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Bedar

23 Feb

Sometimes, wherever you live, you can always find work to do around your home that stops you from enjoying your surroundings.  In London, I was always planning to go to this exhibition or that museum, and somehow, because you know it is on your doorstep you never get around to it.  It is no different here and at the cortijo there is always something to be done, fixed, painted etc. etc.

 

Anyhow, on Sunday we downed tools and went up to a lovely little village about 20 minutes from here called Bedar.  It is set high up and to get there you take a lovely scenic drive.  It is a very sleepy little village and whilst there is quite a large British community, (why wouldn’t there be, it is gorgeous!), it essentially is an unspoilt little Spanish village.  We have a friend who lives here and the view from his house is magnificent.   There is also a fantastic restaurant here called El Miramar – (Sea view being the literal translation) – you are high up and in the distance, you can, indeed, see the sea!  Take a trip up here just for the lamb alone – very delicious and extremely good value.  There are lots of little villages around Bedar, all worth an afternoon exploring with stops for Café con leche, and then on to the Miramar for a sun-downer and dinner.  Roll on summer.

 

Christmas in Almeria

7 Jan

It has been some time since I have written anything –shame on me!  I know you will understand as there were a crowd of us for 12 days and I literally did not manage to find the extra time.

At one point, I thought Mick and I were going to have to eat a 12 kg Turkey, a gammon and a whole leg of Jamon to ourselves with flights that my family were supposed to be on being cancelled, but luckily as they were leaving the airport after being turned away, I got on the trusty old internet and re-booked all their flights before anyone else could!  This, however, meant one lot coming to Malaga, and another to Alicante – at the same time!   The other was arriving just after Christmas and so I didn’t have to worry that day.

The worst moment was when my sister and her husband were airborne and my parents were on the runway – in a blizzard!  I just couldn’t bear to think about them not getting away after all that and two lots of getting up at 3 in the morning, but the travel gods were with us and they managed to get off a few hours later – Mick had already set off to Malaga (four hours away from here by car) and so had pulled of at Almeria city so I got a few more unexpected Christmas presents!

Anyhow, that evening (and three days and three hours late), they arrived and in retrospect it made it very exciting and very special – the house looked very Christmassy with all the logs fires and wood burners going, and the Cava on ice – I was so happy to see them all after really believing it was not going to happen.  Then a few days later, my brother arrived with his partner and Oliver, my nephew, who lives in Devon.  It was a miracle that they all made it here after day after day of hideous snow reports.  It was the best Christmas present I could have had.

Los Pastores Restaurant and bar, Sierra Cabrera

30 Nov

On Sundays, quite often we will arrange a lunch here or meet up with friends and go off for a lovely relaxing afternoon.  This Sunday was a beautiful day – that wonderful blue sky and lots of sunshine that you get here and also in the UK (except that here if the sun is out it is usually T shirt weather, sorry).  Anyhow, we met our friends at the bottom of our track and went off together to Sierra Cabrera, around 25 minutes away.  There are several lovely restaurants there, but the one I like in the winter is the one at the top – Los Pastores, or The Shepherds.  The restaurant occupies part of a Mosque/ church building and there is an adjoining Torreon (tower) which is believed to one of only two examples in Spain (the other tower is in Malaga) and dates back to the11th century.

Los Pastores entrance

The view is exceptional and in winter time you get that kind of alpine air feeling (it is several degrees cooler up here than at our house!).  Today we are wearing jumpers and so can enjoy a drink on the terrace with the spectacular view.  I have booked a table inside, but there are lots of visitors (you can tell as they are all sleeveless!!) who are happily lunching outside in the sunshine.

Beautiful views

The menu here is pretty extensive, delicious and good value.  My friend Gill and I share a starter of tempura aubergine and courgette with a chilli jam dipping sauce.  Mick has his favourite of salt cod fritters (they are fantastic – I make them at home) and Mike has smoked salmon.  Then two of us have roasted shoulder of lamb which falls off the bone, Gill has chicken in white wine, and Mick has a wood oven pizza which looks fantastic!  I am trying to diet so have a bite of Gill’s apple pie which is delicious.  The boys have coffee and cognac and I have an espresso as I am driving us down the mountain!

The bill comes to a reasonable 32 euros including a tip with a bottle of wine, pre lunch drinks beforehand and a glass of white wine for me.

Los Pastores restaurant interior

We are coming here for our Christmas day lunch – just for a change and I must say it will be lovely to have breakfast on Christmas morning, presents and then have Mick drive my parents, Kim and Stuart (my sis and her husband to lunch in our friend Cannon Bennett’s people carrier (he has gone to New Zealand!)  – and then just leave!!!  I will still be cooking a turkey on Christmas Eve of course to have over the rest of the holidays – it wouldn’t be Christmas would it?

Los Pastores Resaurant and bar telephone no : 950 982 585

 

 

 


 

 

 

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.

 

 

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

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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