Food

Boy was it hot today.

We slept in, and got up and headed for our 2pm lunch at Abantal - another place we had read about.

It was about an hour or so’s walk in the hot sun and we were dying by the time we got there - literally dripping.

We got there and the place was empty, but as we have discovered, 2pm is unfashionably early for lunch, but we don’t mind eating at that time.

Once again - the degustation menu - this time 9 courses. Ben had wine pairings, and I thought about it, but I can’t really handle more than a glass or two so just decided to have some as we went along.

Our drinks to get us started were Cava and a G&T (no fancy preparation this time).

Some tasters to get us started were a parmesan cookie (delicious), potato salad (OK) and a tomato jelly on bread (good).

We had this soup to start off with which is typical of the Malaga region. It had a few pieces of dried apricots and prunes, and the soup was similar in taste to aoili but watered down. This went down well.

Up next was a tuna carpaccio, which was tender and absolutely delicious.

We had a soup in a cocktail glass - it was hot. Over here we have been surprised by the hot dishes and the cold dishes, we both thought this would be cold. This was cockles in a green sauce, and it was nice.

Ahh foie gras… this was foie gras with balsamic and a carrot and citrus side, with the most delicious honey nut bread.

This was was a dish of jamon, onions, potatoes and very runny egg. It was very very tasty - probably my favourite of this meal. So many different textures, tastes all combining together to produce awesomeness.

For our fish it was tuna, and we are not big on cooked tuna, but it was good, not too fishy, with a salsa and pickled vegetable side.

Our main of pork was probably the most tender pork I have ever had. Accompanied by a delicious mango chutney with beans, I wish there was more of this (although by this point I was getting full).

Next up was the cheese course, and it was interesting having the cheeses, but some of them were a bit full on. Suprisingly the blue cheese was quiet mild.

Once again, Riedel glasses, with some Pedro Ximinez inside.

This was was crazy dessert. The squares are squares of jelly (the dark ones are pedro ximinez flavoured) with a lemon sorbet, the dots are balsamic vinegar and the yellow liquid is olive oil. Yes you read that correct, olive oil. This was a crazy crazy dessert, which tasted interestingly good. I don’t think I will ever get an olive oil soupy dessert anywhere else.

Then we had our last dessert of lemon curd on top of cake, with thyme icecream and a sugary crisp on top. I was not so much of a fan of the tastes together, so ate the icecream first, then my lemon curd with cake and lastly the sugar.

Our petit fours for dessert - I have no idea what these are. As it turned out, no-one else was coming for lunch and they had opened the place just for us. Our cool chicky who could speak a little English had left, as had the chef, and the coffee dude only spoke Spanish. I did my typical nod of the head and inserted “Si, si” a few times so it sounded like I understood what he said, but I didn’t.

As a result, we had a crunchy thing, a cold berry thing, and a cookie thing. All tasty.

As we left Abantal 2.5 hours after we arrived, we remembered how hot it was. We walked back a different way, past the bull ring, a cool statue and decided that we had had enough of our hotel.

There were screaming kids next door last night and the beds were giving us bad backs - so we headed to a different hotel only a few blocks away where the doorman has a red top hat. Gran Melia Colon.

As our lunch was so huge, this was our only meal of the day - we didn’t have breakfast and certainly didn’t need dinner.

The bonus of this new hotel - they actually have power points to charge things on, internet access and no screaming kids.

Tomorrow - the search for churros begins!