Los Mellizos - Saint Tropez, Benalmádena

The unique selling point of the Los Mellizos chain of seafood restaurants is that the business grew on the back of their wholesale business. So much so, that the first restaurant is actually attached to the wholesale unit in an industrial estate in Arroyo de la Miel. Clearly this gives their associated restaurants priority access to the freshest and best produce available, and more often than not this theory certainly transfers its way onto the plate.

I had the good fortune to make my first visit to a Los Mellizos on business about 15 years ago, and the lubina a la sal (seabass in salt) that I had then, along with prior visits to Rick Stein's in Padstow were responsible for really accelerating my fondness for seafood.

It's a fondness that I have to say was slightly tinged one month after that initial visit, when my manager questioned my expense claim for the lubina, on account of it being too frivolous. In my view this was a completely unmerited act given that the cost of the meal was well within the limits stated in the company expenses policy. There is certainly no accounting for taste, particularly given that said manager's idea of haute cuisine was to ask for an egg on his margarita from Pizza Express.  Every time I now walk past a Los Mellizos restaurant, I have to admit to feeling rather depressed as I recall this sorry and unfortunate expenses incident, and the fact that the human race could bear such avarice.

Now, I am telling you this because C.G. Jung reckons that catharsis is the first step in releasing and thus providing relief from deep and repressed emotions. So by his reckoning, now that I have shared this fact with the world via this blog, the next time I walk past a Los Mellizos, all I will remember is the moist loveliness of that lubina a la sal, and not that miserable oik of a manager.

Anyhow, onto the review of the restaurant. Today we were visiting Los Mellizos - Saint Tropez.
It's not my favourite Los Mellizos restaurant to be honest, mainly because it gets crazily busy due to its proximity to the beach and the endless seaviews on offer. It also must be noted too that it isn't officially a chiringuito as such, as it sits on the promenade and not actually on the beach itself.

First of all, congratulations must go to whomever came up with the name for this Los Mellizos restaurant. After the rather unimaginative names of the other restaurants in the chain, namely -  "Pescaderia" in Arroyo, "Casa Juan" in Torremolinos, and then "Malaga", and "Marbella" (for the obvious reasons), well how apposite of the creative team of Los Mellizos to come up with "Saint Tropez" for this one in Benalmadena. It's a 10 out of 10 for observation for spotting that Saint Tropez is the skin care product of choice for the hordes of visitors from the South of England who frequent this part of Benalmadena in some numbers. They are obviously onto a massive cross selling or affiliate marketing opportunity there. To be honest Los Mollizos St Tropez doesn't really need any additional marketing as its always pretty busy, and I was so thankful that I'd reserved a table beforehand, this avoiding the sizeable queue in place on this particular Sunday afternoon.

We ordered the langoustines and alioi, mar y tierra (lightly battered vegetables and prawns), and a ration of paella that were all on the "offers" menu at €5 or €6. These were really good value, the paella in particular was fantastic. If you speak to any Valencian, they will tell you you should always paella freshly made, whereas this plate was served from a massive pan, and by rights should be stale or overcooked. It wasn't though as the rice and the generous amount of seafood were cooked spot on. This could have been a fluke, but for €5 it represented awesome value. The house salad was fine, but we had to dress it ourselves which is always a bit of a pet hate of mine. We order a dorada espalda (sea bream) off the specials menu at €20, and it wasn't quite the bargain I'd hoped for, but ok none the less.
We had a bottle of Vina Esmerelda to drink at €11 for something you can buy for €7, and a few other beverages too.

Here are some very poor photos of the experience.

The bill came to €67.40 which included two very agreeable and complimentary hierbas to conclude matters. Really good value, and enjoyable lunch was had by all.
The service was as hectic as ever, and you have to fight for attention, but in a way this adds to the buzz and fun of the place, particularly after the first tinto verano (summer wine) or two has been imbibed.

Overall 7/10
Food Value for Money 8/10
Wine Value for Money 6/10

So, this concluded my first week of my extended break and as such an appropriate time to reflect on the objectives I set at the start of this blog (which I outlined here): http://www.elchiringuiri.com/2017/05/introducing-el-chiringuiri.html

#1: Now given that I haven't actually visited an actual chiringuito yet, my nom de plume could be considered to be somewhat misleading. I can promise a significant improvement here though, as the blonde is now on board, and she will insist that many lunches are spent overlooking the Med whilst sat in a building that is on the actual beach and not the other side of the promenade. It makes all the difference (apparently)

#2: I've also failed to report much action on the wine front, but things will increase/improve here too for pretty much the same reason.

