Street Food in Spain - KNIFE CUT JAMÓN NINJA + TAPAS in Seville!! Spanish Street Food in Seville

Welcome to another episode of Chopstick Travel. My name is Luke Martin and today I am so excited to announce that we are here in Seville, Spain. This is our first time here in Spain and we just arrived last night. Sevilla is the capital of the Andalusian region in the south of Spain and it is famous for its tapas. We are up bright and early, we are super hungry, ready to explore this city and all of its delicious foods. So let's get started. For breakfast today we are at this really cool restaurant. It's called Bar Alfalfa and the outside of this place alone was enough to draw us in. It just looks so cool and then when you come inside it's got this really old world feel to it. There's ham hocks hanging from the ceiling, wine bottles all over the wall and we ordered up a really delicious looking breakfast. This is called the Tostada Andalusia and inside here you can see the specialty of this region and something I have been so excited to try here, the jamon. This is Iberian ham that has been acorn fed, so these pigs only feed on acorns and you can see there's quite a bit of olive oil also on top there but man just the look of that ham alone makes my mouth water. And then underneath here there's a little bit of pureed tomato you can see there. So it's a very simple breakfast dish but man this ham just looks too too good. That bread is so ridiculously crisp and really kind of tart sour tomatoes in there and just a slight flavor of that jamon. Unfortunately it's actually kind of overpowered by the tomatoes, there's quite a bit of that pureed tomatoes but you can still taste that. It's almost got this like rich oiliness to it and a little bit salty. How about actually I'm just going to grab a piece by itself just to try it. We are going to be eating a lot more jamon so don't worry but this is my first taste of true Iberian jamon here in Sevilla. Oh man, wow, it just melts in your mouth. Oh that is so good, so oily. This is an awesome breakfast and we've got our cafe con leche, coffee with milk. Just a simple breakfast but really my favorite part about this is the atmosphere of this restaurant. It is so typically Spanish, it looks awesome in here. Quite possibly not the greatest tostada in all of Sevilla but still pretty good. I really just love it for the atmosphere though, bar alfalfa, so that was a good way to start the day. We are heading now to get dessert. Is that a weird thing to do to get dessert after breakfast? I hope not. So for dessert we are having one of the most famous Spanish desserts of all, churros. We are at this really cool restaurant standing street side. We've got our massive plate of churros here and we ordered churros con chocolate which is with this hot chocolate they say but basically it's just completely melted liquefied chocolate. We are at this really cool bar, there is an indoor section of course. We've got the only outdoor table. This just looks too good, this looks very unhealthy but delicious. So let me grab one of these churros and these are famous all around the world but they come from here and look at that. Oh man, let's try it. Wow, a lot of churros that I've had before in other countries have kind of been really crunchy but this is very very light, very fluffy, almost like pillow-like and then the chocolate, the chocolate is just ridiculously creamy. It's actually not as sweet as I thought it would be. Let me go in for one more dunk here. It's just so thick, look at that, but really not as sweet as I had imagined. They've definitely mixed some milk in as well. Oh man, that is rich. What do you think? Oh my god, it's so good. This is like really chocolatey, it almost tastes like a regular chocolate pudding and then kind of the savoriness of the churro itself really mixes well with the flavors. Awesome way to start the day actually. So those were some really delicious churros and the churros are not sugar coated maybe like some of the ones you have abroad and also the chocolate that we ate it with wasn't as sweet as I had imagined. It was really really good and this place too is really cool. Once again, just an amazing atmosphere and this is over 100 years old, like 115 years old, so you can just really feel the culture here in Seville standing in the streets eating churros but we were quite full after that so I think we're going to check out some of the sights now. One thing I'm noticing about Seville is that it is just extremely clean and well-kept. It feels like a very well-preserved ancient city and it definitely doesn't feel like it's lost any of its charm. It feels very authentic and we are coming up now on the Seville Cathedral. So as you can see behind me, we are at the Cathedral of Seville. This is in the center of the city. It is a beautiful cathedral. It actually started off as a Moorish mosque but since then has undergone major reconstruction into this beautiful cathedral and it's actually the world's largest gothic cathedral. So unfortunately there are some pretty specific hours at which you can go inside of the cathedral and I think you need to book a tour to see most of it anyway. So we're going to keep moving, there is a market close by that we want to check out. Walking across the Triana Bridge here in Seville, crossing over the river, beautiful views and a really beautiful bridge. It is a gorgeous day out here on our way to the market which is also called the Triana Market just on the other side of the bridge. So this is a pretty small market but it is packed with a lot of cool stuff. There is all kinds of different interesting things here. This is my first time ever at a Spanish market and I am loving it. We spotted a couple places that are selling some jamón, some kind of tasting plate, so I think we're going to stop at one of those and order one. We are sitting down inside the market now at one of the manicured meat stalls. We order ourselves up a beautiful looking platter of jamón ibérico. This is the jamón balota premium, which is 40 months at least aged. The men working here are slicing this paper thin right off the leg of the pig and this stuff just looks too good. Check this out, it is paper thin. You