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Made in Spain
Whether you’re an expat chasing the dream, a traveller inspired by European elegance or a foodie seeking the perfect paella, Made in Spain is your insider’s guide to all things chic, cultural and quintessentially Spanish.
Join hosts Nalini Sharma and Laura Senior García for a glamorous mix of travel, food, fashion and the rich cultural narratives that make Spain a global icon of style and sophistication.
Nalini is a former Canadian TV presenter, who has previously covered red carpet and live events, and major news stories. She channels the same wit and curiosity to the Made in Spain podcast, offering sharp, unscripted takes on everything from Spanish traditions to expat surprises.
Laura, a seasoned leadership coach and global traveler, shares her deep, first-hand knowledge of Spain—not just as her birthplace, but as a country she continues to rediscover. With a British father and Spanish mother, she considers herself a global citizen with deep roots in Spain. Her insights connect Spain’s rich past with its modern evolution, offering a unique and personal perspective on life, culture, and luxury in Spain today.
Every episode of Made in Spain explores the country’s hidden gems and exclusive experiences, but it’s more than just a guide—it’s a conversation.
The show’s Slice of Life segment gives listeners an unfiltered peek into Nalini and Laura’s daily experiences – the joys, frustrations, and unexpected moments that make life in Spain, and beyond, full of surprises. Sometimes, it’s about the reality of settling into a new country – at other times, it’s about their travels, funny mishaps, or behind-the-scenes stories from researching the podcast. No matter the topic, listeners feel like they are right there with them, stepping into their world.
Made in Spain
Ode to Olives
Laura and Nalini take a deep dive into the topic of Spanish olives. As the world’s leading producer of the savoury fruit, olives and olive oil are an integral part of Spain’s culture. The duo discuss their recent visit to a renowned producer of extra-virgin olive oil, Masía el Altet, where they discovered more about the cultivation and harvesting of olives, which included downing ‘shots' of olive oil!
In the regular Slice of Life section, the ladies sample seven different types of olives paired with ‘dirty Martinis’ made from gin, vermouth and, unusually, olive brine. They also discuss their recent international travels: Nalini to Tetouan, Morocco and Laura to Cape Town, South Africa
Over the light of the Italian sea, is the despair of olive trees and on the map of Europe, spain, a black basketful of olives dusted off by orange blossoms, as if by a sea breeze. Olive oil, the internal, supreme condition for the cooking pot pedestal for game birds. Laura, beautiful poem written by Pablo Neruda With intimate, powerful smoothness. You sing, you are the Spanish language.
Speaker 1:Laura, beautiful poem written by Pablo Neruda, born 1904 to 1973. That was written in 1956. He won a Nobel Prize in Literature in 1971, just before he passed. He was Chilean, lived in Spain for a number of years. He passed. He was Chilean, lived in Spain for a number of years, and that's Ode to Olive Oil, which is, I think, the title of today's podcast.
Speaker 2:Awesome. So welcome everyone to episode four. We are your co-hosts, nalini Sharma and Laura Senior-Garcia. It is absolutely delightful to be here with you again and thank you so much for all the interactions and the audience basically that you know dialed in, you could say, to listen to our first few podcast episodes. We are really, really happy to be here with you again today discussing the wonders of not just olives but olive oil and everything olives.
Speaker 1:Everything olives. Now Spain is the world's largest producer, first of all, of olive oil and everything olives, everything olives. Now spain is the world's largest producer, first of all, of olive oil. About 50 of olive oil production export comes from this country, um which I maybe I sort of knew that, but it's still.
Speaker 2:That's a huge number um, I think I read between 40 and 50%. Yeah, the way that I saw it described is basically every one olive. If you say two bottles of olive oil, every one from two, that you pick up around the world is made from Spanish olives.
Speaker 1:Yeah, which is, I mean, a fantastic number. I love olives, I've always loved olives, and I think the world actually loves olives, because you can go into almost any. I would say market, whether you're here in europe, or you can you're in canada or america, and there will be an olive bar of some sort of some sort the interesting thing with olives as well is that I think you either kind of love them or hate them.
Speaker 2:uh, I saw a lot of like reactions online when we were preparing for this episode, where people actually filmed themselves trying an olive for the first time. Really, yes, and I think for this country, if you haven't tried an olive by the time you're, you know, three or four years old, that would be strange for other places.
