SPAM fritters for ever yeh! Probably worse for us than deep fried Mars bars but as a special treat when back in UK you can't beat it.

As Fred says the book is better on the food side with 140 recipies so if you get the DVD and the book you have the complete pitch. Pity BBC don't do a Blue Ray since watching the series in HD was truly spectacular.

made sure I watched every episode and felt he missed out of alot of Spain in his borrowed "camper". a little surprised at how short the series was, how few fry-ups he actually did.. wouldnt say he is over rated after watching him come down thru France on a barge, cooking all the way, but this one was a little sparse.

yes, Floyd was able to take the cooking to a totally different level, surely the first of the chefs who took it out to the people,?
also the first to suggest using your own variations and not stick rigidly to the ingrediants
learnt alot from him about drinking a bottle of red whilst cooking a meal, especially when there is none in the dish
cheers Keith

I meant the food.

you come on this forum and suggest food is over-rated

i know i picked up a couple of ideas from the series, what I think is more important is how much i was able to learn about Spain.
I'm not so sure about the incredulous tones he used when commenting on the grinding poverty the local workers lived in, and importantly only a few decades ago. So many think of Sun, Sea, Sex, Sangria, Spain. thats the problem it has, so few go inland to see the workings of the engine.
Granada has over 2m visitors every year mainly due to the Alhambra, but.....they only go for the day from the coast, or spend a night or two in a local hotel..
the GDY who told me he had "done the Alhambra" that morning (and not yet noon) and was waiting for the coach to take them to Cadiz for the afternoon is just collecting notches on the bed post.

I never frequent tourist traps, only places the locals use. some sniff as one or two may not seem so plastic clean as they feel they warrant, but if it don't kill the locals it won't kill me (Ihope)

not sure I will cough for the book but will consider it
rgds

There is Rick Stein now again on "een" TV ( Flemish , right now ) a full hour of utter and sheer nonsense ;
first he was in Mallorca , now in Barcelona ;
can't believe , what utter rubbish he is glamourising and what all acting pretense is involved ;
nothing ever new , and he gets so madly exstatic about some tomatoes and garlic , hey , wake up ( who does not have those ? )
I'll never spend another minute watching him again !

I think you have the wrong program - he never went to Mallorca in the "Spain" program.

It's probably a repeat of an earlier series about the Mediterranean.

If you don't like don't watch it!

1) In Spain the food is, as a rule, with fresh products. There are exceptions, of course, is that some foods are canned, because for instance, a child who is eating a sandwich in the school of anchovies or sardines, we don't going to do with fish freshly purchased from the fish market, is absurd. The best option is a good canned of anchovies or sardines

But if you're a crafty person and you enjoy cooking, of course it is better good and fresh products, not processed. And here we know, spanish cuisine is based on this. If you cook and you have fresh food, have good food, because besides the kitchen here is honest, anyone can make one at home, as an egg custard, a tocino de cielo (bacon from heaven?) or a paella

2) I don't know in the UK, but the food in Spain is something cultural, social (and of course, historic). People gather to eat, and eat well. When friends gather, families or business people are going to close a deal, etc etc etc. I think that the saying would is that we live to eat, not eat to live

3) There are some foods, but very few, I only see in the cans, such as piquillo peppers. I don't know why it will, can be for marketing or because it may be roasted and canned is better than fresh. There is fresh peppers, of course, but piquillo I think not

In the UK they are known as Business lunches and dinner parties.

Never seen it but having seen a few Spanish TV cooking progs as they move around the country, some things just never change and I can usually guess half the ingredients before they even say what they're cooking, tomatoes,garlic,olive oil etc,etc.... here we go again.

I love basic Spanish food, as I do Greek food as its very simple and gets the most from very few ingredients. Stein is a good cook, nothing fancy about the man.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1gyrxwN-ESE
DSB.

If you are into spanish cooking why not watch the real thing, lots of cooking programmes on spanish TV

Stein is ok as celebrity chefs go but it is all about making money and shooting back to his lovely beach home in Australia.

Absolutley! I watched 10 mins of the Stein programme and turned over because he was too ignorant and patronising

I used to watch Jose Andrés, he was very good and is now a huge name in the US

Every channel has cooking progs, Arguinyano is one thats been around forever and is quite entertaining

By far the best grub I've had in Spain was in small bars run by decendants of families who left Spain for Central America and eventually returned complete with recipes and cooking skills, most especially those of Venezualan origin.