I fell in love with Alicante (Spain's most underrated city)

this beautiful Spanish city right on the med has long been off so many people's Radars it's always sat in the shadow of more famous Mediterranean cities Barcelona Valencia Malaga and confession alikante has never really been on my bucket list but clearly I was wrong wow that is so good just the way that the sea is like glistening in the light we just walked around the corner and there's this like ah this massive church today I'm meeting with Aliante tour guides Rebecca and Alberto from alioli tours hey Rebecca how are you and they're going to show me the best of their City the sites the beaches the famous sanan Beach and importantly the food I've never seen this before and we start with the food at the city's Majestic Market wow I mean it's beautiful Rebecca and this just shows how off my radar alikante is that I've never even seen an image of this market and it's gorgeous we just celebrated the 100th anniversary it is the one of the biggest indoor markets in Spain Rebecca along with husband Alberto who will meet later run alioli tours they offer food and cultural tours in the city and day trips around the region I'll link their details below but enough talk let's eat we kick off at a market stall selling fresh bread and delicious baked goods so here we have local pastries I and you see how you know a lot ofing there next up the fishmongers wow okay I've never seen are these smoked these are beautiful you see these up here John Bonito de L this whole stand is focused on salones which are salted and dried fish okay so if you think of back hundreds and hundreds of years ago and there wasn't electricity how did we preserve food this way right this is Bonito okay it's been salted and dried of course and you can see they've opened it up and then they salt and dry and I'll show you another another one here these are moama which is the loin of a tuna yeah okay this we we call the Hamond delar the ham of the sea the variety of Spain it's like I've been here 12 years my job guys is to talk about this stuff and I come to a new region and I see stuff for the first time and I get really excited and it just shows how much more well how much there is to explore and understand in this country Alik is known as Europe's Market Garden and the Region's gorgeous array of fruits and vegetables are on dis display here including crops I've never seen before super crunchy I mean I've never seen I've never seen this before what's it called again never seen it no I mean maybe I'm an idiot because no but that goes to show also James Liv in Madrid I'm in alante and we can eat different things you things you've never even seen this is grown in aland so we're just walking through and I mean look at these stalls with these grapes hanging and this one over here the floral display above much better than shopping at mercadona much better much better wow all right I know we're going to a bar next so should grab some food let's go every Market in Spain has a bar or two or five and so we head to baral where Jorge serves up gome Tapas prepared with market fresh prodad juice this looks amazing so what have we got Rebecca here you have kind of like a a pastry here well it's it's crunchy then you have a Mia butter yeah butter and chovy oh my God that is decadent they're very decent I've never had butter with an Anie before and next up a salad that's simply tomatoes with slivers of The Salted and dried fish we saw earlier this dish is an Alicante classic and I've never tried [Music] it okay everything with head here the cooking has just been the combination the selection of the ingredients and the combination you know good oil a little bit of salt and finally some deep fried pork belly this I have tried before and it's addictive this one's a little less healthy but everything moderation right wow has such a beautiful textural difference between this this crunchy outside it's like pork grind and they're just juicy you can see how juicy the the middle is and it doesn't taste too overwhelming or oily right next we jump into a taxi and head up the hill to explore the historic and beautiful Santa gruth neighborhood which dates back to the 8th century and sits in the shadow of the city's sprawling 9th century Castle just make sure I get run over by this guy right so obviously like in July August gets pretty hot like what like in summer is it bearable and what it's like in Winter it does get cold in Winter I mean depending on where you're from July and August get very very hot um we're talking about about 35° C and what makes it feel so hot as the humidity but today in late April it's a comfortable 18° C or 66 F just got a glimpse here of this Santa Cru neighborhood you know alante is like this color the sand the the yellow sand the blue sky but then we see all this white and and blue blue it's beautiful so this is very typical of um the bario Santa Cruz or the blue that royal blue color this an intense blue nowadays there's only about 2,000 people that live up in this area as you can see already there's a lot of stairs there's nowhere to park your car so it's not easy to