Good Eats: Best Meals in 2020

Traditionally, I’ve ended the year on my blog by looking back at all the good dishes I’ve eaten during the past year.

 

Well, 2020 was a strange year – with very little travel and eating out at restaurants – unlike previous years. It’s a bit more difficult to recap the best meals I’ve eaten this year. However, most of the best meals in 2020 were homemade and eaten at home.

January 2020

The year started out hopeful. One night, we met friends after work to take advantage of a 3-course meal at Gaucho in the South Kensington neighborhood of London. While sipping my glass of red wine in the chic bar, I had no idea what the upcoming year would have in store for us. Highlights: scallop ceviche and chicken Milanese.

At the end of January, we flew to Barcelona to meet up with American friends visiting from NYC. Highlights from our dinner at Can Boneta –known for its Catalan tapas and small plates – included octopus with creamed potatoes and veal carpaccio. 

Our last meal in Spain was a tapas lunch at Mercado de la Sagrada Familia – cheap platters filled with Spanish jamon and queso and a side of patatas bravas.

At the end of January, I even managed to drive to Bath for a day with two girlfriends. We enjoyed an Italian lunch at Sotto Sotto with its vaulted cellars and bare stone walls.

February 2020

We planned an overnight trip to Liverpool, one of the larger English cities that we hadn’t visited yet. We went to a food hall, a beer festival with hundreds of people and ended the night at the Cavern Club – a crowded night club where the Beatles once played. A weekend like this would be unthinkable right now.

At the end of February, we were supposed to go to Milan, which ended up being one of Italy’s epicenters of the Covid-19 virus. We opted for a nice dinner out in London at Eneko Basque Kitchen & Bar, which was offering 3 courses for £28. Highlights: beetroot tartare, pork ribs and a decadent chocolate tart for dessert.

March 2020

On March 9^th, I flew to the US to visit family and celebrate the 90^th birthday of my husband’s grandmother. I made a two-layered carrot cake for the occasion. I’m glad we had the chance to visit family before the pandemic took hold of the entire world.

Luckily, we flew back to London, landing on the 16^th of March – the day Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced the initial UK lockdown. We were in for a bumpy ride.

At the end of March, we celebrated our 10^th wedding anniversary in our garden at home instead of on the beach in Thailand as we originally planned. I made a an issahn-style pork salad and pad thai, and hubby made pina coladas to drink.

April through Summer 2020

And thus, this started the beginning of our lockdown life in London.

I was furloughed from my pastry job. Hubby was working from home. I began cooking all the time and joined the sourdough baking bandwagon. I learned the ups and downs of feeding and taking care of my starter and also had difficulties sourcing flour several times.

I made Turkish kebabs, pide, sigari böreği, mucver and revani – a semolina cake.

I sometimes made Italian focaccia, pasta, ravioli and pizza.

We took advantage of the sunny days and went on long bike rides and grilled outside.

I baked bagels, challah and cakes at home. I soon started donating treats to my friend’s business, The Plattery, who started cooking for low-income people who needed food. (NOTE: we’ll still be donating meals in 2021, so if you can help donate here, please do.)

 

I made homemade tortillas and pulled pork so we could celebrate Cinco de Mayo at home.

We discovered a fish delivery company called The Upper Scale and cooked our own seafood feasts at home like French moules frites.

 

July 2020

For more than three months, cinemas, hair salons, museums, restaurants and bars were closed (except for take-away and delivery services) in the U.K. The country’s first lockdown ended on 4^th of July.

Toward the end of July, we booked our first trip post-Covid-19 restrictions and drove up to the Peak District for a week. Our life didn’t change too much – hubby still worked from “home” and I went on long walks and cooked at our rental cottage. However, we did manage a few visits to the local pubs – as long as we could dine outside.

August 2020

We booked our second staycation and stayed in a rental cottage in southern Cornwall for a week. Sitting outside at a pub, smelling the sea air and eating fish and chips – life never seemed so good!

