Yes it it probably true that DonQui is slightly obsessed with breakfast.
When he came across this chocolateria in Granada he just had to try out their breakfast special of Churros, hot chocolate and fresh orange juice.
It was rather delicious. Churros are super light fried dough, served hot for dipping into the very thick pudding-like hot chocolate — all rather delightfully decadent!
DonQui rather likes Granada — a city built for Donkeys not for cars. The narrow, rough-cobbled streets of the ancient Moorish Albayzín district made him feel quite at home and he could imagine his ancestors carrying baskets up and down the hills to build the famous Alhambra.
Now the Alhambra is justly famous and should not be missed. The problem is that everyone else knows this and the number of visitors each day are strictly limited.
Buy a ticket in advance was the advice.
Excellent advice it was, except that when DonQui went online to reserve in early September, every day was booked out through to the end of November. The only option was a guided tour.
DonQui cannot abide guided tours.
Not to be put off he searched various websites. Most were fully booked but then Ticket Bar came up with availability in the afternoon of his first day in Granada. There was no immediate receipt for payment which gave DonQui a few nervous hours in case it had been a scam and then to his delight a voucher came through with an entry time to the Palacios Nazaríes at 15:00.
On the day, after wandering around the centre of Granada and looking in at the Baroque cathedral — all of which were so-so — DonQui trotted up the steps of the tourist information office.
By now it was around noon and DonQui’s ticket to the Alhambra did not allow general entry before 14:00 with a set entrance time to the palaces at 15:00. He wanted to know if there was a possibility to have lunch at the Alhambra before starting his visit.
The lady in the tourist office looked at DonQui — her face a picture of incredulity.
“But you will only have an hour. That is not nearly enough time!” she said, regarding DonQui as if he were a barbaric fast food Anglo-Saxon.
Suddenly her face cleared. She had a solution.
She told DonQui that he could take a taxi to the Parador which is a 5 star hotel in the centre of the Alhambra. It has a separate entrance and if he went there DonQui would not be bound by the entry times on his ticket. Looking at her watch the lady saw that it was nearly 12:30. A taxi from the centre would cost around €6 and would get him to the Parador before 13:00. This would give him a bit over 2 hours for lunch. Barely enough time, she acknowledged, but it might work.
And work it did.
DonQui often waltzes into 5 star establishments to have a drink and then use their facilities even though he is not staying. In his experience if one is dressed reasonably well and acts as if they own the place then no one questions their right to be there.
So a taxi whisked him up the winding road past all the hapless tourists to drop DonQui off in front of the grand entrance where he was met by a suitably obsequious minion who guided him to a waiting table in the aptly named ‘gardens of paradise’ which had been designed for the Sultans’ pleasure many centuries ago.
Duchess had a Gazpacho Andaluz…
…while DonQui could not resit what the English translation of the menu called “fowl stew wrapped in fine dough”. The latter (Breua de pollo in Spanish) turned out to be very similar to a Moroccan bastilla — a delightful mix of chicken and/or pigeon, egg, almonds saffron and cinnamon amongst layers of ultra fine phyllo pastry. Washed down by an excellent rosé it was just what DonQui needed to set him up for his visit to the magical Alhambra.
He suggests you should enjoy discovering it for yourself.
DonQui Recommends
Book Alhambra tickets in advance. The entrance times to the incredible Palacios Nazaríes are fixed for an exact hour but you can spend the rest of the morning or afternoon (depending on your ticket) wandering the grounds.
The Granada Card is worth considering as it gives entry to all the major sites, including the Alhambra, as well as the use of public transport.
Set aside at least 3 hours for the Alhambra visit. It is a place to enjoy at leisure not to rush around.
The Parador and the Hotel America are located in the middle of the Alhambra. You can go to them outside the official visiting times. Both are good for lunch or drinks with the former being top end and the latter more casual with old world charm.
Ticket Bar is a good Dutch website for obtaining tickets to various attractions. They got DonQui tickets to the Alhambra when Ticketmaster failed and there was no big mark-up.
Before DonQui continues his tale of car woes, he would like to talk about something more pleasant, namely food.
Spanish meals and meal times are quite different from what DonQui is used to. As he already observed in The Importance of Breakfast, in Spain this is barely more than caffeine and a snack. The big meal of the day is lunch, usually from 2-4pm. This is a little later than DonQui is used to but as he rarely has much lunch at home anyway, waiting an extra hour for a substantial multi-course meal is no great hardship.
