Original subtitles

Welcome to the enchanted,

seldom visited wonderland of Asturias.

That's in Spain, if you didn't know,

and, of course, because it's Spain,

I did not come here alone.

I came here with a good friend, great chef.

He's a complicated man.

Nobody understands him but his woman.

And I'm not talking about John Shaft.

"Shut your mouth."

I'm talking about José Andrés...

Yeah, another beer. Um, wide.

Shit, Anthony's waiting!

Only chef in the history of America

ever to be sued by a sitting president.

I'm so proud of him.

♪ I took a walk

♪ Through this beautiful world

♪ Felt the cool rain ♪ On my shoulder

♪ Found something good

♪ In this beautiful world ♪ I felt the rain

♪ Getting colder

♪ Sha la la la la ♪ Sha la la la la la

♪ Sha la la la la ♪Sha la la la la la la

You know, sometimes we have a hard time leaving

the comfort of the known...

And we don't understand that life only starts...

At the edge of the unknown.

That's when life starts.

I've been an immigrant all my life...

From Asturias to Catalonia,

from Catalonia to Madrid.

Then I landed in America.

I've lived in the States more than 26 years of my life.

More than half of my life, I've been there.

I think everybody should be

always finding the place they come from.

Asturias, I left when I was five.

A lot of people would not have a lot of memories before five,

but I do have them.

And me, I always feel, in Spain,

like, so proud that I am a Spaniard.

That's why for me coming back here

is to understanding that, yes, I'm from here,

but they have to work hard to belong.

- Viva, Asturias! - Viva!

Astonishing.

Unbelievable.

Well, I always wanted to do it.

Try that in New York.

So, a question:

When you were a kid, after you left here at age 5,

how often did you visit?

It took me many, many years,

almost like 12, 14 years to come back.

You know...

because to me, when I left so young,

it's almost like meeting a family you knew you had

but you never met.

Still, nothing beats these moments.

Always there's something happening.

What do you eat here? What's good here?

- Everything. - What do you eat?

Here right now is the season of arbeyos.

Mm.

Which is the green peas.

And right now is the season.

And they love these green peas here in season.

And they serve them with ham.

Oh! This looks amazing.

Arbeyos.

It's perfect.

- Oh... - Croquette.

Everybody says that Asturias has the best croquetas

anywhere in Spain...

Really? Everybody says that?

Everybody, especially the people in Asturias.

Yeah, I would guess.

You see how creamy.

Good taste.

Ah, mussels.

Perfect. Clams.

They make a great steak, done with bleu cheese,

right on top.

Cabrales on top of the steak.

It's kind of the sauce happens right on the plate.

- Mm-hmm, okay. - It's amazing.

So, you want the whole cheese to spoon...

Yeah. It heavy, yeah? It heavy.

It's spicy!

Oh, no, I like spicy.

Oh, buh-buh, buh-buh-buh-buh, no.

José?

I love all the opinions.

Everybody's highly opinionated, as they should be.

And nobody's gonna agree with anybody,

only because, why to agree?

Yeah, well, any place where people argue about food

is a good place.

So, once a year, twice a year you come?

Yeah, well, at least once a year,

but sometimes, I only show up for two, three hours.

- Really? - Yeah.

I close the eyes, I breathe in, breathe out,

and, like, I'm home.

Especially when I go in the mountains.

I love to be around people, because I have a lot of energy,

and I like to feed off of the energy of the people too,

and give energy away... Right.

But sometimes, I need my moments of solitude.

I know you like moments of solitude too.

They are powerful moments.

Yeah, but I'm not walking up a mountain.

You'll see.

And I'm gonna be taking you

probably to the heart of Asturias...

Oh, yeah?

It's where I feel the happiest.

So I gotta hike up a mountain?

Is that what you're saying?

Well, I'll make a decent you.

Okay, we need more cider.

We're going deep, deep.

Through the mountain?

Through the mountain.

It's always deep.

Could you imagine, less than 20 years ago,

people had to walk all the way to the top?

Wow.

Wow.

It's a hot day today. Yeah.

I came overdressed, man.

Jesus.

Okay, are you hungry now?

Oh, God, are we there?

That's the town.

All right.

