white regional wine from the market. It was crisp and refreshing in the warm breeze on my patio. It felt wonderful to cook, to get lost in the process of it. I spent hours on my rooftop \u2013 savoring every bite, listening to the people below, the din of diners at the bars and market below becoming louder as the sky turned twilight. It was relaxing and heavenly. I let my mind wander about it all; what do people do here, to live? How do they eat in their homes? What is the typical day in terms of food; shopping, sharing, preparing? How has the culture here been shaped by so many years of inhabitants and migrants and trade? What has been ingrained here from this history that isn\u2019t anywhere else in Spain? What stories are untold here? These are questions I would like to answer by experiencing them, the sense of time is strong here, and I decide this is another place I would like to return. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The next morning, I had my usual breakfast, and headed out to find the roman salting factory. It was discovered during a demolition in 1995 right around the corner from my apartment. The 1st<\/sup> century BC factory contained great big deep vats carved out of stone where they layered fish and salt to salt cod and tuna for transport and preservation. They made a prized substance called Garum, a paste made from fish intestines and other parts, that were added to the tanks where the digestive enzymes broke down the tissues, while adding enough salt to prevent putrification. They let the mixture condense in the heat and strained the concoction until it formed a paste used as a flavor enhancer and even in cosmetics. Cadiz was prized for its garum and was Rome\u2019s main exporter. I can\u2019t imagine the smell of this factory, they not only salted fish, especially prized tuna, they made many other fish sauces and oils for export.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Time for lunch so I stopped in the market and got myself some paella and sangria, it was delicious. As I learned in Barcelona, I did not expect authentic paella, but this was a great rice dish and I enjoyed it. As I ate standing at the large round tables spread around the perimeter of the market, I watched the fishermen, set up outside the metal market gates, selling oysters and golden urchin pulled from the sea this morning. For a few euro you can get some shucked and cracked open with a wedge of lemon and eat them right on the spot, still cool and briny. I also saw vendors outside the market walls, small tables piled with mesh bags of caracoles \u2013 those land snails everyone is bonkers about here. Caracoles are a spring obsession here in Spain. The season runs from May to June and dates back over 30,000 years in this region. Spaniards eat them by the kilo as a tapa or snack with a glass of beer, slurping them, broth and all out of their corkscrew shells. The larger snails called Cabrillas are cooked in a tomato and garlic sauce and the smaller ones are steamed in a traditional broth of garlic, black pepper, cumin and bay leaves \u2013 sometimes curry is added. These are reluctantly on my list to try; I am on a culinary exploration and these little spiral housed mollusks are favorite here, so they are reluctantly on the list. I do not know how, nor do I feel comfortable preparing them myself, so I am on the hunt for a local spot to try them. No one I\u2019ve asked seems to know where I can get some prepared and I get the sneaking suspicion that they don\u2019t want tourists to sweep in on their limited stash – still on the squeamish hunt!<\/p>\n\n\n\n It was time to pack up and head to Seville, I am excited to go and I long to stay. Like Artesorro Basseria in Basque Country, I could spend a lot more time in this place. I want to dive into the history and layers of people and food here. It is an old place situated in a spot that served so many empires with \u2018gourmet\u2019 or prized foods for their times. I can see how this little place in Spain has stood the test of time and I want to know the stories in food.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I boarded the train and passed through the coastal salt flats or salina, row after row of irrigated ditches and reservoirs, some with sea water and some white with salt. Scattered throughout I saw old houses and barrack style homes. For over 3000 years this land was used to extract sea salt using solar evaporation. Flats of land next to the sea are at sea level or below, they carve big irrigation ditches leading to reservoirs. Gates allow the control of which reservoirs are flooded, once flooded the water is allowed to evaporate leaving the salt to harvest. The homes I saw were old homes for the workers and foreman when the land needed constant tending. Now sea salt is a much larger production, and these old Salinas are being revived into gastro tourism. I wish I had planned on touring them and will surely be back next year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Cadiz Well, the time has come to say goodbye to my travel companions and set out on my own. This is the first time I will travel alone abroad, and I am filled with excitement, nervousness and pride. I have wanted to do this since so long ago when I read an article in a … Continue reading Andaluc\u00eda<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":999,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[6],"tags":[],"geo":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.evergreen.edu\/foodag-portfolio-su23-ball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/289"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.evergreen.edu\/foodag-portfolio-su23-ball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.evergreen.edu\/foodag-portfolio-su23-ball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.evergreen.edu\/foodag-portfolio-su23-ball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/999"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.evergreen.edu\/foodag-portfolio-su23-ball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=289"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.evergreen.edu\/foodag-portfolio-su23-ball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/289\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":335,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.evergreen.edu\/foodag-portfolio-su23-ball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/289\/revisions\/335"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.evergreen.edu\/foodag-portfolio-su23-ball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=289"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.evergreen.edu\/foodag-portfolio-su23-ball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=289"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.evergreen.edu\/foodag-portfolio-su23-ball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=289"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/wordpress.evergreen.edu\/foodag-portfolio-su23-ball\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1207\/2023\/09\/IMG_0887-768x1024.jpeg\")
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