Motados, often called by the diminutive term Montaditos, are a mini-meal in themselves. Take a palm-sized baguette and insert almost any tasty morsel you can imagine – from squid to tortilla, pork fillet to slices of Manchego cheese – and that’s it, the perfect snack! The photo above shows my personal favourite, the elite, the unbeatable montadito de jamon iberico: several slices of Spain’s finest Iberian ham lovingly clasped in slightly warmed bread. And what better accompaniment than a glass of Andalusia’s finest Cruzcampo beer? Heaven.

What would you put in your dream montadito?

Cadiz: surrounded by sea, a city of faded glory conjuring ideas of pirates, bustling streets full of 18th Century traders, and secret assignations in hidden rooms at the top of crumbling staircases. There are kids on scooters with no helmets, white-washed roof tops straight from Morocco, and a regional accent so thick it almost gets stuck on the locals’ palate.

As promised in our Cadiz podcast, we have now uploaded photos of Cadiz, as well as a video blog over at Notesinspanish.com

Tapas Bars in Cadiz: Cumbres Mayors

Terracotta stone floors, wooded ceilings, and legs of ham hanging all over the walls, this is one of the finest tapas bars I have every visited in Spain. As soon as you step through the door a barman finds you a spot at the bar and presents you with a plate of crushed olives while you decide what to eat.

The best thing about eating out in this part of Spain is that you don’t have to buy a huge plate of any one thing. Portions come as Tapas (a small plate), Media Raciones (half a plate), and Raciones (a full plate). So by choosing several Tapas at the ridiculously low price of 1.50 Euros each, you get to try a bit of everything – in our a case fillet of pork with Roquefort sauce and mini roast potatoes, smoked salmon rolled around salmon pate, and Tocino… (more on the last one soon!) A near empty glass promted a ‘No me gusta ver a la gente seca‘ (I hate to see people dry) from the waiter, who quickly refilled our glasses. Heaven.

Cumbres Mayores is at Calle Zorrilla 4, just off the Plaza de Mina (Map)

A good Cadiz Hotel

We stayed in, and highly recommend, the Hotel Las Cortes de Cadiz (Details and Map). A very clean, very friendly 3 star establishment right in the heart of the old town, where each room is named after a famous politician. Internet connectivity in the rooms is excellent if you come with a laptop. Parking however is a bit of a nightmare – speak to the hotel first about getting a place in, and finding, their garage.

First of all, what kind of a name for a drink is Sabex, let alone Sabex Sin? It sounds like some sort of demonic brand of glue. The Sin stands for Sin alcohol, alcohol free, but who is likely to walk into a working man’s bar in Cadiz (where this photo was taken) and order a non-alcoholic Acorn (Bellota), Hazelnut (Avellana) or Peach (Melocotón) liquor?!

At least the bottle on the right sounds pretty appealing: Beso Extremeño, an Extremaduran Kiss – far more interesting that the Glaswegian variety!

Counting the Costa – Buy to let Brits in trouble on the coast (thanks Omeyas for the link)

Guirilandia reflects on Catalans and Jews

BBC: Expats a political force in Spain (comment in the forum. More at The Big Chorizo and The Bad Rash).

Loads of Spanish video blogging going on in the forum, keep them coming, the competition is still running!

I received a message from our forum asking if I would post a request for help finding Madeleine McCann, abducted in the Algarve recently. This is obviously genuine and who knows, perhaps somehow this can help. Full information and numbers to call are available via this article here at sky news.

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It’s been a while since the last Notes from Spain podcast, and Marina and I have spent the last few days in Andalusia remedying that, preparing some great podcasts for the coming weeks. First up is a real Notes from Spain chat in the style of the very first podcasts – and it’s hot off the press, recorded half an hour ago beneath the palms in a warm lively plaza in the heart of old Cadiz. We have also uploaded photos, and Cadiz tapas bar and hotel recommendations.

Yours,

El niño de Oxford

Cast your minds back a couple of months and you may remember that the "winner” of the tongue-in-cheek Notes from Spain Spanish celebrity top 10 was our old friend and favourite gypsy warbler, Isabel Pantoja.

Since then, she’s been bubbling around in the news on a regular basis, and still appearing in most magazines each week (usually followed around in airports it seems where she can’t escape the camera crews so easily), but today seems like an appropriate time to give an update on her turbulent life of late given that there has been some "breaking news” (as the BBC like to call even minor events these days).

You’ll remember that Isabel is in a spot of bother because her boyfriend, Julian Muñoz (the former mayor of Marbella), is in prison at the moment for dodgy-dealings whilst in office, and the extent of these deals are being investigated, reaching as far as Isabel herself. Meanwhile, the woman at the centre of the row refuses to cut her losses and publicly walk away from the relationship (although she’s said to have only visited him twice in the whole time he’s been behind bars) and she’s pegged her colours to the line, and is definitely "standing by her man” it would seem (in fact, if Dolly Parton hadn’t beat her to it, Isabel could well have had a chartbuster on her hands with that song!).

The big news this week is that Isabel has been called in for questioning as part of the ongoing Operation Malaya, as the investigation is known.

Read the rest of this entry »

South of Watford has filled an important gap in Wikipedia, providing an interesting history lesson.

Rod wonders why he feels more at home in Spain than at home in the UK.

The Guardian takes us from Ajo to Zamora.

Our sponsors, holidaysinspain.com are running a photo competition via Flickr with big hotel discounts for entrants and winners.

Dan needs help planning the perfect 30 day trip to Spain in the forums.

Amy reminds me of the terrible nervous tension one feels when on the verge of leaving everything behind for a new life in Spain. Pop over and wish her luck!

Question: do you find the weekly link round-up interesting/useful?

OOh, NFS has made it onto the Guardian Abroad lists, so if anyone has a minute to click on the box below (or follow this link) and and say something about NFS over there (“Review this blog”), that would be great!

Now this is much much more like it! Enough of all those strange-looking seafood tapas, give me a good old croqueta any day! Croquetas are made of a thick bechamel usually containing flecks of serrano ham (though chicken, fish and meat croquetas are also common), coated in breadcrumbs and deep fried. They are a meal in themselves (if you eat enough of them of course), and though they are rarely handed over for free with drinks, a plate of half a dozen will cost around 7 to 10 euros in restaurants and bars.

Like many Spanish dishes, the croqueta was born out of necessity, when Spain was suffering one of many periods of hunger and resourceful cooks had to invent good food from very basic raw materials. So, here we have flour, milk, breadcrumbs, scraps of ham, and little else, all put together to wonderful effect. Stuck on a desert island with only one choice of Spanish tapas, the Croqueta would get my vote every time… which tapas would you pick?