September 2020

We ventured out of the city again – this time we donned our facemasks and took our bikes on a train heading to Norwich in the County of Norfolk. Over the course of six days, we managed to cover 205 miles/325km on our bikes. We ate a lot of pub meals to fuel up for our long bike rides and ended that staycation with a big steak dinner.

October 2020

Although I’ve tried all sorts of new recipes during lockdown, I started taking some online cooking classes in October. I learned how to make pastel de nata from a Portuguese woman in Lisbon and Argentinian empanadas from a lovely couple in Columbia.

We also managed – just barely – to escape to Wales for a couple of days for hubby’s birthday. The foodie highlight of that staycation was cooking Welsh lambchops in our nearly 200-year-old rental cottage.

November 2020

My favorite foodie holiday, Thanksgiving, fell during our second lockdown. We still pulled off a socially-distanced dinner with our neighbors and piled a table full of festive delights such as grilled turkey, green bean casserole, sweet potato casserole, roasted veggies and more.

 

December 2020

As mentioned in my previous blog post – How to Pretend You’re in Paris via London – we were able to treat ourselves to one fancy meal out before London went into lockdown – AGAIN!

This year has been all about cooking and baking new recipes at home, becoming a pantry raiding superstar and foraging for ingredients around the city. I’m thankful that I’ve learned some new baking skills, but I’m hopeful that I’ll be able to work in restaurants and enjoy dining out with friends again in 2021.

 

Wishing you all a Happy and Healthy New Year!

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A Sunny Weekend in Malága Spain

A Mini Travel Guide for 2-3 days in Malága

Sunny weekends in Spain.

Sigh, I miss hopping on a plane from London and whisking off to Europe for a weekend. It used to be so easy, but that was 2019. Nearly all of our travel plans for 2020 were cancelled or put on hold because of the international pandemic that is Covid-19.

 So, I’ve been using some of my furloughed/lockdown time to organize and edit photos from previous trips. In mid-May 2019, we went to Malága for my birthday weekend. This part of southern Spain, known as the Costa del Sol, has more than 320 sunny days each year, according to The Local Spain and confirmed by the national meteorological agency. It’s no wonder that this area sees so many British tourists as well as people from France, Germany and Italy.

And we were desperately seeking sunshine.

Malága, Spain, and its port area, as seen from the Alcazaba fortress.  

If you’re looking for a budget-friendly, weekend-get-away from the dreary UK weather, then Malága is a splendid option! 

One Night is Enough in Benalmádena

After picking up our rental car, we drove a short 15km to our hotel, the Sunset Beach Club in Benalmádena. It’s a very family-friendly hotel typical of British package holiday-goers. Not our usual cup of tea, but the hotel’s pool was wonderful and the view from our room wasn’t too shabby either. Suitable for one or two nights.

Not surprisingly, given its location and climate, Benalmádena is one of the most popular holiday resorts on the Costa del Sol of Spain. This area has a subtropical Mediterranean climate, with summer temperatures an average of 30 ºC and a mild 17 ºC in winter. If you’re seeking solitude, this is NOT the place for you, but in mid-May, the beaches weren’t too busy.

A Spanish Birthday Lunch

After soaking up some sunshine, we went looking for lunch nearby and found a cute seaside place called Restaurante La Cala. After seeing the grill master tend to his espeto outside, we had to order these grilled sardines. Espeto is a traditional dish of Malága – the sardines are skewered and roasted over a barbecue pit.

We ended up over-ordering for two of us – a fresh tomato salad, roasted peppers, grilled calamari, grilled octopus and, of course, the espeto. Add in a bottle of chilled, white Spanish wine and a healthy dose of sunshine and I had a superb birthday lunch. The portions were generous, and the prices were reasonable – especially for a touristy area.

Seafood Dinner for Two

After a long nap (we had a 6:30 a.m. flight, so it was justified), we set out for a nighttime stroll in Benalmádena. We passed a few beaches as well as the intriguing Castillo De Bil-Bil, a former country villa built in 1927. The Moorish-style villa is usually used for exhibitions, concerts and civil weddings – hosting the most civil weddings in the entire province of Málaga.