You're gonna see what the people of the mountain

used to eat.

Beans.

Well, to quote the great American poet Robert Frost:

"Beans, beans, the musical fruit.

"The more you eat, the more you toot.

"The more you toot, the better you feel,

so eat some beans with every meal."

That's the reason we're coming up here.

- Yeah, it's beautiful. - Yeah.

I expect to be accosted by some Keebler Elves

at any moment.

We welcome you to Munchkin Land

The Munchkin Land

It moves!

Help!

You see, here in Asturias, nothing is plentiful...

And the people of Asturias,

even in the hard times, they know what to do...

with nothing.

I think Asturias has been a land

that with nothing has able to do a lot,

and that shows you the character

of the people of Asturias.

So, I'll tell you...

five-hour hike up the mountain, it's tough.

I'm enjoying this...

I'm enjoying this cold weather.

- Boom. - I'll tell ya.

Could you imagine when people that live here,

the only way to go down and up and bring things

was walking three, four hours?

I could well imagine.

How long was that hike from the funicular to here?

What, four hours? No, it was like-

- Oh, my God, I was not sure I was gonna make it.

Like, ten minutes, maybe 20.

You're in very good shape. Come on.

This is nothing.

And to eat this kind of food,

we need to put some exercise always before.

Oh, wow.

What is amazing is that,

if I ask you, "What do you think this is,

an appetizer, or it's a main course?"

Right.

Many people would say, "That's a main course."

I mean, it's fatty, it's heavy. I would definitely say that.

Well, we eat these in Asturias as an appetizer.

The first course.

Wow. And it's fa... ... "fabado"?

- Fabada. - "Favada."

Fabada.

It's very difficult to define a region by a dish,

but without a doubt,

Asturias is defined by this dish.

Fabada.

Deep, deep, soulful cooking.

You have to meet Guillermina.

Probably she's inside.

Guillermina's a very special person.

101 years old.

Well, she is not in the kitchen anymore,

but until not too long ago, she was.

In this day and age,

it seems that kitchens are manned by men.

We don't realize who is feeding humanity

are women.

In a woman like Guillermina, you see very much that.

She's the only one that could be up there in that place,

at the end of the world,

feeding the few that will arrive there,

to give them enough energy to go back.

These beans really are magical beans.

- 'Cause they are special. - Yeah.

Same seeds anywhere else,

but they don't grow the same way they grow here.

Mm-hmm.

It's something about this land

and the weather and the altitude

that makes these beans very special.

Tastes like it did when it was just little José up here

in his lederhosen.

- Tastes the same? - Tastes the same.

- You happy? - This is as good.

- I'm happy too. - This is as good.

And it's worth it.

It's worth the walk. Mmm.

I mean, you show all of us that it's worth it

to go to the end of the world for the right food...

and for the right stories.

Well, in this case, yes.

Do you know how to play this game?

Tony, I've seen these often.

I've never played in my life.

So it has to be over the line?

Over the line, very important.

Right, okay, good.

So, it has to hit that sur... We know that.

All right.

But it's okay if you hit any pin?

But it can bounce?

It can bounce, yeah. Eh?

So the ball has to go spinning,

so when it touches,

the spin will take the ball...

Right, I can do that.

Probably no.

I cannot believe this is the first time.

Yeah, sí, vamonos.

Eso... cuatro!

Muy bien!

All right. Not bad.

- Try to beat that. - Okay.

Look it, look it...

with the hand, a little bit of a spin.

Tres! Tres!

Three points!

Ugh.

This game is rigged.

That was a heck of a good shot, man.

Ah, too much.

His throw.

They're taking shelter.

They are?

Asturias is really...

to a degree, it's land of plenty, but...

To a degree, it's not.

It's not what you want when you want it.

It is when the land wants to give it to you.

The river, the mountains... the sea.

You have to respect the land first,

and maybe then...

the land wants to give you something.

Asturias, many of the restaurants you're gonna go,

you're gonna get that feeling...

It's something beyond

just the plate you have in front of you.

It is the understanding of...

the happiness that hardship gives you.

So, we're drinking cider?

That's what we should be drinking.

And it goes good with the seafood?

The biggest partnership in the history of mankind.

- Wow, strong words. - By far.