The evening meal is even later with restaurants rarely serving food before 9pm. Usually this is lighter fare such as a few tapas with drinks. Once he got into the rhythm of it, and made the long leisurely lunch his main food focus of the day, DonQui found the Spanish meal times quite satisfying.
The food on offer in Seville was universally good and excellent value for money. Even in the fairly obvious tourist haunts the prices were reasonable, atmosphere excellent and the quality high. Some were better than others but DonQui never had a bad meal there.
Without a doubt DonQui’s most outstanding dining experience in Seville was at the Puerta Osario Restrobar. It was evening, it was raining and the Puerta Osario was just around the corner from the apartment he was staying at. He had not looked it up on TripAdvisor nor checked out their reputation anywhere else in advance. His choice was based on the simple practicality of not wanting to go very far on a rainy evening. And what a fabulous choice it was too.
Food service began at 9:00 pm. DonQui had arrived a bit earlier and was content to sip a fine glass of red wine while he waited and have a look at the blackboards which displayed the food and drink on offer.
He and Duchess ordered 3 tapas which arrived one after the other, each one for sharing:
mushroom risotto which was exquisite…
chicken skewers with oriental vegetables which was equally good — as you can see they were mostly eaten before DonQui got around to taking a photo…
and wild boar filet on a bed of sliced potatoes which was to die for!
The boar meat was succulent, tender and juicy. Deep red in colour it had a rich taste without being gamey. Most of the ‘wild’ boar one gets in the UK is farmed and as a result is relatively pale and more like pork. Proper wild boar which has been roaming the forests of Spain like this one, is closer to beef and venison. The dish was mane-curlingly good and after three such excellent small dishes DonQui was feeling satisfied but not bloated. He had just enough room to finish things off with a shared chocolate mouse with a gorgeous raspberry concoction underneath.
The atmosphere was understatedly cool, with a friendly unobtrusive vibe. All of this for a very modest price.
Worth going to Seville for!
DonQui Recommends:
Puerta Osario Restrobar for exquisite haut cuisine tapas in the evening. During the day it is a great café where one can come to have a drink, read, write or chat with friends. It is also open for coffee in the morning.
Carmen’s lovely apartment just around the corner available on Airbnb
Breakfast is very important to DonQui. Almost as soon as he wakes he is thinking about what he wants to eat. If he goes too long without breakfast — say more than 20 minutes after waking — then Mr Grumpy shows up and DonQui is really not worth knowing at all.
His favourite breakfast is without a doubt buttermilk pancakes with blueberries, crispy bacon, lashings of butter, and swimming in proper maple syrup — none of the artificial stuff thank you very much!
French toast (well soaked before cooking) is a close second, tied with scrambled eggs on toast, both with crispy bacon. And DonQui also quite enjoys a full English every once in a while with fried egg (on toast) back bacon, sausage, mushrooms, tomatoes, beans and maybe black pudding.
Of course he would be a very large donkey indeed if he ate this sort of thing every day, so on a regular basis he is quite happy with his own muesli mixture (with blueberries) or maybe a bowl of porridge on a cold winter’s day.
Image DonQui’s dismay, therefore, when he heard that the Spanish don’t really do breakfast. At best he could expect a cup of coffee and maybe a piece of toast or something similarly dull and uninteresting.
Around the corner from where he was staying in Seville there was a small café/bakery called Cupcakes and Go which billed itself in an unusual multilingual style as
Here he waited with some trepidation to see if a Spanish breakfast was really as dull as it sounded.
His spirits rose when he saw what came. It may not have been pancakes and maple syrup but it actually looked rather good. Fresh squeezed orange juice, toasted rolls with olive oil and tomato pulp and superb café con leche would see him through to lunch without too much hardship after all.
DonQui Recommends
Cupcakes and Go for great coffee, toast, croissants and, yes, cup cakes too. They also have a small selection of ice-cream All for very reasonable prices.
DonQui is rather fond of ice cream, especially coffee flavour. Imagine his delight when he found Rayas (Calle Almirante Apodaca, 1, Seville) open until midnight. And most excellent ice cream it was too — amongst the best he had ever tasted.
Some time ago an Italian gave DonQui a tip. If you want to know if the ice cream on sale is made with all natural ingredients have a look to see if they have banana flavour. It the banana ice cream is grey then it is made with real fruit as banana turns grey when oxidised. If the banana ice cream is yellow then it is made with artificial ingredients or preservatives and it is a safe bet that the same is true for other flavours.
