through andalusia, in search of gazpacho - new york...

Through Andalusia, in Search of Gazpacho - New York Times Sat Sep 03 2005 10:32:31 US/Eastern

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Denis Doyle for The New York TimesSalmorejo cordobés, a sturdy formof gazpacho, at Casa Pepe inCórdoba.

Through Andalusia, in Search of Gazpacho

Denis Doyle for The New York TimesThe ingredients for porra antequerana (a local variation on gazpacho), at La Espuela restaurant in Antequera.

By ANDREW FERRENPublished: September 4, 2005

SPAIN is a matrix of themed routes - rutas as they are known in Spanish -carefully mapped out for those looking to follow a lead. There is theCatholic pilgrimage route of Santiago de Compostela, the Ruta delQuijote, trailing Cervantes's beloved character from windmill to windmill in La Mancha, and,in season, there is even a Strawberry Train.

So doesn't gazpacho, perhaps the country's most persuasivegastronomic goodwill ambassador, deserve the same? Coldsoup was addictive long before the actress Carmen Mauratossed a fistful of Valium into a blender of gazpacho in PedroAlmodóvar's 1988 film, "Women on the Verge of a NervousBreakdown." Perhaps the ultimate indication of its appealtoday might be that for just one euro, a McDonald's meal inSpain can be supersized with a refreshing cup of the stuff.

A little research conducted among chefs, food critics andhistorians suggested that tracing the regional origins of someof Spain's most popular cold soups - gazpacho andaluz, andits chilly culinary cousins, ajo blanco malagueño andsalmorejo cordobés, among others - would form the basis of aroute for travelers through Andalusia, going bowl to bowlacross the lovely patchwork landscape of olive groves andjagged mountain ranges dotted with castle-crowned hilltoptowns. But along this Ruta de la Sopa Fría (Cold SoupRoute), which took me from Córdoba to Carmona, nearSeville, and down through Antequera to Málaga, I soonlearned that I was probably the only person pausing to ponderwhence cometh the cooling concoctions.

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Denis Doyle for The New York TimesWillie Orellana, chef at the newTrayamar in Málaga, prepares abowl of ajo blanco.

According to the historian and writer Inés Eléxpuru, who haswritten extensively on both historical Andalusian "rutas" andthe region's rich culinary legacy, "Gazpacho and other coldsoups have always just been part of the gastronomic mix" forSpaniards.

From Córdoba in the north of Andalusia to Málaga on theMediterranean coast in the south, this proved to be the case.Gazpacho, which started out neither red (tomatoes andpeppers didn't make the culinary scene in Europe untilbrought from the Americas at the start of the 16th century)nor cold (given the lack of refrigerators in the Middle Ages),has never stopped evolving.

Food historians trace antecedents of gazpacho at least as farback as the Romans in the third century B.C. though thesewere further refined by 800 years of Moorish presence in theregion. Most versions evolved as a means by which peasants

could make a meal using old bread, olive oil, nuts or vegetables as well as bits of ham, hard-boiled eggs and other ingredients that were either torn up into a salad or puréed with a mortarand pestle. In Andalusia, these versions developed into subtly refined soups, but in otherregions, like neighboring Extremadura, they remained salads and are, in fact, often servedthat way, and described as gazpacho extremeño or en trozos ("in pieces").

So what we may think of as the classic gazpacho of tomato, cucumber, peppers, garlic, day-old bread, olive oil, water and salt - all blended up and iced down - was itself an arriviste notso long ago.

It's no wonder that so many distinct recipes evolved. In a less humble way, the processcontinues today in the age of nueva cocina, when Spanish chefs garner Michelin stars bymaking cold soups with unexpected ingredients - watermelon, cherries, mango or evensardines, for instance.

The celebrated Andalusian chef Dani García, whose restaurant Calima, opening soon inMarbella, will dedicate an entire section of its menu to both traditional and interpretive coldsoups, explained some of the current trends. "Traditional malagueño ajo blanco was a slightlybitter soup of bread, almonds, olive oil, garlic, vinegar and water, so it was served withgrapes or melon to add a note of sweetness," he said. "Today, chefs may use that melon orother fruits to make sweeter soups and so then garnish them with something savory."

Córdoba, the mythic capital of Al Andalus - as Moorish Spain was known - remains one ofthe most romantic cities in all of Spain. In the maze of narrow streets in the ancient Jewishquarter, in the shadow of the monumental Mezquita, or Great Mosque, one is transportedback to the 11th century, when Jews, Muslims and Christians shared the city in relativeharmony. With its forest of nearly 850 marble columns, the Mezquita is one of the greatarchitectural wonders of the world and reason enough to visit the city.

But I was in town for cold soup, since the city lends its name to a dish known as salmorejocordobés - a sturdy form of gazpacho that, depending on whom you consult, includes morebread and less (or no) water than gazpacho and also has both hard-boiled and raw eggs foradded texture and richness. In fact, it's sturdy enough that it is usually served on a plate ratherthan a bowl and traditionally arrives at the table topped with morsels of succulent jamónserrano and some chopped egg.

The salmorejo at El Churrasco on Calle Romero, a charmingly overdecorated Andalusianmesón, did not disappoint. Advised of my interest tracing the origins of Andalusia's coldsoups, the affable waiter Paco suggested I order some crisply fried eggplant as a vehicle forthe creamy salmorejo.

Salmorejo was not the only dish I tried at El Churrasco. Though I was not meant to sample ituntil Málaga, the ajo blanco tempted me, and for good reason. It was a luscious purée of pinenuts instead of almonds, topped with a chunky dice of acidic green apple and sweet sultanas.



