Feeling peckish and looking for a lively night out for one, I decided to head south - to Andalucía’s culinary outpost in Torrevieja. Fantastic food at silly prices and guitar-playing gitanos can all be found in El Patio Andaluz, a great way to wind down and have a good time no matter how big or small your party.
Set in a typically southern-style farmhouse, with Andalucian ceramics, old farming tools and fronds of greenery jostling for space on the walls, it is hard to believe that you are not in the heart of the rural south. The dining room’s ceiling is made from dense, intricately-woven vines and lighting is provided by old lanterns, creating a cosy atmosphere in which all the customers are made to feel like one huge family. Even the crockery is reminiscent of this picturesque, rustic part of the country - ceramic wine jugs and soup bowls, and coconut shells for ashtrays. The food is traditionally Andalusian, too, and you can choose from a plethora of home-made starters including gaditana mussels (a typical recipe of Cádiz), seafood soup, salads, caracoles andaluces, frogs’ legs in wine and garlic, a huge variety of salads and gazpacho. Having once spent a month on the south coast and still never getting around to try it, I decided to give the gazpacho a whirl and was not disappointed. The delicious cold soup had all the flavour of home-grown vegetables - tomatoes, onions, cucumbers and peppers with croutons, and whilst I waited for it I was served a basket of fresh bread with the garlickiest ali-oli I have ever tried. Being a huge garlic fan (and obviously with few friends as a result) I tucked in with relish, despite my resolution to pace myself for the actual meal.
For main courses, it was tempting to simply order a pizza as with 19 varieties, including seafood and plenty for vegetarians, the menu was difficult to resist. However, there are also plenty of fish, meat and paella dishes that it would have been a shame not to try, so I decided on the grilled swordfish. This proved to be an excellent choice as the fish was very tender and cooked to perfection, with either boiled potatoes or chips (I had boiled potatoes, which were dressed with herbs and full of flavour) and boiled vegetables - a selection of green beans, carrots, mushrooms, asparagus and artichokes. The main course was so generous that I was pretty stuffed by the time the dessert menu came round, but as it all looked so delectable I ordered strawberries and cream. I was very tempted by the Tarta de Abuela (Grandma’s cake) made with almonds, and the tiramisu, plus there is the entire range of Menorquina ice-cream desserts begging me to order them so I will definitely go again a few times and work my way down the list. I hadn’t bargained on there being quite so much cream with the strawberries, so it beat me in the end, but the fruit was sweet, firm and succulent and there was plenty of it. A glass of house white and a bottle of water later, and the total bill came to just 18.03 euros.
El Patio Andaluz’s delicious food is only half the story, though. Throughout the night, Spanish guitarists play the lively, carefree music of the south, visiting each table at a time to entertain all the guests who egged them on with hand-clapping, foot-stamping, whooping and cheering, and those who knew the words joined in with the singing. The sheer indigenous skill of our two resident gitanos was a pleasure to watch and to hear, and I was serenaded four times (despite the garlic) with well-known Gypsy Kings songs adapted specially for me - or someone they had mistaken me for, anyway. They sang that they would never forget me, that I couldn’t know what they were feeling for me and that they wanted to take me away - although I didn’t really want to be taken away, I was having such a great night that I even rang home so that my partner could hear the music. After the meal, the waiters come round
