You will find much pleasure in the bars and local restaurants of Galicia. You might have noticed that in other parts of Spain there are many Galician restaurants too, usually opened by migrants from there. Galicia is beautiful but making a living there traditionally has been hard, so many moved abroad to work or to other parts of Spain.

Galician food is deservedly popular from steaming bowls of Caldo Gallego (a wonderful soup with potatoes, greens, chorizo, beans and often a ham broth) to Polpo a la Gallega (tender slow cooked octopus, sliced and served over boiled potato, with smoky paprika), Empanada Gallega (a closed pastry tart, filled with tuna, peppers, tomato, garlic) and for sweet Torta de Santiago (an almond cake traditionally served to pilgrims as they finish their Camino de Santiago). With it all you can have the local Albariño wine, served traditionally from a bowl.  Continue reading

When I think of Galicia, I think of grey skies rushing blue, clouds chasing the rain away fortified by the wind. More rain behind to soak the land again, bringing four seasons in one day. Galicia is not what you expect of Spain. Maybe it is the weather, looking more to the North than the South. I loved the laid back vibe there, and the people. Galicia had been on my bucket list for a while, and it proved to be a lovely place to visit.   Continue reading

I travelled to Barcelona with Jet2CityBreaks who offer great hotel and flight city break packages. Jet2 fly to El Prat Airport in Barcelona which is a short hop from town and very handy for a city break. I wanted to explore Barcelona from all angles, traditional to modern and budget to blowout. Every recommendation is researched in advance and tried and tested by my demanding palate. You will love Barcelona, and all of the wonderful things that you can eat and drink there. First in this series: Barcelona Eating Guide: Traditional to Modern and Budget to Blowout. This is the second (and last).

Now that we know where to eat in Barcelona, let’s focus on where to drink. Barcelona has a terrific bar culture and it is a fun city. You will find plenty to satisfy, old school, contemporary and exciting. You will find a lot of gin. Spain is the biggest gin market in the EU and the third largest in the world (doffs cap to Spain!). They have lots of varieties and pour it freehand and generously in large glasses reminiscent of fish bowls. You must try some Spanish gin when you are there too, one of my favourites is the Nordes gin, fragrant of gentle sea breezes and crashing waves.  Continue reading

I travelled to Barcelona with Jet2CityBreaks who offer great hotel and flight city break packages. Jet2 fly to El Prat Airport in Barcelona which is a short hop from town and very handy for a city break. I wanted to explore Barcelona from all edible angles, traditional to modern and budget to blowout. Every recommendation is researched in advance and tried and tested by my demanding palate. I went on a food tour too. You will love Barcelona, and all of the wonderful things that you can eat there. 

Everyone loves Barcelona, even contrarians like me. It seems like everyone has been, and if they haven’t, they want to go. An individual city, so much sets it apart from quirky Gaudi architecture to the beautiful engraved pavement tiles, the most famous of which is the Flor de Barcelona pictured below. Barcelona is a city that loves beauty and attracts artists, a bohemian place that is relaxed and fun and also very stylish. Barcelona has the calm of the sea and beaches as well as a busy city centre lined with restaurants and bars. Continue reading

On then to Toledo. A walled city surrounded by a rushing river. It looks very magical, and it is easy to imagine the rich history that Toledo has. There is much to see, Toledo is a rare place where historically Christians, Muslims and Jews lived in harmony alongside each other. There are ancient mosques, synagogues and an impressive gothic cathedral too. Continue reading

Menorca is a small island with a big heart. Not just a big heart but a serious heritage. It is clearly Spanish but all a little different, from the stone house structures that look prehistoric and like the many UNESCO heritage sites scattered throughout the island. These are relatively modern and are used to house animals in farm fields. They add to Menorca’s sense of wildness and natural beauty. There is little modern here to interfere.  Continue reading

La Mancha will surprise you. Inland and south of Madrid, La Mancha is home to fields of bright saffron crocuses (and their gorgeous stamens, aka saffron), windmills atop hills surfing waves of wild rocket, each tender stem reaching for the stars and proud with rocket flowers. There are beautiful rural towns with ancient buildings and theatres. Country squares full of locals dancing, painting, enjoying local festivals. Don Quixote was set here and you can see it everywhere.  Continue reading

Galicia loves seafood. The scallop shell is an emblem of their pilgrim walk, the camino de Santiago. I saw a church covered entirely (and beautifully) in scallop shells and many pilgrims with a scallop shell painted with the camino emblem attached to their backpack or their wooden walking stick.

Razor clams are a favourite, as are clams, more pedestrian (but still fabulous) mussels and gnarly percebes, plucked from the cliffs before the waves crash in by expert brave fishermen. If you have been to Spain you will have noticed the percebes, it is hard to imagine that you can eat them that first time they take you by surprise. Black and pointed, looking like a velociraptor talon, not something tender, saline and delicious. Harvested in Galicia and popular in Spain, they are cooked by plunging them briefly in boiling salted water for just a couple of minutes. Pinching them to remove the outer leathery carcass reveals a delicate addictive interior, juicy and bright. Continue reading

Menorca in Spring is covered in flowers. Wild joyful ones, carefree and colourful with tall stems and bright petals. So many poppies lining old stone walls, gates made of wild olive wood and bristling against ancient UNESCO world heritage monuments, occasionally a donkey, some cows or some sheep. There are wild orchids too, tiny and discreet. Up to 25 types. I found one hiding on a walk to the seashore.