Along the boardwalk (Paseo Maritimo), you’ll find several fish restaurants as well as British-themed bars that cater to the tourists. Some of the places seemed a bit tacky, but we finally settled on Restaurante Santa Ana. Although paella is a specialty of Valencia, it’s a dish we don’t often eat in London, so we ordered the seafood paella. It was HUGE!

Dinner was very reasonable – paella, wine and melon con jamon for dessert totaled just 44 euros.

Exploring Malága’s History

On Sunday, we moved on to Malága – a city with a multi-layered past – entwined with the Phoenicians, Romans, Moors and Spanish Catholics. I fell in love with the view from our hotel’s rooftop bar and swimming pool, which I don’t have a photo of unfortunately. We stayed one night at NH Málaga Hotel, a Spanish chain hotel that is comparable to a Hilton.

Wandering into the city center of Malága, we found an electic mix of architectural styles – many of the buildings were built in the 19^th and early 20^th centuries. I loved the Art Deco facades and the small balconies stretching out over narrow, paved laneways.

One of my favorite buildings was the ornate Palacio Episcopal de Malága situated in the Plaza de Obispo. Parts of the building’s complex date to the 16^th and 18^th centuries. The complex houses the seat of the Archbishop of Malága, government offices and art exhibitions.

Must-see: Teatro Romano

Literally in the city center is the Teatro Romano (Roman Theater) dating to the 1^st century and built during the reign of the Roman Emperor Augustus. Surprisingly, the theater was only re-discovered in the 1950s and was excavated. I’d highly recommend going inside the Alcazaba next door, so you look down into the ancient theater.

Must-see: Alcazaba de Malága

The Alcazaba is a hilltop fortress built in the 11^th century by the Moors who ruled the Malága area for more than 400 years. We explored many of the fortress’ defensive towers, inner rooms and landscaped gardens and fountains. This gorgeous building reminded me of a smaller version of the Alhambra in Granada, which unfortunately, we haven’t seen in person yet.

If you visit during spring, you can look out from the hilltop and see the vibrant purple blooms of the jacaranda trees in the city.

Must-see: Catedral de Malága

Also located in the city center is the Catedral de la Encarnación de Malága, which was built on the ruins of the former mosque of Aljama. This enormous cathedral was built over the years of 1528-1782 in the Renaissance style and is divided over two floors. We didn’t peek inside this cathedral because we’ve seen so many impressive European churches these past few years.

Eat Turrón

If you have a sweet tooth, you cannot miss out on trying Spanish turrón! Turrón is a traditional sweet made from almonds, sugar and honey – similar to almond paste. Torrons Vicens, a family-owned company in Malága, sells dozens of varieties of turrón as well as nougat and chocolates. Delicious!

Oh, there’s also jamon! We ate two sandwiches with jamon and some jamon for dinner one night.  

Street Art in Malága

Finding a bit of street art in Malága was just a bonus. We love exploring European cities and discovering street art, especially from some of my favorite artists such as the Invader.

Visit Museo Picasso Malága

On Monday morning, my husband left early to take a train to Madrid for work and I went on my final day of sightseeing. I enjoyed a leisurely breakfast and coffee at an outdoor café. Then, I went to the Museo Picasso Malága, which houses more than 280 works donated by members of Picasso’s family. Pablo Ruiz Picasso was born in Malága in 1881 but lived most of his life in France. I cheekily snapped two photos while inside the museum, which also is a 16^th-century palace.

Last Beach Day

After my museum visit, I decided to soak up some sunshine on the beach. There’s a popular city beach called Playa la Malagueta near the port. The only issue is parking. I went round in circles trying to find a parking spot, which avoided parallel parking, and finally found a parking garage. The beach is full of pebbles, but it’s nice enough for a bit of sunbathing.

Since I had a late flight back to London, I drove back to one of the sandy beaches near Benalmádena and spent the afternoon here under the palm trees.

Overall, I would say that Malága offered something for everyone – a bit of history, architecture, beaches, good food and sunshine. Definitely a good escape from London for a couple of days! But obviously, only travel to this part of Spain when travel is safe to do so.

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