Just a short drive from La Manga Club is the harbour town of Cabo de Palos. A wonderful place to spend a few hours sipping Rose, enjoying some local delicacies and watching the boats (sometimes offloading freshly caught fish) come and go. Lunch on the harbour is an annual tradition. And we always go to the first restaurant along the water – Miramar.
One of their specialities is the trimarino which our friend Miguel introduced us to. Food doesn’t taste better than this…fresh clams, prawns and baby whitebait quickly fried in olive oil and garlic. You need plenty of bread to mop up the juices.
They also do a lovely mixed salad – really simple and served with olive oil and vinegar on the side. All the ingredients are so fresh and tasty it’s fabulous – lettuce, tomato, cucumber, onion, carrot, olives topped with tuna and hard boiled egg (the eggs taste amazing in Spain). The perfect lunch dish for a hot Spanish afternoon.
Cabo de Palos is not only a great place to go for lunch. There are three fabulous ceramicos, all selling a cornucopia of pottery and glassware in a myriad of different colours and patterns – and for such great prices it’s impossible to go in there and not buy something. Like my six euro salad bowl that I bought about five years ago. You will see it used in some of my salad recipes.
And then there’s the market! Every Sunday hundreds of stalls appear, if by magic, selling everything from lipgloss to shoes to fruit and veg. Before setting out among the stalls we have to fortify ourselves with a typical Spanish breakfast – coffee and pan con tomate, which is toasted bread with a spread of crushed tomatoes. Then it’s off to the market.
The smoked fish stall always intrigues me…though I haven’t yet sampled their wares. Next year.
The vegetables are always show-stopping. How about these large, glossy red peppers…or the huge salad onions in the background? Bags of veg cost euro cents so it’s good to stock up. The fruit is a taste sensation, especially the peaches which you can smell from 50 metres away, the aroma is like a magnet tempting you in.
There’s an olive stall with such an array of olives and a queue of locals clearly stocking up on their favourites for the week. There’s the aroma of olives in the air!
Even my husband likes shopping in Cabo de Palos, maybe it’s because he knows he’s never too far from a cafe con leche or ice cold cerveza. And there’s always the promise of lunch…oh the views aren’t bad either.
We love Cabo de Palos.