live here so you know although there are tourist departments re was just saying and we're seeing there are still locals here you know there's people with their dog you know coming out and doing the washing in the morning and things like that so you know some people have obviously decided that this is still a lifestyle worth living we delve deeper into the newer though still historic part of bario Santa Cru yeah it's still Elario is still the old town okay but we're not going to be walking up and downstairs which okay look at this up here they always seem to put the uh the palm tree in the perfect spot as you come around the corner and there's a beautiful Church church and a palm tree in front of it so we're moving now into the the older part the less old part but these buildings are are beautiful just look at this up here we just walked around the corner and there's this like ah this massive church and I see this this text this sundal so what is this building this is the K Cathedral San Nicholas the alant so this is our main Church in alante city and as well as the Su dial there's these fascinating letters painted on the facade they're 200 to 300 years old and often commemorate a religious event or an important theological discussion that took place here I kind of love the fact that there's no windows in it it's just there's something kind of desert-like about it like you would come across this temple in the desert the historic Center is a wash with Gorgeous old apartment buildings and wide plas dotted with restaurant Terraces for long lunches in the Sun and everywhere the city is punctuated by these towering palm trees we work our way down to the Waterfront where locals are wanding ing along the Palm lined espanada des and I realized that I may be developing a bit of a crush on alante but enough sentimentality it's time for more food Aon and Sylvia welcome us into Cento a tiny tapa Spa just off the main drag now this is a and we're here to try a dish that won best tapa in alante a few years back [Music] walnuts the beefin ton I heard him saying normally this would say James and yolly but yol's not on this trip I got John with me this time so all right I've never had ham with my name on it before but I'll save something for you John that's so good that's so good but what I'm really excited about is one of these for you Rebecca or not or is it for John [Music] John's that is indecent intense sweetness from the ton but then the juiciness of the meat D we winner John you want to have a [Music] bite yeah yeah yeah John's Basque so he knows his food so you know never tried something like this before very nice see see Rebecca has to head off to give a tour and so she hands us off to her husband and fellow tour guide Alberto how are you okay I feel like I'm being kidnapped thrown into a van we're kidnapping come on he's going to take us up the coast to check out alicante's beaches and enjoy an Epic Local dish that is not a p already I feel like the city's changed a little bit right you got the seab breeze uh you know it's much more open the smell of the water right Dad if you born here you're used to this is the Beach a big part of the culture like people go to the beach just me I grew up in the city center yeah and if it was no shopping the other thing you could do going to the beach going to the beach so it really is part of the culture of the city we check out the golden sand beaches that are right on alicante's doorstep first the city beach the bustling play then only a few more minutes up the coast by car or a brief tram ride we visit the play de la ALU fera and it's this gorgeous beach with kids playing we're in April there's people swimming Alberto takes us further north to one of the many little deserted kalas or Coes that dot the coastline there's no one here that's it and and even in summer Like You Come In Summer and you can be here by yourself and the water is so clear the water is super cleared over here you can swim you can take your kayak your paddle Bo anything you got a nice access to here then it's back in the van to keep heading north to a lookout where we can see one of the famous and longest beaches of the region here we have the famous San Juan beacha sanan no in summer all the vibe in the city will move to this place it's a huge beach I think you said earlier like 6 km 6 km and it's a it's a beautiful kind of curving Beach and so this is another area you can get on the tram right the TR is 15 minutes you got the the tra that is that is a two lines that he comes here and he pass each 10 minutes you got the tra coming to this way but we're not here to hit the beach we're heading to player San Juan to eat but before we do I have to point out the tram system here is fantastic it runs all the way from alikante City North to Denia passing through famous towns like Benidorm calpe and altea and making the whole Coast extremely accessible if you don't own a car so right along the 6 km Beach Alberto was saying there's six stops of the TR six stops on the way from the city all the way up here and that goes all the way to the town of el campeo that will be the next town after here