Sounds like a great plan! Please report back. I'm dying to hear about all that you eat and drink.

You'll be driving through olive country and there are many almazaras (mills) you could visit. You don't mention when you are going--to see the action (harvest, pressing, etc.), that would be most interesting in the late fall/winter. Basilippo near Sevilla (in El Viso del Alcor) does tours and all sorts of educational stuff--but there are also lots of other small towns along the way with farms, museums, restaurants, etc. dedicated to olive oil. Antequera has a museum and is known for the hojiblanca variety. There are also cheese-producing towns a bit to the north of the Antequera route (like Zuheros). If you are going in the dead of summer, the heat might be too much for wandering around much outside during daylight hours, though.

For wine, Sherry (Jerez) is way to the east. Between Granada and Sevilla you've got the Málaga D.O. with its Pedro Ximénez varieties and also D.O. Montilla Moriles to the north, which produces wines similar to Sherry: finos, amontillados, olorosos, palo cortado, etc.--most of which never leave the region.These spots are really off the beaten path by comparison. You can see info here:

http://www.rutadelvinomontillamoriles... (You'll see places listed under "grape presses" and "cellars.")

Garbanzo flour (a.k.a. gram flour, besan, etc.)is great for deep frying. Here in Spain it's used to make tortillitas de camarón--shrimp fritters. You can look for Indian recipes, too

While a piece of toast (I love the tostadas with tomato and olive oil...) a pastry or churros are common for an early breakfast, there's also the tradition of "almuerzo" or the second breakfast at mid morning for hungrier types. Don't worry, almost all cafe bars have tortilla and other sandwiches (bocadillos and sandwich mixtos) and you can always ask for a plate of cheese or ham at any bar.

I've been recently with visitors and it's the same as always. The roast pork isn't in the same league as what you can have in Segovia at José María and the side dishes aren't quite as exciting (I'm a huge fan of judiones de la granja--big white beans cooked in pork by-products--and their version didn't really do it for me). That said, it's not an irredeemable tourist trap, either, and the historic setting along the outer wall of the Plaza Mayor is pretty special. In my experience, even for Spaniards, these kinds of asadores, no matter what town they are in, tend to be special-occasion places that you visit on a trip or for a particular reason, not every day spots.

I probably shouldn't have given the impression that both of these spots are strictly for tourists... that's not really the case and the food on offer is the real deal, with a little exoticism thrown in (a sushi bar, French oysters/wine, homemade mozzarella). They just fall into the glammed-up-concept-market category. I particularly like the cheese stand in San Miguel, because it's fun to be able to put together a big variety of cheeses and share them among a bunch of people on the spot. Madrid's day-to-day markets are great, but they aren't all that snacking oriented.

Both San Antón and San Miguel are the new breed of tourist market where they market part is mainly for show and it's really just a deconstructed tapas bar. The food is fine and it's definitely not a bad spot to go, especially if you are hungry during off hours (e.g. between 4pm and 9pm). Another kind of similar spot, minus the market artifice is the top floor of the El Corte Inglés in Callao (the former cafeteria). Excellent spot to watch the sun set behind the city. Mercado San Antón also has a rooftop bar.

If you want to visit a real traditional market in the center, there's the Mercado de Antón Martín, which has stalls inside and out.

About Idiazábal--some are smoked and some aren't.

Another nice smoked Spanish cheese is queso palmero, a goat cheese from the Canary Islands. There's also San Simón da Costa, a cow's milk cheese that's basically a smoked tetilla.

