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I often visit Crumbles Cafe Bar for breakfast or somewhere to have lunch, so why do I do it?  To be honest I like a wide variety in my choice of meals and Spanish dishes particularly appeal, but every now and then I crave those familiar dishes like a traditional English Sunday lunch….. and that is why I like to eat at Crumbles.  Many English restaurants just don’t pass muster.  Fortunately, Crumbles is really good with well-cooked and delightfully served dishes, and frankly helpings that make you think about whether or not your waistline can take a few more inches.

Crumbles is really easy to find because it is on the right hand side of Avenida Antonio Tore Tore on the way down to the beach, just before the turning off to Hotel Manaike .

Opening times: Monday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday 9.30-18.00. Saturday and Sunday 10.00-17.00.

Avenida Tore-Tore 22, Torre del Mar. Tel: 635 080 095 or 618 640 086.

For those of you with a GPS ………

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Extract from a recent post in Friends Eat on 20.3.2009

As our government hands over billions to Wall Street bankers, jobless Americans live in tent cities and collect food stamps in record numbers. Now when we need it the most, growing our own food may be against the law and punishable by a fine of up to $1,000,000. Think I’m joking? Meet Bill HR 875, The Food Safety Modernization Act of 2009, introduced by Rosa DeLauro whose husband Stanley Greenburg works for Monsanto. The insanity doesn’t stop there—fishing boats, hotdog stands, neighborhood vegetable booths and farmers’ markets will be federally regulated under the same draconian law. As always, the spin is designed to make you (the public) believe these new provisions are for your own good. Under the deceitful guise of protection, the goal of this bill is crystal clear: to prevent us from locally growing our own food so multinational agribusiness can completely control the production and distribution of our food supply. I refer you to the usual suspects—Monsanto, ADM, Sodexo, Tyson, and Smithfield.

This bill is designed to allow corporations, with the help of their hired government guns, to force small competitors (you and me) out of business. This is as evil as it gets, folks. Since the dawn of man we have hunted and farmed our own food——it’s second nature. To be stripped of the most fundamental act of survival is equivalent to the kind of mass enslavement you only read about in history books, like the kind under Pharaohs in ancient Egypt. Read More…

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I was lucky enough to enjoy the first session of modern jive dancing with Colin and his team at the Hotel Tropicano in Torremolinos on Monday 16 March.  What a delightful hotel and charming staff.  The restaurant overlooks the swimming pool and is only a short stone’s throw away from the beach and sea.

As someone who can get lost in a bathroom, the hotel was a labyrinth for me to navigate my way through, but the staff courteously guided me to my destination, namely, the dance area in the basement.  There was a good sized crowd all following eagerly, the excellent instruction provided by Colin.

Whilst there I was impressed by a chap who was not a novice to modern jive, as he smoothly guided his dance partners through some very, very, impressive moves.  He looked vaguely familiar but for the life of me, I could not recall where I had seen him.  Later in the evening, which eventually came to a halt at around 11.45 pm, he came over and spoke to me and we then found out that we had first met in West Sussex.  What a small world it is.

What I particularly enjoyed about this hotel and its restaurant was the manner in which staff took their duties to help visitors to enjoy themselves.  Nothing was too much trouble and they appeared to take a pleasure in being of assistance.  What a pleasurable visit.

The restaurant was spacious and there was an excellent menu.

I used my GPS to find it and it reliably led me right to the entrance. I must try driving blindfolded one day to see just how reliable it really is – or will it then play a trick on me?

For further information visit www.letsdanceroc.com or  www.hoteltropicana.es

For those with a GPS the location is 36°36’25.16″N     04°30’22.62″W

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Uncommon Holiday Eats
For many travelers, sampling the local cuisine is an integral part of exploring a new destination. Although you are unlikely to find insects on the conventional restaurant menu,  Some experiences are tasty and familiar, while others may be less than appealing to European palates. But don’t just think of these delicacies as odd edibles — take a few bites to better understand the cultural traditions of your host country.

Insects: If you think that eating insects is gross, you may be in the geographic minority. Throughout history, many cultures have enjoyed insects as food, and many types of bugs remain a traditional edible today across parts of Asia, Africa and Latin America. In Taiwan, for example, you can sample stir-fried crickets or sautéed caterpillars, while skewers of cockroaches or scorpions are available from street vendors in Thailand. Despite their current favor among at least half of the world’s peoples, however, eating insects is still rare, if not taboo, in the Europe and North America.

In a Brazilian Indian village for example, every year there are 3-4 days wherein the leaf cutter ants begin their life cycle. The princesses emerge from their holes amid thousands of guards and servants, accompanied by their male consorts. They then take flight, mating in the air and falling to the ground a queen. If they survive the night, they will produce a brand new colony. They are harvested while standing in holes filled with water, so they can’t bite.  Snatching up the princesses before they fly and filling up litre cans full of them. Later, the Indians will fry them up, grind them, eat them in a stew, or eat them alive from a bowl. It is a major cultural event for many tribes of Indians in Brazil, Guyana, Venezuela, and I would wager Columbia, too. Therefore, I’m surprised this article said nothing about leaf cutter ants. They’re probably the most interesting insect that is used as food. They have sort of an oily flavour that is extremely strong. They don’t taste good the first time, but neither does Coca-Cola. You just get used to it.

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I recently went to the Sunday Market at Nerja and was browsing through the various book stalls when I spotted an absolute gem of a book by an author who grew up in wine producing family and who later, chose to be  a vigneron as a carer. 

Having become embroiled in the industry but with an up to date university degree in wine manufacture, Miguel Torres writes with a quiet passion on the subject and enables the reader to have an insight into the history of wine making within different centuries and different cultures.  I certainly had not realized that wine storage only changed once it was realised that beer barrels could then be used for storing wines, first utilized by the Romans. 

What I particularly liked about the book, was the advice given for the storage of wine and the preparation prior to drinking with a meal.  I will have to try and remember when I next have guests for dinner.

Sympathetically translated from Spanish to English by Jan Read I can thoroughly recommend it as a good read.

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