Andalucia coat of arms

I always forget until I show up at the supermarket and it’s shut, but it’s almost Dia de Andalucia. So what is it all about?

Well, on the 28th of February we celebrate, basically by shutting all the shops, the day in 1980 when Andalucia became an autonomous community. The region consists of the provinces of Almería, Cádiz, Córdoba, Granada, Huelva, Jaén, Málaga and Sevilla and its capital is Sevilla (I’d have sworn it was Malaga, you learn something new everyday!)
And here’s the Andalucian anthem

La bandera blanca y verde
vuelve, tras siglos de guerra,
a decir paz y esperanza,
bajo el sol de nuestra tierra.
¡Andaluces, levantaos!
¡Pedid tierra y libertad!
¡Sea por Andalucía libre,
España(los pueblos) y la Humanidad!
Los andaluces queremos
volver a ser lo que fuimos
hombres de luz, que a los hombres,
alma de hombres les dimos.
¡Andaluces, levantaos!
¡Pedid tierra y libertad!
¡Sea por Andalucía libre,
España(los pueblos) y la Humanidad!

Torre del mar restaurant

I do love a bit of Chinese! So discovering a new one is always good news, especially one with outside seating.

We had the crispy duck special (Especial pato asado) which was wonderful, spring rolls, and Sing Tao beer. Loved it.

Restaurante Chino Gran Muralla
Calle Infante 24
29740 Torre del Mar
952542185
Malaga

Dong Fang Cheng Torrox

A Chinese restaurant that isn’t called The Great Wall! So who might Dong Fang Cheng be? Is it simply the owner? Or a great Chinese man I have never heard of? Well, I googled Dong Fang Cheng, but if he’s a great man, I couldn’t find him. This is the first picture that came up: an office building on what seems to be an industrial estate. Maybe Dong owns that as well? Anyway, let’s talk about the restaurant in Torrox Costa.

Another very special thing about this Chinese is the location, on the seafront, with a terrace on the beach. Never seen that before. And inside Dong Fang Cheng keeps surprising: it’s not Chinese-y at all! No golden dragons, no giant fish tank, just rustic wooden tables, farmhouse tiled floors and beams. I’m assuming this used to be a Spanish restaurant and the Chinese decided not to mess with its charm: yay! because it looks very charming.

So what’s the food like? Well, it’s pretty good. I had the Peking duck, twice, in as many days. Need I say more? Their fried rice could be crunchier, but hey, they had me at Peking Duck. Yum.

Chinese restaurant Dong Fang Cheng
Paseo Maritimo de Torrox Costa
Bloque 82 bajos
95 296 75 35

Taj Mahal Indian restaurant Torre del Mar

I have a thing about restaurant names. Why are all Indian restaurants in the world called Taj Mahal? And a LOT of Chinese restaurants The Great Wall? Is there nothing else in India or China?

Greeks have a certain level of originality: Delphi, Rhodos, Zorba, Akropolis. Is it to do with the aspects of the country that the proprietors are most proud of? Do they miss their country? Or is it just a lack of inspiration? Next time I really must ask….

But let’s talk food: it’s delicious. The garlic nan is lovely Taj Mahal, the bharta is on eof the best I ever had, service is good and lunch for the four of us set us back 52 euros: not bad!

Taj Mahal
Avd. Andalucia, Bloque Jupiter,
Pasaje Timon, 2 Calle Timon
Torre del Mar

satellite

Now winter’s on its way, we started looking around for satellite tv. Winter just isn’t the same without Homes under the hammer and escape to the country.

