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The Iberian Peninsula, where the Atlantic meets the Mediterranean, has long been a crossroads of civilizations. Layers of Roman ruins and Islamic influence have shaped a landscape that now speaks a new language: flavor. EBS1’s ‘World Theme Travel’ launches a four-part series, Reading Spain and Portugal Through Taste, which follows Iberia’s timeline through its food. More than a travel-food show, it gently examines the histories and everyday lives served on a single plate.
Part 1, \”Eating a Vast Time,\” airing on the 27th, begins in Seville. The port city Columbus sailed from to reach the New World and a hub of the Age of Discovery, Seville is where diverse food cultures met and helped shape modern Spanish cuisine. Spanish culinary researcher and chef Ahn Jae-seok opens the episode by joining his friend José’s family at the table. They slip into a \”secret market\” that most tourists never see and explore a garden culture you can start for just 1 euro (approximately 1.07 USD). Back at home, they prepare jagosae — a dish traditionally served only to honored guests — tracing the textures and rituals of an enduring food culture.
The journey then moves to the sea. In Rota, a town marked by Roman traces, a striking stone structure rises from the water. Known as the corales de pesca, this traditional fishing installation uses tidal shifts to trap fish and represents more than 2,000 years of communal know-how. Fishermen head out twice a day with the tides, following long-held rules: elders decide when work begins, the catch is shared fairly, the stone walls are maintained by the community, and nothing is wasted—the whole fish is eaten, guts and all. It’s a way of living in harmony with nature and a social order passed down through generations.
Up north at Laguna de Duero, another \”food of time\” takes center stage. Spain’s signature tortilla is reimagined on a monumental scale: once a year the community makes a colossal tortilla weighing 260 kg. Using a custom-built giant pan and a dedicated fire pit, the cooking lasts more than six hours and unfolds like a festival. Stories of the tortilla’s origins range from recipes made for kings to dishes born in wartime, but here it’s reborn as a symbol that binds the community. Watching why people make and share such enormous food makes clear that dishes hold memory and time as much as they hold flavor.
World Theme Travel doesn’t linger on flashy gastronomy or postcard scenery. It focuses on the stories behind a city’s table, a fisherman’s hands, and the years invested in a single celebration. The series traces where a meal begins and who has kept it alive, step by step.
The first episode of Reading Spain and Portugal Through Taste, Eating a Vast Time, airs at 8:40 PM on the 27th.
※ This article was written without compensation.
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