Sure enough Rayas’ banana (platano in Spanish – front and centre) is grey and therefore DonQui knew that they used natural, fresh ingredients.
While on the subject of bananas, if you peel and cut them up for later use, a bit of lemon juice will prevent them from turning grey. The same applies for other fruits like pears and apples.
It is a bit crowded in here DonQui thinks to himself while wondering at the propensity of humans to squeeze themselves into very small places.
He is flying from Barcelona to Seville on Vueling Airlines. They are a budget airline apparently. As a creature who likes his comfort DonQui does not like the sound of that. First Class is the style he wishes to become accustomed to.
Fortunately he has a little black card which gives him free access to airport lounges. Earlier, when he showed it to the nice lady at the desk he suddenly became a ‘premium traveller.’ DonQui was very pleased that the humans treated him as special rather than herding him around the terminal like any ordinary donkey. With the help of a glass of cava even forgot for a moment that he would soon be flying on a budget airline.
The flight actually wasn’t bad and 90 minutes later DonQui is in Seville with plenty of time to explore and have a drink or two before tucking into tapas. First impressions are favourable: interesting narrow streets with something new to see around every corner.
More importantly there seem to be lots of tempting bars and restaurants.
A beer or two later at the rather pleasant Milagritos Restaurant in sight of the cathedral, DonQui saw a sign advertising local flamingos at 21:00. This rather puzzled him. It was not clear whether they were on the menu or on show. Either way DonQui decided he needed to find out.
Duchess told him that he was a silly donkey and that flamingos and flamencos were not in any way related. Neither were on the menu but one was on show. And a very impressive show it was too.
It could have been cheesy and overly touristy but instead it was a very intimate performance delivered with great passion and emotion. The evening included 3 tapas per person for €15 and the food was good if not truly excellent. DonQui particularly liked the chicken with ceps (a type of mushroom), the pork in sweet wine sauce and chicken paella were also very good.
After the meal DonQui was offered a brandy on the house. It was a very nice gesture even if it did taste of toffee and old straw with a bouquet that reminded him of his stable back home.
All in all a very good night out.
DonQui Recommends:
Milagritos Restaurant (Alemanes 35, Seville) for its excellent location, friendly staff and wonderful flamenco. Despite the prime tourist area the prices were reasonable and there was a wide variety of descent tapas on offer.
Priority Pass is definitely worth having if you can get one free with your bank account or with some other incentive. It lets you into lounges worldwide even if traveling on cheap fares and budget airlines. Whether it is worth the full list price of £250 (prices vary according to country) is another matter altogether.
DonQui realises that he has not talked much about food yet. This is quite unusual as he has food thoughts most of the time.
One of his greatest joys when travelling comes from trying out new dishes and his stay in Tarragona was no different.
Duchess rather fancied a paella but the set menu at the inviting looking Cucafera Restaurant near the cathedral caught DonQui’s eye. For €15 he could have arròs negre – a paella-like dish of rice cooked with squid ink along with a starter and desert. With house wine at €9 a bottle it was too good to pass up.
The mussels DonQui chose for his starter were amongst the best he had ever had. Their taste reminded him of the sea. Duchess, who had a mediterranean salad with tuna, found them a bit too salty but she thoroughly enjoyed her salad.
This black rice looks… well rather black… and very shiny, DonQui thinks as he contemplates the dish in front of him. But when he tucked in he released that it was even better than meadow hay. Strips of squid were hidden amongst the rice, the dish had a deep rich flavour and the seafood was cooked perfectly. To DonQui’s mind it did not surpass the beautiful saffron taste of a good paella but he was very glad to have tried it.
The house wine was a local Montsant – not a wine DonQui was familiar with. The grapes are grown just a little inland from Tarragona and this particular bottle was a full bodied mellow red which went very well with the arròs negre.
It went down so well that by the end of a long leisurely lunch DonQui was left with the feeling that he should look for a nice shady tree to lie down under for an hour or two.
DonQui recommends
Cucafera Restaurant for a long leisurely lunch outside under an awning on Place Santiago Rusinyol in front of the cathedral.
Pulvinar, Carrer dels Ferrers, 20, 43003 Tarragona. Owned by the same people as Cucafera but equally as good. They also have pizza which DonQui did not try.
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