Nor was I talking about recipe books. Hot, spicy gazpacho would be a culinary oxymoron. The dish is intended to be light, cool and refreshing. Anything else you’ve had is a chef’s experiment or something dreampt up at one of the designer restaurants that are becoming popular here. Wait! If you don’t let the gazpacho “rest” after it’s made, you might confuse the burn of raw garlic with a spice…I’ll bet that’s what happened.

Anyway, this is really not what I was getting at. I’m from England, and like you, I’m sometimes appalled at the cultural insensitivity of my countrymen. However, I avoid making “smart” comments denigrating them when I’m in an international forum, where it’s all too easy for others to misinterpret them as cultural arrogance and deliberately insulting. For example, I took you at first to be British, as your use of “iggerant” is a typically British inflection. If I was American, I’d probably find that pretty insulting, more so than if I knew you yourself were American. And we really try to avoid flamebait on Travel Signposts.

BTW, I still get the impression you think we’re from the US, or that this website is only concerned with our American users, who actually are less than half our visitors (we’d like more!). I appreciate that you as an expatriate American are particularly concerned about the level of knowledge about other cultures in the US, but when we put stuff up we have to consider all our visitors who come from many countries (although especially from Europe).

Anyway, thanks for livening things up!

Tony

PS On gazpacho, classic recipes are one thing, what local people do can be another. I owned a finca in the Alpujarras for a few years, and I can assure you that you’ll find a varied selection of spicy versions served up in many homes and local restaurants in Andalusia! It surprised me, when I first went there.

Gazpacho never ever contains any “spicy” ingredients, unless you want to count salt, which is, after all, a “spice”. If you like, I’ll send you a good recipe.

You need to research your topic better before protesting any sort of perceived “insult”.

It’s not going to work. I’m a native American, and know well what the word “spicy” means to Americans and Brits. I’ve also been living in Spain for many years, so I know from experience when an American says they don’t want to try Spanish food because they’re sure it’s too “spicy”, it’s the same cultural ignorance that makes them buy Mexican hats when they visit this country. They’re thinking of enchiladas and tacos, not paella. Furthermore, you will be interested to know that for the most part, native Spaniards loathe spicy food, and exceedingly few dishes contain even the faintest hint of cayenne, it’s very rare.

As a professional journalist, I was paid to attend and review each of the 54 shows of the Bienal de Flamenco de Sevilla, and have been covering it for many years, so I don’t need to read what Spanish tourist authorities say. The Bienal most definitely does not include any sort of flamenco competition.

Thank you for trying to research the topic, but your sources failed you.

Helen

As regards the Flamenco festival, please see following by the Spanish tourist authority:
“The event combines a flamenco competition with a range of performances, both song and dance, of this typical Spanish art.”
http://www.spain.info/TourSpain/Eventos/Eventos/1/Bienal%20de%20Flamenco.htm?Language=en

Tony

P.S. Your gratuitous insult to Americans and, if I may say so, rather feeble attempt at sarcasm are somewhat misplaced, as the owners of Travel Signposts are English/Australian, easy to see from the contact address and footer. Perhaps the inclusion of “Rampant Ignorance” in your pseudonym was eminently suitable.

We all know Americans are culturally iggerant, but no need to flaunt it.