ASADOR GRILL
Any red-blooded lover of good meat will get excited when he sees the name ‘asador’. An asador is a speciality meat restaurant almost exclusively found in the north of Spain, more specifically in the Basque country – although gradually asadores are opening up even on the Mediterranean coasts.
Actually the name is not strictly accurate if it is meant to describe how the meat is cooked. ‘Asar’ is usually translated into English as ‘to roast’, but meat cooked in an asador is always grilled over hot coals or wood. Or perhaps whoever translated ‘roast’ into Spanish erroneously chose the verb asar – ignorant of the fact that oven-roasting of meat is practically unknown here. None of this makes the slightest difference to the quality of the finished product: a piece of meat cooked on the grill or barbeque that is an asador is quite simply the best you will ever get – with the proviso of course that the raw material is of prime quality (how’s that, pun lovers?)
ANDREW LINN AND FRIENDS READY FOR THEIR MEAL AT TABANKO ASADOR
The Casa Navarra on the Fuengirola-Mijas road has been a landmark restaurant for decades, with its typically Basque menu and amazing wine cellar, so it is provident that a hundred metres further up the hill is the new Tabanko Asador. On a 6,000 square metre site and with a terrace overlooking the Mediterranean, the location is perfect – as is the menu. This can only be described as typically Spanish consisting of such classics as Manchego cheese aged in lard, Navarra asparagus, bacalao omelette, cantabrian anchovies and potato salad with melva (small tuna) from Barbate –but using only first class materials. Miguel Palma is boss and chef of the grill, and also takes care of the other Tabanko Asador restaurants, (see below).
AN ASADOR MEAL
But we are here for the meat, and eight of us did serious damage to a couple of steers. Although you can get a regular steak for one person, the typical way to eat in an asador is to order the chuleton de buey, roughly equivalent to a T-bone, that is cut into slices after cooking and placed on the table for everyone to help themselves. In this way you can opt for underdone, crispy or downright bloody. The meat at Asador Tabanko is superb, and as is usual was priced by weight (37 euros/100g) so not expensive. You can have a solomillo of well-hung beef for 19 euros, and an nusual paella made with meat and vegetables for 12 euros per person.
TABANKO ASADOR
Wines are carefully chosen with some little-known names, such as the house wine from La Rioja, La Montesa (16 euros), and Conde San Cristobal Reserva from Ribera del Duero for 25 euros. You can have a good white Rueda for 13 euros.
TabankoAsador, Ctra Fuegirola-Mijas Km 4,2, 29650 Mijas (Málaga). Tel 952590727. www.tabankoasador.com. There are also Tabanko Asadores in Málaga (Pintor Sorolla 47), and Córdoba (c/ de la Luna 1).