YOUR TRIP TO MALAGA
and the reason I fell in love with Spanish food
Let’s get this bit out the way first. ‘Aren’t you Spanish?’ ‘I thought you were Spanish!’
I understand the confusion, I spend a lot of time in Málaga sharing all I love about it on social media. I’ve spent years either popping over to see family or staying for longer stints for work. I’m here now, writing about why you need to get out here if you love good food. So although I didn’t grow up here, it’s where I’ve spent much of my life. And it’s where my happiest memories of growing up just happen to be.
Our Dad built a home here in the early ’80s, and my family moved out to live permanently when I left for university. People always ask how he found himself in Málaga, but really, Málaga found him. Freddie Laker, the airline pioneer who was making air travel affordable (long before Stelios brought us Easyjet), had hired him to photograph one of the first hotels in Torremolinos. Dad didn’t speak Spanish. The locals didn’t speak English. But that wouldn’t stop him making friends. He met a ground stewardess, Victoria, who introduced him to her husband, who was fighting over a piece of land at the time with a friend. Neither would back down, so they offered it to Dad instead to avoid a fallout.
He fell in love with it, but with six kids in London…he couldn’t exactly move to Spain. So Dad hired Pepe to look after the place when he wasn’t there, preparing the land, planting orange trees and then he spent all the time he could spare coming out to build Rancho brick by brick. The joke was that if you couldn’t find Pepe in the bar, David must be on the way out to Spain. The land at Rancho came with a livestock shed and a water tank. The shed became our house, the water tank our pool. We started spending all our holidays out here. Pepe and our neighbours became our family.
All this to explain why I love Spanish food as much as I do. Our next door neighbours Rosa and Joaquín showed this little London girl how they lived off their land and how to cook. A woman I used to run away from, (she used to pinch my cheeks so hard between her thumb and index finger and give them a good shake. It was a gesture of love that I loathed) would soon show me what to look out for in the market and how to get the most from your ingredients, we’re talking unimaginable levels here, like removing the ligaments in mussel shells and putting them in your rice.
She also taught me you always add a handful of extra rice for the unexpected guest. That just sums up what I love about Spanish hospitality.
So, there's the intro no-one asked for. But it goes some way in explaining the link to Spain and how my family found themselves there. And while it might take me a while to put pen to paper and write these recipes up here, I have spent enough time eating my way around Málaga to write a guide up in the meanwhile. My Mum did say I could probably write it from London with my eyes closed but where’s the fun in that? I asked my friend Kate if she fancied a few days in my favourite city and boy did we eat.
Before we get to the recommendations, I’ll be showing you how to make a Spanish classic - red pepper salad - on Substack live at 3pm today. Nicola Lamb and I are taking part in the Grubstack Festival, talking all things Spanish markets and bakeries. Just download the app and log in at 3pm to join.
Where to eat in Málaga