Speaker 2:You know, I think it's still. You know, depending on where you are there's more exposure to the product or less, but certainly here it's such an integral part of the culture. Not just the olives themselves which you will be served olives when you ask for a beer or a caña or in any bar is a little tapa but also the actual olive oil bar as a little tapa, but also the actual olive oil you know that we cook with. I mean, I think very, very few households in Spain will actually cook with something different than olive oil, unless they're frying.
Speaker 1:that then they'd actually use more like a seed oil right, and I even know from just shopping here, when I go to the supermarket or if I do need to fry something, it is sort of a mission. You actually specifically have to look for that oil to fry with. Well, a little bit about olives, first of all. It's a fruit, yeah, close. It's a stone fruit closely related to well, related to mango, peach, cherries, avocado.
Speaker 2:It's a fruit, everything that's got like a big seed in the middle, right?
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's considered a stone fruit. But what's interesting about the olive or olives? It's very high in fat, but good fat. So I mean, if you're sitting at a party or you're at home and you have a little, you know snack board and you start eating olives, I am always concerned as to how many calories.
Speaker 2:Well, I think you would actually probably tend to think oh, I'm eating the olives, I'm eating the healthy option of what's on the table.
Speaker 1:Not the chips, yeah, exactly.
Speaker 2:But then the other surprising thing that we found out, which is a bit of a shocker to me, is that green olives are actually way lower in calories than black olives. So, for example, it's like 100 grams of green olives is about 120 calories, 100 grams of black olives which, by the way, are my least favorite personally are like 289 calories. So it's like what's that all about? You know, I always kind of thought oh, maybe the black olives. You know, they have some more incredible properties because they're less tasty, if you ask me.
Speaker 1:Well, these ones are quite large, but usually they tend to be a little bit smaller too.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so, basically, if we were to eat all the olives that we have in front of us here, we'd probably be better off packing in a burger king than actually eating these.
Speaker 1:Well, I, I tried to average it out so from the nutritional table that I found about 10 olives, depending obviously on the size. Let's just use an average size of what an olive.
Speaker 2:We've got about eight different sizes here um.
Speaker 1:10 olives equals about 60 calories. Wow, but it's 80 percent water. So which. I didn't know. I thought it would be mostly fat in my head when I eat them.
Speaker 2:I just think like, oh no, you know, the green just eat, like it evens everything out and, you know, just kind of like forget the calories. So afterwards we'll try some of the olives and we'll try the wonderful drink that we have here. But what's one of the reasons that kind of drove you or led you to want to discuss olives and olive oil in today's episode? What do you think was surprising to you as someone who's not from Spain? The culture around the olives and the olive oil here?
Speaker 1:Well, I wouldn't say I'm a foodie, but I find food history very interesting, and when you sort of start researching olives, what you do find is that, uh, ancient civilizations I mean, I'm not a historian, this is just research that I've done but they were the most successful ancient civilizations, from the greeks to the moors. They had olive oil, yes, and, but they didn't use it first in food. They used it for um, but they didn't use it first in food. They used it for um, electricity, like for not electricity, but for lighting their lamps, you know, for and for heat fuel, fuel, yes, fuel. Imagine that was their, their version of, yeah, of power, um, and then, when civilizations fell, they also lost it.
Speaker 1:It coincided with them losing olives, their olive production or, if there was a war, often they would destroy their olive trees because you would uh, destroy that, their source of fuel that's amazing.
Speaker 2:So a couple of facts that actually I thought were, were, uh, really interesting. So a lot of the olive trees that we call millinery here or that millenario, which are, you know, thousands of years old, you know, you can find trees in this country that are over 1500 years old.
Speaker 2:And they were kind of relating it to the Roman Empire going. Imagine that you're going to, you know, see one of of these trees, and potentially there was a gladiator sitting underneath that tree. I mean, they were all the way back to the Roman Empire. They were here and interestingly enough and we'll talk about olive oil in a little bit there are some olive oils that are very exclusive that are sold here in. Spain that are made from those several thousand year old trees.
Speaker 1:Now they come with a price tag but you know that's, that's definitely, I'm sure, a hefty price tag. Well, uh, the, if you look at I just I started to look at you know the not just the history of olives, which dates back to, some say, 4,000 BC, but also I tried to figure out how did humans figure out to put this in brine, or?
Speaker 2:salt and cure it and eat it, because if you were to take an olive from a tree, you couldn't eat it.
Speaker 1:It tastes terrible. They think there's no definitive answer, but historians have said, possibly, that some olives might have fallen into seawater. I can believe that. You know, they were just in the seawater and somebody picked it up and said hey, this is edible. This is pretty good.
