The secrets of El Palo
Without losing sight of your seafaring imprint , this neighborhood is modernizing slowly but surely. So much so that it is already the new Malaga temptation. The last frontier to real life opens beyond the Jaboneros stream as a counterpoint to the Malaga of cruise passengers and museums.
Arnault Scheidhauser He was born in France, in the Normandy region. And at the age of ten he moved to El Palo neighborhood . He grew up and later traveled a good part of Asia for years, visiting countries such as Nepal, Burma or Laos.
And finally he decided to open a restaurant in Malaga . He studied possibilities, analyzed the center of Malaga and realized that this was not his place. So he went back to his origins and looked for a small place with personality under the recognizable green buildings of Echevarría del Palo. he called it the revolt and to this corner he brought the flavors of his travels and his wisdom as a chef.
Arnault, chef of La Revuelta
kitchen craftsman, Arnault offers dishes with a clear personal stamp that he plates on the bar so you can see that there are no secrets. "Everything is fresh, made to order" he says. And to help you choose the menu, Marta, a Cantabrian whom he met in Barcelona, tells you the story of each proposal: either sea urchin with rice, algae and parmesan , a grouper burger with oyster sauce , a Flame sea bass taco with truffle or wok crab with udon and chili cream.
La Revuelta celebrated its first anniversary at the end of April and has become a local culinary reference. An example that serves to demonstrate that Malaga is more than just its historic center and that something is changing in a fishing neighborhood that has always lived linked to tradition: The stick.
Grouper hamburger in Antequera mollete from La Revuelta
The neighborhood it has become the last frontier of reality in a city that today lives by and for tourism. With a holiday offer that does not stop growing, many fear that Malaga will become a new Barcelona (if you haven't already) .
However the Paleño territory still shows a face that closely resembles that of a few decades ago. And, while clinging to its history, to its essence, it has made it clear that modernity is welcome if it arrives with common sense and respect. For this reason, in the last two years there have been a few drops of water such as La Revuelta that refresh the panorama of El Palo without it moving away from what it really is. A place where people are its main asset . And that when they get on the bus on line 11 they continue to say that they are doing it to go down to Malaga.
Building of the stick
The soapmakers creek (always dry except when it goes down very badly) is the one that marks the imaginary border between the capital of the Costa del Sol and this seaside neighborhood where the streets were paved in the mid-80s and which looks like a town. It has a soccer field, a market, a police station and even its own cemetery. It does not have a hotel, but it does have two beaches and a mountain : you can climb up to the hills known as "The tits of Malaga" going up the slope of Villa Cristina and crossing the urbanization of Pinares de San Antón where the chameleons roam.
For having, it even has a team in the league of traditional jábegas and a masonry contest that is heading towards its 51st edition organized by the Rock the Palustre , where every Sunday the numbers are called in a popular bingo. And beyond, gastronomy, corralones, tranquility, street life and a neighborhood that is recognized. And even a work by the **urban artist Invader**. These are just some of the reasons why an area that was never particularly well seen in the city is now coveted fate to reside.
The stick lives precisely in July its great days celebrating the festivity of the Virgin of Carmen , patron saint of fishermen, who is celebrated with a procession that flows into the sea. Many of them still live in humble houses on the beach, with a promenade that they use as a living room. It is easy to see families enjoying their lunches outside their homes, as well as dinners that go on until dawn with the sound of Parcheesi goblets as the soundtrack.
El Palo Beach
In front of them, sometimes, young foreign women pass by on bicycles or practicing paddle surfing thanks to Kayak and Bike , a business that is also a good example of El Palo's updating to the 21st century. Your manager is Jose Dominguez , but everyone in the neighborhood knows him as dinosaur.
The crisis ended his career as an electrician, but his ingenuity and effort allowed him to convert a rubble-filled lot facing the sea into a business where he rents kayaks, boards and bikes, and in which many of the neighbors keep their materials for practicing water sports. "I was going to Nerja and I saw that this was a good idea that no one had started here, so I jumped in," says this paleño grandson of a cenachero who has known how to exploit the Mediterranean in his own way. " There is hardly any fishing , but this is our treasure and I wanted to make a living from it," he adds, speaking broken English with young customers who have just arrived from a ride on two wheels.
It is his business, also his home and a bar and three tables give you the opportunity to cool off after the effort. The company has just turned one year old and the hustle and bustle there in summer hardly allows it to rest thanks to tourism, while in winter it is the residents themselves who take advantage of the Malaga climate to go for a walk on the water.
