Today Conchita is preparing anchovies, tiny silver fish, which are often mistaken for sardines, in an original way. She is up against stiff competition, pitting her cooking skills against 24 other women at the annual anchovy festival held in L'Escala each September. People flock from all over Spain to sample the specialties created here. Conchita is working flat out to get her meal ready on time.

Those who like their food a little less salty and brighter may find what they are looking for further south along the Mediterranean coast in the Valencian agricultural town of Sueca.

An alluring aroma of stewed rabbit, beans, rice and tomatoes fills the air as Jose Jimenez carefully slips the meat into a large, circular flat pan coated with hot olive oil. He adds a few garrofon butter beans and has soon stirred up a perfect paella.

The saffron festival at Consuegra meanwhile is a celebration of all things that are from the Castilla de Mancha region of Spain. Everything revolves around the purple saffron flower. Around 200 saffron flowers must be plucked to produce just one gram of the world's most expensive spice, which costs up to 1,400 euros a kilo.