Speaker 2:And it's funny, historically, how many of these things do happen by mistake. You know it's like you don't really come out and go. Okay, I'm going to put this olive. You know, with's like you don't really come out and go. Okay, I'm gonna put this olive. You know, with salt and you know water. And you know they actually happens by mistake because if not, like you said, it would be very hard to get to that edible olive.
Speaker 1:Right, and there's, I mean there's. Honestly, no, they cannot really discover all. They know that it is ancient. It was, it's, you know native to the Mediterranean region.
Speaker 2:So you've got Palestine, you have, israel, you have. It's a huge part of the Mediterranean culture.
Speaker 1:It's huge, yeah, that where olives originated have been cultivated and they're just such an integral part of the daily life, and when I see an olive tree, every tree is different Every tree. I have several in my garden.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:And I love them. They're so. I get so upset when the gardener comes, but you have to cut the top.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, kind of keep it in shape. Yeah, I love them Kind of good for the tree as well.
Speaker 1:Also, I read that Interestingly enough, some ancient civilizations used to use the olive oil to bathe in it.
Speaker 2:Oh well, I see people they I mean they're olive oil beauty products. People put it on their hands.
Speaker 1:People take a shot in the morning for health benefits. Yeah, we'll talk about that in a moment um and oh, I wanted to mention um the un symbol. Did you know that those are two olive branches?
Speaker 2:I did know it doesn't and like usually also the olive branches tied with the uh pigeon is like a sign of peace.
Speaker 1:In Olympics, in the ancient Olympics, they were given the crown, the olive oil sorry, the olive crown as the prize.
Speaker 2:From olive branches. Yeah, there's a lot of symbolism around, even in, you know, many different religions. There's a lot how sometimes we don't realize how a fruit like you mentioned because, sometimes it's even hard for me to think or describe it as a fruit, because I see it as savory, kind of like when we talk about avocado being a fruit. But how a fruit is so intertwined with, you know, our day to day life and history, without even realizing it.
Speaker 1:No, and I think the poem that you read, that line is the language of Spain.
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 1:It really is. I mean, it could be the language of Italy or Greece or a number of different countries, but it is ancient, it's I don't know. It's embedded here and can you imagine going into a Spanish house, any house, and Not seeing all of oil. I mean that would be.
Speaker 2:It would be strange. Yeah, let's put it that way. I mean, that's something that I would expect to find as a staple in any house is a bottle of olive oil and, by the way, lately I think, people you know have struggled with it because the prices of olive oil have really gone up so we talked gold yeah, exactly liquid gold.
Speaker 2:so we've talked a little bit about the fruit itself. Let's talk about olive oil and the experience that we had getting to learn more about olive oil. We've got some of these beautiful olive oils here, so do you want to tell us a little bit about where we visited?
Speaker 1:and some fun facts around that we went to. Well, you drove, we drove to Alcoy, which actually is a really beautiful drive. It's a bit far from where we are about an hour but it's really pretty. It's actually a really nice drive, and the name of this place is Masia del Altet. Masia del Altet, yes, Okay, what does that translate into?
Speaker 2:Masia is like a finca or a house, but usually in Masia you are either producing something in it or there's a older kind of infrastructure there, so it's not a farm. But you know, masia is usually like a older house, that with more history you wouldn't call a masia like a new construction okay, what I mean, and the deltet is the elevation I am not sure about that. Uh, maybe it is alted, as in alto like high maybe maybe it is that, but I'm not actually sure where the name comes from.
Speaker 1:I think I read that on their website. Okay, but um, we anyway we went there. It is when you enter into the property. It is a private home. It is not open to the public. Although, uh, we were told that people do see the sign and think that they can buy olive oil or take a tour. There is no tour to be had. We called ahead and he was very accommodating.
Speaker 2:And I have to say a shout out to Jorge, if he's hearing this, but it is. He did a wonderful job and it was a real surprise because when we called to ask if we could go visit you know, they actually said, oh well, you'll have to talk to Jorge for that, but they didn't actually say who Jorge was. So we just showed up there and then one nice gentleman that was on his tractor, coming back from actually cleaning out the fields said okay, you must be here for Jorge, and we're like, yeah, I guess there's like he's on the way, okay.
Speaker 2:So you know, we kind of show up to this beautiful mansion. We're trying to look for quote unquote the shop or a door, or a door.
Speaker 1:It's their house.
