{"id":1924,"date":"2017-07-22T21:30:25","date_gmt":"2017-07-22T20:30:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.fotocycle.dk\/paws\/?page_id=1924"},"modified":"2017-07-23T06:53:25","modified_gmt":"2017-07-23T05:53:25","slug":"week-28-vegan-tapeo-in-alicante-and-a-day-on-tabarca","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"http:\/\/www.fotocycle.dk\/paws\/?page_id=1924","title":{"rendered":"Week 28: vegan tapeo in Alicante and a day on Tabarca"},"content":{"rendered":"

This week’s blog is very much about food, because the two highlights of the week were a vegan tapeo (tapas crawl) with my daughter on Friday afternoon, and a trip to Tabarca with the photo club on Saturday, the highlight of which was a lunch consisting of a caldero tabarquino<\/em>, a delicious mix of seafood and paella for which the island is known. But of course there was also the usual walking with Cheeta and cycling in the mountains.<\/p>\n

28_1<\/strong>
\nAnd I start with a couple of dog walk pictures. One of the orange cats had been sunning himself on the sidewalk while waiting for my food delivery but then Cheeta got too close for comfort:
\n\"DSF3476\"<\/p>\n

28_2<\/strong>
\nLight and shadow:
\n\"R002198\"<\/p>\n

28_3<\/strong>
\nMore morning light on my street:
\n\"DSF3477\"<\/p>\n

28_4<\/strong>
\nMy late mother’s miracle cactus bloomed again during the week:
\n\"R002197\"<\/p>\n

28_5<\/strong>
\nOn Sunday, on my way home from the bike ride, I stopped by a new outdoor food market in El Campello, a few km from our place. It is held on a parking lot every Thursday and Sunday:
\n\"R002195\"<\/p>\n

28_6<\/strong>
\nMuch of what is on offer is locally grown, inexpensive and of very high quality:
\n\"R002190\"<\/p>\n

28_7<\/strong>
\n\"R002194\"<\/p>\n

28_8<\/strong>
\nBut it is not all veg:
\n\"R002193\"<\/p>\n

28_9<\/strong>
\nLater in the week, at the office, I had a coffee with a Lithuanian ex-colleague, Egle, who now works for the EU fisheries agency in Vigo, at the opposite corner of Spain. She was back in Alicante for a few days and came to the office to meet old friends:
\n\"R002196\"<\/p>\n

28_10<\/strong>
\nOn Friday afternoon, I took a half day off to go to a very special vegan event with my daughter. Seven bars\/restaurants in the centre of Alicante put on a vegan tapeo Thursday through Saturday. A couple of them are vegetarian or vegan anyway, but the majority are not. However, all committed to having at least two vegan tapas on their menu during those three days, and so Monica and I went out to explore. We started at a place called Farmers:
\n\"DSF3484\"<\/p>\n

28_11<\/strong>
\nWhile waiting for our vegan sandwiches, I photographed the napkin holder on our table. Who says you cannot take pictures of mundane items?
\n\"DSF3480\"<\/p>\n

28_12<\/strong>
\nThis was our first tapa–a delicious vegan sandwich that provided a good base in our stomachs for the lighter tapas (and beer) that was to follow:
\n\"DSF3481\"<\/p>\n

28_13<\/strong>
\nThe crew at Farmers. A very nice place to which I plan to return:
\n\"DSF3485\"<\/p>\n

28_14<\/strong>
\nOur next stop was a Basque bar called El Baserri del Pirata, which turned out to be a revelation. Not a vegetarian place, but nice draught beer and an extremely friendly bartender set the stage for a pleasant visit:
\n\"DSF3486\"<\/p>\n

28_15<\/strong>
\nThe menu had several interesting-sounding fish and meat dishes, and I loved the decor:
\n\"DSF3488\"<\/p>\n

28_16<\/strong>
\nThe wine selection was good too, and I cannot but applaud their taste in music:
\n\"DSF3487\"<\/p>\n