#4: The beard is going through that itchy/scratchy phase too. Not sure if its a keeper.

#3: However all is not lost, as some good progress has been made here. I'll let you know the outcome for definite though, after the next time I walk past a Los Mellizos restaurant.

Club Los Delfines, Benalmádena Marina

Los Delfines is situated in the prime position in the rather tacky yet self-anointed "best marina in the world".  It's the last building at the end of the harbour wall, at the intersection point between Benalmadena and Torremolinos.
Normally restaurants attached to boat clubs attract the yachting crowd and as a result a healthy marina tax gets added to food and drink prices, but that is not the case here. Every time I've walked past it's been rammed full of down to earth locals enjoying really fresh local and inexpensive seafood. I've always wanted to try it, but the blonde (*doffs cap to A.A. Gill) has always rejected it on the grounds that despite it's prime and extreme position, the view you have whilst dining on its terrace is that of a 6 foot concrete harbour wall, rather than the beautiful green Mediterranean. To be honest, this attracted me even more, as given the proliferation of restaurants on this stretch of the coastline with absolutely uninterrupted views of the Med, you have to infer that Los Defines must be doing something right for it to be so popular.

I'd got a few days sans-blonde, so now was the ideal opportunity to give Los Delfines a go. (I nearly put sin-blonde, but let's stick with the French for now, as this whole blonde sobriquet is probably gonna get me in enough trouble anyway)

The menu is the pretty standard offer of shellfish and seafood, but they also have a good range of tapas too. I just opted for a main course, and decided to have the turbot as they offered as a whole fish for just €15 when normally you have to buy it by the weight.
The flatfish of the Mediterranean do tend to be smaller and less impressive than their North Atlantic counterparts and clearly at €15 this wasn't going to compare to the (**wanky foodie name dropper alert) turbot we'd tried at Elkano or the even more amazing sole at Ibai in the Basque region, but as I was eating alone, a smaller specimen suited just fine. Oddly enough the best turbot I have ever had in Andalusia was at an altitude of 2000m at La Lonja in the Sierra Nevada, where you really have to suspend disbelief at how fresh and good their seafood is, particularly as I believe their turbot was sourced from Northern Spain too.

I had the turbot cooked a la plancha (on the hot plate), which is my favourite method as you end up with a crispy and tasty skin, something that you don't get if the fish is filleted or served a la sal (in salt). If you are having a big enough fish (750g+, I'd say), then you can have it cooked espalda (as long as its not a flat fish). Espalda means back in Spanish, and this method involves the fish being cut in half along its backbone and cooked butterfly style on the plancha. This means you end up with four crispy/tasty sides (two skin and two flesh). Another cooking method typically used by the chiringuitos is espeto (which means skewered) and then barbecued over wood, but sometimes I find this method leaves the skin tasting a little burnt and the smokiness can detract a little from the purity of taste of the beautiful white flesh.  That said, I do love oilier/darker fishes espeto'ed like the omnipresent sardines. Ahhhh... a moment of reflection, that you know it's pretty good day, when the most difficult decision you need to make is how to have your fish cooked.

This turbot at Los Defines was cooked perfectly, as you won't be able to see below, due to the poor photo.

Fish is normally always served with patatas a lo pobre (poor man's potatoes), and I have to say that these were perhaps the best I've ever had. I always find that the later you eat in the afternoon, the better they are, as a big batch is made in the morning and so by late afternoon they've had more time to absorb the oil, vinegar and stock they are cooked in. You can tell they are going to be good when they're a bit darker in colour too. This was 2 pm though, so still reasonably early, but these were so sweet and so tasty.  I had a water and a coffee to drink and the bill came to €18, which considering I'd consumed a whole turbot was pretty reasonable.

One minor irritant was that the water had come all the way from the Pyrenees. I reflected that if it wasn't for the 6 foot harbour wall, I would be able to see the melting snow cap of the Sierra Nevada from my table. I also then reflected that you know it's a good day when the most irritating thing you experience is the irresponsible sourcing of the water you are drinking.
Los Delfines, I shall return, maybe to have a larger fish, or for the pulpo (octopus), that lots of locals were ordering, and I shall use thy patatas a lo pobre as a bait to snare the blonde into looking at thy concrete wall.