Speaker 2:And we're rattling doors, were rattling doors and and then Jorge shows up. Who's again lovely, uh, gentleman, and he is the son of the owners and the people who started Masia de la Altet. The reason why we wanted to go to Masia de la Altet, I mentioned to um Nalini a while back that, look, you know, I tasted this olive oil in a restaurant a while ago. It's really delicious oil and it's not far from here, so we should go visit. Unbeknownst to us, actually, masia del Alte doesn't sell a lot of their olive oil here in Spain anymore. That's why I haven't actually been able to find it in supermarkets or even see it in many restaurants for a long time. So can you share with our wonderful audience the percentage of their oil that goes to somewhere else?
Speaker 1:But did he say it was about 80%? I?
Speaker 2:think he said 40% to Japan but 80% outside of Spain.
Speaker 1:So I think, 40% of the export was to Japan, which blew me away, and but he said, the japanese are obsessed with quality and they want the best of the best yes, um and uh, he also said that it's the only place that they actually sell it here.
Speaker 2:I think um you said alcor de ingles and another gourmet store in alicante somewhere so alcor de ingles and this little gourmet store. Interestingly enough, I don't even think it's that expensive for the quality of olive oil it is.
Speaker 2:But obviously what he was sharing with us is that their price point does attract or is more accepted in a foreign market such as Japan Again going back to the quality in a foreign market such as Japan again going back to the quality. It's interesting that in our episode about Loewe we talked about how the Japanese really like that brand.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you know, they also are super interested in the olive oil and the jamon, and one of the things that I definitely saw while I was there last time is there is a fascination with the Spanish culture, with Spain, with, you know you know, it's very interesting.
Speaker 2:It's very interesting. So he actually was telling us that they send some of the best samples and then they pick which one of the tanks they actually want to purchase, because the other thing about the production that we had no idea about before visiting is they actually pick by day. So, like this day is when these olives were picked, when they were produced, goes into this tank. So each tank is a day and I think they said they produce about a hundred thousand bottles of olive oil per year yes, yeah, and it's.
Speaker 1:I mean he. He explained the fact that where they are in alcoi they're in a microclimate, so they're about eight to 900 meters above sea level. But then they get the breeze from the sea as well. So he made a funny joke that you could be on the beach. He could go to the beach and be having a beer, you know, in the sunshine, and then drive up to the production facility and it's cold.
Speaker 2:Absolutely. And what he also mentioned is what makes their olives so tasty and the olive oil have that distinct kind of artichokey flavor is the difference in temperature from the hottest point of the day? To the coldest point in the night, which can be, in some cases, a 20 degree drop in one day. That's actually what gives the unique taste, and the other thing that was quite comical about that was when we asked him how they pick them, because he said there was 70 hectares. Is that how?
Speaker 2:you say it yeah and he basically turned around. Is that any way we can, because we only have a 15 day window to pick all of these olives. So be it. You know people literally picking by hand to tractors well, they use that shaking machine.
Speaker 1:Have you seen it? I have seen it, it looks like a old school.
Speaker 2:You know those belts that they used to use, like in the 70s, where it's like actually like shake your fat away sort of thing but around the olive tree to shake all the olives down.
Speaker 1:I actually I told you this two years ago. About two years ago, I harvested olives in Benifato.
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 1:I went. My son has a friend whose family they sort of do this as it's a bit of a hobby and they sell it in their cafe. So and I asked her repeatedly. I said would you let me come and you know partake? And she thought I mean, this was her weekend, every weekend this woman is crazy.
Speaker 2:Why does she want to come here to pick olives? Because for most people who have olive trees, it is a little bit of a torture. Because it is uh, it's a. It's not like picking apples where you go, oh nice, I have this one apple and I can eat it. No, to make olive oil, you need hundreds of thousands of olives, and I think that's what people also may not get. It's not like oh, you know, I have one olive tree, I can make a bottle of olive oil.
Speaker 1:No, it's work and I thought and she told me where you're the worst I wish I hadn't listened to her. She told me where the worst clothes that you have. But I get up there and it's, first of all, stunningly beautiful it is.
Speaker 2:You can't get a nice picture because you're not wearing clothes. I'm wearing.
Speaker 1:I mean honestly the worst thing with the strange hat I have on as well she told me wear a hat. Okay, I'm where, I have all these things, but it it was like out of a movie. We went up to their, the little town, we went in the tractor, um, her mother-in-law made um little coffees for us bonbons, yeah, bonbons.
Speaker 2:We had that with little sweets.