28_17<\/strong>
\nMonica liked it too:
\n\"DSF3489\"<\/p>\n

28_18<\/strong>
\nAnd then the food came. First, a delicious aubergine, tempura style:
\n\"DSF3490\"<\/p>\n

28_19<\/strong>
\nFollowed by croquetas<\/em>:
\n\"DSF3491\"<\/p>\n

28_20<\/strong>
\nMonica has acquired the unfortunate habit of smoking (fortunately not very much), so at one point she went outside and this guy was conversing with her under Dad’s watchful eye:
\n\"DSF3492\"<\/p>\n

28_21<\/strong>
\nEven the toilet sign at El Baserri del Pirata was a treat:
\n\"DSF3493\"<\/p>\n

28_22<\/strong>
\nThen we moved on to a place called La Cucaracha. I have often passed it but never been inside. It was very crowded; the vegan tapeo was clearly a roaring success:
\n\"DSF3494\"<\/p>\n

28_23<\/strong>
\nThe tapeo organisers encouraged the guests to photograph the dishes and post them on Facebook. Monica happily obliged:
\n\"DSF3501\"<\/p>\n

28_24<\/strong>
\nThe first tapa at La Cucaracha, a kind of ratatuille (pisto<\/em> in local parlance):
\n\"DSF3496\"<\/p>\n

28_25<\/strong>
\nVegan pinchos<\/em> at La Cucaracha:
\n\"DSF3497\"<\/p>\n

28_26<\/strong>
\nThe third tapa at La Cucaracha, aubergine in a delicious garlic sauce:
\n\"DSF3500\"<\/p>\n

28_27<\/strong>
\nBack home, at our local bakery, a sign encouraging customers to buy croissants and napolitanas and the like:
\n\"R002202\"<\/p>\n

28_28<\/strong>
\nOn Saturday, the photography club at the office, Lightbox, took the boat from Santa Pola to the island of Tabarca, a very special place. It was settled in the 18th century and was originally intended to be a military installation to protect Alicante from North African pirates. Today it has around 100 inhabitants, but on a summer Saturday, there are at least ten times as many people on the island. This is the harbour. In the background a boat from Alicante or Santa Pola is arriving, and Santa Pola is visible in the far distance:
\n\"R002210\"<\/p>\n

28_29<\/strong>
\nThis is the main beach of Tabarca. The building on the left houses the island’s museum, the police station, the rescue service and last but not least, public toilets. In the distance is an old lighthouse and some more remnants of the original military installations:
\n\"R002214\"<\/p>\n

28_30<\/strong>
\nAfter walking around and taking pictures for a couple of hours, the tired and hungry photographers needed a hearty lunch. The surroundings and the view were exquisite:
\n\"R002230\"<\/p>\n

28_31<\/strong>
\nAs was the food. This is one part of the caldero tabarquino<\/em>, the signature dish of Tabarca:
\n\"R002242\"<\/p>\n

28_32<\/strong>
\nThe second half of the caldero is a delicious fish in a sauce with potatoes. It is safe to say that nobody went hungry:
\n\"R002244\"<\/p>\n

28_33<\/strong>
\nI came home just in time to catch Monica on her way out to party with friends in downtown Alicante, where the Pride festival was taking place:
\n\"R002253\"<\/p>\n

And this was another week. There is a gallery of photos from the day on Tabarca here<\/a>, and a small collection of infrared Tabarca photos here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This week’s blog is very much about food, because the two highlights of the week were a vegan tapeo (tapas crawl) with my daughter on Friday afternoon, and a trip to Tabarca with the photo club on Saturday, the highlight of which was a lunch consisting of a caldero tabarquino, a delicious mix of seafood […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":1779,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.fotocycle.dk\/paws\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1924"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.fotocycle.dk\/paws\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.fotocycle.dk\/paws\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.fotocycle.dk\/paws\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.fotocycle.dk\/paws\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1924"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"http:\/\/www.fotocycle.dk\/paws\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1924\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1930,"href":"http:\/\/www.fotocycle.dk\/paws\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1924\/revisions\/1930"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.fotocycle.dk\/paws\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1779"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.fotocycle.dk\/paws\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1924"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}