Hi, we travel a lot in Northern Spain, especially Asturias where we have family. Rural tourism is huge in Spain. Although places exist like those you described in Italy, the way it usually works is that each little town has a few gastronomic spots and the place where you stay (hotel or house rental) will usually offer breakfast, but anything beyond that usually has to be arranged. In general, people on vacation here tend to like to walk around and go out, rather than eat where they are staying. If you go on the weekend, during one of the many holidays, or during August, things will be going full steam and everything will be open. If you go during an off time, things may be quiet and the nicer spots (geared toward escapees from the big cities and weekenders) may even be closed. In Asturias, along the coast, you can expect to find a sidrería/chigre serving hyper-local seafood/crustaceans within walking distance of wherever you are staying, even in the smallest towns. And usually a better, higher end seafood spot and maybe an elevated-country-food kind of place (El Molín de Mingo and El Llar de Viri, for example). Small towns in Spain pride themselves on offering local specialties of the triumvirate: 1. heavy-duty meat/cured pork product/sea creature; 2. special pastry/cheese, 3. alcoholic beverage. Aside from being a tradition, it's kind of a marketing thing and you can count on finding this configuration in almost any corner of Spain. When we go to Asturias, we usually spend a week or so exploring the culinary options within a 10km radius (with maybe one or two bigger excursions) and come back very, very happy.

There are also seaside towns that are sort of gastronomically oriented like Tazones or Cudillero (or bigger towns like Llanes or Ribadesella) with lots of little seafood spots.

And you'll find a lot of "casas rurales" that have restaurants attached, often good ones. Here's one:

http://www.tresgrandas.com/

If you have a decent amount of time, I think a fun itinerary would be to rent a car and stay at a farm in the interior of the País Vasco. There are family-run cheese farms that do agritourism. Then move on to the coast of Asturias (around Ribadesella if you want to be close to the Picos de Europa or on the wilder western coast if you are looking for something more remote--or the interior if you want to visit a real-world hobbitland. And then hit a small town in Galicia or La Rioja. Just dreaming for you...

¡Dios mío! I'm going hug my jamón in Madrid a little harder after seeing those prices. This 24-month ham isn't even a "bellota" ham--the pigs were fed regular feed. On the plus side, under the right atmospheric conditions, a ham keeps for at least six months.

Using agar agar (powder not flakes) as an egg substitute in pumpkin pie came from the PPK geniuses. I can't recommend it highly enough. It produced a perfect pie: http://www.theppk.com/2012/11/vegan-pumpkin-pie/

Another great site for baking without eggs is http://treatntrick.blogspot.com.es/20...

Give agar-agar (the powder is easier to deal with) a try for setting custards like flan. Here in Spain there is a pretty mainstream version of flan that you can get at almost any grocery store that uses agar agar. You can also use arrowroot (an alternative to corn starch) to thicken.

I'm reviving a really old thread, but agar agar is great as an egg replacement anywhere where you need things to gel a bit (I just used it in pumpkin pie for my allergic son and I thought it turned out better than the eggy version--perfectly smooth texture and with a totally neutral flavor)--I think it could work in gooey butter cake, but I haven't tried it yet.

In chocolate chip cookies, I use a very thick greek yogurt to replace the eggs and they turn out great (this recipe but with all butter and full-fat greek yogurt: http://allrecipes.com/recipe/yogurt-chocolate-chip-cookies/

I've had really great luck with all of the recipes on the Post Punk Kitchen: http://www.theppk.com/. Since we're not vegan and live in Spain, we just replace the non-dairy milks with real milk, butter (or even lard) for shortenings, honey for maple syrup/agave, light olive oil for other oils, etc.

Keep in mind that a many restaurants charge an arm and a leg for special nochevieja dinners and they are set to go to midnight and beyond, so leaving early could be tricky. You might try one of the Grupo Oter restaurants--a group of restaurants that, in my experience, seems to do a pretty good job for these sorts of odd holiday meals when most people are at home (we've done Christmas with cooking-averse family members at their restaurants several times). They opened up a newish spot in the Barrio de las Letras, not far from Sol--El Barril de las Letras--you might try finding out if they're open on Nochevieja. It's a nice spot, not too formal, and specializes in simply-prepared, good-quality seafood.

http://www.grupo-oter.net/

Another possibility is Viridiana. The food is more personal and interesting (and expensive). You can see the menu in Spanish here:

http://www.restauranteviridiana.com/e...