have to have basically like a degree to be allowed to cut this stuff. You have to go through training in order to cut it properly and man it just looks so good. It's just glimmering in the light here. We also have ourselves a sangria, the classic Spanish drink of red wine and sort of like a fruit punch. I see some apple slices floating around in there and I am totally ready to dig into this. This is exactly what I want right now. Okay, I'm gonna go for this piece right here. This stuff is not cheap. This was 60 grams for about 11 euros I think and super paper thin stuff. I picked a nice piece with a nice layer of fat on it and let's try this out. Some really high quality jamón here. That is a definition of melt in your mouth. Wow, that layer of fat instantly liquefied. There's a little bit of a bite to the leaner piece but man the flavor of that is intense. You can just taste the aging cured process there. It is a little bit salty, it's almost a little bit sweet and it's got this really deep sort of aroma, kind of like a light musk flavor. It's really complex tasting but really really good. Let's chase that down with a little bit of sangria. Oh yeah, that is refreshing. That's definitely got an alcoholic kick to it. A little bit fruity, a little bit apple-y. Oh man, this is exactly what I came to Spain for. It doesn't get better than this guys. Hand-carved jamón straight from the market. This stuff is seriously so good. You have to come here to Spain to try it for yourself. I'm having a hard time describing it. It's really complex flavor but I love cured meat and this has got to be one of the best pieces I've ever had. Finished off with the market, the Triana market. That was really really cool and that was some seriously good jamón. We are heading back across the bridge over to the other side of the river to check out the Plaza de España. So we've just crossed the water now and we've come into Plaza de España. It's a really gorgeous beautiful park. You can walk around, you can see all the orange trees, horses trotting around and we're just going to have a quick look around and relax a little bit. After working your way through the park, you come to the actual main building here with a huge square, a big fountain in the middle and a canal running around outside. It is absolutely beautiful here. We are blown away. The Spanish architecture has to be probably my favorite in all of Europe. It's just gorgeous. So this place is a lot of fun. We were fortunate enough to just catch a flamenco dance which was so cool to see. That is something that is extremely famous from Sevilla and yeah now we are getting a little bit hungry again. We are heading now to get some tapas. For lunch today, as I mentioned, we are having tapas and what tapas is is a religious dining culture here in the Andalusia region of Spain. It basically revolves around these small plates. You order a bunch of different ones and they're good for sharing. So we're sitting outdoors at this restaurant. Really cool atmosphere. This place is called El Verro Parillo and one thing that this restaurant in particular is famous for is their vino de naranja which is their orange wine. Oranges, particularly the bitter oranges, are sort of a symbol of Seville and to my surprise the wine actually isn't orange. It's actually kind of dark red in color. Let me try it out though. Oh wow. It's not like a table wine at all. That's not really what I was expecting. It's almost smoky like a really soft whiskey almost and then there is a sweetness and a little bit of a fruity sort of citrus notes. That's pretty good actually though but it's a lot stronger than I thought. Two of our three tapas has arrived. This one here, this orange sort of soup looking thing, is the salmarejo which is a specialty of Andalusia. It's very similar to gazpacho if you're familiar with that which comes from I believe the north of Spain. So it's like a tomato puree that is served cold and then we got ours con jamon. So more of that Iberian ham you can see in the middle and then a drizzle of olive oil on top. Over here we've got the chicharron. This is pork belly that I believe has been roasted and then once again sprinkled with some olive oil and then I can just see some rock salt. Let's start with the salmarejo. First I'm gonna make sure I get some of that jamon and lots of that tomato puree. Oh man. Oh that is really really nice. It looks a lot thicker than it actually feels in the mouth. It's very kind of light and creamy. It is served cold which may surprise you if you're not familiar with it but it's really nice. It's really kind of refreshing and then a little salty kick from that jamon. Oh man that is actually really really good. I love the texture of it. I was expecting it to be a little bit more kind of chunky but I'm actually pleasantly surprised it's very very smooth and creamy. Oh man that is really refreshing. Okay let's try the chicharron next. Oh man. Oh that is nice. Maybe there's some paprika, definitely some black pepper as well and it is quite salty and it is also served cold. It's not bad. Our third and final tapas has arrived. This is the montedito de pringa which is sort of I believe it's pulled pork mixed with some cured meat. It could be pork or beef so I'm not exactly sure but it looks like pork to me and it's in this kind of toasty sandwich. Let's try this out. Oh man. That is so tender on the inside. Really juicy. That has like amazing natural meaty flavor. So all three dishes are really good. I have to say that the pringa is my favorite. It's just so delicious. All that pulled pork inside, slightly spiced and I think there's a little bit of cured meat in there, maybe some jamon and then next up I'd have to say it's definitely the samarejo which is the specialty here in this region. Really refreshing and delicious. This chicharron is also very good but it's just kind of plain I guess you could say. Everything here is really good, even the wine. The wine is really strong. It almost sort of tastes like you're drinking like whiskey or brandy. It's quite intense flavor. So this kind of culture of tapas, we've never had something like this from all the places we've traveled and it's a really good way to come and