The Wild Flowers of Menorca

There are over 900 types of wild flowers recorded there. Menorca doesn’t have an Autumn, instead they call it Winter-Spring, in reference to the wild flowers that flourish at that time of year. So, it isn’t inaccurate so to call the honey produced in Menorca thousand flower honey. There are hives dotted throughout the island. Sebastià Pons has 350 dotted along 8 locations on the island. Sebastià is the producer of Miel S’eixam (along with all of those busy bees), a raw honey produced and sold in season.

Visiting Miel S’eixam hives

Down winding Menorcan country roads, through fields rich with flowers and past some curious cows we found some of Sebastià’s hives. It was an overcast day, which was a good thing, as his bees can become agitated in the heat. They are part African bee (he had some genetic analysis done), and they are aggravated by red and black, which were the colours that I was wearing that day. Bad planning but not to worry, I had a full beekeeper outfit, complete with hat, to protect me from any unwarranted bee attention. Although Sebastià was keen to stress that he allows himself to be stung on occasion as he believes it is good for him, citing back pain in particular (and there is scientific evidence that the immune reaction to bee stings can be beneficial for other situations).

I watched the bees fly in and out and could not help but think of those two terms busy bees and mind your own beeswax. I watched them return to their hives with the pollen attached to their legs as tiny perfect cylinders (pollen is bee protein, and is very good for us too). A separate hive had started to form in a nearby bush, which I walked to through wild flowers as tall as me (and that would be 5ft 3!). Sebastià had placed a box nearby for them.

The Benefits of Raw Honey

Raw honey is unpasteurised and so has not been subjected to the heat that can strip honey of its health benefits and breadth of flavour. Local raw honey helps with hay fever too, and it has to be local, as what you are doing when you are eating it, is inoculating yourself with local pollen, and getting your body used to it before the onslaught of the season. It is rich with antioxidants, and minerals like iron, zinc, potassium, calcium, phosphorous, magnesium and selenium. It is vitamin rich, containing B6, thiamin, riboflavin, pantothenic acid and niacin. Raw honey also mops up free radicals and there is evidence that shows it enables significant suppression and prevention of cell damage. We focus too much on the fact that it is sweet and confuse it with processed white sugar. Honey has long been a valuable energy resource for us, and a health food.

Miel S’eixam was not yet available (it sells speedily when in season, and the season has yet to start this year), and raw honey is hard to come by at home but it is available if you look for producers in your area. I get excellent local raw honey at my farmers market in Balham, London of varying types depending on the location of the hives. I buy 3 types: forest, lime and borage (the borage is said to be particularly good for hay fever). They have pollen too, which is dried (and this removes a lot of the properties) but with notice they can get me some frozen pollen which is still very good.

If you are lucky enough to be in Menorca during honey season, make sure to get some. And have it with sobrassada as the locals do.

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To see more recipes and to see them first come follow me on snapchat! I share video recipes from my kitchen, almost daily, along with my other London and travel based food adventures too. Add eatlikeagirl on snapchat using this link: http://www.snapchat.com/add/eatlikeagirl
 

Related Posts: 

A Day in Ciutadella, Menorca: Where to Eat and the Best Caldereta

A Menorcan Food & Wine Producers Trail (Wine, Gin, Sobrasada & Mahón Cheese)

Where to Eat, Drink & Stay in Menorca

A Perfect Sunday Lunch: Caldereta de Langosta in Menorca at Es Cranc (Traditional Lobster Soup + a Recipe)

I travelled to Menorca as part of a project between iAmbassador and Visit Menorca, who sponsored this project.  As always, I have complete editorial control.

Some towns capture the heart and the imagination. Ciutadella is one. Previously the capital of Menorca (but not since 1722), it is the same size as current capital Mahon, both small cities with 30,000 people living in each. The remaining 30,000 Menorquins live in other small towns and rural Menorca. Ciutadella is a small city, cosy and friendly, but its architecture and large square lend it a feeling of a much larger place, and one that you want to get lost in. 

The streets of Ciutadella are gorgeous, winding and narrow. Many shoot off the large impressive main square, the Placa d’es Born, which overlooks the harbour below. The narrow streets are lined with Moorish, Gothic and Medieval architecture. Window balconies jut out above, reminding me of sleepy Andalucia. It is all very lovely, and glorious on a sunny day. 

Coffee in Bar Imperi, Ciutadella

We started our day in a lovely little cafe in the corner, Bar Imperi. I was meeting Antonio, secretary of the Fra Roger Gastronomy & Cultural Society (Fra Roger Gastronomia y Cultura) and a Ciutadella native. Fra Roger wrote the first Menorcan cookbook and is a very important figure in Menorcan gastronomy. He was a Francisan friar and likely learned to cook in the friary. He wrote down all he learned in his book Art de la Cuina (The Art of Cooking) which was published in the 18th century. 

Bar Imperi is a local institution and it is clear from the first few minutes that Antonio knows everyone there. Here you can have local pastries and snacks, coffees and alcoholic drinks. There is an open courtyard to the back as is common in buildings like this in this area. Over coffee and sobrassada sandwiches we spoke of Fra Roger and his recipes. He wrote 200 including dishes like lobster meatballs and there are many references to the original mayonnaise, alioli. Menorquins claim mayonnaise as a Menorcan dish, discovered by the French during their occupation of Menorca (and called after its place of origin, Mahon). 

