Nestled in the bottom of Spain on the Costa de Almería, San José is a quaint beach town an hour away from Almería. We decided to take the hour bus ride and visit this pueblo blanco on the sea. We just happened to be there during lunch time, and found Cervecería El Pescaíto. Here in the Almería region, the tradition of serving a free tapa with an order of a caña or vino still holds true. When arriving at 1:15, a bit early for lunch in Spain (our bus was leaving at 3:00), the establishment had a handful of men who were catching up on the daily gossip and a welcoming decor of blue-checkered tablecloths and fish nets hanging from the ceiling.
While glancing at the list of tapas and seeing that the fresh catches were right behind the counter, we ordered a couple of cañas and immediately ordered some seafood. I ordered the boquerones, or fried anchovies. These boquerones had a lot of meat on them and were a wonderful crispy treat. I also had a salad that reminded me that we are in the Mediterranean. It was a beautiful mixture of cucumbers, tomatoes, and olives drizzled in local olive oil and sea salt.
My husband ordered the sardinas, as he has a love for them. The presentation was an array of color and it seemed like an appetizer at an upscale restaurant. The sardine was grilled perfectly and the meat was flaky and tender. The salad that accompanied his sardinas had cucumber, red pepper, onion, tomato, cod, and mandarin.
Wanting a bit more than just tapas, we wanted to order a media racíon of something. After asking a few questions to the waiter, we ended up ordering the saltones. He highly recommend these and we were not disappointed. These small fish are lightly fried and they are eaten whole. They were served either with patatas or ensalada and we opted for the salad since the other two were so good. These were crispy, muy bueno (as our waiter said), and easy to share.
While eating our saltones, we ordered another caña, thinking that since we ordered a racíon, we would no longer get any free tapas. Wrong. So some mejilliones (mussels) and atún (tuna) were ordered. The tuna was lightly grilled and amazing. It was a perfect way to end the meal paired with another salad. We definitely had our share of veggies and seafood.
Cervecería El Pescaíto was a great lunchtime stop in San José. By the time we were leaving, the locals were spilling out onto the terrace and the kitchen was hopping. Please read more on San José at http://theliveintourist.blogspot.com.es/2014/04/dotw-17-san-jose-provincia-de-almeria.html
I'll bring some more tapas next week!
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