FoodNet

The gourmet's guide to Europe

1903

Page 163

Presented as published in 1903. Historical recipes may not meet modern food-safety standards. Cook from the modern interpretation, not the original instructions.
The junction of the lines to Seville, Granada, and Algeceiras is Bobadilla, and there all trains wait for half-an-hour that the passengers may feed. The meal is quite a good sample of Spanish cookery, and it is fortunate that this is the case, for English travellers coming from Gibraltar generally have their first ex- perience here of the Spanish cuisine. Soup or eggs, according to the time of day, an entree, a joint, and fish form the menu of the usual meal. I kept a note 296 The Gourmet's Guide to Europe of a meal I ate at this railway buffet, and find that an omelette, one of the light ones, stewed beef and chick- beans, a ragout of veal, fish fried in butter, and cheese were the dishes I was given. The garlic I thought had been rubbed in with too heavy a hand, but other- wise the meal was excellent. A very beautiful Anda- lusian used to be the presiding Hebe at the bar, but this pleasant sight to travellers’ eyes has now vanished. Probably the pretty lady has married and retired. Granada The great delicacy of Granada are the Traveles hams, chestnut-fed and snow-cured. They are ob- tainable only in the mountain town of Traveles, near Granada, and the pig-breeders are so jealous of possible imitations that every genuine ham is branded with the corporation stamp of the town. Grilled trout from the adjacent river Darro are delightful eating, and the flavour of the small wild strawberries from the Alhambra gardens is as pleasant as those of the Alps. The Alhambra Palace Hotel, which is quite close to the Alhambra, is the newest hotel in Granada, and The Alhambra is said to be up to date in its cookery. Palace Xt is owned by a large landed proprietor of the province, the Duque de San Pedro, and it was opened by King Alfonso on New Year’s Day 1910. The Washington Irving and the Siete Suelos Hotels, the two houses always patronised by the British and Washington Americans en voyage , before the Al- Irving hambra Palace Hotel was built, are opposite to each other near the Alhambra, and are both under the same management. The cookery at these hotels is sometimes quite good, for Spain ; sometimes it is not. When I last stayed at the Washington Irving a decade ago the two hotels were in one of Spain 297 their indifferent cooking states. Now I am told both hotels are catering very well for their visitors, stimu- lated, no doubt, by the rivalry of the new hotel. Don Jose Nunoz, the proprietor of the Washington Irving and the Siete Suelos, is a great authority on ibex shooting, and is also a notable gourmet, and any one who has the pleasure of carrying an introduction to him will learn of all the sporting possibilities of the country, and also of all the local plats worth tasting. The cookery of the Siete Suelos is considered to be more distinctivelv Spanish than . that or its neighbour. Jerez