Seafood lunch at S’Amarador overlooking Ciutadella harbour

Lunch had to be seafood, and we headed to one of the best restaurants in Ciutadella, S’Amarador. It was packed on a Monday lunchtime, on the terrace overlooking the harbour, in the courtyard where we sat, and throughout. We had a seafood platter to start with john dory (sublime!), grouper, cuttlefish red prawns and scorpion fish.

To follow we ordered the local speciality Caldereta (invented since Fra Roger’s time and in Menorcan cuisine for 100 years or so). A local spiny lobster soup, this version was rich and had a beautiful deep rust red lobster broth with lots of lobster in, and crisp thin toast to dip in and soak it all up. As good as last years was this was divine and I was full, but the magnetic broth kept pulling me back. For dessert I had to have the local ensaimada, a glorious snail shaped lard pastry dusted with icing sugar, and served with cinnamon ice cream this time. 

Finish the day with a Pomada, Menorca’s favourite gin drink

My third recommendation is the same as my first, but you will thank me for it. Start your day at Bar Imperi with a coffee, and finish it there with a pomada. A pomada is the local drink, a gin cocktail made with Menorcan Xoriguer gin and lemonade (or lemon fanta). Sometimes, lemon, or homemade lemonade.

Here I learned a neat trick, maybe two. First, you can order small cocktails, just to start your evening, a perfect primer, and not so much that it will make you sleep. Second, as I witnessed the barman repeatedly smash a bottle of fanta off the side of the counter, I realised that they had frozen the whole thing, and then gave it a good beating to create crushed ice. My pomada was like a pomada slushie, and it was so good in the heat.

I will return to Ciutadella, I have a list of restaurants to check out and I loved the relaxed friendly vibe there. I think it will be a perfect place to chill out once my book is done (and it nearly is!).

What You Need to Know

Bar Imperi, Placa des Born 5,Ciutadella de Menorca

S’Amarador, Carrer de Pere Capllonch, Ciutadella de Menorca

Map

Follow me on instagram! (@eatlikeagirl)

To see more recipes and to see them first come follow me on snapchat! I share video recipes from my kitchen, almost daily, along with my other London and travel based food adventures too. Add eatlikeagirl on snapchat using this link: http://www.snapchat.com/add/eatlikeagirl
 

I travelled to Menorca as part of a project between iAmbassador and Visit Menorca, who sponsored this project.  As always, I have complete editorial control. With particular thanks to Antonio and the Fra Roger Gastronomic and Cultural Society and Menorca Guides for their help on this wonderful day in Ciutadella.

Related Posts: 

A Menorcan Food & Wine Producers Trail (Wine, Gin, Sobrasada & Mahón Cheese)

Where to Eat, Drink & Stay in Menorca

A Perfect Sunday Lunch: Caldereta de Langosta in Menorca at Es Cranc (Traditional Lobster Soup + a Recipe)

Tart Basque cider is a must when in San Sebastian, poured high, as with Txacoli. Sour more than sweet, and flavoured intensely with the nectar of a jumble of heritage apples when I tried it at Petritegi at Astigarraga near San Sebastian, a traditional Basque Cider House, not far from San Sebastian. 

Even if you don’t like cider – or think you don’t, I promise you that this is different to the commercial fare that we are more familiar with – you must go for the food and the experience.

Basque Cider House near San Sebastian: Petritegi

A large wooden room greeted lined with tables with nothing on them bar plates, cutlery, napkins and a large stick of bread. The room was lined with large barrels of cider. Huge wooden vats. We proceeded to the tasting room down a hallway lined on each side with more barrels, into a large room, where one of the family waited manning the tap, waiting for me catch my cider.

Basque Cider House near San Sebastian: Petritegi

Yes! You catch your cider. I don’t know how else you describe this. The tap is flipped, the cider arches high and proud and you giddily stretch and try and get your glass right beneath it to catch a couple of inches of it before the tap is turned off. There are no pints of cider here, you can have as much as you want, but in polite pours.

For eating, there were several cider house menus, including excellent children’s menus, with real food! They are real people after all. Why all the nuggets here? Our menu was €33 per person, including all the cider our hollow legs could carry. Be warned: the portions are large.

Basque Cider House near San Sebastian: Petritegi

Basque Cider House near San Sebastian: Petritegi

The food was very good. A fluffy salt cod omelette started us off. Very tender and light. We also had local sausage, served simply as it was.

Basque Cider House near San Sebastian: Petritegi

Hake tail followed this, served as a flat fillet with perky slices of roast garlic on top. Gorgeous. We were not even at the main event yet (these portions serve 2).

Bone in rib eye steak arrived, sliced, charred outside and bright red, 700g for two people. In English that is a steak as big as your head, and a little bit if your friends head too. Great quality local steak with rich deep flavour and superb texture. A little salty, but with all that cider, a little salt is good.

Basque Cider House near San Sebastian: Petritegi

Dessert was local cheese, membrillo (quince jelly) and walnuts, served in the shell with a nutcracker.

A Basque Cider House? Fun, delicious and terrific value for money. Do it.

I went to San Sebastian on the #SeeSanSebastian blog trip, created and managed by iambassador in partnership with San Sebastian. The editorial is, of course, my own. I maintain full editorial control of the content published on Eat Like a Girl, as always. All of our lives are too short for any alternative!

We all avoid tourist spots when we travel, mainly because they are mostly dreadful. But some cities are serious about food, and even their tourist places can be excellent. Like Madrid.

