Kids Tapas

Kids tapas... tapas are great for kids, its the kind of finger food that even us adults love even to the extent that classy Spanish restaurants and tapas bars take the whole tapas culture way further and begin to dress up their tapas dishes, make them as fancy as can be and, dare I say it charge a fortune... This is not the way the tapas culture was expected to go, after all, in Spain tapas are just tapas but with the advent of celebrity chefs, modern times and the constant strive to make restaurants different with usp's, menu strategy, approaches to eating and all that stuff in this day and age could we expect any different? perhaps the whole 'tapas' culture is beginning to get a little lost in whole gastronomic scheme of things...

Of course our little feller Nico (18 months) pictured on the left doesn't understand any of that, he's just content with a plate jamon, a few crisps and an orange juice! The kind of simplicity kids love...and lets face so do the grown ups. Tapas are great for kids, an introduction to good food, a Spanish culture and in most cases healthy eating although I doubt Nico would be bothered about any of that either!

Getting kids in the kitchen always provides entertainment, its messy, challenging on occasion but always great fun. Spanish tapas are a great way of introducing non complicated but delicious food to the kids menu and us adults always know its better when you've cooked it yourself!

Paws off my Spanish sausage...

We enjoy taking photos, a new found hobby if you like and rural Spain offers plenty of opportunity to capture images that you would not otherwise be able to achieve elsewhere, a cultural thing... people, landscapes, moments, tradition, food... as with any country. Running an online deli also presents its challenges - a picture speaks a thousand words right? Most of our photos are taken in our own garden, or under the somewhat winter and thunderstorm battered pergola which offers a nice dappled light over products and foodie dishes.

Ask any foodie and the best part of taking food images is eating the food afterwards! However we do on occasion get some interested visitors while snapping in the garden, this pic was taken a few weeks ago whilst photographing a new Spanish salchichon for the website.

This cheeky opportunist approached using typical Spanish "gato" stealth technology and you didn't even know he had arrived until he was on the spot. There was no way he was getting that sausage so we agreed to go our seperate ways after a few rapid shots when the sun came out during the same moment.

The shots obviously from the camera..

... and this is what he was so interested in ~ "Salchichon Campero"


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Aperitivo time

Aperitivo time...good at any time! The small hamlet of Fuente Nueva just outside the village of Orce in Granada only has a handful of full time residents, most live cave houses with the odd few residing in cortijo's. You could say that the hamlet is "muy tranquilo" most of the year - except during holiday season. Made up predominantly of cave homes the two barrios which make up Fuente Nueva are scattered with holiday caves, all of which become occupied during Easter, Summer and occasionaly for new years eve celebrations.

Our own neighbours arrive four times a year, from Barcelona and Madrid the family turns up for a couple of weeks to enjoy some time off. From one end of the spectrum to the other coming somewhere as quiet as this from the capital. Its normally around two in the afernoon that you hear a cry "Aperitivo!", a small metal table is laid out under the largest tree in the garden for shade and is covered in all manner of tapas, olives, jamon, chorizo and seafood.

The kids are usually creating havoc somewhere nearby in the campo while us adults sit down for a cerveza or two and a bite to eat. This happens every day for the duration of their stay, a very friendly affair and something to look forward to whenever the "vecinos" turn up. Plus of course there is nothing quite like a free cold beer in the sun on a weekday afternoon...

From a foodie point of view there is always something going on in the background, the bbq usually lit with escalivada roasting away and a batch from the day before being peeled by someone having been wrapped up in newspaper - Spanish tip of the day: wrap the veg for your escalivada in newspaper as it makes the skins infinately easier to peel off!

Chorizo and other sausages presented in a good selection of small tapas bowls come from Orce (carniceria de Julian) and occasionaly the market town of Huescar where you can find a small indoor market boasting fruit and veg stalls, fish shops and no less than four butchers, all of whom sell the same cured meats, hams and chorizo etc. You would think that competition would be fierce but in true Spanish style it is all very relaxed, even looking after each others store fronts while the other takes a break.

Below is one such carniceria, "secadero Ovalo" is a long established family run business with their signature "lomo de orza" (lightly fried pork tenderloin preserved in extra virgin olive oil) is always on display. There chorizo isn't half bad either with a nice sweet variety available, a favourite with the locals.

Discover more about Orce Serrano Hams suppliers (click on the image above) and find out where your hams and charcuterie comes from.

Images of Andalucia

Images of Andalucia muster up the idea of flamenco, paella, perhaps the world famous and incredibly impressive "Alhambra" or sleepy white washed rural villages where locals go about their daily business of laid back siestas, the odd spot of shopping, washing the doorstep to a shine and chatting with the neighbours across the street.



Andalucia is a beautiful region of Spain, the largest and also the most southerly with influence from the Moors to be seen in stunning castles, re-enactments of Christian battles from days gone by and also an strong influence with food and cooking. Andalucia is also famous for its caves ~ in fact we ourselves bought one back in 2004 and find it to be one of the most secure and relaxing ways of living, difficult to explain perhaps unless you have had the pleasure of staying in one of these unique dwellings.



Spanish cave homes are found mostly in rural Granada, East of the city in small pockets of old Andalucian villages many of which are made up predominantly of century old cave homes. Rural Spain means the countryside or to be strictly correct "El campo". Scorched during the summer months the campo can become very dry - almost like a wasteland, however the views are nothing short of spectacular.



Bring the rain! Boy when it rains it rains, drops hammering down the chimney onto the stove top, towels by the door just to be safe and if a venture out is required plastic bags tied around the footwear. Campo dust becomes a muddy sludge you could almost make cazuelas out of. Everyone loves a good downpour - clears the air and it never takes long before the sun dries out the deluge, during early spring it takes but a matter of days for what is soon to be dust transform into a lush meadow like a carpet of flower and fauna, a brief but spectacular event in nature's calendar which never ceases to amaze.



A year ago I invested in a Panasonic Lumix (cracking camera) a DSLR was just of reach but the Lumix performs superbly for what we need. Primarily for food photography the photo bug bit well and hard so whenever time allows I try and capture whatever is offer which is usually quite a lot, Andalucia tends to deliver almost every day with its seamless beauty, ever changing weather, character and cultural apsects. A great place for the budding photographer.



All photos © Copyright 2010 Orce Serrano Hams