Yeah.

To me, this is probably

one of the most difficult things to do.

Look at how he's hitting the rim of the glass.

Look at all the oxygen that they're putting.

Look at... I mean, I love this tradition.

And he doesn't even look at the glass.

Come on. He's like a Jedi.

That's beautiful.

- Oricios. Sea urchin. - Yeah.

You know what, I'd kill for these.

Mmm.

Holy crap.

This is one of my favorite things on earth.

Good sea urchin. Me too.

Mmm.

Probably this is one of the best animals

we have in the ocean. Right.

- Oricios. - Oricios.

Traditionally, I like to eat them raw,

but in Asturias, the vast majority of the people,

they like them put into water...

- Really? - For a few seconds.

This is plancha.

And this is very much the cooking of Spain,

the cooking of Asturias.

The seafood will be raw,

will be a slightly boil,

or will be done on the flattop, quick, fast.

Right.

The centollo: the spider crab.

- Oh, yeah... - Where is Instagram?

- Yeah, I'm on it. - Boom.

I'm on it, dude. I'm getting a zoom shot.

People complain about my pans...

But I'm going in for a zoom.

Going in for the close.

- Boom. - Oh, yeah.

Okay, my man.

- This... - This is unbelievable.

Is what I'm talking about.

This is one of the best centollos

I've seen in a long time.

Oh, I mean, it's unbelievable.

Are you smelling? Smell this. Smell.

Yeah.

Do you understand? This is the smell of seafood.

Sometimes, we forget that it doesn't matter

how good is the seafood or fresh.

I don't care if it's the catch of the day.

If it's overcooked, it's gone.

We got percebes.

- Gooseneck barnacles, my boy. - Sweet!

All right.

All right.

What, we're going swimming for those things later?

You want to?

What, do you just dive right in with a Speedo

and rip them off the wall, right?

- Yep. - Easy.

No.

You have to respect that at the sea...

These guys put their lives at risk

to bring the fresh gooseneck barnacles to the tables.

But it's a flavor like no other.

Sometimes, I feel like, wow, we don't appreciate enough

when we eat these foods.

A whole bunch goes into it.

With other fishermen,

we wouldn't be having what we have.

So you like the cider?

Yes, this is quite delicious.

You see how apples and seafood

go hand by hand?

Because this is very acidic.

'Cause nice acidity

goes so well with the saltiness.

It's unbelievable. It's a perfect match.

It's like ebony and ivory living together in harmony.

Where do you come up with this phrase?

That's, uh, I think Sir Paul McCartney.

One of his more insipid lines.

Well, you told me Asturias was beautiful,

but, uh, man, you didn't lie.

It is amazing.

I can't believe these, like, farmhouses

all the way up these mountains.

There are no farmhouses.

It's where the shepherds stay

for weeks at a time sometimes,

taking care of the herd,

of the goats, of the sheep, of the cows.

Their cheeses are made with the three milks.

And Asturias has the biggest concentration of cheese makers

anywhere in the world, period.

And we use the land like nobody.

Especially using the caves to cure them

is brilliant.

Not a lot of places in the world

that you have something like this,

caves that produce,

for centuries, amazing cheese.

Do you think you could do a cheese-themed,

like, uh, theme park?

That can be fun.

A giant volcano of cheese...

Take little boats around in a fondue pot.

I don't know, but you know what I think sometimes?

- Yeah? - You know, "Apocalypse Now"...

- Yes. - When Marlon Brando...

I don't remember what was the name of the...

- Kurtz. Colonel Kurtz. - Yeah!

- Walter E. Kurtz. - And they finally find him...

- Right. Right. - Living in that cave?

I always dreamed, like, one day,

I'm good gonna end in a place like this...

But just surrounded by chee... It'll be a cheese cave.

Surrounded by cheese and living alone.

And maybe one day, my friend Eric Ripert

and Tony Bourdain visited me,

before I lose control of my mind.

So, wait a minute, I'm seeing this.

You're dressed all in black. We shave your head.

You're sitting in this dark cheese cave.

Eric Ripert playing Corporal Willard

comes to kill you.

Finds you surrounded by all of these fantastic cheeses.

I'd play the Dennis Hopper role, of course.