It is unfair to label Botín a tourist spot though. True, it is mainly tourists that eat there now. Lots of writers have feasted on suckling pig over the years here too, including Graham Greene & Hemingway. Goya was a waiter there. Hemingway is quoted as saying “We lunched upstairs at Botin’s. It is one of the best restaurants in the world. We had roast young suckling pig and drank rioja alta. Brett did not eat much. She never ate much. I ate a very big meal and drank three bottles of rioja alta.”

I always liked Hemingway.

Botín has been open since 1725, and is listed in the Guinness Book of Records as the oldest restaurant in the world. Suckling pig is roasted here in the wood fired oven (which dates from 1725 also) in the Castillian way.

The restaurant is quaint and gorgeous, all dark wood and bright tiles. The counter as you enter is low, with scarlet red drawers. You can eat in the cellar (I did), on the ground floor or on the bright first floor. As you walk in, you are invited to look at the oven, and the shelves of small suckling pigs alongside. It is a remarkable sight, and is the perfect amuse for your dinner.

I had heard much of the garlic and egg soup, and on the menu it is capitalised. So, yes, I ordered that. A terracotta bowl of bread and bacon soup spiked with garlic was presented to me, with a perfect fried egg on top, complete with runny yolk. A meal in itself, but I was hungry. I had a glass of house wine, just one, which was alright, but I would suggest you get a bottle of something better if not dining alone. Or rock like Hemingway and have three bottles of rioja alta. Next time, I will try.

After the soup, I saw a platter of suckling pig whisked to a table at the front of the restaurant, where my waiter plated it with small perfect roast potatoes on the side, all carefully drizzled with roasting juices. I had a leg, split down the centre, revealing gorgeous tender flesh inside. A sheet of crisp light crackling lay on top, and it was all so gorgeous, porky, rich and moist. I ate it all, and I ate it swiftly. Joy with every bite.

I skipped dessert, and so my bill came to €38 or so, but there is a deal to have the soup, pig, ice cream, half a bottle of house wine and half a bottle of water for €45. I loved it and would highly recommend a visit. Embrace your inner tourist and treat yourself to some gorgeous suckling pig in the oldest restaurant in the world when you next visit Madrid.

Botín, Calle Cuchilleros, 17, 28005 Madrid, Spain
+34 913 66 42 17
http://www.botin.es/?q=en

Related Madrid posts on Eat Like a Girl:

Where to Eat Tapas in Madrid on a Sunday for Lunch
What to Eat in Madrid & Where to Eat It

Head to Menorca and fill your boots with cheese, wine, sobrasada & GIN! A gorgeous, chilled out and very under rated island, Menorca was one of my favourite places to visit this year. Here is your guide for the best of the artisan products. There are also links here to my Menorca Eating & Drinking Guide and the best Sunday lunch on the island (lobster soup, as you are asking!).

Menorcans claim mayonnaise. The French don’t agree, but Menorcans say that mayonnaise originated in Mahón and was taken to France where it was popularised after the French victory over the British in Menorca in 1756. The sauce was salsa mayonesa in Spanish, later becoming mayonnaise when the French embraced it.  Who could blame each side for declaring they are responsible for the origin? I adore the gorgeous emulsion of egg yolk and oil. A bold claim from a small island like Menorca and an insight to their proud culinary heritage.

Menorca is still steeped in salsa mayonesa, which they make fresh and serve with many dishes. There is also Mahón cheese (a cows milk cheese which has a PDO, which means the origin and method of production are protected), Menorcan sobrasada (wonderful spreadable gently spiced pork sausage), Menorcan gin and a growing wine industry. Menorca is small enough to whizz around and experience all of it in a couple of days.

Binifadet Winery

From November to March it is possible to do a tour of Binifadet with a wine tasting, and a tasting of their other products including jams and goats cheese marinaded in red wine. 9 wines are made here, I recommend the sparkling white which is 100% chardonnay and the white merluzo (a white wine made from merlot). The setting is beautiful and there is a restaurant there too, although I haven’t had time to eat there yet, I would try and fit in a meal on the terrace.

http://binifadet.com/en/

S’Arangí

Raw cows milk is used to make the Mahón cheese at S’Arangí, each cheese is rubbed in olive oil and paprika, which gives it its distinct rust rind. Goats cheese is made here too, and terrific sobrasada. All of which are available to buy to take home. They can vac pack it for you too. A must.

http://www.quesomahonmenorca.com/es/empresas/60-sarangi

Hort de Sant Patrici

Cheese and wine are on offer at this family run  and it is possible to do a tour and tasting. Mahón cheese is made in the traditional manner (from cows milk), and three wines also (a rosé made from Syrah and 2 reds). There is a lovely family run hotel on site too (Ca Na Xini), in a blissful rural location.

http://santpatrici.com/en/

Ca’s Sucrer

A bakery that sells all of the Menorcan traditional delicacies, swing by here to try as much as possible, and don’t the ensaimada, particularly the sobrasada one. Take one home too, beautifully gift packaged.

http://www.cassucrer.es/

Gin Xoriguer

Made from wine spirit, juniper and selected aromatics, gin was initially made in Menorca to satisfy the appetites of British soldiers and sailors stationed in Menorca in the 18th century. Gin has since become part of the cultural fabric of Menorca. Xoriguer is a family owned gin producer that distils gin in copper stills on the coast in Mahón. Traitionally, Menorcan men would start the day with a thimbleful of gin, called a ginlet. For aperitif it is popular to have a pomada, a drink made with local Xoriguer gin and cloudy lemonade. You can get this gin everywhere there, but a trip to the distillery and a tour is well worth it.

http://www.xoriguer.es/Default.aspx?lan=en

Related Menorca posts from Eat Like a Girl: 

