19 reasons why Cádiz is the best (and most civilized) city in the world
I have discovered Cádiz because of the Marco de Jerez but here (and also here next door) they already know about art - pisha, the impossible beaches, the white towns and the frying behind the bars of the potholes of the Barrio de la Viña . And the way the patio is (Infantas, embezzlement and sleeves) I think there is no better time than now to vindicate humor, tolerance and freedom without prejudice that is breathed in every inch of the silver cup.
1) THE BEST FRYING ON THE PLANET
So, no more. My essential tapas: the brunette from Bar El Palillo (San Félix), pork rinds from Casa Manteca, mackerel with periñaca at El Tío de la Tiza (Plaza Tio de la Tiza) and nettles from Casa Tino (Rosa, 25).
The brunette from El Palillo Bar
**2) WITH TWO BALLS (GADITANS) **
During the War of Independence (1808 to 1812) the great cities of Spain succumbed to Napoleon's troops but only one city in the south resisted . A small city bombarded by land and sea. That city was Cádiz, the "Very noble, very loyal and very heroic" Cádiz.
3) "WITH THE BOMBS THROWED BY THE SWAGERS, THE GADITANS BECOME CORNLOCKS"
It's a tanguillo from Cádiz, a stanza that sums up the Cadiz sense of life like no other. The French shrapnel on the streets of cai was used by the gatinanas to make hairpins, can you have more art?
artillery guns,
even if they put the french
artillery Cannons,
they won't take away my taste
to sing for "Alegrías".
With the bombs that the braggarts drop
the Cadiz corkscrews are made.
4) TODAY LET'S EAT AND DRINK, BECAUSE TOMORROW IS UNKNOWN
A phrase that is still heard today in some bars of the Barrio de la Viña. Raining froggy shrapnel beyond Puerta de Tierra and these pishas eating and drinking, lest the party end. Is there a purer and more beautiful hedonism?
5) SHERRY
Sherry and champagne, ball point. And I don't say it, Pitu says it: “Wines for contemplation and meditation. Party and complexity . Second chance wines. Lime brothers and accomplices in time management in the shadows.”
Don't miss the Jerez
6) BREAKFAST AT COFFEE ROYALTY
One of the three best breakfasts in Spain, I insist. Royalty Coffee (Plaza de Candelaria) founded in 1912 (yes, celebrating the Constitution) probably the only remaining historic romantic cafe -and well on foot- in Andalusia and one of the best breakfasts I remember. Newspaper, silence, paintings on the ceiling by Felipe Abarzuza and a bacon so well done that it even crisps.
The romantic breakfast of Cádiz
7) THE ATLANTIC FROM THE PARADOR DE CÁDIZ
Cádiz is not perfect, and one of its handicaps is the scarce hotel offer . Better that it be so (in part) because that is how tourists anchor other ports, in any case the views from the fantastic Parador Hotel Atlántico, next to Genovés Park, are well worth a "candlelight dinner for two".
The Atlantic from El Parador
**8) THE CHEF OF THE SEA **
From the Aponiente restaurant, the Cadiz Ángel León has revolutionized the treatment of fish in Spanish haute cuisine and here we adore that passion that salty man feels for his cai: "The charm is given by people, their way of life, their joy, their humor... In front of us we have a continent, Africa, the Maghreb, where we Andalusians come from, Where did this way of life come from. I will never give up telling the world that this culture flows through my veins. Cádiz, El Puerto de Santa María. Luz."
Ángel León, the chef of the sea
9) THE TAVERN OF TAVERNS
La Manzanilla (at Feduchy 19) where my dear capo Pepe García Gómez teaches teaching after This century-old mahogany-colored bar of which Fernando Savater or Arturo Pérez Reverte are regulars. The tavern as a home: “The tavern is a parenthesis in life, like a dream; and, also like the dream, that parenthesis is fuller than life itself”.
La Manzanilla: this is Cadiz
10) THE PEPA
The Constitution turned 200 two years ago . La Pepa, the cradle of freedoms, the third Constitution of the world after the American (1787) and the French (1789), responsible for leaving behind the Old Regime of black Spain: "Sovereignty resides essentially in the Nation" . Attention to Art. 255, so unfortunately present: "Bribery, bribery and prevarication of magistrates and judges produce popular action against those who commit them."
The promulgation of the Constitution of 1812, the work of Salvador Viniegra
11) HAPPINESS? A CONSTITUTIONAL MATTER
"The purpose of the Government is the happiness of the Nation, since the end of all political society is none other than the well-being of the individuals who compose it" (article 13 of the Spanish Constitution of 1812) . Happiness, by law, because yes. Because we are free men and women. Because we are in Cádiz.
12) THE BEST VIEWS OF ANDALUSIA
From the Tavira Tower (located in the Palacio de los Marqueses de Recaño) the highest point in the city from which to admire each one of the 126 viewpoints of the silver cup , either from the attic or also from the Camera Obscura (like a Google Earth but with mirrors and lenses)
**13) THE CARNIVAL **
Carnival is the sublimation of Cadiz art, one of the ten Treasures of Spain's Cultural Heritage and, damn, the chirigotas. Who does not understand the intelligence, kindness and elegance behind humor of a chirigota is that she has not understood anything.
14) "WHAT MY WIFE SAYS"
The best chirigota in the history of mankind. First prize at the 2004 Carnival (work by Selu García Cossío) and the definitive ode to henpecked. Don't miss it, for God's sake.
Come on, the eggs that have broken,
and nothing more than thinking about it,
mine got wrinkled!
Populo neighborhood
15) "LA GUAPA" CHURROS
Neither San Ginés nor milk. The best churros that the above signer has tasted are those of this stall founded at the end of the 19th century next to the Mercado de Abastos ; Churros de los Gordos (what many of you call «porras») served by José Antonio Luna, since Carmen Pecci "La Guapa" retired in 1973.
16) VINOLOGICAL
Which is my brother Fernando Angulo's project. A wine store on Calle San Pedro where we listen to Chet Baker vinyl records, we talk a thousand times more -and as many times as it takes- about The Godfather and we taste (we drink, because in Cádiz you don't taste, you drink) one of the 1,000 sustainable wines from four countries (Spain, France, Germany and Austria) that Vinológico welcomes for less than 21 euros.
17)THE OLDEST NEIGHBORHOOD IN EUROPE
El Pópulo, where it all begins. The oldest neighborhood in Europe - soon to be said, where the Phoenicians, Punics, Romans and Arabs have passed . "You are older than Pópulo", they say in the streets of the oldest city in Europe: three thousand years of nothing . To get to know Cádiz, it is essential to visit El Populo, its arches, its walls and its inns.
18) LA CALETA, FUCK
La Caleta beach. The sunsets in La Caleta . Beyond the Barrio de la Viña, flanked by the castles of San Sebastián and Santa Catalina. Where each stone has its name (the square stone, the round stone, the basin, "the stone of the hedgehog" or "the lace") and where sadness is not conceived.
19) THERE IS NO EVIL IN CADIZ
I insist, there is not. And I can't think of a better compliment for a city . For one person. For oneself.
La Caleta beach: a lucky landscape meeting