Food in Spain

These are the most popular traditional dishes of the South of Spain:

Espeto de Sardinas: skewer of 5 or 6 sardines with coarse salt prepared in a boat with a log fire on the beach. Tipical dish inf Nerja and Torrox.

Fritura Malagueña: deep fried fish such as boquerones, adobo, squid and prawns, these are dusted with flower and cooked in hot sunflower oil. Tipical dish of Malaga.

Aceitunas partidas y aliñadas: pickled olives from inland areas such as Jaen. These olives are picked from the tree, washed with for instance well water or river water ( the water must not contain chlorine ), than with a steed they are beaten one by one so that the olive breaks open ( traditional way) and then they are washed again. To pickle them salt water is used as well as herbs such as: thyme, rosemary oregano, fennel, garlic and red pepper.

Gambas al pil pil: peeled prawns in hot olive oil with garlic and peppers.

Buñuelos: in villages, especially in Mijas, it is a tradition to eat buñelos for Merienda, especially Sundays. These are made of a type of donut dough and heated in a deep paellapan with sunflower oil. The buñelos are often eaten with sugar or chocolate sauce.

Porra Antequerana o Salmorejo de Córdoba: a cold soup that is similar to gazpacho, with as a difference that there is no water added during the preparation so it remains thicker. This soup is served cold with bits of Serrano ham, boiled egg and or tuna.

Andalusian Christmas biscuits

The Christmas biscuits and other sweats like turrón, mantecado and polvorones are from Andalusia but are sold all over Spain. They are traditional biscuits that are eaten throughout the year but especially during the Christmas period. The recipe dates from the 16th century from the Andalucian villages Estepa and Antequera. The mantecados are prepared with oats and lard.
There are lots of variants like: Mantecado de canela, Mantecado de almendra, Mantecado de Chocolate, Mantecado de Limón, etc.

The first Mantecado Factory that was opened in Spain was in Estepa, owned by Micaela Ruiz Téllez, also known as " La Colchona". She was the one that improved the recipe, to make sure the mantecados would last longer she decided to dry them before packaging.