Overall 7/10
Food Value for Money 7/10
Wine Value for Money n/a

Kirei Valeria, Malaga

Kirei is the subject of my very first restaurant review, and it is also the first restaurant in the multiple Michelin starred Kabuki group to come to the city of Malaga. I'm going to postulate too that it must be the first restaurant concept to start it's life as an airport concession (at Madrid Barajas), that due to its success in that format is now being rolled out to "proper" restaurant locations nationwide.  Many concepts and brands have of course made that journey in the opposite direction, and achieved almost unilateral disappointment in my humble experience.

The restaurant is based in the Room Mate Valeria Hotel in a nice airy ground floor room with views of the big wheel in the port.  I opted for the tasting menu and sat at the counter hoping for a kaiseki style experience. Oddly though, the seats were lower than the counter, so I couldn't actually get to see the sushi masters at work.  Also, I am sad to report that the wine list was rather limited and the markups were a little steep by Spanish restaurant standards. By way of example, a bottle of Trompo 2015 was €25 for something available at €10 or so retail. As such, I decided to avoid the wine and opted for a bottle of mineral water. A bottle of Cabreiroa Magma from Galicia was provided which was very pleasant. According to the chef the unique selling point of this water, was that it spends most of its time underground and therefore is less damaged by the sunlight. I could almost see the Sierra Nevada from where I was sitting, so this did prompt me to think that a bottle of Lanjaron may have had a somewhat less damaging journey on its way to the restaurant table.

The first dish to arrive was seaweed, soy and mirin. Apologies for the poor photo quality here, it is something I plan to address both equipment and competence wise as the blog progresses. This was a good start with plenty of umaminess but also an acidic but pleasant tang from the vinegar.

Seaweed, Soy and Mirin. 

The second dish was hamachi with truffle pate (on the left), and scallops with chorizo powder and spring onion. The hamachi was my favourite here, the truffle really complementing the fish. I didn't ask about the provenance of the fish, but given that some of the best quality sustainable red tuna in the world is currently in season just a couple hours around the coast, then it did seem a little odd to be eating something that I suspected to have come from the Pacific Ocean. Still enjoyable though.
The presentation of the scallops was pretty, but the arrangement did mean that some scallops had more powder on than others that resulted in rather uneven seasoning. I'm no sushi/sashimi expert but I think the knife skills were a little rough around the edges.

Hamachi and Scallops

Next up a dim sum in a seafood broth. Really enjoyed the broth, really rich and certainly up there umami wise, with really flavoursome carrot shavings too. The dim sum dough was a bit too thick and chewy to my taste and the filling was lacking flavour. I must disclose though that have been spoiled dim sum wise by too many visits to A. Wong's in London.

Dumpling broth

The next dish was a salmon tartare.  Salmon really isn't my favourite fish, due to having it almost everyday for breakfast on the 6:48 to London for the past 10 years, and it makes even less sense to me to be eating it when you are overlooking the Mediterranean. There was a nice accurate piquancy to the dish though.

Salmon Tartare

This was the best dish of day. I'm still in the honeymoon phase of enjoying the taste of Southern European vegetables, particularly tomatoes, and will probably continue to bore everyone about this for some time. The tomatoes here were no exception, despite playing a minor role in the lamb nigiri, they really packed a punch. Then it was the truffle pate and quail egg - what's not to love with that combination? My favourite aspect though was the rice. It was absolutely spot on. Maybe a bit vinegary for others, but just to my taste. I saw a large plate of nigiri go out to another table that looked awesome, and immediately made a mental note to return for that alone.

Tomato and lamb nigiri, and egg and truffle nigiri 

Next, some nice but unspectacular California rolls. Really good rice again though.

The final savoury dish was a tasty pork bao, with mint, scratchings and daikon. Not the fluffiest bun ever, not as good as Bao in Soho, yada, yada... (oh god, bore-off you utter food snob I hear you say.....)  

Pork Bao

To finish, a cafe con leche and green tea ice cream (that needed more green tea taste), and a biscuit crumble.