It's gonna happen.

I see it happening.

You ever seen a snail

crawl across the edge of a straight razor?

I can just see Eric now, dressed in fatigue, saying,

"They said your methods are unsound."

Man, why do you always finish your beer

and I barely begin?

Professional.

I'm seriously liking this cheese.

You export these, right?

- Spain, oh, yeah, big exports. - Yeah.

Like, this one is Cabrales, which always was my favorite.

But that is, like, super funky, right?

Cabrales? I love it.

I do really love Cabrales.

This is really lovely. This is fantastic.

It just all depends on how far into the funk zone you go.

And look at... look at... Look at... look at this.

It's almost, like, green... green-bluish.

It's almost like the sky and the grass

are touching each other right on the cheese.

I mean...

And you know one thing, it's full of penicillin, man.

Nobody gets ever sick,

if you really eat these cheeses.

I feel my syphilis clearing up.

Man!

All right, cut!

So please explain to me...

This gentlemen caught the fish last year.

Is that correct?

2014.

In 2014, you go...

So, that means, what, the first salmon

caught on the river.

El campano.

The first salmon of the season.

Yeah. Campano.

Today, for the entire day,

around the rivers of Asturias,

hundreds of fishermen trying to get the permit

in a kind of an auction,

in a kind of a lottery,

where they are gonna grant them

certain parts of the river... Right.

And only for 30 minutes, one hour at a time,

depending how many fishermen show up.

Siete.

No commercial fishermen?

Only the campano.

The old days, salmon was plentiful.

And the first salmon is called el campano,

and el campano means, really, from the bells

that will ring on the churches

near the river where the salmon was caught,

not as a celebration of the salmon,

but as a way to tell everybody

that salmons are back.

"Let's go back to the river and fish them,

'cause that is the food we are waiting for."

I get super emotional when I think...

Take a look at all these photos.

I remember watching those same photos

of my grandfather hunting and fishing

and catching salmons,

and this to me, being here in this moment,

becomes really personal.

I hear a rumor you're looking to buy a fish today?

You're looking to bid on the first?

Listen to me: Bourdain and Andrés.

What, you're looking to get me in on this too?

B and A. El campano.

Between you and me, we can afford it, no?

All right, I'm in, I'm in.

I'm in for 50% of this fish.

Now, what's the highest price paid

for the first fish of the season?

For a campano, it means 6,000, 7,000, 8,000?

18... 18, uh, euros.

18? Diez y ocho? Diez y ocho?

- 18,000 euros? - 18,000!

I'm out.

Some local guy is gonna jack the price,

and he's gonna keep bidding

until you're up to, like, 22.

Come on, Tony Bourdain, what are you talking about?

What are you doing with your money?

What am I gonna do with the fish? I can't keep it.

We're gonna... come on, we're gonna eat it.

You know?

Damn.

It's a lot of money.

Tony...

They are delicious.

No, let's do it. All right.

I mean, what else do we got here?

We're gonna eat plenty of food.

You know, Tony...

Tony's Tony.

It's easy to love Tony.

He's a good guy.

Super shy.

That's why I believe sometimes the side of Tony

that people don't even know.

He seems like he doesn't care about anything...

but himself...

But then you can see it...

He's the most caring person I've ever met.

That's why I'm happy and proud to call him a friend.

I wonder... where José is.

Oh, yeah.

Ah, my hair!

Hope he's getting some rest.

This is nuts.

Oh, well.

- Enjoy. - Wow.

Okay, so, a traditional local dish, I guess?

- Yeah, this is. - What's this called?

Well, I think that's pinto de caballo...

- Right. - Pinto with rice.

Ah, all right.

So, born and bred in Asturias?

You were born here? Yes, yes, yes.

What did your family... What... what...

What business was your family in?

Well, my grandparents were all in the mine,

my mother in a little shop,

and my father a teacher.

What are the typical characteristics

of someone from Asturias?

Okay, independent? Tough?

Well, there is... Another sentence is:

"Asturiano: borracho, loco, y mal cristiano"...

Drunk, crazy, and Christian.

Asturia: drunk, crazy, and bad Christian.

That is important.

So, fair to say a tradition of independence?

