What local dishes should I try in Spain, and where should I look for them?

Spanish regional food is not folklore; much of it is legally defined. The single document for Aceituna Manzanilla de Sevilla, also registered as Aceituna Manzanilla Sevillana, names one olive variety — Manzanilla Sevillana — and one geographical area, the province of Sevilla. It also specifies the preparation: the olives are treated cocido al «estilo sevillano», beginning with a dilute sodium hydroxide solution that hydrolyzes oleuropein, the compound that makes a raw olive inedible. That is a recipe written into law, and it is why a Sevillian table olive tastes unlike a Greek or Californian one.

Reading the register that way changes how you plan meals across the country. The designation does not say "eat olives in Spain." It says that one named variety, grown in one province and cured one way, may carry this name — so the question to ask in a bar is which protected name is local to where you are standing, not which dish is famous nationally.

The deeper reason Spain's regional kitchens diverge so sharply is also documented in the World Heritage record. UNESCO's citation for the Seville complex under criterion (vi) ties those buildings directly to Columbus's voyages and the colonization of Latin America. Spain was the European terminus of the Atlantic exchange, and the ingredients that arrived through it — peppers, tomatoes, beans, chocolate — entered Spanish regional cooking before they entered anyone else's.

A protected designation is a claim about origin and process, not about quality tier or price. Aceituna Manzanilla de Sevilla tells you the variety and that the fruit was lye-cured in the Sevillian style within the province. It tells you nothing about which bar buys well. The register is a tool for identifying what is genuinely local, used alongside judgement about where to eat, not instead of it.

• Ask for the protected name — "Manzanilla Sevillana" is the variety the designation itself specifies, so it is a question with a verifiable answer.
• Match the dish to the region — Protected names are territorial. In Sevilla province the olive is local; two provinces over, it is an import.
• Eat the Atlantic history — Peppers and tomatoes reached Europe through Spain's colonial trade, which is why they sit at the base of so many regional dishes here.

Early May and the first week of January are both pinned by national holidays that regions cannot move — 1 January and 1 May are on the 2027 non-substitutable list, as is 8 December. Family-run bars and market halls are the most likely to close on those days, and they are often exactly the places worth going to. Protected-designation products can also be harder to find outside their own region than inside it, since the name travels but the supply chain is local.

The Spain places-and-experiences answer in this group uses the World Heritage List to open up regions beyond the famous three cities; the trip-planning answer sets out the entry rules and the day limit.