When we arrived in Granada, we instituted a tradition of
eating Sunday lunch out. This allows us to sample the regional cuisine and we picked
Sunday since it’s the only day that we eat “dinner” at the same time as the rest of
the population. Normally restaurants open at 8pm and when they do they are
about as full as they would be for a four o’ clock early bird special in New
York City-- most diners arrive at 9pm and leave at 11pm.
We haven't quite cracked the code on how to order properly. Before I
wrote about not ordering enough, but usually we have the opposite problem.
Tapas tend to be quite small, but the size of a racion can vary considerably from restaurant
to restaurant. Because we like to sample different dishes, we generally avoid
ordering porciones (the larger size) but sometimes we forget to tell the
waiter.
Based on positive trip advisor UK reviews, we tried a
restaurant a little off the beaten path in the San Anton district. The décor
was quite traditional and the restaurant had some interesting antiques,
including an old AM radio where the stations were marked with the names of
Spain’s major cities. In this instance the waiter was very kind and stopped us
after we ordered 4 dishes and a soup saying that we would not be able to move if we ordered more. He
was right, the food was fabulous, but rich and a bit heavy. By the time our
last dish arrived, we admired it and sent it back to the kitchen so we could
take it home.
Today, we had a repeat of that experience. It’s the final
weekend of the 2 week long patron saint of Granada festival and many people
from all over the province travel to the capital. In the central area, tents
selling the bounty of the fall harvest including dried figs, dates, nuts,
agricultural products, sweets and some fruits that I was unable to identify.
It’s been raining since Wednesday, so there is a lot of pent up demand. We
stopped at a place with some outdoor seating that looked lively and ordered a
round of drinks. It soon became apparent
that there was only one waiter to serve some 15 to 20 tables. Waiters do not
make tips so restaurants err on the side of having too few of them, but this
was extreme. The man was so busy, he was literally running at times. So when he
finally came to our table we ordered in a rush and forgot to mention we wanted
the small sized portions, so he defaulted to the large size. This time we ended
up bringing two nearly untouched plates (out of 5) home.
The other night Tom and I went out for a celebratory
anniversary dinner. The restaurant, Alacena de los Monja's, loosely translates into the Nun’s
Kitchen as it was set in a former 16th century convent. The bar
upstairs was modern with interesting art and the restaurant was beneath in a brick
cave-like setting similar to a wine cellar. Arriving at 8:30, we were of course
the earliest. The food was amazing. Here traditional Andalucian ingredients were
used to create playful dishes with a modern twist. The most delightful dishes
were the appetizers. One offered phyllo dough stuffed with pureed, spiced
eggplant and served with a honey mousse. Bacalao, or salted codfish dishes
generally are amazing too. This version was a warm salad with orange slices. We
made the mistake of ordering coffee and ended up staying up to the wee hours of
the morning while the caffeine wore off.
For the next couple of weekends we are traveling to see friends
and family in Madrid and Torremolinos, respectively. But for our next Sunday lunch in Granada we
are going to tap into the city’s Arab roots and try either Middle Eastern or
Lebanese food. We’ll be sure to provide a full report.
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