Vacation 3: The Food

Granada, bless it's heart, has held on to the old Spanish tradition of offering a bit of food with each drink you purchase in a bar. I know I have mentioned this before, but in this entry I wanted to focus on it. You pay 2 euros for a beer, which is expensive, but it includes a mini-paella or some garlic grilled shrimp, so no biggy. Also, in the south the focus, in these bars, is beer, rather than the wine Spain is known for. I think it's because it goes better with the fish, plus, it's a lot cheaper. And the wine is so expensive, like 3 euros a glass. In the states you couldn't get the glasses of wine we drank for less than 15 a pop!

Our first day, we were short on film and Inaki passed out, so you'll have to live with my descriptions of the food:

Bar 1: coaster sized tuna and tomato sauce sandwiches with chips
Bar 2: ham, mayo and lettuce sandwiches with chips
Bar 2 (again): tuna and tomato sauce sandwiches with chips
Bar 3: garbanzo stew
Bar 4: battered/fried anchovies
Bar 5: tortilla patata
Bar 6: embutido (head cheese) and ensaladilla rusa (potato salad)
Bar 7: pork sandwich and sausage sandwich
Bar 8: cured cheese, tomato slices, bread and olives
Bar 9: tortilla patata
Bar 10: sepia and tuna tar tar

Now, this was our first day. We had heard that the tapas were cheaper outside the city, so we focused on the university district. We later received the advice that outside the city just equals more bread. As you can see by the list, that was true. By the last bar we just asked for something that didn't have bread. Really, we were full after about bar 6. You have to keep in mind all this was consumed over about 12 hours. But this weird thing happens when you get free food with a drink, you start saying, "why not?" and stuff yourself silly.

We didn't do much "tapeando" in Nerja, but when we came back to Granada for the Alhambra, we stuck to Calle Navas and ate like kings. The first 2 suggestions we got at the front desk of our adorable downtown hotel, was to go to Los Diamantes for fish and La Tana (short for gitana, which means the gypsy lady) for wine. Off we went! Los Diamantes rocked our world with some rabas and a mini-paella...

Ahlambra beer was also a key in selecting bars because we hate Cruzcampo. If the outside of the bar had and Ahlambra sign, we went in. We ditched the beer for a while and went "de blancos" in La Tana next. It was much more expensive, but the white wine was so fresh and crisp, the owner talked with us for a long time and casually mentioned that Anthony Bourdain had visited the week before and busts out a picture with him. What!? She didn't even know who he was and said he seemed a bit full of himself. She described him as, "an American who has a show on CNN about food." When we told her he had over a million followers on Twitter, she was shocked. Anyhow, we had various items on bread to go with our wine. Here's the spot and our first tapa: morcilla (Spanish blood sausage)...

Each tapa came with the most delicious olives in this place. Inaki told me that most of the olive oil and olives in Spain come from the south, so that's why they were the best. Next up were some fresh tomato slices, salchichon and olive oil.

I think the final tapa we had was cheese, quints paste and nuts, a typical cider house dessert. Unfortunately, no picture. After our last glass of wine, we took a little siesta, since it was raining. The evening was spent, you guessed it, eating more! First, we hit the Alhambra, which is for another post, but on our way down from the palace, we stopped at a place called "La Cueva", the cave. Cuevas in the south are bodegas, more or less. Me had an embutido and some chorizo there.

Next, we hit up Los Diamantes 2, which is down the street from Los Diamantes 1. When they walked out with 4 huge razor clams for the first tapa, I knew we'd be repeating a few times there.

Next up, shrimp, breaded/fried anchovies and more shrimp.

No, I didn't eat the heads, just slurped their delicious juices a bit. At that point we were full, but met some nice ladies who told us of a few more bars, so we said, "why not?" and went to the next spot. I can't remember the name, but there's no need, it was just ham on bread and butter with some olives.

We knew it wasn't the highest level establishment when we found this creative use of technology in the WC. So, we headed out to find a classier joint.

We continued with the advice of our lady friends and hunted down a wine bar, because what says class like wine... and my big pink headband!

This place was the tops for wine. I can't remember what the tapa was, but there were olives and I think it had a sauce on it. They had some of their own, homemade wine, that they didn't bottle, just served out of a barrel. Here's the wine menu, it looks like a freakin' jamba juice!

And that was it. We stayed out until midnight to be awake for Inaki's b-day and then wandered back to the hotel. It was such a fun time. There's more to post some other time and we felt that we still had so much more to see in Granada, an amazing city!