so Alberto was saying there there's no there's one hotel along this whole 6 km Beach right there's just one and a little hostel that's all and so this is why it doesn't get overwhelmed I mean it's busy in summer right but but is it more locals that are coming here as you're saying it's local you can see right now probably most of the people are from here and after there's no hotels uh there's not so much accommodation for people visiting so it stays like without not too many people Alberto leads us into Casa Domingo a classic Chingo or beach restaurant that's famous for its local rice dishes first Alberto shows me the proper way to eat in saladia rousa Spain's most famous potato salad show me how you do it when big table what we do is we do like this big piece of it you put this over here and then you eat [Music] it I don't use youra but uh M go ahead my that it's pretty good I have one phobia in my life and that is the fear of people talking with their mouth with talking while they're eating in saladia and seeing it inside their mouth and here we got the potatoes with alioli it sounds very stupid because it's very simple but it's fantastic first of all this is real alioli yeah so that means garlic olive oil few Dr few drops of of of of lemon that you want to help to IM together and don't break it apart and like everything in life love time and passion you start with the mortar and you start growing growing I do love real homemade alioli not the not the mayonnaise stuff you get I hate that stuff this is the real deal a good one oh yeah the strong garlic the garlic is so intense in that Vick's Vapor Rub right cantino style that will help you my Sines are clear the clams in there with all this beautiful juice wow okay oo I didn't expect that that is wow that is so good it's the flavor of the sea right yeah but also the bay leaf the the Lael you can really taste that the onion a little bit sweeter yeah there's a herbal there exactly the sweet onion and with this sauce the one thing you've got to do right is get the bread in there can you see that John the sauce is amazing I lost some bread it so good I did not I did not expect that and now for the main event I have a question we're in alikante we're not in Valencia is this a paa that's not a paa guys that's not a paa here in alikante with rice rice ar ar so if you are in a restaurant later on and you see the word somewhere in Al run out of there as soon as as you can we're going to have the clams we're going to have the red bronze already peeled we're going to have the muscles and the fish is a monk fish am I going in first yeah okay wow you want to get in there look John you can see there like a crust on top but you see how the grain is loose between [Music] wow really intense intense flavor I can see alente a little bit rice is a little alente yeah perfectly cooked you can do like this you do like a few points around way you get it and no matter where you get you always can go into the alol okay and grab it there you know so many people often when they think of rice dishes in Spain I keep wanting to say p it's a dirty word here you know they think of the stuff on top the protein but really the focus is the rice you know it's the flavor cuz that's what sucks up all the flavor flavor from the broth and one of the KE how thin the rice on the ban it's like one layer you know maybe two or with that little [Music] crust so John the camera guy lives in Valencia uh so let's see what he thinks oh wow I can see that this is really something [Music] it's absolutely amazing yeah right really really really good our Bell's full of rice we hid to our last stop the Magnificent 9th century Santa Barbara Castle that sits perched to balante here is the main main Fortress of of Alicante one of the biggest Fortress in cities in Spain we say goodbye to Alberto and head into the CLE make sure you check out Ali's tours around the city and the region I'll drop their link down below the last act we got to work off that P oh my God I expected a simple Castle but what we discover is a sprawling Maze of medieval buildings and Towers it was built by the Moors in the 9th century but the site is much older with Bronze Age and Roman archaeological artifacts having been found on the mountain slopes wow it just keeps going on and on it's huge there's like restaurants and bars and cafeterias this castle like alikante has totally defied my expectations I came here expecting a lowkey city on the med but I've discovered a city that's vibrant beautiful delicious and wonderfully welcoming and I can't wait to come back if you're also curious to know what alikante you know the province this area was like in the winter we made a video which you can watch up here uh where we went to Ala at town just a little bit to the north uh in the winter and tell you what the Sun was shining so we'll see you over there in a minute ciao

Channel: Spain Revealed

Views: 103,220

Keywords: james black spain, james blake spain, yoly james, spain revealed, yoly spain, spain couple, spain guide, yolly james, yoli james

Id: ZEwzoA3kcUc

Length: 18min 35sec (1115 seconds)

Published: Sat May 18 2024