sample some of their specialties. So we have all these little small amounts to sample and we're not going to fill up so that we can keep eating more Spanish food. Finished up with lunch that was seriously delicious. The food here has been really impressive. We are quite full and had a really good morning and afternoon exploring this beautiful city but it's just about time for siesta so we're going to catch back up with you tonight when we go in for dinner. Finished up with our siesta. It is nighttime now. For those of you who aren't familiar with Spanish dining culture, most of the shops are going to close down in the late afternoon for a siesta which is just like a rest and then they're going to open up later that night maybe 8 p.m or sometimes even later and the Spanish like to go and dine really late so we're out at it's only 7 or 7 30 now. We're going to be a little bit earlier but we are heading to a really cool place for dinner tonight that I'm super excited to try it. So behind me here is a very famous bar here in Seville. This is called El Rinconcillo and this is the oldest bar in all of Seville and the second oldest in Spain. It has been open since 1670. You heard that correctly 1670. This is probably the oldest restaurant I'm ever going to go to so let's go inside and order up some more tapas. So for dinner tonight we are having more tapas. This place is super cool. There is some seating but it is preferred by the locals anyways that you eat while standing so we just ordered two different tapas and let me introduce them to you. So the first one we have here is espinacas con garbanzos which is spinach with garbanzo beans or chickpeas and it looks like it's maybe been like stewed a little bit and almost pureed that spinach and this is a very popular tapa. Back here we have the caraída de cherdo which is the stewed pork cheek and you can just see those massive chunks of pork cheek in there. That just looks too good. Oh man and I can already feel that that is super tender in my fork and then to drink we have a very special wine of this region. This is called manzanilla. It is like a type of sherry which is a fortified wine so when they're producing the wine they actually add some other liquor usually brandy in and I've never tried this but I hear it's kind of like a grandmother drink but let me try it. Oh no that's not bad at all. You can definitely taste like that little bit of like smoky brandy but it's almost like a regular table white wine. Not as strong as that orange wine we had for lunch. I'm gonna start with the spinach with the chickpeas. Oh man wow that is so nice. The texture of that is almost like baby food but I don't want to turn you off of it because it really is good but you definitely don't need teeth to eat that. It's like a pureed spinach and then the chickpeas have a little bit more of a crunch left to them but still very very tender. Okay let's try the pork cheek next. This is something I'm looking forward to trying. That just looks like some super tender meat. Let's go in for a bite of that. You can tell that was just cooked for a really long time on a low temperature. Falls apart in your mouth. Very simple flavors. Not overpowering. Just a little bit of a vegetable sort of broth and it's all about that natural meat flavor. Oh man both of these are good. We're definitely going to be ordering some more tapa. This bar just has a very special charm to it. Everybody's standing up and enjoying and chatting and drinking wine and this place is incredible. The decor, the wine stacked on the wall. It looks like it hasn't changed over the hundreds of years it's been in operation and we are really enjoying our time. Round two has arrived. We have two more delicious looking dishes. This one's called arroz which is like a stewed rice with some charcuterie so some cured meats inside. I see some vegetables too. Maybe looks like a little bit of tomato, a little bit of peppers in there and then back over here we have the bacalao con tomate which is cod, codfish and then just in a kind of like a tomato stew. So I'm actually just going to go in right away try a piece of this cod with some of the tomato. Oh wow that has a strong seafood flavor. So the tomatoes there don't really cut through the fish flavor. It's a really strong cod flavor. That one's probably not my favorite and the cod isn't actually very tender. It's kind of a little bit chewy which has caught me off guard a little bit so probably not my favorite tapa of the day but let's try this next one here the arroz and this looks really good. I can smell it. It just smells incredible. Try that. Oh yeah. Oh wow. That is phenomenal. There's like little bits of cured meat in there that kind of have like a chewy bite to them. The rice is very soft but very very flavorful. It's almost got like a sourness to it. That is really good and I've got myself a glass of red wine here. Man this place is just too cool. We are having a great time. I think if I calculated right 379 years old. That is ridiculously old or 349 years. I don't know. Really old. Thoughts on the bar? This place is really cool. If you come to one place and one place only I think that this place would be a really good place to just sum up the whole experience of tapas. The food is really good. The atmosphere is really cool. It's decently cheap. Reasonably priced anyway and just to be in a building that is so old let alone a restaurant. Really cool experience. What was your favorite dish? What are you doing? What was your favorite dish? What was your favorite dish? My favorite dish? Probably the pork cheek. Definitely the pork cheek. That was really good. What was your favorite dish? I also like the pork cheek but I think the spinach and the garbanzo beans were really good because it was super flavorful. All right guys that's going to be it for today's episode. What an incredible first day here in Spain. This country is already blowing our minds. Sevilla is such a beautiful city packed with some really delicious foods. So let us know down in the comment box what your favorite tapa is and if you haven't already subscribed to this channel hit the bell icon so you're notified and we'll see you again here in Spain very soon. Bye-bye.