Hi deadstroke86--I've been to a few of the Hamburguesa Nostra outposts for snacks. There's also one in Mercado de San Miguel y Mercado de la Paz (and now that I'm looking many, many more: http://www.hamburguesanostra.com/hamb...).

I'm not sure if they could hook you up with preordered steaks, but it's worth a try. If not, Mercado de Chamartín is a short cab/metro ride away--Madrid is very compact.

I'm not familiar with Jiménez Barbero, but the photos are eliciting a pretty intense pavlovian response... Let us know (in graphic detail, if possible), how your meat-finding mission turns out.

In Madrid:
Raza Nostra
http://www.razanostra.com/

It's in the Mercado de Chamartín upstairs (Colombia metro stop). You can read about the breeds they sell here (in Spanish): http://www.razanostra.com/razas-bovin...

Everything I have read about this suggests that natural selection in Europe favored those who had a genetic mutation that enabled them to tolerate milk into adulthood. Here's one article that discusses this:

http://www.uni-mainz.de/eng/15305.php

And a fascinating article about milk drinking in Europe that is peripherally related to the subject:

http://www.spiegel.de/international/z...

Lactose intolerance in small children is rarer, since there is a basic evolutionary need for all humans to digest milk when young. The ability to produce lactase, the enzyme that breaks down lactose, decreases after childhood. I wasn't seriously lactose intolerant until my mid-twenties, as seemed to be the case with everyone in my family (Ashkenazi Jews). That doesn't stop some of them from hitting the cream cheese and sour cream (but I can assure you, they aren't so fun to be around after they do).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lactase_persistence
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lactose_...

We feel the same way about about A Fuego Negro--fine for a stop along the way, but not what I'd consider a destination spot (at least coming from Madrid where these sorts of high-concept tapas aren't a novelty). We had the bacalao encarbonado, merluza ajo perejil, little kobe burgers everyone seemed to be ordering, pomegranate ceviche and a few other pinchos. Everything was fine (except the burgers, which I would skip), but felt like it was more complicated than it needed to be.

I love Astelena--especially the croquetas rolled in pistachos and brochetas de gamba wrapped in tiny noodles. Great spot.

If you can handle eating standing up, you can tapas hop around La Latina Sunday for lunch into the late afternoon (1-6pm-ish). Normally restaurants close after lunch around 4:00ish--and during the weekdays tapas aren't really a lunch thing in Madrid--but on Sunday places in La Latina stay open later, to accomodate the snack-happy post-Rastro crowd. There are spots that range from down-and-dirty holes in the wall (like the sardine spot on the Plaza del General Vara del Rey or many tostas places sprinkled around the Rastro) to higher concept spots. One off the beaten path place that I like is Taberna La Solana at the corner of Calle Mira el Sol and c/Peña de Francia.

You can also hit the nearby San Miguel Market, which is open on Sundays until midnight (though some stalls/bars close earlier, I believe).

If you are coming the first week or so of September, some places in La Latina may still be closed, since the neighborhood fiestas in mid August push back the closings a few weeks for many spots.

Keep in mind that the earliest a restaurant would start serving lunch here is 1pm (the norm is to start eating around 2:30--many places don't open until 1:30). If you need to be back by 2pm, I think you would be stuck eating a sandwich in a cafe/bar sort of place.

Some Madrid ideas...

Vegetarian (no meat or fish):

Tortilla española
Pisto
Setas a la plancha (wild mushrooms--try El Cisne Azul or El Imperio--two places that specialize in mushrooms)
Most ensaladas/salads, though ask about eggs or ham
patatas bravas
patatas al alioli
gazpacho (ask for it without a garnish)
ajoblanco (ask for it without a garnish)
berenjenas fritas (fried eggplants)
salmorejo (ask for it without a garnish)
And the multitude of Spanish cheeses

Dishes that sound vegetarian but almost always have ham or chorizo:

lentejas (lentils)
judiones de la granja (white bean stew)
fabada (white bean stew)
cocido (garbanzo stew)
alcachofas a la plancha
champiñones (mushroom caps, almost always filled with ham)
gazpacho manchego (not the same as gazpacho)
judías verdes