Between the beach front homes slip some of the most traditional beach bars in the city , once the historical ones of the neighboring neighborhood of scree are disappearing at a dizzying rate.
One of the classics is El Zagal. This beach bar was born in 1971 as a tavern, at which time Jesus Jimenez she ran between the tables when he was little and his mother, Antonia, began to cook her prestigious paellas. Then they served beers and the catch that the fishermen brought every morning. Today, Jesús, who together with his brothers manages the business that is still owned by his father, Jose El Zagal. Of course, they don't have chill out music, nor do they serve cocktails with impossible names, but instead they offer one of the best sardine skewers in Malaga and grilled fish of the day, among which the family highlights the skewered sea bream. "And while you wait for it to cook, you ask for a beer and time flies by," says Jesús.
He is also worth a glass of delicious sangria or you can even take a bath on the beach, which is just a step away, between chambaos and fishing boats. And, later, the body will ask for a nap in the hammocks that they rent next to a small altar to the Virgen del Carmen, who passes through there every July 16.
In the Promenade There are also other traditional beach bars where for two euros you have a delicious espeto. The Mariners, El Cenacho or Gaby are some of the references. There is also room for that bite as Malaga-like as the campero thanks to the Maruchi Burger, a corner as humble as it is tasty where there are recklessness like the campero of the mountains.
And beyond the Gálica stream, in the Chanquete Beach (which everyone knows as Playa el Deo), resists the invader El Tintero and its permanent auction of fried fish. Nearby, the **Sherif Playa restaurant** gives you the opportunity to taste a gluten-free malagueña fry.
From one place to another, in summer you will always run into the biznaguero, with his prickly pear leaf full of jasmine biznagas for two euros that will help you drive away the evil and invading tiger mosquitoes. It never hurts to go through The Gastrobar House , a nice bar distributed throughout the rooms of a house . In summer, its terrace approaches posture, but without nonsense.
And, during the school year, it is the mothers who take a break from their children every Friday afternoon while they participate in the craft workshops that are also organized in this business or play on the track located a few meters away. The same space where sport is replaced every Saturday morning by a small market in the sea breeze . The same one that pottery occupies on fair days, with bumper cars and the jumping frog as childhood memories come true.
Kayak & Bike
Who stands out in front of the sea for its special personality, popularity and prices, is the Peña Barcelona of El Palo . Forget your colors to give yourself a bath of reality. Don't expect excellent service or creative cuisine, but do expect an immersive experience in what this neighborhood means.
After a few years full of strange events in the premises (it burned three times in just five years and one Christmas a lamb that was tied to the door was stolen) the young Adrian Rose has taken over the reins of the establishment, giving it a facelift. Accompanied by buckets of beer at close range to appease the land , his Blaugrana menu now includes delicious Argentine cut meats, his cooking has improved and the espetos boat is tuned like the Titanic. Pure optimism in the face of shipwrecks. Like the one that will make you feel when you see the final account: you will realize that you will always want to return.
Adrián can be seen in the mornings at the municipal market in The stick , a small enclosure where the smell of fresh fish stands out and a certain cosmopolitanism is perceived. Over there he buys the meat for his restaurant from Antonio Molina , the most successful butcher in town. Specializing in Latin cut, he has burgers for all tastes: tomato and honey, cheese and bacon or even one with pine nuts and Pedro Ximénez). And it gets you pretty much whatever you're looking for, whether it's goose eggs, Olvera sausage or wagyu beef.
At the opposite extreme, in Paquito fishmonger , Francisco Gaitán sings about the virtues of prawns, sardines, an excellent rock fish and all the varieties that make up a Malaga frying "as God intended". He started working when he was thirteen years old and almost five decades later he is still at the foot of the canyon, cleaning the fish with prodigious agility and preparing it to make it easy for customers. "Now all I have to do is go to the houses to fry it," he says with a laugh as he removes the guts from a snapper with surgical precision.
In the center of the market, Juani has just about any fruit or vegetable you're looking for. And after finishing the purchase, nothing better than enjoying the two stalls of the Salvador and Lucas Fry , with a menu based on fresh fish and seafood. It is also a cooker , in case you feel like taking the already prepared seafood products home.
Sardines and skewered fish
Who also knows how to pamper his clients is Juan Buitrago , a triathlete who runs Embutidos El Tejar with his brother since 2011. It is not a delicatessen, nor a grocery store or a gourmet store, but the smell upon entering already suggests that quality is breathed there. Ham, sobrasada de Mahón, mojama or excellent cheeses are part of the offer of a space where you can also talk, talk about the neighborhood and forget about the rush.
