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Rincon del Puerto Restuarant & bar, Garrucha

13 Nov

This is probably our favourite restaurant in Garrucha.  It is fantastic in the summer particularly at night, as you sit right on the water and have the benefit of the sea breeze.  The menu is great – loads of fresh fish as you would expect, big salads, and a great selection of all kinds of shellfish.  They do an all year round trade here, both because of the food but also the superb location.  Sunday lunch in a crowd here is hard to beat – endless platters of food to share over several hours, sitting in the fresh air and not being ripped off!  You can pretty much come here at any time of day – coffee in the morning, lunch, drinks in the afternoon or before or after dinner, or dine up until midnight if you want to.

Great for tapas

If you come and eat at 8 pm you will probably have the place to yourselves – the Spanish in seaside towns don’t tend to do the after work drinks thing as they do in the cities, and as we do in the UK.  Those who work in offices will be at home until 8 ish and then start to go out – have a walk along the promenade with their families and then eat late – no-one really starts work here until 10 am and children are frequently kept out late (even though they have school at 8.30 am!).  All through the winter you can enjoy sitting outside at lunchtime on many days as it is nearly always warm enough as long as the breeze isn’t too strong.  At night time, there is a bar and very smart restaurant inside in which to have dinner – whatever the time of year you decide to visit,  you will be guaranteed a good time.

 

 

Garrucha market

12 Nov

It’s Friday morning and it is the most beautiful day.  I need to get a few things, including a new harness for Digby, our jack russell cross, who has decided to eat his present one.  As it is so glorious I decide to go down to Garrucha as it is market day and there is a pet shop on the way.  The market at Garrucha is probably my favourite because it is right on the street behind the seafront and I love mooching about, buying my fruit and vegetables and flowers, and then meandering down to one of the cafe’s overlooking the sea.

Spices at Garrucha market

The market here is fantastic, and has all kinds of things in the food line – dried cod (bacalao) and smoked mackerel, stalls with dozens of spices, nuts, dried fruit, pulses, gigantic sacks of snacks which you purchase by the kilo and then wonderful fresh, seasonal fruit and vegetables.  I always just buy what looks good and then look up a recipe when I get home.  I bought a whole bag of red and yellow peppers today for a euro which usually means they need to be eaten within a couple of days.  No problem as I will make stuffed peppers with the red ones, and then use the yellow to put in some carrot and coriander soup.  I also bought some beautiful little vine tomatoes which I will roast tonight to go with a lovely rib eye steak and some paprika roasted potatoes.

Fish stall at Garrucha market

Everyone looks like they are enjoying themselves in the warm autumn sunshine, although actually it is more like a perfect English summer’s day to tell the truth.  Those of us who live here have our jeans on though-you can spot visitors a mile off as they are amazed that they can wear shorts and T-shirts in the middle of November – and why shouldn’t they?  We are acclimatized and with the sweltering summer gone, 23 degrees feels cool enough for trousers and long sleeved T-shirts!  Shopping done, off I go down towards the port for a well earned break and a cup of coffee!

 

 

 

Tito’s Beach Bar, Mojacar Playa

1 Nov

Sunday afternoon and we have planned to go down to Mojacar Beach to meet up with some friends at Tito’s one of the beach bars there.  This is the last Sunday opening until the spring and it is packed with regulars and visitors.  Today they have some live music and a belly dancer (gorgeous looking, bet she can’t cook!) for our entertainment.  It is lively and buzzy and everyone is out to enjoy themselves.  The weather is still very mild, and was blustery when we left home, but not here on the beach.  The sea is calm and there are a few fluffy white clouds in the sky – we aren’t wearing jackets yet and some of us are in T shirts still.

Live music by the sea at Tito's

The menu at Tito’s is reliably good with some really delicious dishes on offer.  Fresh mussels and sardines are the order of the day to start together with a huge salad for all of us.  I choose lamb kebabs for my main course, other choices are chicken tempura (massive), mushroom risotto (just with as much gloop as it should have) and Dorada (see bream) grilled until the skin is just slightly blackened and crispy.  I am not driving today (Mick drew the short straw!) and so I glug some fresh, white wine down very happily.  We take a look at the dessert menu, which I have no intention of ordering……. Until I see chocolate brownie with ice cream which I immediately order and share with Mick.  It is divine.  We order coffees and more wine with the entertainment, a couple of really good guitarists and the beautiful belly dancer.

