LA TRASTIENDA, THE BACK SHOP

Hi to you, I'm very happy about some of the photos taken with my new camera, we had some good walks around the little town, and along the sea.

In the afternoon the wind was stronger.

 The roscas became very popular in Almuñecar about 15 years ago, it's a round bread, filled with tomato, serrano ham and chese from the beginning, but now more sofisticated, I love the one whith chevere and caramelized onion, prepared by Yolanda at La Trastienda.

My man at the bar.

Now half the restaurants and bars in Almuñecar close for the month of November, and the owners go to relax in The Carinean, their holyday. We stay here in the cold, but at Plaza Kelibia, outdoor heaters, candles, good tapas, make us go ther in the evening for a glass of wine, a rosca, a cheese platter, or some iberico sausage and ham which are the spesialities of La Trastienda.

Yolanda makes the right athmosphere in her bar.

You can buy the half baked roscas at Mercadonna, to make at home, we use a greated tomato mixed with some drops of AOVE, serrano ham and several cheeses, such as roquefort, brie, ementhal, and toss a little oregano over, then put on a baking paper to grill in preheated oven at 150 degrees for 10 min.

Quick, but still I don't know anybody who doesn't like it, hope you like it too.

Night, night.

Los Peñones, The Masses of Rock.

MATER DEI

After having a really wonderful week with my sister and brother in law in Almuñecar, the beach was ours, the water in the sea had perfect temperature, transparent, lazy walks in town, nice meals and some glasses of wine, we continued to Malaga to spend the week-end there.

 Mater Dei is latin and means Mother og God, the past saturday 7 Madonnas was processioning the streets of Malaga, the staff told us at the arrival to our Hotel. We stayed at Los Patios de Beatas,Calle Beatas,41, very well located, and so friendly, terribly good Eglish spoken staff, opened only 11 months ago, modern, fresh and very clean, and with a very nice surprise (I'll tell you later.)

Of course our visit to Malaga was to se the museums, Picasso and Carmen Thyssen.
www.museopicassomalaga.org
www.carmenthyssenmalaga.org
www.malagaturismo.com

A walk up to the Alcazaba, Fortress Castle, of the Muslim  gobernors from century XI, and enjoy the gastronomy in some of the hundreds of Bars, Taverns, Restaurants, where you can have tapas, specially we liked these; Croquettes of Clayfish in the Refectorium, Flamenquin in the Taberna Los Gatos, a coffe and some mini cakes at Lepanto, Calle Larios,and we spent the evening with some friends in Bar Taberna El Pimpi.

                         Malaga gave us a
                              wonderful
                              week-end.






El Pimpi , Calle Granada, is an institution in town, several rooms and patios , where you can drink, have some tapas or a full meal,visited by actors, flamenco-dancers, bullfighters, politicians and famous personages. All the walls are decorated with photos and signatures of theese, it was so crowded, the newspapers in Malaga said there where 45 000 visitors, so impossible to photograph, but I give you the link, have a look;

www.elpimpi.com

Saturday afternoon The Cathedral, beautifully decorated, receeving  the Madonnas on their thrones, most of them with palliums, so beautifully dressed, all lit candles and flowers, ported by up to 200 men, some also by  women here and there, but most men, and so many young, it's so nice to see the coming generations follow the traditions.

The Templo Museum of the  Sisterhoods could be visited , where
the last hand of cleaning and decorating of the thrones
was done.

This is hard work, normally those processions are in the Easter week,so this was new to me, and the tempreature was like in the summer, the streets so narrow so much public, the thrones so heavy, I really admire what belief can do.
All the churches was open for the public since Friday, and 60 Madonnas had levee, one by one people kiss the hand of the Madonnas.

Inside the Santiago church.

Decorated balconies-

Even if the photo isn't the best you can see how narrow the streets are.

The city had many decorated balconies.

Candles flowers, and rich hand craft work in silver.

The Cathedral  called  La Manquita, because of 1 tower that never was finished.

I'm sorry that the photos are not first class,  I used the Iphone, and there was so much people around, difficult work to be a photograper too in this kind of events.

-Some photos from Vinoteca Los Patios de Beatas-

Wines from all the regions in Spain.

Taste the wines, if you like them you can take away.

This modern wine serving robot I had never seen before.

Nice wall painting in the stair case, Los Patios Vinoteca has several  rooms, if you want to have a private party.

Confit Bacalao .

Lamb sweetbreads, one of my favorite eats.

I will come back to this as soon as I can find it on the market, and also how to confit meat or fish.

 www.lospatiosdebeatas.com

Los Verdiales , typical music and dance from the mountain villages around Malaga.

The perfect end of the Malaga visit, seeing theese young people keeping the traditions alive.
After leaving my family at the Airport we had another surprise, the temperature started to go down, and reached !0 degrees in Puerto de las Pedrizas at 780 m, and it started to rain.
Has the summer come to an end?

    

KAIROS DE LA FLOR RESTAURANT

We had a really nice experience one night last week, the new tapas menu of the Restaurant Kairos de la Flor in Almuñecar. ( ctra. Suspiro del Moro, 1)
We know the ovners, Ceci and Paco, last  is the chef, from a long time ago,  Paco has this special feeling some persons have with food, and Ceci is the best host, makes you  "feel at home" at first visit. Most of the menu are singular recipes worked out by Paco, and all of them highly recomendable, from the starters, I love the  Arugula salad , containing piquillo peppers, dates,pine kernel and " ventresca" of tuna fish, or the smoked salmon rolls, main dishes of bacalao and iberian pork, and the nicest desserts, all with the best touch of the chef.

                                                   TAPAS MENU FOR 2 PERSONS.

Beetroot gazpacho.

The first dish, beetroot gazpacho with anchoviees, creamed cheese and basil infused oil, a new sensation for us, but really nice, the truffled pate was wonderful, so good the kumquat( chineese orange) marmelade, and the foie ice-cream, served like a sandwich between 2 slices of carameliced apples with a touch of Pedro Ximenez  (sweet wine).

Mushroom carpacho.

The cristal bread, I have to ask Paco how to make it, with smoked salmon and tartar sauce, classic mix , but with this new way to serve the bread.

Egg, Gula and chips.

In a tin, the mushroom carpacho , chevere snow covered with the house's pesto, just a dream .

Chorizo Flamenquin.

Then in a glass we had the broken egg with gula and very fine potato chips, cut b hand,  the gula is a sustitute for angula, the babies of the eel, this is one of the north of Spain's most famous dishes, but lately it's not very easy to get hold of, and when you can , the angula (elver) is terribly expensive. So most of us say yes thank's to the sustitute Gula, you can buy it fresh or frozen in supermarket, and normally you prepare it "al pil-pil", I will come back to this. Very nice mix of different tastes.
The last dish was              " flamenquin" de chorizo , parmesano cheese and mushrom ali-oli, flamenquin is also a very long time ago known, deep fried roll of meat, ham and chese , wich you dip in whisked egg and bread crumbs and fry in oil. Paco again made the well known new, and the mushroom ali-oli so nice.

Paco , The Boss.

The upside down cheese cake.

Then to finish there was as always a surprise, I would call it up side down cheesecake, as you see in the photo, the marmelade is on the bottom, then the cheese, and the crust on top, and only refrigerated. I'm going to do a version of my own for some friends coming for dinner tomorrow, I'll tell you later how it turned out.

The nice style inside, and a huge terrace for the summer and sunny winterdays.

kairosdelaflor@gmail.com