Speaker 1:That was our breakfast and then we started working. But the whole family works in it, yeah, um, and my son and I and his friend and every we yeah, we spent a lovely morning doing it, the neighbors to come along?
Speaker 2:Yes, it was very.
Speaker 1:I thought it was super interesting. And that's literally what they do. They have a sort of like a long spear, they put it in the tree, they turn it on, it vibrates. And then all the olives fall to the ground and you catch it on a net and then you like, pick it up and then you put it in the baskets.
Speaker 2:So remember next time you try extra virgin olive oil particularly. It takes a lot of work, just like we said with the cava, etc. To get to that final product.
Speaker 1:Oh, and just one thing Jorge told us To be considered extra virgin olive oil. This is from the Council of Olive olive oil, which I guess is a thing. Um, you only have to have producers only have to have 15 of actual extra virgin olive oil. So if you see olive oil that's three euro.
Speaker 2:It's probably not so we are letting the cat out of the bag here, but really 15 15 1, 5 is all you need to be able to call it extra virgin olive oil yes and the other thing as well. That's worth mentioning.
Speaker 2:And again, we are not sponsored by masia de la dead it was just a really cool experience is that theirs is purely extra virgin olive oil, so the properties around it, the taste profile, etc. I think it's just fantastic. I will say that, and if our husbands are listening to this they can cover their ears and maybe Jorge is gonna blush a little bit, but it was easier to listen to all these facts because he was extremely cute.
Speaker 1:Yeah it was very funny because we did the whole thing and we're, you know, asking all this super intelligent questions about production and what type of all those, and we're like, and then we went inside into the where they were actually packaging yes, uh, putting the bottles into boxes for a shipment and then we did a tasting and he was, I mean, very patient man yes um, and then we said, oh, by the way, the tasting let's describe that a little bit so again, when I think of an olive oil tasting, the first thing that comes to mind is grab a piece of bread, dip it in the oil.
Speaker 2:In this case, we actually did olive oil shot, yes, which, if you are looking to improve the speed of your digestive system it's a really good thing to do. Yes, but it is quite. You know you can tell the taste and everything else, but I wouldn't say that's the way to enjoy the product.
Speaker 1:That's just how he gave us sort of an education and we also walked away with some chocolate.
Speaker 2:Yes, we did. Actually. One more thing I want to mention about Masia de la Ted, before we kind of go to our slice of life that I think is worth mentioning. I'm going to try and grab this. So some of you may have heard of the chef, joel Robuchon, who passed away already, but for a while he was considered to be, and he's still recognized as being one of the best chefs in the world, or one of the best chefs in the in our kind of contemporary time to uh to live. He has still. The Robuchon family have like a huge amount of uh restaurants, michelin star restaurants around the world. Joelle Robuchon actually tasted Masia del Alte in an exhibit in Japan, because they've won a bunch of awards, and said that they were very interested in that olive oil being the only olive oil that they serve in the restaurant. So we were given a bottle of Joël Robuchon selection, which you can only actually usually have at the Joël Robuchon restaurant, and it was a really, really nice little detail from our friend Jorge there.
Speaker 1:Did you? Did you open yours?
Speaker 2:I haven't opened it yet it is, I don't know. But yes, it's one of ours, but I don't think I've opened it yet, but I know we're going to use it for our challenge that some of you may be able to see on socials. So that's a little bit about Masia Del Alte.
Speaker 1:So anything else we want to mention about olives or olive oil Just when we were getting in the car after our visit and then you and our friend who came with us said wait, was that guy cute or what? Yeah, exactly, it's like excuse me, yeah, well yeah, we weren't expecting it, so it was nice, but it was honestly to do something like that, um, and to you know, just to be allowed into that little world, it is something that was really magical.
Speaker 2:Yes, so recommendation. I know a lot of people when they come to Spain they'll go visit a winery, etc. If you have the chance to go and see somewhere where they are producing olive oil and go experience that, definitely worthwhile, and I know, nalini, one interesting thing that you shared with us during that trip is that you can become a sommelier, for olive oil.
Speaker 1:Yeah, there is a kind of neat. There's an educational society here. Um, the course is very expensive. I actually I thought, oh, this would be interesting, maybe it's you know I don't know an online course or? Yeah, weekend it's not, it's like upwards of five, six thousand euros yeah, so you really have to be committed to all yeah, and the idea is that you would work with a restaurant group or you know a high-end restaurant as the sommelier alongside the wine sommelier. Interesting, I think.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I thought it was fascinating cool, yeah, so should we move to our slice of life life? So, reminder for everyone, when we do our slice of life, we taste a little bit of the food that relates to what we're talking about or the topic of the podcast, and we talk a little bit about what's going on in our lives recent travels, our fun things that have happened. Before we fully transition away from the olive oil conversation, I did want to say that I look for what is the most expensive olive oil in the world. There's some mix.