Bring on the belly dancer

It is Halloween and all the kids are out in costume scaring everyone and having fun – the clocks have gone back and so I suddenly realise is getting dark and is now gone 7 o’clock!  We have to go and check on the mutts as we don’t like leaving them for too long by themselves.

What a fantastic last day of summer we have had – and it is November on Monday!

If any of you reading this come next spring, go to Tito’s for a drink at night or a Sunday lunch – you will always have a good time.

Tito’s Beach Bar telephone number: 950 615 030

La Brasa Restaurant and bar, Vera

28 Oct

Last night, having got back from London late the day before, I didn’t really have the energy to cook as I had been catching up on a week’s chores and sorting all the rooms out now that the season has quietened down!  Mick said he would take me a local place between Vera and Antas that he had discovered whilst I was in London.  Anything cooked on a brasa usually means wood burning grill and is likely to be very meaty although usually a menu del dia will have something fishy on too.

These kind of places are very Spanish, no frills and frequented by local people.  You can have tapas from the bar or you can order a la carte, in which case they will put a tablecloth on one of the tables for you!   I was really hungry and so ordered from the menu del dia – 3 courses for 14 euros, including a couple of glasses of decent wine and coffee which didn’t seem to appear on the bill and so I guess were included.  I had a massive salad and an entremeses, a plate of salami, chorizo, cheese and ham, followed by the most delicious lamb chops with fried potatoes – not very healthy but just fantastic.  Mick just shared the salad, which came at the beginning for both us, and then had a really decent, well-cooked sirloin steak for about 15 quid!  They are continually putting meat on the embers of the fire in a wire rack so that they just cook through slowly (no burnt meat here!).  The result is just the most delicious, smoky, well-seasoned fare – if you are a carnivore, you could not do better in any top restaurant.  Then I ordered something for pudding which I didn’t understand – Mick said it translated something like “Bacon in heaven” but he may have been teasing me – anyway, it was a kind of bread puddingy thing with whipped cream which we managed to plough through with no problem.  The diet starts today!

The total bill for the two of us was 32 Euros.  Years ago I would have walked out of a place like this because they look like workman’s cafes (in fact usually, hidden in the back is also a much more formal dining room where christening receptions take place!) – now I know better!  Local people don’t put up with bad food or being ripped off.  And being about 7 minutes drive away is just a bonus!

La Brasa telephone number: 950 390 753

 


Terraza Carmona Restaurant and bar, Vera

24 Oct

On Saturday’s we often go to the market at Vera, a large town 10 minutes away.  After the hustle and bustle of shopping and lugging all our goodies back to the car, we pop into Terraza Carmona for a drink and a tapa – it is a hotel but with a fantastic restaurant and bar.  The bar is miles long with lots of tapas to choose from along with a fabulous choice of fresh prawns and all kinds of fish and seafood.  Cheap it ain’t if you want to eat in the restaurant but fabulous it is.  If you are just snacking and having the house wine or beer, it is a bargain though and you can stay for a couple of hours with no problem at all.

Terraza Carmona tapas bar

They also have the famous jamon from acorn fed piggies which as far as I am concerned is one of the most delicious things you can eat in the world.  A plate enough for four of you is around 20 quid so well worth ordering along with some bread and manchego cheese.  It is very very Spanish and over the weekends the bar is always busy – we always do the non Spanish thing and go reasonably early (around 8 o’clock) if we are going in the evening as otherwise it is hard to get a table if there are more than two of you.  It is lively and mostly frequented by well to do Spaniards, along with hoards of children who are always welcome at all hours of the evening.

Terraza Carmona restaurant

The restaurant is very much more sedate and very classy.  The menu is extensive and varied and also very funnily written – you kind of need to see it to know what I mean!  The kid is absolutely delicious so long as you manage not to picture what it once looked like, as are all the meat dishes.  There are lots of fish choices too – always order a salad as Spanish people obviously think “what is the point of having vegetables, we get those at the market”.  And so you may well get a tablespoon of frozen veg on your plate, along with good potatoes or chips though.  It is something I will never get used to but they seem unwilling to change in this region.   (This isn’t true in most cities in Spain).

