ALICANTE INLAND - A LOVE STORY AROUND TRADITIONAL LOCAL FOOD

19 minutes ago
3 min read

Our friend, Howard Goldsmith of Alicante Sunshine Villas , moved from Manchester to just outside the small village of Sax, in inland Alicante, over twenty years ago.

This story is one of the reasons he loves it there and would never return to the UK.

Our elderly (elderly!! I’m 65) neighbours have adopted us as their children. Manolo and Maruka (Maria Eugenia) are 89 and 78, respectively, and they live in an enormous townhouse where she was born, and she won’t sell it; she wants to die there and pass it on to her son and daughter (yes, I was hoping!!).

I have tried to convince her that her son and daughter have a responsibility to make their own lives, and if she sold the house and bought a beautiful ground-floor apartment, she would still be passing on the same value, but it won’t happen.

My wife, Gail loves buying Maruka things, small things like a bouquet of flowers or a brooch or ornamental ducks which are an obsession of Gail’s and she thinks everyone shares the same obsession, it used to be ornamental cows so at least the wrapping paper costs less, and they truly love each other like mother and daughter which is just as well as Gail’s parents haven’t spoken to her for almost two years. It’s such a shame families have problems that they can’t seem to get over.

Maruka makes traditional Spanish dishes for us on occasional weekends as a thank-you, and it’s an excuse for Manolo to down a bottle of wine or two.

Maruka never went to school, but she made the rear of the property into a shop when she was 12 and ran it successfully, though she could neither read nor write. She is amazing. She even organised a local builder to put a hole in the outside wall for a front door for the shop.

On Saturday, she made one of my favourites, Gazpacho Manchego, and it was spectacular. This one had rabbit and liver in it, and she had cut the gazpacho up into tiny pieces.

Fabulous. We brought a particularly good wine for Manolo, some excellent Jamón, and a Galician smoked goat’s cheese, which was so strong we could have whistled and it would have made its way onto the table.

At Christmas, Maruka made a fantastic paella; she has an old-fashioned BBQ in the garage, and the smokiness is perfect. She insists on using pine and almond, and pooh-poohs other types of wood with a look that says, “Some people have no idea”.

Her stories have us hanging on her every word. Manolo occasionally contradicts her, but she wafts a hand in his direction, another of her “some people have no idea” gestures.

She and Manolo were previously married, although they have been together for more than 24 years. They used to meet in secret, and Manolo’s eyes twinkle when he thinks back to those times.

Long may the Maruka, The Gazpacho Manchego Queen, keep us entertained and fed.

You can view other ALICANTE INLAND reviews HERE.

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