Where to Eat, Drink & Stay in Menorca

A Perfect Sunday Lunch: Caldereta de Langosta in Menorca at Es Cranc (Traditional Lobster Soup + a Recipe)

Related Menorca posts from the web:

Exploring a Spanish Fish Market in Menorca – Bright Bazaar

Gin, Sin and the History of Gin in Menorca – Inside the Travel Lab

The Streets of Ciutadella – Time Travel Turtle
My Menorca Adventure – Travmonkey

The Joy of Spring in Menorca – Live Share Travel

I travelled to Menorca as part of a project between iAmbassador and Visit Menorca, who sponsored this project.  As always, I’m free to write what I like and I do! Life is short etc. :)

My trip to San Sebastian wasn’t all about pintxos and restaurants, although it was all about eating. I spent Sunday afternoon cooking with Tenedor Tours, and learning all about Basque food that I could cook at home.

We met in the lively old town of San Sebastian in a gorgeous apartment dedicated to Gabriella’s cooking classes. There was a long room with an open kitchen at one end, and a table set up for us to eat at after. The light was beautiful, crisp and Autumnal, and Gabriella was waiting, brandishing a bottle of Txacoli and a warm welcome.

Gabriella has been running tours in Spain since 1997. In San Sebastian she works with chefs from the Basque Culinary Center (where she also teaches), and puts together sociable fun Basque cooking workshops followed by a meal where you devour your efforts. Our chef was Íñigo Zeberio (Princess Bride fans, there are a lot of Íñigos in San Sebastian, and you may find that phrase  – My name is Íñigo etc. – circling around your head repeatedly). A San Sebastian native, Íñigo brought us through seven recipes, all very hands on with lots of tips and tricks shared too. 

We started with a clever recipe for vermut stuffed olives where the vermut (Spanish vermut, not vermouth) was stuffed with a very simple vermut gel made with vermut and xanthan gum. Vermut is a terrific drink if you haven’t come across it yet, it is gorgeous with soda and orange bitters (I brought both back with me). Then we moved on to that pintxo classic, the Gilda, which requires a little bit of skill to put it together, all very well described with a hands on demo, the details are in the recipe below too. 

After the gilda, we made a homemade mayonnaise which became part of a gorgeous rich salsa rosa, which in turn went into stuffed peppers. Urchin prawns (I immediately thought hedgehog when I saw them!) were prawns coated in crisp dried pasta and fried, served with basil mayonnaise as a dip. Pork secreto (yes: pork secret), is a fabulous cut from the pata negra pig shoulder. Dense, rich and so luxurious, we had this with a fruity piperrada, a pepper sauce which we made too. Íñigo also fitted in a gorgeous scrambled egg with fresh boletus (porcini).

Gabriella is on hand at all times with stories and plenty of Txacoli and Vermut. It was such a fun afternoon and now I can have a little taste of San Sebastian at home too.

More on San Sebastian: Where to Eat Pintxos in San Sebastian (Donostia), in Spain.

Gabriella runs many different types of tours, you can find out more on her website Tenedor Tours. With thanks to Gabriella for sharing her lovely recipes. 

The “Gilda”

A classic pintxo, perhaps the first with a name of its own. Green, salty, and a bit spicy, it’s the taste of the Basque coast on a stick.

Serves 4

Ingredients

4 olives
12 guindilla peppers
4 good salt-cured anchovies Maldon salt
Extra-virgin olive oil
4 long toothpicks

Method

Line up the peppers and cut off the stems. Put three peppers on each toothpick, followed by one end of the anchovy.

Deftly slide the three peppers and lone anchovy to the other end of the skewer, and wrap the anchovy around the peppers, bundling them all up.

Bring everything back to its rightful and pointy end, and poke the pick through the last remaining bit of anchovy.

Add the olive to the end, drizzle it generously with good olive oil, and crush a pinch of flaky sea salt over the top.

With one bold move, eat the gilda in a single bite, followed by a sip of txakoli.

“Urchin” Prawns

Serves 4

Ingredients

8 prawns (or 12 prawns…or 16, perhaps)
Might as well go ahead and make it 20 prawns, to be safe. All-purpose flour
An egg from a happy hen
1cm pieces of angel hair pasta
Salt and pepper
Neutral vegetable oil
Mayonnaise + your choice of fresh herbs (try cilantro or basil!)

Method

Arrange your breading station: a plate with flour, a bowl with a beaten egg, and another plate with the noodles.
 Set a couple of centimeters of oil to gently heat up while you work on your production line.

Clean the prawns, leaving the tail and last joint, and remove the gut with a toothpick.

Salt and pepper a clean plate. Yes, salt and pepper the plate. Arrange the prawns on the plate, and salt and pepper them from above. Both sides are now seasoned, no turning over required.

Gently flour, egg, and noodle the prawns, making sure the noodles are really stuck on there, and arrange them on an empty plate.

Heat the oil until a piece of the pasta sizzles on impact, reduce the heat a little and fry the prawns until golden.

Drain the excess oil on paper and let them cool for a minute while you make the dipping sauce.

Chop and add the herbs and spices of your choice to the mayonnaise.

Dip, crunch, enjoy.

This post was brought to you as a result of the #SeeSanSebastian blog trip, created and managed by iambassador in partnership with San Sebastian. I maintain full editorial control of the content published on Eat Like a Girl, as always. All of our lives are too short for any alternative!

