Fish is a major part of the Mediterranean diet and thank heavens, in this part of the world, its popularity is not waning. They are still a regular part of the family’s weekly menus, not just a once a week or one off special! Obviously living on the Costa del Sol helps-most of the fish in the shops, vans and restaurants here is so fresh they can virtually swim away. Villages inland are very well served as well, refrigerated vans stock up at the markets in the ports very early in the morning and immediately head into the hills. By 8 or 9 o’clock the streets are resounding with the persistent hooting of the vans and the stray cats are forming queues at all the vans regular stops!
On an average day there will be at least two or three species that have been caught very locally in Spanish waters, there is no need to purchase fish caught in North Atlantic or even worse Pacific waters! Lets start with one of the best the Tuna! This beauty, when cooked fresh, is a completely different beast from the hideous contaminated canned tuna. It’s even better, eaten raw in Sushi. Tuna can be caught all along the Mediterranean coast and also around the Straits of Gibraltar down to Cadiz on the Atlantic Coast. The Almadraba coast (an Arabic term) ranges to Barbate, on the Costa de la Luz. This is one of the ports which is most associated with tuna and some of their smoked and potted tuna products are out of this world!
Other large fish which are always a favourite, especially with children as they can be cooked so they look more like meat than fish, include Sword fish (pez espada) and pez limon (no real name in English ). Both delicious grilled and served with a simple salad!
Sardines will be forever associated with the Mediterranean and all those delicious lunches eaten in Chringuitos. The smell of the “espetos”, which cook on a barbecue, burning in an old fishing boat, perfumes the air. Espetos are skewers of fresh sardines rolled in sea salt and cooked to perfection, normally by the grandfather of the restaurateurs, until they melt in your mouth. A very cheap, fresh and nutritious purchase! The younger brother of the sardine is the anchovy or Boquerón. These can also be fried whole like our whitebait, or can be canned in delicious extra virgin olive oil or, to my mind, best, pickled raw in oil and vinegar. Boquerones are one of the tapas staples- simply served with some bread to mop up the oil and a bit of parsley to aid digestion!
Next up in the local stakes are the Squid and octopus and their variously sized relatives. Choco are medium sized squid and puntillitas are the very tiny sized ones –neither of these delicious dishes are really to the Northern European palate and are particularly despised by children! However the dreadful calamares, rings of octopus, seem to be very popular-no matter how indigestibly chewy they are! Other Spanish regulars include Merluza-Hake, which is available virtually all year round fresh and frozen, and is a very adaptable and cheap purchase.
Fish to avoid either because of their taste, looks, bones or origins abound in the fish market! The salt cod (bacalo) is delicious if soaked and prepared properly but it is very easy to produce a salty and boney mess that can be positively dangerous. Aurelie are also very boney but cheap too! The main fish that you need to avoid are the completely illegal “chanquetes”. These are immature fish of all different species and, whilst they taste delicious fried, their consumption will rapidly ensure that stocks of mature fish dry up. Unfortunately you still see boxes of them for sale outside most fish markets. Don’t buy them.