It quickly became clear that cold soup respects no traditional borders.

Just down the street, Casa Pepe, a lively jumble of small rooms on two floors, with a shadedpatio at its heart, offers its own inspired version of ajo blanco in which a scoop of tart greenapple ice cream and four translucent cubes of raisin confit float. The chef, Juan Carlo Muñoz,also offers a gazpacho of cherries with a drizzle of chive oil - maintaining the sweet-savorybalance - on top, served in a short glass to be drunk.

Since gazpacho andaluz is the patrimony of an entire province and no one particular town, Iwas free to select the next stop on the Ruta and chose Carmona, a town most likely as old asgazpacho itself. Perched on a highly defensible hill overlooking the vast Andalusian plains,Carmona was for millennia an important stop on the trade route between Córdoba andSeville, as seen by the picturesque town's high density of Roman and Moorish ruins as wellas splendidly ornate Baroque churches and grand palaces.

Restaurant San Fernando occupies an airy second-floor dining room with large windowsoverlooking the treetops and giddy wrought-iron pavilion in the Plaza San Fernando below.While the luxuriantly creamy soup was about the closest thing I would sample on my journeyto a classic gazpacho, it was served in a bowl made of decoratively interlaced cucumberslices.

Heading southeast out of Carmona across the wide-open fields where centuries before,gazpacho's early practitioners perfected their recipes between shifts picking olives orharvesting wheat, one passes such picturesque towns as Marchena and Osuna en route toAntequera. The namesake of a soup known as porra antequerana, Antequera is perhaps evenolder than Carmona, given the Bronze Age complex of vast cave chambers on the outskirtsof town. The Municipal Museum includes more recent cultural relics, most notably thefamous first-century Ephebe of Antequera - a beautifully preserved Roman bronze sculptureof a youth.

According to most recipes, porra is basically gazpacho to which no water is added, creating asoup that is denser and slightly more acidic than most gazpachos. Most recipes call fortopping it with bits of jamón serrano and hard-boiled egg, but in Antequera I didn't meet aporra that didn't also wear some tuna and tomato wedges as well. The best I had was at LaEspuela, but it may have had to do with the romance of the location since the restaurant isinside the city's historic bullring.

Just 45 minutes south of Antequera is Málaga, cradle of ajo blanco. José Carlos Capel,perhaps Spain's leading food critic, suggested I go to the Michelin one-star restaurant Café deParis to try the ajo blanco, which is allegedly garnished with a frozen red wine granita,"giving the soup a touch of nobility." I say "allegedly garnished" because Café de Paris wasunexpectedly closed, so I booked at the recently opened Trayamar, where there were fourcold soups on the menu - two gazpachos and two ajo blancos. The best of the bunch was arichly smooth, more or less traditional ajo blanco of almonds, but at the bottom of whichfloated diced mango macerated in anis-flavored liqueur.

Like Málaga itself - its historic center being rapidly revitalized - it seems that cold soups arepreserving the best of their traditional incarnations, but freely updating. Five hundred yearsafter the introduction of the tomato, it's worth considering that the Ruta de la Sopa Fría mightbe more about where the road is leading than where it's been.

RESTAURANTS

CÓRDOBA: Casa Pepe de la Judería, Calle Romero 1, (34-957) 200 744. Beyond coldsoups, house specialties include Sefardi lamb with honey and hazelnuts. Lunch for two withwine, about $60 to $75, at $1.25 to the euro.

El Churrasco, Calle Romero 16, (34-957) 290 819. Known for its salmorejo and ajo blancowith pine nuts, this restaurant offers such specialties as humble but rich fried beans withjamón serrano. Dinner for two with wine and a glass of local fino, known as Montilla, about$100.

CARMONA: San Fernando, Calle Sacramento 3, (34-954) 143 556. In addition to the



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standout gazpacho, try the cumin-infused vegetable appetizers "a la Carmona." Entreesinclude chuletitas - tiny lamb chops - and codfish on garlic mousse with calamari sauce.Lunch $25 to $50 a person. Or try the 22-euro ($27.50) tasting menu.

ANTEQUERA: La Espuela, Plaza de Toros de Antequera, (34-952) 703 424. Therestaurant specializes in traditional Andalusian dishes like rabo de toro (stewed bull's tail), aswell as the porra antequerana. Lunch for two with wine, about $60.

MÁLAGA: Café de Paris, Calle Vélez Málaga 8, Zona La Malagueta, (34-952) 225 043.The restaurant is best known for several cold soups, among them an ajo blanco with red winegranita, and several fruit gazpachos as well. Lunch for two with wine, about $125.

Trayamar, Plaza Uncibay 9, (34-952) 215 459. The menu changes frequently, but beyondits interpretive versions of cold soups, Trayamar specializes in seafood such as grouper withthree types of chard. Dinner for two with wine, $100 to $125.

HOTELS

CÓRDOBA: Hotel NH Amistad Córdoba, Plaza de Maimónides 3, (34-957) 420 335;www.nh-hotels.com. A four-star hotel housed in two 18th-century mansions and anadjoining building in the heart of the old city near the Mosque. Rooms are clean and modern.Double rooms from $106 to $190; not including breakfast ($18.70) and 7 percent tax.

MÁLAGA: Hotel Larios, Calle Marqués de Larios 2, (34-952) 222 200; www.hotel-larios.com. On the city's grandest pedestrian street, the hotel has a rooftop terrace bar withviews over the city. Rooms, most with small balconies, are spacious and modern with adiscernable Art Deco accent. Doubles from $120 to $187; not including breakfast ($15) and7 percent tax.

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