Don’t even dare try to order tapas in San Sebastian. There are no tapas there (unless you happen to be in an Andalucian restaurant). In the Basque region and San Sebastian it is all about the pintxos (pronounced pincho). Small bites, served on sticks and piled high on the bars that line the San Sebastian streets. When finished you present the sticks to the bartender, and that is how they calculate your bill. Different sticks denote different prices where there is variation.

A little about San Sebastian first. A small city in the Basque country of 200,000 people straddling a long beautiful bay, San Sebastian is near the French border and is home to three of Spain’s seven 3 michelin star restaurants. It is second only to Kyoto for the number of michelin stars per square metre. This is pretty impressive but there is much more to this city. There are the many pintxo bars, the cider houses and all of the lovely local Txacoli wine. If you have not had it, I suggest you seek some out. It is lightly sparkling, dry and fruity. It is also way too easy to drink, but at 11%, that is ok (up to a point!). The cider in San Sebastian is very tart and dry. Both are poured from a height, which is an art in itself.

The original pintxo is the gilda, created in the 1940s in Bar Casa Vallés in San Sebastian and named for Rita Hayworth in the film Gilda. There was censorship in Spain at the time, and San Sebastian residents would hop across the border to France to watch banned films. The gilda, with olives, guindilla (a green pepper usually pickled in vinegar, and sometimes hot, but not usually) and an anchovy is tall and spicy, which reminded them of Rita. Swit-swoo. There are many different types of pintxos now, often served on bread or in bread, but not always. Men would have them with a drink after work before they went home, and for the locals they are still treated as an appetiser before the meal that follows.

I went on a pintxos tour in San Sebastian’s old town with Iñigo from Go Local San Sebastian on the Saturday lunchtime that I was in town, last weekend. We went to the two best streets for pintxos, 31 de Agosto and Fermín Calbeton. It was a perfect introduction to San Sebastian pintxos culture, the locals were all out enjoying a tipple and pintxos. The streets were buzzing. Iñigo is a passionate and enthusiastic local, and he has terrific knowledge.

Pintxos at A Fuego Negro

We started as we should with the gilda at A Fuego Negro, it was my first one ever but I had many more over the weekend. They have a modern and stylised approach to the pintxo which was a nice contrast to the more traditional bars that followed. I followed this with a fried sea anemone served with tigers milk, which was I think the best way I have had it. They can sometimes be too squidgy for me but the batter was crisp and a perfect contrast to the anemone inside. It was lovely that they were sourced from the harbour too. The tigers milk on the side was great (a Peruvian addition, it is what ceviche is cured in although this was less tart).

Pintxos at Gandarias

Our next stop was Gandarias which greeted us with the traditional heaving pintxos bar. It was very difficult to choose, I tried some solomillo (sirloin) with green peppers, a plate of gorgeous fried porcini (which were in season), and then we had a choice from whatever was on the bar or having one cooked (there were seafood and meat skewers available). There was red peppers stuffed with crab and then deep fried, elvers (tiny eels) with peppers on toast, tortilla sandwiches, lots of jamon, jamon sandwiches, and I had a small open sandwich of red pepper, morcilla (Spanish black pudding) and a fried quails egg and one of bread topped with jamon and three mushrooms drizzled with Idiazabal cheese, a local cheese made in Idiazabal from unpasteurised sheeps milk.

Pintxos at La Cepa

Our final stop was La Cepa, a quirky spot where all of the tables showcase something within. Ours had artwork made of sweets. Again, the bar was laden with pintxos, many many pintxos. We started with a gorgeous platter of jamon, which was glistening as it had been at room temperature for a bit (as jamon always should be, that way to better taste it). There was a beautiful plate of fried fresh guindilla peppers, a few hot as with padron (and in Spain it is also common to eat the green peppers from Gernika). There was dessert and coffees too, but I skipped dessert as I was already full of pintxos.

What a great introduction to San Sebastian!

For more info on Go Local San Sebastian Tours, visit their site. I highly recommend them. This post was brought to you as a result of the #SeeSanSebastian blog trip, created and managed by iambassador in partnership with San Sebastian. I maintain full editorial control of the content published on Eat Like a Girl, as always. All of our lives are too short for any alternative!

I bumped into a friend on my flight back from Menorca recently. I was very tired and so I squinted, but no, sure enough it was Will. And he reminded me how much he loved Menorca, and how he had got married there. He visits all the time, and all I could think was, yes, of course you do. It is such a lovely place. Surprisingly so, and not because it isn’t lovely, it is, but because it feels so untainted by tourism. Aren’t all of the lovely places already very busy? Continue reading

On a quiet street in Fornells in Menorca is an unassuming restaurant, Es Cranc. Es Cranc has a large menu, but most come here for the Caldereta de Langosta, a popular lobster soup from Menorca made with the native blue spiny lobsters which Es Cranc is particularly well regarded for.

Caldereta gets its name from the pot that it is cooked in, a caldera. Traditionally this was a fishermans dish, cooked with the broken lobsters that they had caught. Now, it is a luxury and an indulgence, cooked at home for special occasions and at specialist restaurants like Es Cranc in Fornells.

Behind a side door next to Es Cranc is a path that meanders to a room of large water baths, and these are full of spiny lobster. Spinning and weaving, large and small, these lobsters are mostly destined for the caldereta, some will be served simply grilled on their own. This is where the fishermen deliver their catch, for Es Cranc that is 5 different day boats that go out up to 7 miles out to sea. . 

