Eat your heart out, NYU...

i am such a food culture nerd and i'm so fine with that. i think i learned more in my culture class today than i have all week in spanish. so many verbs (to whisk, to mix, to add, to bake) it just makes me tingly all over! not only that, but the history of food culture in spain and how the four main historical periods (visigoths, romans, moors, and the age of discovery i.e. columbus) influenced the food they eat here, not to mention regional influences as well. so fascinating! it's too much to take in at once and now that i'm home for siesta i need to do some serious rereading with wordreference.com in front of me but i'm just so geeked out about all the glorious cultural learnings.
Unfortunately next week there will be another student with me in culture class...i say unfortunately because that means the class cannot be focused solely on my interests (mainly food and history), however it is advantageous because i will have culture class for an hour each day instead of an hour and a half twice a week. i very much enjoy my one on one time with Jesus, as he is also a total foodie so its exciting to be able to share that with someone.
Today Jesus brought me a selection of his own personal cookbooks: one specific to andalucia, one that focuses on primero platos but has both old and "new" cuisine (more on that in a second..), and the third was his father's cookbook from his grandmother, something along the lines of my osterizer cookbook, from 1967. he said i could keep them as long as i needed them and if he needed somethign from them he would ask me to bring them to him, also he said he would photocopy any recipes and explain anything i wanted. i am in spanish foodie heaven. he is an incredibly enthusiastic teacher, and we went through the books looking at our local regional cuisine, his favorite recipes, and of course he busted out the postres for me--Spanish desserts are nowhere near on par in terms of creativity or history as the rest of western europe and the US, but i believe there is much to be said for making doughs with flour, sugar, olive oil and lemon zest then frying the sh*t out of them and soaking them in honey. Specifically here in andalucia there is a very heavy north african influence so you use a lot of almendras y miel. Also they seem to really be into meringues and light fluffy things of that nature (think baked meringues, crunchy and airy, lots of lemons and almonds).
As far as "new cuisine" goes, according to Jesus all of the big chefs and creative, modern food comes from a territory in the north, Pais-Vasco , where the fish is the freshest in the world and the produce is unbelievable (so i hear). It is the foodie capital of Spain but as far as i can tell it doesnt really seem to influence the rest of the country. Personally i dont really care one way or the other about innovation in Spanish cuisine because right now i am so enchanted by the history and the romance of it all. Particularly in Andalucia where there is a such an influx of foreign products (Sevilla had the monopoly on imported goods from the Americas, and this region also benefited greatly during its moorish years as the new spice route for those trying to avoid the crusaders).
...Suffice it to say, I'm loving it, solo quiero ir de tapear y comer todo!