Andalusian Spanish

Gazpacho on the table chilled in a clay pitcher in summer; Salmorejo, the thicker Cordoba cousin, served with chopped jamón and hard-boiled egg. Pescaíto Frito — flour-dusted whitebait and anchovies fried so fast the bones turn into crackle — is the Cádiz beach lunch. Rabo de Toro (red-wine oxtail braise from the bullfighting tradition) for Sunday. Boquerones en Vinagre (anchovies marinated in white-wine vinegar with garlic and parsley) for the bar. Olives from Jaén, sherry from Jerez, jamón ibérico de bellota cured in the Sierra de Aracena.

Within Spanish cuisine, Andalusian food shows seven-hundred years of Moorish presence — almonds, eggplant, citrus, saffron, the cold soups that handle the heat. The Sherry Triangle (Jerez, Sanlúcar, El Puerto) gives the world fino, manzanilla, oloroso, and the technique of cooking with sherry vinegar. The Olive Oil Country (Jaén, Córdoba) is the Mediterranean's largest source. Different from Castile's lamb-and-pulse heartland, different from Catalonia's Mediterranean tomato cooking — Andalusia is hotter, oilier, more North-Africa-shaped.