Fish:
merluza (hake)
bacalao (cod)
besugo (sea bream)
boquerones (white anchovies--typical bar food)
cazón en adobo (school shark)
salmonete
gallo (sole or John Dory)
rape (monkfish)
atún (bluefin tuna)
bonito (albacore tuna)
caballa (mackerel)
dorada (gilt head bream)
lubina (seabass)
salmón
mojama (dry cured tuna)
sardinas
arenque (herring)
anchoas (anchovies)
...

¡Dios! That's a crazy tortilla!

If you don't go to crazy with wine (they have an excellent selection) think you could stick to that budget at Taberna Matritum (Cava Alta 17).

Bodegas Campos is a regular sit-down restaurant (though it has a bar, as do many of these kinds of restaurants in Córdoba). Be sure to reserve ahead for a table. It's a sprawling and lovely place. In addition to the ajoblanco, the carrilleras (pork cheeks) and rabo de toro (oxtails) are very good. Another similar spot, but slightly more rustic is El Churrasco, which is known for its meat dishes and fried eggplant with salmorejo (a thicker sort of gazpacho).

The tiny bar at Casa Pepe de la Judería is very close to the Mezquita and a good spot for fried tapas (the restaurant has a completely different menu--fine but not as good as the two spots above).

P.S. Choco is cuttlefish (a.k.a. sepia).

Hi--
I think the reason you won't find many folks here that have been is because Córdoba tends to be a one or two-day trip at the most for Chowhounds passing through Spain and El Choco is off the tourist map (though not that far), making it harder to visit. (I myself live in Madrid and go to Córdoba quite a bit with visitors and haven't managed to get there, despite my best intentions.) If you read Spanish, you can find quite a few reviews here:

http://www.verema.com/restaurantes/3939-choco-cordoba

And see what the place is like here and read the story of the chef and how the restaurant evolved:

http://observaciongastronomica.blogsp...

I've heard lots of good things about the service, wine pairing, and interesting Cordobés influences from people who like this kind of "cocina de autor." If you go, report back!

Yes, it will be very hot here from now until September (but it cools off at night). A jacket would definitely be overkill for all but the most formal spots (of which there are very few, especially compared to the US East Coast). Everything relaxes in the summer, but there's definitely a fine line between relaxed and frumpy that Spanish folks don't cross. Personally, as a woman, I wouldn't wear jeans to a very nice restaurant, but lots of people do (though a lot of people also press their jeans here, which is something I'm incapable of doing). Dresses are cooler, anyway!

A few suggestions:
Baobab for Senegalese (Lavapiés), La Polonesa for Polish (Meléndez Pelayo), Buenaventura for northern Chinese (Callao), Don Lay for Cantonese (Puerta del Ángel), Puy Thai (Embajadores)... The first three are really low-key spots, the last two a bit more upscale. You can also find every regional cuisine in Spain represented in Madrid--a lot more diversity that you will find in any other Spanish city--if there's something in particular you are interested in (freidurías, Basque asadores, pinchos spots, Castillian asadores, Asturiano sidrerías, Gallego marisquerías, Extremeño spots, Canarian food, Madrid specialties, etc.).

No saffron? In Spain, this dish is called fabes con almejas and it always has saffron, which works so well with the flavor of the clams--it really makes the dish (in addition to the fabes, which are huge white beans from Asturias). It is a very soupy dish always served with bread.

Of course you are free to make the comparison, I just don't happen to agree.

One (chufa) is only marginally edible after a day of soaking (and if you eat more than a handful will give you intestinal distress due to the tremendous amount of fiber (chufa is a home remedy for constipation). It's has a sweet, milky flavor that I would not describe as nutty (though if I were to compare it to a nut, I'd say it's closest to almonds flavor-wise. People allergic to nuts and legumes don't have a problem with chufa.