Turned out, it wasn’t going to be easy. There was a pleasant boy from the village who could fix us up if we knew exactly what he had to get. We didn’t. Nor was it easy to find out: internet is remarkably vague about which satellite dish to get and other expats were very hazy about the details. So I wanted a Real Satellite Guy.
In the end, I found two people in an old copy of The Olive Press: Sky Shop Spain and Gav Sat. Sent them both an email. Sky Shop Spain was 295, Gavsat 350, so I figured I’d give Sky Shop Spain a shot. Sigh. That turned out to be a big mistake, tey were very slow to phone back, never answered mails and when ater two months (!) I finally almost got one to come by he told me that 295 was actually their starting off thingy and it was going to be 100 euros more!!!!
So not only were they rude and incompetent, but expensive as well!
And then I emailed Gavin from Gavsat, who came by within two days and fixed me up with a satellite dish and it works like a dream. The moral of this tale? Steer clear of Sky Shop Spain! Give GavSat a call 675033474/663303932

Cortijo

If you’re looking for property to buy in La Alpujarra you’ve probably come across “naves” and “cortijos”, both sold as dwellings, in luscious countryside. So which is which?

So what is a nave? A nave is basically a shed. An agricultural building that a farmer can use to sleep in when he’s tending his fields. You’re not supposed to live there and you’re usually not connected to either electricity or water.

A cortijo is a farmhouse, all right and proper, hooked up to all amenities (in theory at least) and you’re allowed to live there all year round. They’re also more expensive, usually about a hundred thousand euros more expensive than their nave brethren. So ideally you’d get yourself a nave and then have it turned into a cortijo. Not an exact science though, it can take years and years and you have no guarantees you’ll ever succeed. So I’m still pondering the age old question: to buy or not to buy?

16th of August we celebrated San Roque in Pitres. For four days. Here´s an impression for those of you who missed it or simply can´t get enough!

Video after the jump

The lights have been hung and there´s bingo every night to help pay for the fiesta of San Roque (Saint Roch) in Pitres, which is about to descend upon us starting the 16th of August. I quite like San Roque in these times of pandemic fears, as he was the patron saint of the plague. And he has a special place in his heart for dogs.

When San Roque himself got the plague he was driven from the city where he´d helped so many suffering from the same disease. He built himself a hut and was brought food by a hunting dog. Not quite my chihuahua, but close enough.

Actually, in 2001, a shudder went through San Roques all over the world. Turned out their saint had never existed at all, and had been the alter ego of another saint, Saint Rachu of Autun. He didn´t help any against the plague either, he was the guy to run to in a storm.

Vegetarian Restaurant L´Atelier Mecina

Yes, yes, YES! Just when we were about to give up on eating out in La Alpujarra, we finally managed to score a table at vegetarian restaurant L´Atelier in the Alpujarran village of Mecina Fondales. We´d passed the restaurant a number of times and it was always closed. When I emailed last week for a reservation, again, it was closed. But there was light at the end of the tunnel: last Sunday they were open for business.

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L´Atelier is a cute little hidey hole, right behind the Cueva de Mora Luna in Mecina. It´s run by two Frenchmen, one of whom was cooking fingerlicking delicious food.

Airy puff pastry spring rolls, filled with cheese and pine nuts, little chick pea cookies, soup, all the starters were delicious. Bit of a dissappointment: the salad, which was covered in canned corn. Apart from the fact that I hate that vile stuff, it really didn´t go with the eclectic and organic other stuff.

The main courses were very nice, but as with most main courses in basically every restaurant I´ve ever been, you´re better off ordering more starters, because the mains tend to get a bit boring after a few bites. Still, great food.
And then dessert. I had the poppy cake and we loved it so much, we ordered a second round!
Enfin, L´Atelier is well worth the trip to Mecina. But maybe check first whether it´s open.

Elsa Pataky & Adrien Brody

Elsa Pataky is a wildly popular Spanish actress, of Spanish and Romanian descent. She is probably best known because she´s dating The Pianist and The Jacket star Adrien Brody. Elsa got domestic acclaim because of her role in the series Al salir de clase, but she got much more popular after topless pics of her, taken on the sly while she was doing a photoshoot for Elle, surfaced.

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In the new picture, DD Hollywood, Elsa will be playing Diana Díaz, a Spanish girl following her dreams and moving to Hollywood. Of course, she soon finds out that becoming an actress isn´t that easy and that it requires a lot of humiliation and sexual favors to get a part. I guess that won´t do Elsa´s popularity any harm either!