Granada is known to strongly advocate the tapas culture and it is said that for every alcoholic drink you order, it is customary that you get a free tapa.
Well, we didn’t seem to get any free tapa with our drinks in La Hacienda Tapas on Plaza Nueva (translation: New Square but actually the oldest square in Granada), unlike when Blondine and I were in Verona, Italy, on Piazza Bra, we had loads of free aperitivos that after our second drink our stuffed bellies surrendered and opted to skip dinner totally. Plaza Nueva by the way is located at the foot of the Alhambra in Albayzin and is considered by many, in terms of ‘going out’ as the center of Granada. It’s very lively here in the evenings. A must stop indeed.
Anyhow, Dutchman and I were still full from our late afternoon snack in Plaza de Bib-Rambla so to go with our drinks I decided to just order a plate of Jamon Iberico otherwise known as Pata Negra. It’s about time I try the dried cured ham. The waitress gave me two options, having the ham on top of the bread with the tomato or having the ham separately from the bread and tomato. I decided to go for the latter. No regrets, we finished the plate. 5 stars out of 5!
For the connoisseurs, there are four types of Jamon Iberico namely:
(1) Jamon Iberico de Bellota (the finest, acorn diet)
(2) Jamon Iberico de Recebo (mix acorn and cereal diet)
(3) Jamon Iberico de Campo (free range cereal diet)
(4) Jamon Iberico de Cebo or plainly called Jamon Iberico (commercially reared cereal diet)
One of my secret goals in this Andalusia holiday was to go to Trevelez, a little village in the scenic Las Alpujarras, Sierra Nevada, known for its air-cured hams. Cured ham is an Andalusian specialty and based on my research, there are only three places in Andalusia that produces the best hams:
(1) Jabugo in Huelva
(2) Valle de los Pedroches in Cordoba
(3) Trevelez in Granada (Blondine’s mom who lives in Spain highly recommended this)
Now, both Huelva and Cordoba provinces are too far from Malaga while Granada on the other hand is nearer (approx 220 kilometers), however, Trevelez, a little village with only less than a thousand in population, sits in a highly remote area at the crest of the Sierra Nevada Mountains. With our busy road trip agenda and knowing that the Dutchman will beg off which means I will have to brave through the narrow zigzagged mountain drive alone… well, let’s just say that, helaas, I never made it there =(
We can’t have everything in life, right. C’est la vie. Asà es la vida.
Next on the road trip agenda: Ronda
Travel Period: August 2010
Destination: Granada (Andalucia), Spain
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Happy Travels! Enjoy Life =)