Green tea ice cream

That was it, and here is the bill, and few words to say that the service was good, but just a little rushed maybe, as I was done in around 50 minutes or so. That said, I value the food and flavour much more than the service, and I could have asked to slow things down if I wanted so this really wasn't a problem.

The bill

Ok, so I've never been to Japan, I'm no Japanese food expert (certainly not sushi and sashimi wise). In fact the best Japanese food I've ever had was in a little passageway in Clerkenwell in London (oh here he goes again, what an utter name dropping foodie wanker, I hear you say - even louder). Clearly Kirei does not compare to this, or to a Japanese experience, and I say that as someone completely unqualified to make such a comparison.

What I am qualified to comment on though is value for money, and the €40 I spent here represented really good value for the quality that was provided, and I will look forward to returning for some nigiri again soon. As such, Kirei is a most welcome addition to the clutch of Japanese restaurants in and around Malaga. I still just about prefer Oleo, but it replaces Ba at number 2, which I think suffers a little from its position, facing as it does, away from the seaview, and never seems to be very busy.

Here are my very first scores.

Overall 7/10
Food Value for Money 8/10
Wine Value for Money 2/10

So, that's my first review done. In reviewing the original objectives of this blog (see here), and given that I've been locked out of my audible account, it's pretty clear that I've made scant progress on the first three objectives.

The beard is coming on a treat though.

Kirei Valeria, MalagaKirei Valeria, Malaga

Introducing El Chiringuiri

One of my favourite pastimes when I'm in Spain is to spend a long afternoon in a chiringuito, enjoying fabulously fresh seafood, and copious amounts of incredibly good value wine. This is typically followed by assuming a sedentary position on the beach in the late afternoon, thus avoiding both the midday sun, and any associated Noel Coward inspired comparisons to my countrymen.

After 27 continuous years of greasing the wheel of the technology industry, I am delighted to find myself in the position of having an extended break from work. This means I can devote this sudden and disproportionate amount of disposable spare time to indulging in this favourite pastime even more.

Now the world's restaurants have been extensively catalogued by many wonderful bloggers, however there is a dearth of content about chiringuitos. As far as I can tell, TripAdvisor is the only place to go to, and as has been documented elsewhere, it is hardly the most reliable source. So, after many years of restaurant blog consumption, I feel it is my duty to give something back by cataloguing my experiences for others to use as appropriate. So that is what elchiringuiri.com is going to be all about. Chiringuiri (by the way) is a rather shoddy and unimaginative portmanteau of the words chiringuito (i.e. a seafood restaurant on the beach in Spain) and guiri (i.e. a Spanish colloquialism for foreigner).  I'm beginning to regret the name already but after having just forked out £80 for the domain name, there is no going back now.

Another thing I love about Spain is its wine, and more specifically how cheaply you can drink top quality wines in restaurants in Spain. This is due mainly to minimal taxation, and local pricing policies, and as a result its often cheaper to consume wine in restaurant than pay the equivalent retail prices both back in the UK or in Spain. As a Northern Englishman, I consider not receiving value for money as an act of utter sacrilege, so, as a service to like-minded folk, I will also attempt to provide value for money ratings both for the wine and food offerings of each establishment as I go. In addition, I'll rate the whole overall experience too, which includes the food, wine, beverages, service, ambiance, toilets, quality of soft furnishings etc., though I normally find that if the food and wine are good then the rest pale into insignificance. Except the quality of the soft furnishings that is, which for some reason my dining partner insists that we must discuss in great analytical depth on every occasion.   

I'll also be covering some of the other tapas bars, and restaurants I'll be visiting, and may also include the odd musing about what it’s like to live in Spain, and to not have to go to work again for a few months. Apologies in advance if I let the associated smugness seep too directly onto the page.

So, after spending 27 years of hating and avoiding the dreaded "management by objectives", here are my four primary objectives over the next few months:

1. To find the best chiringuito in Malaga/Costa Del Sol/Spain
2. To find the best value bottle of wine in Malaga/Costa Del Sol/Spain
3. To digest Modern Man in Search of a Soul by  C. G. Jung to help me understand the human mind and in turn address a few personal neuroses too 
4. To grow a beard

Clearly one of these objectives is much more complex, inscrutable and important than the others. So, please wish me luck with drinking all that wine.