Speaker 2:You know, there's some mixed information out there from greece I don't know, because the one I found and I don't know if this was the cookies on my, you know, search engines kind of acting up because I was in spain but the one that came up is an olive oil from spain, okay, that is called el poaig p-o-a-i-g. Okay, and that olive oil is from those thousands year old trees and it's 260 to 280 per bottle. Wow. Now I don't know if anyone would want to go and spend that on olive oil, right, but if you're a real connoisseur and you're treating yourself to something, maybe the same as when someone treats himself to a really nice bottle of wine, but I did want to mention that that was like wow. You know, one of the most expensive olive oils is made here and, of course, the process is extremely detailed and refined. So let's transition to our slice of life. You want to tell us a little bit about what we have on the table, nalini?
Speaker 1:Okay, well, we have a lovely selection here of olives.
Speaker 2:We've got one, two, three, four, five, so we've got six kinds of no eight, seven, sorry seven kinds of olives, because we've got six kinds of no eight, seven, sorry seven kinds of olives, because we've got the black ones and the other ones there. But I did want to mention that something we didn't mention during the episode before is that there are approximately 200 different kinds of olives here in spain. Oh, wait, we're drinking martinis now so we've got olives, and can you tell us a little bit about our drink?
Speaker 1:how come every time I drink mine this?
Speaker 2:little spear, it's a spear right, yeah, your stay still.
Speaker 1:You're more elegant at it. It's my first martini ever in my life, so you want to tell us a little bit about the martini? Uh, okay, well, we did it with gin. Uh, from costa blanca local um I don't know if that makes a difference or not, I'm not sure, but I think it has a really nice flavor to it. It's breakfast time, by the way, don't judge us, no and a martini is actually a very simple drink. It's either gin, if I'm not mistaken, or vodka with vermouth.
Speaker 2:Yes, now, this is a dirty martini. So a dirty martini, which is something that is actually not very well known here in Spain the first time I tried a dirty martini was in Houston, texas has the olive brine in the cocktail and if you want to check out how to make the cocktail, we've uploaded a little video to our socials of how to do it. But it's a dirty martini. It's my first time having this cocktail with gin. I normally have it with vodka do you like?
Speaker 2:it. I do like it. But I think I like it because this is a very soft gin. This costa blanca gin is not like a really strong, like a bombay, sapphire or a tango, right you know, it's a really kind of soft gin, so I do like it. It's very smooth, so should we try the olives? Yeah, let's go for it okay so we got the little spear and, by the way, I'm not using a spear.
Speaker 2:Looked up the etiquette behind like how do you eat olives with pits, right? So, supposedly, you take the spear, you stab the olive without throwing your martini over, and then you put it in your mouth. Olive without throwing your martini over and then you put it in your mouth. I've already messed up and you cover your cover your mouth with the other hand and you dispose of the olive pit with the dominant hand.
Speaker 2:so next time you're at a table and you're wondering what do I do it's like you know just cover your mouth, take the pit, if you're comfortable with that way.
Speaker 1:So that's yes, by the way.
Speaker 2:This one is very good. It's got a real kind of was it amargo Sour, almost you know taste to it.
Speaker 1:Okay, those were the super spicy ones. Can you tell our listeners what the woman said yesterday when we were choosing all the olives? Listeners, what the woman said yesterday when we were choosing all the olives she, she, first of all, she had never heard of a dirty martini she said you learn something new every day.
Speaker 2:It's like there you go, you can have all the brine that you have in this little shop and take it and do martinis with it. So what she said? She asked because she could see that I was interacting with Nalini in English and you know I was obviously speaking with her in Spanish and she turned around to me and said what are you buying? All these, all the stores? Like oh, we're actually like, oh, no, I was asking you because if you're doing a party for English people like I need to give you the softer ones, because they don't usually like the stronger ones. I'm like okay, okay, so lovely, any. And, by the way, when you go to the local markets, most places, most markets, will have some kind of little stall that sells olives and nuts etc. And they are very willing to let you taste them.