Carmona is an absolute must for any visitor – just go for drinks and tapas if you are on a budget or treat yourself to a big fat Sunday lunch – you are guaranteed to enjoy either.

Terraza Carmona telephone number: 950 390 760

El Mar La Mar Restaurant and bar, Villaricos

23 Oct

El Mar La Mar The sea, the sea – what an evocative name.  It is a restaurant and one of our favourites and is indeed on the sea at a small fishing village near us.  We go there often, sometimes just the two of us (it’s very romantic!) but more often with friends (it is good fun!).  The owner and chef used to be a big cheese in the kitchen at Desert Springs golf club, but has owned his own restaurant for some years now.  It does very well, thanks to the delicious food, the great front of house staff, the location, and so important in this economic climate, the value for money.

El Mar la Mar dining room

 

Very cleverly, Richard (Shepherd) introduced a “Friends of Mar de Mar” menu a couple of autumns ago when the hoards of holiday makers were no longer around and so this was very much aimed at us locals, both Spanish and English.  If you order before 8 pm you are treated to a two course dinner with wine for 30 euros per couple – brilliant.  Even if you don’t eat from this menu, prices are good and the menu choices go on forever.  It is very much an international menu, with some Spanish specialities too, and always interesting and tempting.

We have never had a bad experience here and there is something for every taste, even the most fussy child.  The surroundings and atmosphere are really charming too and I never get fed up of going there.  And no, they’re not paying me.

El Mar La Mar telephone number: 950 467 030

Neptuno Beach Club, Mojacar

20 Oct

On Sunday we went off for lunch with my cousin April and her friends who were staying with us, and Sadie, Mick’s mum, who is also staying for a couple of weeks.  Sunday is my day off – no housework is done (guests are forewarned!) and usually no cooking apart from breakfast if they are lucky!  It is a day for lying around our courtyard or by the swimming pool, or, more often than not, lunch or dinner with friends.  We debated sea or mountains for lunch and sea won!  So I booked a table for 7 at 2 p.m. (never before!) at Neptuno – my sister Kim’s favourite restaurant here.

Neptuno outside deck

It is quite Californian in decor – a wooden shack type building smack on the beach and great for lunch or dinner – dinner is very romantic here as you can dine on the terrace and hear the sea gently lapping on the shore a few feet away.  Unsurprisingly, you can order wonderful fish which is done on their barbeque, a beaten up old motor boat (which incidentally used to be a charming old fishing boat!), or there is a vast choice of barbequed meats as well, along with rice dishes.

Sardines from the boat

The staff are friendly and quick to serve you with drinks, fresh bread and alioli to keep you occupied whilst you decide on the food.  My cousin is prone to over order so I warned her about the portions of potatoes and salads and said we could order more if we needed it.  We didn’t of course.  Some of the party had mixed paella, the rest of us had fish and meat on the barbeque, a huge salad and mountains of salty chips.  Heavenly.  You can stuff yourself here for around 20 euros including loads of decent plonk, water and coffees (no pud needed). It is open all year round, so is great for those sometimes blustery winter days when the sea is crashing onto the beach and you are all cosy inside.  The owners let you linger and are never in a hurry to push you out so we rolled out at 5 ish and came back to the cortijo for a siesta.  No supper needed that night!

Neptuno Beach Club telephone no. 616 005 387

Garrucha

15 Oct

Whilst we love the buzz of the summer season here, we kind of always forget how lovely the autumn and spring are here until they arrive! – there is still a lot of warmth in the sun during the day, but the mornings and nights are cooler and more comfortable than high season and of course, everywhere is that bit quieter!

 

Downtown Garrucha

 

Garrucha is a lovely seaside town near us – a lot less busy than Mojacar, the neighbouring resort, and much more local somehow.   The main fish market is here and at sunset you can watch the auctions take place – very confusing but good fun to watch – and, yes, Garrucha is known for its fish restaurants among other things!  The other morning while Mick’s mum was still here, they went off for a bit of precious time together and Mick took Sadie for breakfast in Garrucha.  She loves the sea and also Garrucha, so it was a good choice.