Yes. Before the Spanish Civil War,

we have the Asturian Revolution,

that Asturias do in one month.

Was independent,

because we have a communist, anarchist revolution...

Mm-hmm.

The worker movement here was massive.

- In the mines? - In the... yeah...

Mostly coming out of mines and organized labor?

Yes, but, of course,

worker class fight is over.

They win.

We lose.

The problem with the miners,

it starts when the Soviet Union was over,

and then in Europe, the social democracy...

was over.

And the last strike was five years ago.

The miners were the last soldiers

of the worker class movement.

In the last strike,

the airport was closed by the miners,

the highway, the city too.

They closed Asturias.

Everybody in the streets, like, screaming.

The miners stay in the fight,

and the war is over when one side win.

They win...

We lose.

And for me, that was, like, the end of the...

The end of organized labor.

Yeah, the end of the worker class left.

- But still you're here. - Yeah.

The war is over, but you're here.

Well, you can create some money,

some conditions to survive,

but not a proper job.

The only way to make money for me was play music...

So now I'm a musician.

I think that for my music...

it's good to stay here.

Here, I have the tools.

For me, that is very important.

I just heard bagpipes.

Have you been invaded by Scotland?

Well, we are one of the eight Celtic nations.

With Wales, Bretaña, France, and Scotland and Ireland,

we are Celtic nations.

Here, there is a kind of song that is called tornada,

and tornada is just voice and bagpipe...

And it's, like, the music from the people

who work with the cows...

- Right, folk songs. - Yeah, folk songs.

I think that music is about identity.

I spend a lot of time with my grandparents...

They listen to a lot of Celtic music.

I have the life to live that kind of music

and discover my identity.

And I think that Celtic, the spirit of freedom,

is part of Asturias' identity.

Okay, we do another shot or what?

Oh-ho-ho-ho.

Yeah, we should do another shot.

- You don't have to do it. - I'll do it, I'll do it.

Good.

Boom.

Oh... yeah.

That's orujo.

I've tasted this in one form or another

all over the world.

That's the local moonshine.

That's... that's good.

Tony, I have a surprise for you.

You finally got a salmon?

Don't move.

We searched for it, and we found it.

The magical salmon.

For 1,000 euros a bite.

No! This one was given to me.

They got somebody that got a salmon.

He's super generous.

He said, "You know, you want salmon? Here."

Friends feed friends.

It's no way that you come to Asturias

and you go without the bite of the salmon.

This is gonna surprise you,

because usually, everybody always said,

"The fish, we need to grill it whole."

Right.

He breaks the fish in pieces.

He cuts all the pieces through. Why?

- Grills them separately. - Separately.

And over the flesh,

because the skin is full of fat,

and you don't want that fat to burn.

You want that fat to melt.

To stay inside, in the Spanish way.

And you want to maintain the integrity of the skin.

So he grills the fish over the flesh,

and then, probably, the skin...

is better than the flesh itself.

- Mm. - It's unbelievable.

Muy bien. Gracias.

Buen provecho.

Oh, my God.

Wow.

Mmm. Wow.

It's everything I told you?

It's everything you told me.

The fats, ethereally suspended somehow

between skin, flesh, and bone.

Boom.

You bite into it,

and just a flood of flavor explodes into your brain, man.

Keep going, keep going, keep going.

José, this is an enchanted country,

and, in fact, this region of the country

is the most extraordinary place I... I... I...

Give me the dollar. Where are the dollars?

Dollar bill.

The mountains, the sea,

it's... it's amazing.

Yes, I'm throwing you the bills.

If I had hundreds!

Just stuff it in the G-string, my friend.

We are so close to a white guy, I love it.

Okay, no, I'll let you say it.

- No. - What do we say about now?

Well, no, no, first we take one more satisfying bite.

This is how it works, okay.

I think I got the bone in my throat.

Tracheotomy. I'm coming.

I think we've learned something here in Asturias.

I don't know why I didn't expect it to be this beautiful,

but it is far more beautiful than I could've ever imagined.

The food is incredible, the people are wonderful.

You were right about [...] everything.

You call it, my friend.

Turn to the camera and say the magic word.

I am not Anthony Bourdain,

but I'm calling, wide.

That's the end of the show.