Speaker 1:As well, you know what she was so helpful and I think she was excited that we were actually asking questions like what's this, what's this one? And I mean I'm assuming that if she's working there, she has to have a wealth of knowledge and they want to share it with you. So yeah, I would recommend or suggest that if you do go to a market and there are olives, ask for a sample and ask questions, Because first of all, you learn, you'll know what you like, and then the, you know the, the owner. They're so happy to interact and share their knowledge.
Speaker 2:Absolutely yeah. The one thing that I think is quite comical that just came to mind is, as you know, my daughter, uh Valentina, who is on the autism spectrum. Olives are like one of her favorite things. So, whenever we sit down at a restaurant, her mind directly goes to we're at a restaurant, I can get olives. But the problem is that it doesn't matter what restaurant we're in, she wants the olives straight away.
Speaker 2:So she starts asking the waiter like Olivas, olivas, olivas. And you know, sometimes, at a Chinese restaurant, for example, they don't serve olives. So you know it's quite interesting, like she relates, restaurant slash olives, so will you stab one of those?
Speaker 1:Yes.
Speaker 2:The black ones.
Speaker 1:Yeah, okay.
Speaker 2:So let's talk a little bit about recent travels. Okay, so, nalini, why don't we start with you? You went to Morocco for the first time.
Speaker 1:We went a couple of weeks ago to Tetouan. Okay, I went a couple weeks ago to Tetouan, okay, um, I've been to Morocco before. We went to Casablanca and Rabat. Um, this time we decided to go to Tetouan. It's a 55 minute flight from. Alicante unbelievable 55 minute flight um. It was interesting, but I am not going back. How come? What didn't you kind of vibe okay with it was cold, which I knew it was going to be cold that was fine.
Speaker 1:The hotel we stayed at, uh, it is five plus star. It is spectacular hotel. The service is unreal, the food, everything. Um, I just didn't like the vibe just. I didn't like yeah, I didn't like the energy. I found it a little bit of a manufactured area. Yeah, it honestly looked a lot like albier structured for tourists.
Speaker 2:Yes, you could say a lot of white were you getting a? Heckled a lot when you went out on the street like people trying to get you to buy stuff because well we went.
Speaker 1:We decided to take a little day trip to um the blue city chef chawan okay and they told us at the hotel we highly recommend that you go.
Speaker 1:This was exactly what he said. It is about an hour drive on our national highway and if you fly into casablanca and you drive from there, you know that the roads are. I mean, they're crazy. When we got out of the airport, it's 10-15 minutes to the hotel and the roads are. I mean, they're crazy. When we got out of the airport, it's 10, 15 minutes to the hotel and the roads are perfect.
Speaker 2:Wow.
Speaker 1:So I thought oh, an hour you know hour on a national highway. It's going to be fantastic. The roads were fine, except for it's a winding road.
Speaker 2:Oh, my goodness.
Speaker 1:Down, up mountains, down mountains, and our driver. Our driver lovely man, but thought that we needed endless family yeah, endless family photos. So he would just stop and he would say photo and okay, family photo. We have a lot of family photos. We're all just standing there like this and then he'd stop me. Like first door ever in this area. We're like a door. Okay, let's get out. Look beautiful view. Okay, let's get out. I mean the hospitality was he's really, I mean he was fantastic right, the blue city.
Speaker 1:I mean it's blue, let's just say that. But I did not like the energy, okay. After I left I actually felt trapped because it is, um, it's a souk, okay, and and their entrance points, and then to leave, we couldn't find the exit point. So they kept telling us, go here. And then we kept walking, we couldn't find it. And then go here, couldn't find it, and I started to feel a little claustrophobic, that like I want to get out, I can't get out of this blue city. I don't know how to get out. We did eventually make it out and I was, I mean, it was an interesting experience, but I don't want to go back and the airport's a disaster.
Speaker 2:Okay, yeah, so a couple of weeks, I believe, after you went to Morocco, I was in Cape Town for the first time South Africa, uh, I loved it. Uh, quality of the food was amazing. I don't think we had a bad meal. I really thought that it's so weird. Cape Town is many hours away from here by plane, but when you're driving around it actually reminded me a lot of here. The mountains look very similar, the kind of bush, the kind of trees, so it's strange how somewhere you know so far away can look similar in a way. And I did find some, you know some things that I think are also relatable from a cultural standpoint. And the one thing that I absolutely loved about it you know I love animals. I'm I'm a sucker when it comes to, like you know, little animals that you know you can just see, especially in the wild.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Going to see the African penguins on the beach because for some reason in my ignorance, I thought that penguins live, you know, on ice or, you know, in very cold temperatures. So it was about 35 degrees when we were there, celsius, so very, very hot, and the penguins were nesting, so they had, you know, their eggs on the actual sand and the females are, like you know, taking care of the eggs for weeks, while the males are going out and you know, getting the fish, etc. And they're just there. It's not like a reserve or anything like that. They're on the beach. So it was really, really special. I still have tan lines.