Es Cranc was full on the Sunday that I went for lunch. Jovial large tables with extended families, all there for the caldereta. The soup has a base of tomato, onions and green pepper, and is light and fruity, with lovely lobster cooked just so inside, still sweet and tender. It is served on top of thin sun dried slices of bread, like crackers. A bib is provided – and you need it. We had some lovely local white wine on the side.  

The langosta lobsters can only be fished between March and August, so pencil it in your diary for then. Alternatively, you can recreate it at home. One of my favourite food writers Claudia Roden has a lovely recipe for caldereta from her superb book The Food of Spain. She serves it with a picada of almonds, garlic and parsley. Here it is for your Sunday lunch pleasure. Lets let the sunshine in, even if it doesn’t want to be here!

Notes on the recipe: As above, this recipe is adapted from Claudia’s Caldereta de Langosta in The Food of Spain. Claudia includes monkfish and fennel which I have omitted (including extra lobster instead) so that it is closer to the one that I had. Buy your lobsters just before you need them and have your fishmonger kill and chop them for you into chunks just over an inch. The sun refuses to play frequently enough for us to sun dry the bread, and even though it is considered a cheat in Menorca to roast it, if they were here, they would have to too! :)

Recipe: Caldereta de Langosta

Serves 6

Ingredients 

For the caldereta

3 x 700g raw live lobsters (as your butcher to prepare them as per the notes above)
1 large onion, chopped
1 green or red bell pepper,cored, seeded, and chopped
3 tablespoons olive oil
350g tomatoes (4 to 5),peeled and chopped
1 teaspoon sugar
1 litre fish stock
125ml brandy or cognac
salt and pepper

For the picada

12 blanched almonds
3 garlic cloves, peeled
1 tbsp olive oil
handful of flat leaf parsley, coarsely chopped
4 tbsp brandy or cognac

One good baguette, sliced into narrow slices and toasted or roasted in a medium hot oven until crisp

Method

Fry the onion and the pepper in the oil in a large pot (I used my shallow casserole which was the closest I had to a caldera) over a low heat until very soft. Add the tomatoes and sugar and cook until the sauce is reduced and jammy. Blend until well combined (in the pan with a hand blender or a food processor – whatever you have, you can mash coarsely if you have neither).

Meanwhile, for the picada: Fry the almonds and garlic in the oil in a small skillet over low heat for moments only, turning them once, until they are golden. Pound them to a paste with the parsley in a mortar, or blend them to a paste, and add the brandy.

Add the fish stock and brandy to the tomato mixture and season with salt and pepper. Add the lobster, and bring to the boil. Boil for five minutes and stir the picada into the lobster soup. When the lobster shells are bright red and the meat is firm the soup is done, this will take only a few more minutes at most. Take care not to overcook it, lobster is best when tender.

Serve immediately in bowls with the bread and savour your work. A crisp white wine or rosé perfect this. Aim for a Menorcan or Spanish one :)

Easyjet have just launched direct flights from London Southend to Mahon.

I travelled to Menorca as part of a project between iAmbassador and Visit Menorca, who sponsored this project.  As always, I’m free to write what I like and I do! Life is short etc. :)

Madrid is a serious food city. It is also a city that parties hard and keeps extremely late hours. I went to bed early each night over the weekend that I was there, at 3am. Woah, Madrid! Madrileños eat as they drink, and that eating is a serious business. Their expectations are high, and so they should be, quality abounds, and once you steer clear of the tourist joints, you will eat well.

This list is based on my last trip there, a week ago. It is well researched and sampled, but not exhaustive. Madrid is brilliant and exciting in that it has an enviable list of great places to eat. Which is why I plan to go back there as soon as I can manage it. For this trip, I asked the locals, as only people who live there can have the full breadth of experience required to pick a sample for a weekend.

Conspicuously absent on this list until my return is Callos Madrileños (Madrid style tripe), Cocido Madrileño (a heavy chickpea based stew) and DiverXO (Madrid’s exciting 3* restaurant). The first two seemed more wintry, so I decided to save them for a trip in a colder time, and DiverX0 needs very early booking and a day dedicated to it.

Eat Cochinillo (Suckling Pig) at Los Galayos & Santceloni

I enquired of a local, where should I eat suckling pig in Madrid? He replied, well of course I don’t eat it in Madrid, I head to the small villages in the Sierras where it is the best. I despaired a little, I didn’t have time to go to the Sierras. But, where should I eat it in Madrid? OK: Los Galayos is best, and that is where the locals go, was what he disclosed. There is also Botín, the oldest restaurant in the world (according to the Guinness Book of Records) and where Hemmingway is said to have eaten two suckling pigs with two bottles of rioja in one seating. It is supposed to be excellent, but it is firmly on the tourist map, so I chose the local alternative, which was just around the corner. The suckling pig (less than one month old) was tender and sublime, with a thin crisp crackling surfing a rich glorious fat. A large portion, it was very well priced at €21.75. At the other end of the scale, the suckling pig loin at two michelin starred Santceloni is steeper at €53, but it is excellently executed. It is served as racks of ribs and loin which are roasted to the point where the flesh is moist and luscious and there is a perfect crisp skin.

Eat Anything (Everything?) at StreetXo

StreetXo, the street food offering from DiverXO’s 3 star chef David Muñoz in El Corte Inglés, is one of the most exciting restaurants that I have eaten at this year. Creative and inspired, each dish was sharp, elegant and full of flavour. There is one u shaped counter around the open kitchen, with some stools. I chose to stand. I stood there for 3 hours, and ate as much as I could. No dish disappointed and there was lots of surprises.

