Restaurants without Star in Malaga
**Gastronomic pleasure, no more (no less) **. Kitchen without facade or pretensions facing a gallery that, every time, we believe less; namely: fewer stars and more casserole . We have already said it in every possible way: we are tired of that "Michelin pattern" that equals proposals regardless of their environment —the time has come when, after visiting a two-star hotel, one does not know what city it is in (you they copy so many dishes and so many techniques…), is there anything sadder? Cuisine, at least the one that puts us on, is supposed to speak of a —geographical— territory and of a moment in time, linked to temporality and the product.
So enough of posturing and let's go back to the grill, to the casserole and to the most basic gastronomic pleasure: to eat . After our tour of Madrid , Valencia and Barcelona , the time has come to plant a pike in Andalusia and what better environment than Malaga to boot ; Malaga is beautiful. Fire off that electricity of a city in the process of change, vibrant and awake: things are happening . One of the most beautiful is the Malaga Gastronomy Festival, which has brought together chefs, the press, the administration and (most importantly) the street supporters (peña) to come to an agreement (and look how difficult it is). Gastronomy, cinema, exhibitions, debates, tastings, workshops and live cooking in the Plaza de la Marina. Live!
Respect for traditional recipes from Malaga
** THE COSMOPOLITAN , DANI CARNERO **
The jewel of Malaga , the eatery that (I think) is the eye of the hurricane of this small revolution in Malaga; that because? Easy: in La Cosmopolita you eat like God . His ideology is as revolutionary as it is simple: productazo, traditional malagueño cookbook (territory, remember) and nonchalance in the formal proposal We have come here to be happy. At the door you can already sense the karma in the kitchen: "Fed up with living scared...it's forbidden to talk about crisis!", and at the table, a festival: spinach, oyster, artichoke, asparagus, kidneys and marinade, tuna, lentils and one of the platters of this 2016, tortilla with onions and changurro.
Nonchalance in the treatment, great product and respect for the recipes of the grandmother (Malagueña)
** OIL PAINTING, BY SERGIO DEL RÍO AND RUI JUNIOR**
Sergio del Rio and Rui Junior. Oil. One of those absolutely peculiar proposals that speak a lot and well of the city that welcomes them. At the Malaga Contemporary Art Center (CAC) Oil is broken into two halves that are as different as they are complementary: mediterranean cuisine (croquettes, bravas or shrimp tortillas) and sushi bar (nigiris!) in an impossible space, Junior's bar . And yet everything works. Overflowing tables, summer nights on the terrace and cuisine as vibrant as it is fun. I really liked everything, but especially those Vietnamese suckling goat rolls from Malaga...
Mediterranean Sushi
** CHARO CARMONA CUISINE ART**
To understand this moment in Malaga, we must also look at a unique character: Ferdinand Wheel Garcia . Historian, gastronome, author of the essential (plus thirty-five other books) The popular cuisine of Malaga , founder of Gastroarte , on the Board of the Andalusian Commission of Ethnology of the Andalusian Council of Historical Heritage and spiritual father of this new batch of chefs ; He has spent more than 30 years dedicated to studying traditional cuisine, especially Malaga, from each and every one of its towns. Everyone respects him; how not to do it. I speak here of Fernando because his is the concept (so is Sollo's) behind Cooking Art by Charo Carmona , former Coso San Francisco, focused on recovering and reinterpreting the ancestral and traditional malagueño cookbook , especially from the Antequera region . The kitchen is history and heritage.
Kitchen = history
** THE BELL TOWER REFECTORIUM **
One does not expect the kitchen of Juan Morcillo when you go up the Paseo de la Sierra to that terrace from which Malaga shows itself immense and naked. The Refectorium was founded by Francisco Ramírez in 72 and today it is his daughter Belén who rules the room. The kitchen, of course, is the trench from which Morcillo interprets classic dishes and is already leaving us signs of his creative cuisine , of what this terrace can become… For now, the ideology sticks to the product ( fish from the Bay of Malaga or prawns from Garrucha ) . I speak with Juan, he is clear: “The idea is to be a gastronomic benchmark in the city, to become an essential point on the route of any gastronome in Spain”.
A couple of notes: we have left out of this tour Marbella and Fuengirola , that there is so much fabric to cut that the second part will be dedicated to them… Malaga is alive, ALIVE!
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Dining with these views: the perfect farewell to the city
Refectorium tuna tataki