Exploding Olives, Tempting Tapas, and a Tale of Virtual Travel

We begin in Barcelona, where the buildings bend as if they're listening to a vamp by blind jazzman Tete Montoliu.

- IGAN D'BAYAN

Gaudí's bones still twitch beneath the mosaic skin of the city, and even the pigeons in Plaça Catalunya seem to know they're part of some delicious sorcery. It smells like espresso, old stone and surrealism. You hop on a train toward Navarra. The air is quieter here, but heavier somehow, like it remembers Franco and the Basques and the old kings. Then it's Madrid that stares you down with Goya's ghosts and tapas joints where the olives quietly explode. Culture here isn't a backdrop: It's a laugh, a dance, a secret chord.

The funny thing is, our butts never leave our seats at Las Flores in Bonifacio Global City (BGC). It's a case of traveling without moving. Chalk that up to the menu—being presented by the Bistronomia Group's Las Flores, Tomatito, Rambla and Rumba restaurants—which takes us on a trip of sorts to places in Spain, carrying us through the country's soul, where food stirs with art, culture dances with memory, and family ties simmer gently in a shared cazuela. A line from the martyred poet Federico García Lorca gently wafts through the breeze. Something about warm bread, a bullfighter, deep songs.

Our tour, er, culinary guides are Spanish chef Alfredo Rodriguez Sangrador and two new Bistronomia Spanish brand ambassadors: Marta Aranda Baños and Cristina Garcia-Villalba Marba. Alfredo, the Bistronomia corporate executive chef since 2018, hails from Madrid; Marta is from Navarra, which she describes as being famous for its Tomate Feo de Tudela ("which is very ugly but with an amazing flavor..."); and Cristina is from Barcelona. Marta shares, "It's good because we can share our traditions and thoughts about the different parts of Spain."

The role of Marta and Cristina is not just to promote the cuisine (recommending food and drinks, enhancing the restaurant experience) but to introduce diners to the rich traditions, stories and spirit of Spain.