If you are looking for anything else that you cannot take down to your stomach, you will always find it in that epicenter of solutions that is Miguelito , a hardware store that is much more. And where they still write down everything you have purchased on a small piece of paper to pay for it at the door counter. Pure tradition. As is going to have a beer at Kiosco Nico, a carnival cradle in Palencia that 20 years after its opening is already a small social center halfway between the four corners (the center of El Palo) and the Child of the Blackberries Square , cantaor who used to say that
look out onto the balconies
pretty and beautiful women
and you will see blackberries sell
blackberries, mauras, blackberries
After the purchases and the coplillas, surely you will be hungry. and the blocks Echeverria del Palo They have some of the best local gastronomic secrets on their ground floor. Long live Maria It is one of the most classic for brewing. It is run by Marcos Capurro and his family, who arrived in Malaga from Argentina at the beginning of the 21st century. "We always came to this area to buy and when we saw the available premises... we launched ourselves" he remembers.
Viva María has already celebrated ten years with a proposal based on tapas and Spanish and Argentine dishes. It opens all day and it is a mystery because it is permanently full. It doesn't matter if it's a summer Saturday night or a rainy winter Tuesday. Maybe your good atmosphere , their prices and their tasty hearty cuisine have to do with it. And very close by is another cozy corner full of home cooking.
Is named Zürich bar and its menu includes classics such as rice dishes, flamenquines, meatballs in almond sauce, Galician-style octopus, prawns or an exquisite oxtail. The shed it has also been dedicated to tradition for more than three decades and, for dessert, there should always be time to go to the ice cream parlor holy gem or to Ice Cream Creams.
After the rest, it's time to delve into the tradition and, incidentally, live a unique experience. This is what happens whenever the gates of El are crossed. Pimpi Florida , that small bar where the least of it is the narrowness, the heat and its discomfort.
Over there, Nino Bravo, Rafaella Carrá and endless folklore resonate at full volume through the loudspeakers while you drink a carabinero with refreshing white wine lost between bachelorette parties, foreigners with hallucinated faces and live songs. A place not suitable for all audiences but included among the essentials of all Malaga. And the one that, surely, you will remember the next morning when you go to fight the hangover with some good El Sauce churros or a bread with homemade butter at the Roper cafeteria , which is not easy to find because it is hidden in an old shopping arcade.
There are also breakfasts in Majao Tapas where they serve an original smurf with roast chicken. However, lunches and dinners are the specialty of the house. His cuisine is based on tradition, but he always tries to go one step further with creative techniques. It opened in July 2015 and is one of the pioneer establishments in renewing Palencia gastronomy and modernizing the neighborhood.
Its three owners worked in the restaurant The Thyme Fish , in Pedregalejo. After two years there, the head chef and the two chefs decided to set up their own business. "We wanted to keep growing," says Emilio José López, chef and co-owner. At 27 years old, the chef already has an interesting career that began in a roadside bar and took him to Mugaritz after studying in Granada and Mijas. Later he went to El Lago (Marbella), where he worked with what he says is his mentor: Diego del Río.
Scallop ceviche with avocado mojito, seasonal fish gyozas or oxtail dim sum share space with beef burgers or delicious croquettes . In addition, every weekend it proposes several dishes off the menu that should not be missed. The team is now finalizing the opening of its new restaurant, this time in La Cala del Moral: it will be called black garlic and will propose rice dishes, fideuás, grilled meats and roasted fish.
Majao Tapas
Although the one who has brought absolute modernity to the neighborhood is ** Ohana **, a Hawaiian poké restaurant that occupied the space vacated by the move of the mythical The Beach Burger a couple of streets further west. It is an initiative of Marina Garcia and Fran Montero , also responsible for November (in the center of Malaga) and gale (eternally fashionable in Pedregalejo).
With a surfer look of wood and chalk paint, it is the first establishment on the Costa del Sol specialized in that healthy and tasty gastronomic proposal on the rise. Its managers have chosen El Palo as the location because "it is a traditional place that is growing and allows for fresh, organic and seasonal quality products," they say. With them they make various poke proposals , although they also give you the possibility to choose your own combination of ingredients.
In addition, they have salads, hamburgers and juices, all served in recycled and recyclable containers. If you want, they take it home. Or even to the beach if you are taking a bath in the west of Malaga between El Candado and La Malagueta, beyond the land of Paleña. Does anyone give more?
ohana