What to eat in Málaga

In Málaga you eat fish from the beach: a sardine espeto at the chiringuitos of El Palo and Pedregalejo can be had for €2–3, and small fried fish is eaten with the fingers. Sardines are best from May to August, and after the fish you go to a bodega for Málaga's sweet wine from the barrel.

Espeto, and when to eat it

The espetero threads five to seven sardines onto a cane and holds it twenty to thirty centimetres from an olive-wood fire, in an old boat filled with sand, for about six minutes. It is best from May to August: by the old rule sardines are eaten in the months without an R, when they are at their largest and oiliest. It is eaten with the hands, off the bone.

Pescaíto frito

A mix of small fish — anchovies, squid rings, baby cuttlefish and red mullet — rolled in flour and fried in hot oil so the crust stays thin. It is ordered for the whole table on a single plate, eaten with the fingers, and the only accompaniment is lemon.

2 daysWhere these meals fit into the two-day plan:Málaga in 2 days →

What goes with the fish

• Ajoblanco — a cold soup of almonds, garlic and bread, with grapes on top. It is older than tomato gazpacho, since the tomato only reached Spain from the Americas, and is drunk in summer, from a glass as much as from a bowl.
• Boquerones — anchovies, either fried or in vinegar. The people of Málaga are themselves nicknamed boquerones after them.
• Porra antequerana — a thicker version of gazpacho from Antequera, with egg and ham on top. Eaten with a spoon and as filling as a main course.
• Sweet wine — moscatel, pajarete or pedro ximénez, wines of the Málaga designation. Ask for it by name; the glass is small and drunk slowly.

Where and when

• El Palo and Pedregalejo — former fishing villages east of the centre. The chiringuitos here have the lowest espeto prices in the city; nearer the centre and on La Malagueta the same espeto costs more.
• Atarazanas — the city market with a stained-glass window over the entrance; inside are stalls and bars where you eat whatever came in that morning.
• Antigua Casa de Guardia — a bodega on the Alameda Principal since 1840. The wine is drawn straight from the barrel, and the barman chalks your bill on the wooden counter. On Sundays it opens only from 11 to 3.

What not to order

• Espeto in a restaurant with a tablecloth. If it is not grilled on the sand in front of you, it is a grilled sardine rather than an espeto.
• Espeto as the main event from September to April. In the months with an R the sardines are smaller and leaner; pescaíto is the better choice then.