 

The Garrucha Hot Air Club

 

It has a long, long promenade adjacent to the beach and up on the road is just restaurant upon restaurant.   They found a new cafe though on the beach and loved it.  They had coffee and croissant overlooking the sand and sea – what more could you want.  At nighttimes during the season, the restaurants are alive with holidaymakers, both from the UK and the rest of Spain, offering the freshest of fish and seafood at really reasonable prices.  Apart from the Garrucha prawn – visitors beware – they are 100 euros a kilo – I guess a bit like ordering lobster in London!

 

The famous Garrucha prawn

 

There is also a lovely little marina here too and one of our favourite places overlooks it – Rincon del Puerto – the corner of the port – you can have coffee, lunch, drinks all afternoon or dinner here and is the loveliest of spots with great food.  Now Mick are on our own again it is one place that I will be going for someone else to serve me breakfast!

Vera market, Vera

13 Oct

Saturday morning and we are off to Vera to wander around the market – normally I have done most of my supermarket shopping on Friday, so this is purely for pleasure and to buy lovely fresh fruit and vegetables and to treat myself to some flowers.  Although there are markets in every town on every day of the week, Vera is my favourite.

Fresh produce at Vera market

It sprawls out from the Plaza Major (town square) in every direction, down all the main streets and the little alleys off them.  It is colourful and noisy and full of crazy Spanish people selling everything from jelly beans to whole legs of jamon, underwear to sunglasses and everything in between.  You have to watch it though, they have one price for locals and another for tourists (a difference of about 30%) which obviously really annoys us and if they try it on me, I chuck it back at them shouting “no estoy una turista, vivo aqui!” and stomp off!  We mooch about looking for the best seasonal fruit or vegetables and any bargains which catch our eye.  Then we always have a coffee in our favourite cafe, outside and right in the hubbub of everything. It is never raining at the market as if it is the stall holders simply don’t come and neither do we!

Mmmmm...chicken and chips

Then sometimes we go and have a glass of something in Carmona Terraza, a fantastic bar and restaurant in the town’s hotel – it is actually really famous in the whole region and serves the best acorn fed jamon (known as Pata Negra or Jabugo).  The market generally finishes at lunchtime but we like to go earlyish so we have the rest of our Saturday.  Everyone who comes to the Cortijo goes to Vera market and usually come back with lots of good little purchases to take home with them.  There really is something about a local market when you are on holiday – it is something that just has to be done!

 

Desert Springs Golf Resort, Cuevas del Almanzora

9 Oct

Sometimes during the week, when we don’t want to go out for the whole evening but we feel like a pre dinner drink somewhere, we pop up to Desert Springs. It is only 10 minutes away and has two options to have a drink or dinner.

 

El Torrente 'Clubhouse' Restaurant

 

There is the clubhouse – it is a lovely colonial style building with a vast terrace running around it so perfect for a late summer evening drink.  We met a couple of our friends there the other night who have a house on the course and as it doesn’t get dark until at least 8.30 pm and it was a wonderfully warm evening, we met on the terrace.   It is a great place to relax for an hour or two with friends and has a good restaurant too where we sometimes go for Sunday lunch.

 

The view from the 19th hole

 

More often. though, we go to the other bar/restaurant, the Crocodile Club.  It is a fabulous building which looks like it could be on an African plain – it has a huge thatched roof and rustic furniture with a terrific view over the deserty landscape, to the sea.  It is lovely to go and meet friends for drinks or dinner – kids are very welcome and they can just run around as there is lots of space and the staff don’t seem to mind.  There is a menu for every taste – from burgers and ribs to wonderful fresh fish, salads and pizzas.  The service is always good and it is just so convenient for us if I don’t feel like cooking.  We go there all year round and there are cosy open fires for the chilly nights from December.  Oh, yes, it also has a beautiful golf course for the golfers among you – anyone can play so long as you have a handicap – if you play with a member you pay a reduced rate (we usually know someone who can sign you in).  There is also a swimming pool and tennis courts for non-residents – that should keep everyone happy!

El Torrente Restaurant telephone number: 950 548 403

The Crocodile Club Restaurant telephone number: 950 548 404

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