Banetons

 



Finally bought a banneton from Kells, they had round rectangular ones out of stock for months and got square ones in this week, so got one of each size, first loaf, not bad.  Had some with lovely mermelade sent by Gabriel from Tapas de Cervantes.

Continuing on a Spanish theme, a bean and chorizo dish, with really disappoinlty rubbish hake, which I love, but won't buy from a supermarket again

Biryani, cauliflower curry and raita with roasted chicken

Off to Shouk tonight, looking forward to it, except driving, as it's an excellent BYOB, but Covid means no buses for us :(

2020 Seville

At the end of February, just before the lockdown, we had a week in Seville, one of my favourite cities in the World and visited  the Roman ruins at Italica, which has been on my to-do list for evah. :)

Loads of great food, including a great little bar near Triana, that we stumbled upon. They did fried quails as a specially, looked nothing special from outside, but when we looked it up, it was a "must visit"

 

 

 

 






Just as we were leaving Sevilla, we could see the storm of the Lockdown coming, so back home and less then 2 weeks before the country closed down

2020 - Barcelona

Usual long gap, 2 holidays this year and maybe no more!  A long weekend in Barcelona in January, stayed near Poblenou, too cold for the beach, much more of an industrial German vibe than Spanish, new area for us.  Found some great food especially El 58 and Minyam.  Llurita was a little fish bar with live music, walking back down from Parque Guell

 

 

Next stop Seville

More Malaga

Forgot to mention, the most stand out breakfast in Malaga is La Recova, slice of toast on a bit of grease proof paper (like the tapas in La Cueva de 1900 - always worth a cana), 5 little pots, sort-of hummus, sopressata (similar to 'Nduja), pork paste, mashed banana and a sort of toffee marmalade! as well as some sliced tomatoes and a couple of grapes, there is also an adjoining craft shop and an art gallery upstairs, unmissable.

Although I love the Cervantes restaurants, and will always go back, staying in Soho, Meson Iberico is close and we went in a couple of times for a drink and tapas and we booked for a Friday night - highlight of the month, staff, service, food all exemplary, this sort of thing:

 ace tapas an

The profiteroles were free with the bill, food was spectacular and is on our must visit list here forever afterwards, same as Gabriel's Cervantes places.  Only a few days left, so feeling a bit sad :(

Happened upon a Sorolla exhibition that had just opened in El Palacio Episcopal de Málaga, unexpected and lovely.  The Revello de Toro Museum, was again great, his painting of women and girls is superb, plus his colours in something seemingly white.   

Museo Carmen Thyssen was good, some great seascapes and a good temporary exhibition on North Africa.  All three Museum / Galleries worth a visit

A couple of of other places, La Queseria, does what is says, great cheese with an excellent selection of great wines, another must for the next visit.  Uvedoble Taberna, San had this on her list and went last night, trendy, local, great wine and food, fancy going there for a meal next time.  Last place for now, Te Piko, just a little bar on Plaza Enrique Garcia-Herrera, but nice tapas and every time we have been, there is great music on, old-school rock and 70's & 80's

We went to Hasta los Andares a few times, great wine bar in  SoHo with a bit of  free tapas, usually great jamon or cheese, with some great racions of the same as well if you need it.  Always great for a last glass.

La esquinita del chupa y tira, a great little Italian deli / cafe / bar, just up from Plaza de la Mercad,  very good, there was also a decent brew pub on the same road, La Botica de Cerveza

A month in Malaga

Spending October 2019 in Malaga, a week left here, thought that I'd add my current highlights
Went to Maison and Tapas de Cervantes, as always in Malaga, spoke to Gabriel, the owner, he now has 6 places, we were at his first back in 2011, still loving them. When we rented the apartment, the girl who was handing over the keys gave us a couple of places, we have been to La Campana a couple of times - excellent and plan to go to Casa Vincete.  We went to La Tranca as few times (empenados, music etc), great as always, the old La Trance called Colmado 93, still good, a new one to us, close by, Jamones, great free tapas.  Hasta Los Andares in Soho is probably our find of Malaga this time, great wine and free Jamon, cheese tapas.

We have been to Alora, Nerja and Antequera with another one or two this week. Below are museums, food and photos

Alora is a small town about 40 minutes on the train from Malaga, when we were looking at what was on in the area, we saw the first Saturday was the Perotas Soups Day in Alora, so we went there. It was packed, there is free soup in the main square and lots of businesses, not just bars and restaurants give out free soup.  The soup itself is not my sort of thing, put you have to join in, it's a bread soup with local vegetables and a side order of local olives

There was also a market, a great little municipal museum, with some paleolithic and Roman stuff and a nice little religious museum.  Great day out.

We had a couple of days in our favourite Nerja, as always Pata Negra, all the tapas in Pepe Mole and the gambas pil-pil in La Puntilita were excellent.  The small fish shop / tapas bar Pescadería el Artesano we found a while ago was again stunning:

For the first time in however many visits I at last made it to  the little museum, lots of detail on the sugar cane and silk industries, neolithic history, linked to the Cuevas (haven't been there for years either) and a nice little art exhibition.














Antequera was a real find, an hour / hour and half north of Malaga by bus, nice little museum / art gallery with an exhibition by fabulous local artist Cristobal Toral and good paleolithic stuff, we visited tow of the Dolmens (megalithic tombs):

We ate at an excellent tapas bar Arte de Tapas, connected to a great looking restaurant Arte de Cozina:

We also had a tapas in a great local bar La Cantina that we could have spent the night in, there was a street market, with all the usual, but also birds of prey, loads of free games / toys / puzzles / bubbles for kids of all ages, seemed like a great little town, though very up and down.

More Malaga

Museo Jorge Rando was OK, the main Museum was great especially after visiting La Conception, the Botanic Gardens / Stately home / old museum about 20 min north on local bus, as this was the start of archaeology museum-ship in Malaga:

La Farola De Orellana as always was great, especially the costillas:

Craft market on pier on Sunday was good, lunch in Carmen market was spectacular, I've been shopping in Atarazanas market most days for veg, fish and meat, really enjoyed cooking with great ingredients, prices generally very good, although some very good meat was priced accordingly, so we paid more than we planned, but gorgeous

A week left will update more shortly I hope