Archive for the 'Food and drink' Category

It’s all happening in Jávea this month! Whether you enjoy culture and history or would prefer to be out and about, there will be something to suit you in Jávea and its environs.

El Seté Segell Cinema Club will be screening five very different films: Silencio de Amor, La Boda de Mi Mejor Amiga, Cena de Amigos, El Hombre de al Lado and Gianni y Sus Mujeres, all of which will attract a very different audience. While La Boda de Mi Mejor Amiga (My Best Friend’s Wedding) is a typically frothy Hollywood concoction, the other four films demonstrate the best of French, Argentinean and Italian contemporary film.

October is a busy month in Jávea

Since the untimely death of Britain’s favourite celebrity chef, Keith Floyd, there has been speculation about who had the breadth and depth of knowledge, not to mention the culinary gravitas, to assume his mantle.

Over the past couple of years Rick Stein, who ironically made his TV debut on one of Floyd’s many programmes, has been seen as the most likely heir. His highly regarded fish restaurant in Padstow, Cornwall, draws visitors from around the world and his BBC shows never fail to attract high ratings. Graduating from 30-minute offerings that mostly revolved around the waters off the UK to hour-long spectaculars that have resulted in extended trips overseas, Stein’s latest series was devoted to Spanish food.

Rick Stein enthuses about Spanish cuisine

Coming this weekend to the port of Valencia is the eagerly-awaited Feria de la Tapa 2011. The festival kick-started its second edition yesterday and will continue over the course of the weekend in the Marina Real Juan Carlos I. Expected to welcome over 34, 000 visitors and tapas enthusiasts, the whole event is also a huge competition with participants competing for the top prize – el Rey de la Tapa (Tapas King.)

Valencia’s Tapas Festival 2011

Previously we told you about horchata, one of Valencia’s lesser-known specialities.  Now that we’re at the height of the Valencian summer there really is no better time to try it out.  In fact, as you walk the streets of the city you are likely to come across a street vendor, making the most of the heat and the local peoples’ passion for the drink.

Horchata

This month Munich’s world famous Oktoberfest is making a brief detour to set up camp in Valencia’s Plaza de Toros between 1st-17th September. Following great success in previous years, the Valencian event is now in its third edition, bringing typical German beers and gastronomy to Spanish soil.   Beer, sauerkraut and sausages – Oktoberfest comes to Valencia!

The permanent, enclosed market is a feature of Spanish and Mediterranean life; a lively place where people have come to food shop for fresh produce since long before supermarkets were invented. Among the many beautiful and atmospheric markets in Spain, Valencia’s Mercado Central is certainly one of the finest – and an experience worth savouring.

Valencia’s modernist Mercado Central

Derived from the Latin pōmum ‘apple’ and grānātus ‘seeded’ the pomegranate was brought to Spain by the Moors, along with many other fruits, in around 800 AD.  In fact, the Moors liked this fruit so much that they renamed a city after it, the world-famous Granada.  The Spanish later introduced this fruit to the Caribbean and Latin American colonies.

An apple a day keeps the doctor away, but how about a glass of pomegranate juice?