David happened to be there on the night that I visited, and he said that the menu changes all the time, so while I can’t say for sure that these dishes will be on when you visit, try anything, and if the peking dumpling with pigs ear or the butter fish are on, dive in. I ate too much and had a few glasses of wine, and my bill was still less than €50. It opens at 8.30, and I arrived 5 minutes later. All the seats were gone, but I got a space at the counter. Anyone who arrived after had to wait, so do get there early. (Note: StreetXO relocates from El Corte Inglés to a bigger premises in Madrid in November).

Eat Churros & Porras with Coffee or Chocolate

I am sure you are all familiar with churros but when in Madrid you must also have the local version, porras. Porras translates as truncheon, and reflects the larger size, which is even better for absorbing what you dip it into. It is common in Spain to dip churros in hot thick chocolate, but in Madrid, locals prefer to dip it in coffee, which became my perfect regular breakfast while I was there. Seek out a Fabrica de Churros & Patatas Fritas, most neighbourhoods have them, and it is where locals go to buy fresh patatas fritas (crisps!), churros and porras. Chocolatería San Ginés, one of Madrid’s oldest cafés, is very popular with tourists but is still very good, and locals love it too. Go there to have them with chocolate.

Go to Madrid’s Markets

Continue reading

I bet they are working on a list

I have a list. Really, I do and I try to stick to it. But I just hate sticking to lists. I love grabbing my biro and adding to it. It is stupidly long.

Everything is in the wrong order, but who cares, right? I don’t. Perhaps, I should. But caring about lists is just not my bag, baby. I love clambering up and down my list, reviewing, striking things off because I am bored of just the idea of it. I find it difficult sometimes to get things done. I do always get there in the end though.

I definitely indulge my whims far too much.

I have been cooking all day and have so many recipes to share with you. My favourite would have to be big green olives from Spain stuffed with homemade ricotta, sobrasada (spreadable spicy sausage from Mallorca) and sage, breadcrumbed and then deep fried to form little olive bullets.

The filling is like spicy creamy molten lava. It will shock, burn and make you smile. And you will go for another one. With sobrasada running down your chin, you will dip your hand back in and risk another shot.

Oh and I made candied bacon apples too. Yes, I did, I really did. They are awesome.

Lots more too but, you know, I just fancy sharing some of my photos from Seville with you right now. My list is on the verge of a tantrum. I will deal with it tomorrow.

Patience, readers, that olive recipe will be with you very soon. For now, enjoy a little immersion in Sevilla.

E Morales in Sevilla, Spain

Tuna Belly! On toast. At E Morales in Sevilla, Spain

Amazing anhovies. On toast. At E Morales in Sevilla, Spain

Not a looker but a fantastic spiced chickpea and spinach dish. At E Morales in Sevilla, Spain

Casablanca tapas bar, Sevilla, Spain

Migas at Casablanca tapas bar, Sevilla, Spain

Amazingly delicious tiny fried fish with egg and other tasty bits at Casablanca tapas bar, Sevilla, Spain

iberico pork at Casablanca tapas bar, Sevilla, Spain

Happy campers at Casablanca tapas bar, Sevilla, Spain

Wonderful flamenco dancers in Sevilla, Spain

Wonderful flamenco dancers in Sevilla, Spain

Wonderful flamenco dancers in Sevilla, Spain

Churros! In Sevilla, Spain

Little love locks, in Sevilla, Spain

I have a cultural and genetic obligation to love the humble pig. Traditionally all Irish houses had one, hiding behind the half door, and it would feed a family for much of the year. Bacon and cabbage is a national institution, we’re obsessed with white and black pudding, and the Christmas ham is wheeled out all through the year. My mother was raised on pigs head and trotters (we call them crubeens – little feet in Irish), but we never had them as children. They would be raised as a threat if we wouldn’t eat our mash and peas. Now as an adult, I adore them.

Jamon Iberico de Bellota - curing

Spain takes the humble ham to a different level with their Jamon Iberico, specifically Jamon Iberico de Bellota. The pata negra (pigs with black feet) love acorns and live in an area where there are many. They are like small shuffling acorn junkies. They are allowed a lot of space to move, and to forage for and snaffle acorns so they get a lovely dispersal of intramuscular fat. This fat delivers intense flavour and a lovely melt in the mouth texture (the fat starts to melt at 20 deg C).

Sierra de Sevilla Pata Negra Farm

The farm I visited – part of Sierra de Sevilla – had 300 pigs on 900 hectares – that’s 3 hectares each. They cruise around munching, eating so much that they put on up to 40kg in their last 3 months.

One of the curing rooms at Sierra de Sevilla

Fat? Well, we shouldn’t be afraid of fat anyway, our bodies need it, even if many diet book wielding folks would tell us otherwise.  Especially good fats, and my friends, the fat in Jamon Iberico de Bellota is good. With high percentages of oleic acid (also found abundant in olive oil), due to the acorn munching obsessive nature of the pig, this fat is thought to help to reduce bad cholesterol and raise levels of the good one. It’s that healthy Mediteranean diet again, isn’t it?

Ham cutter at the tasting room at Sierra de Sevilla

I now have an addiction, I already did. Add that to my current truffle problem and I fear I may need to get a part time job to support it.

Details: I experienced the Jamon Day as a guest of Hospes Hotels, a lovely boutique hotel in central Seville. A day trip with driver and car for up to 4 people to the Sierra de Sevilla farm, jamon factory with jamon carving session and tasting costs €520 all incl.