Speaker 1:Can you swim in the water there.
Speaker 2:I did, but I didn't swim. So there's a couple of beaches that where the penguins tend to go. I swam on a beach that was close to where the penguins are, because they did say that they can bite.
Speaker 1:Obviously they're protecting the nest.
Speaker 2:The interesting thing is they're not scared of us because apparently I read and someone can fact check me on this that they see us as other penguins because we also walk on two legs, like you know they do. So they are not scared of us. Now they'll bite because they're trying to protect their space. It's like, hey, don't come near my egg. But you know, they don't really. They're not really scared of us. So the reason why I went to the other beach is like you're not really supposed to swim where they are yeah, right but it was amazing, absolutely gorgeous.
Speaker 2:I would go back to cape town. I'd love to go back with you. Actually I think it would be lovely. It is a bit of a ways away and, yeah, flew through turkey for that and uh, actually I wanted to do a shout out to um, turkish airlines okay fantastic. I think I brought it down with me somewhere. They had these like super cute. Uh, look, how cute this is oh that's nice.
Speaker 2:You know, like the little toiletries that they give you. I'm like, come on. You know, like when you get something, nice like lambin yeah you know. So it's like really, really cute and I just loved it. I thought, oh, that's so nice, you know. I was like, oh, you know, normally like they're ugly and you want kind of no that's nice behind, you can wear that.
Speaker 1:I was like oh, you know, normally like they're ugly and you want to kind of no, that's nice behind, you can wear that. I was like I wear a handbag, yeah, you know. So yeah, on our ryanair flight returning from morocco, did they clap?
Speaker 2:did they?
Speaker 1:yeah, first of all, there was clapping one uh two, they ran out of water okay, there you go.
Speaker 2:So turkish airlines giving out lanvin toiletries, ryanair you got the claps and no water. Yeah.
Speaker 1:I mean, there's 55 minutes and listen exactly. Uh, just a disclaimer. Morocco is a beautiful country um it. Just I did not just enjoy that experience so. I'm sure other people will go and enjoy it. I'm just giving you my honest absolutely you know my honest reaction to the few days that we were there are you ready? Oh, the phrase of the day are we?
Speaker 2:are we ready for this?
Speaker 1:one second. By the way, I those whichever that olive is, or wherever it's from the black olive. It's the best black olive I've ever had. Okay, because I don't taste it, I I even take them off pizza. It's good. Wow, I don't like black olives at all. No, no, this would go so well with cheese. It's which we do have. It's in the fridge, but we forgot it, so Okay.
Speaker 2:Sentence of the day. Since our sentence of the day last time was highly controversial and I did get some interesting comments on socials about it Gone a little bit lighter this time. But it's still funny, so the sentence of the day is okay. So do you want me to translate that to english? Like there was few of us? Do you know what that means?
Speaker 1:Spell the last word.
Speaker 2:Abuela.
Speaker 1:Like grandma.
Speaker 2:Grandma. Okay, so éramos pocos y parió la abuela. Do you want me to translate it to English and you can try and figure it out? Yeah, there were few of us, and then the grandmother gave birth.
Speaker 1:Wow, there's a few of us and the grandmother gave birth. I'm gonna say it's a party gone wrong so something's not right there.
Speaker 2:So so a couple of different interpretations of this sentence. Like when there's already things are not going great and it's like, oh my god, like now something else happened. Or, like you said, a party gone wrong, or maybe there's a few of you at like a small event and a bunch more people show up, or the people that you know. You know just the fact that someone would think about making the sentence about a grandmother giving birth. Like, oh my goodness, like there was a few of us and now our grandmother gave birth.
Speaker 2:You know like what is I might start using these phrases, but I'll just say it in english exactly it's like oh, there was a few of us and our grandmother gave birth and just watch like the reaction I'll just start saying them in english, just randomly okay, and since we've done the sentence of the day, uh, coming up on our next episode, we are going to be talking about the unique, quirky and beautiful town of guadales so it's fun.
Speaker 1:That's a lot of fun awesome.
Speaker 2:Thank you very much.