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PIZZA? In Los Gallardos? Are we mad? Has the world lost all coherence?

Los Gallardos is a rich village. A smart village. A clean village, and an orderly one. But it is not the cuisine centre of the world,  it is a village where peanut butter is viewed as suspicious foreign muck. Pizza is something that -like sushi- is fine when one is abroad -say, Turre- but not to be considered when decent, local food such as sesos or tripas a la anchoa are at hand.

Yet LG’s latest innovative restaurant, Pizzeria Sam’z, is taking the place by storm.

In part, this is because of the high altitude chimney which belches the rich stench of cooking pizza dough from the traditional Italian gas pizza oven over the village. Nobody who passes by the village can fail to be attracted by the smell. It is rumoured that people passing by on the motorway with the window open get off at exit 525 to double back to trace the smell and purchase a fresh pizza.

The chef is a young lad called Fran, who doubles in his spare time as one of the city councillors and can be found most mornings in the townhall dispensing advice and paperwork. In front is a smart lad called Oliver, and another efficient fellow called Afonso. Oliver speaks 5 languages, including Serbo-Croat. Crikey.

The main menu is a model of efficiency. Some 8 basic pizzas are there, encompassing the entire range of human desire. For those who wish more, additional ingredients can be added or removed. Prices range from 7 to 9 euros.

If you decide to take away your pizza, if you order two, you get a free bottle of pop – or beer. Mmmmmm…. beer!

Mssrs Ben & Jerry provide the puddings.

Fran also makes what are possibly the best homemade burgers in the Levante. Huge. Crisp. Tasty. Made to order and fresh. Cheese optional.

Pizzas are big, fresh and made to order. You go in, say “I want a pizza with [xxx ingredients]” and a few minutes later a fresh one is delivered. Simple!

A TV will provide football on request (Canal +) and lots of beer -including John Smith’s- is on tap. Not many tapas, but you get some delicious mini-pizza tapas with your beer or wine, which go down a treat.

A smart restaurant inside allows you to eat there, with comfy tables. A patio upstairs will open soon.

Weekends it’s packed. We went on a Wednesday and it was packed. Mainly locals, 99% Spaniards. A stream of people entering and leaving with takeaway pizzas that put me in mind of a trail of ants. Crikey.

Pizzeria Sam’z.
C/ Mayor 41, Los Gallardos
(Main street, past the doctors house on the main entrance to Los Gallardos up towards the Unicaja and townhall)
950398981

Closed Mondays

In my youth, Bar Juventud was the “other bar”. As people who lived on the “Crespo” side of the street, going into Juventud was akin to a Madrid supporter sneaking into a Barça pub. Only to be attempted wearing a large hat when noone was around. Which was a pity as it always had better tapas.

Then we grew up and rarely visited Los Gallardos, as we lived out in the sticks and once we were given a moped LG was “too rural” for our newly discovered expensive tastes. But Juventud still had the best tapas in the Levante. And it’s not just me – the director of the RTV-A (admittedly from Los Gallardos) thought much the same. (He also said the same about the old La Rueda – the perils of being related to the families of two different bars, no doubt).

Fastforward twenty years to 2009, when an Uruguayan named Eduardo and his wife took the place over. Eduardo started to run summer BBQ’s, once a week. Not for long, but it became famous and full. After all, the man is a master of the Parriallada. Despite his apparant OCD which leads him to wash his hands often (a good sign in both chefs and surgeons).

Eduardo has stopped the outdoor Parrialladas for the winter – despite the small door and narrow space for clients, Jueventud boasts a large exterior patio – but upon a smile, a wink and a 24 hour reservation will do one. As we discovered tonight.

The menu was simple. An ensalada de huerta, lots of tomatos. Couple of bottles of wine that had -how to put it?- been too close to the BBQ to be considered vintage but were still quaffable. Pan, with lots of ajo. Some homemade chimicurri. The best jacket potato I’ve had all year – crisp yet soft and tasty. And either secreto iberico or ternera – entrecote. You can have it well done, or very well done.Coffee, Orujo and a couple of Mr J’s “homemade” cigars for pudding. Ironically the cigars also seem to be from Uruguay.

The BBQ consists of a bonfire of ancient olive wood, coals from which are heaped over, under, and alongside, the meat. So rare doesn’t appear to be an option.

Flippin delicious. If you don’t like food like this, ‘eff off back to McDonalds. The daily tapas are good, too.

The aquarium in Roquetas is to close due to a lack of cash.

Full story – Roquetas Aquarium to close.

While trying to open an image of a €500 note for photoshopping…

“This application does not permit the modification of currency images unless authorised”

screamed a large flashing message in the middle of the screen.

“Please contact the appropriate authorities for permission to continue”

Yeah, right. I’m going to click on the button that links me to the US secret service for permission to photoshop a crummy image.

Nothing happened when we copied and pasted, so we did it that way. Slowed us down by about 20 secs.

It’s not even as if my printer was that good….. hmm?

I opened up my email box this am to find an invitation to trial the new beta version of a product from Google called “Wave”.

Google wave is, according to the blurb:

Google Wave is an online communication and collaboration tool that makes real-time interactions more seamless — in one place, you can communicate and collaborate using richly formatted text, photos, videos, maps, and more.

A wave is a conversation with multiple participants — participants are people added to a wave to discuss and collaborate on its content. Participants can reply any time and anywhere within a wave, and they can edit content and add more participants as a wave develops. It’s also possible to rewind waves with the playback functionality, to see what happened, and when.

Looks very nice and I felt proud at having been selected.

Trouble is – I don’t know anyone else who’s been invited, and I’m not allowed to invite anyone. And it’s frigging useless unless two people are involved, as its a communication tool.

It’s like being the very first person to signup to Facebook. :s

Rumours reach me of a disturbance Friday evening in Super Turre.

It appears three men (Rumanians were mentioned, although no-one seems 100% sure) were spotted helping themselves to goods. Quite blatently.

Two of the lads (Luis the butcher and Enrique) went over to remonstrate. Ended up with Luis’s head pushed through some shelving as the crooks made their getaway.

Nothing serious (black eye and a story) but does go to show that you need to be on your toes when dealing with shoplifters. Super Turre reckons shop lifting is up a heck of a lot on last year.

430 people have lost land in Almeria so far to the AVE line. Fomento has been issuing expropriation orders since December last year, and construction has started.

God bless that 1954 law that means that construction can start before having to wait for an independent review of the expropriation of that poor peasent’s land.

And so far the only bit that is fixed is Sorbas, Los Gallardos, Bedar and Vera. Great.

What we don’t know -because we, the people who pay for these hair brained schemes (ie, tax payers)- is where the line goes either side.

Will it go to the centre of Almeria, or does it end in Nijar’s new “dry port”? Will it continue to Granada before the underground rail tunnel to the centre of Almeria is finished?

We know it goes on the other side to Murcia, but does it stop in Lorca? Cartagena? Which side of Huercal Overa does it go? In fact, what happens to the line after Vera? Why is the line being built here without the route being published on either side? Oh, yes, it’s because of the Llano Central and the Cabrera tunnel.

God, I’m sick of these evasions and lies. Just come out with it and say it: YOU ARE A CITIZEN, SHUT UP, WE’RE DECIDING ALONG WITH LOCAL RICH PEOPLE WHO WILL F**K YOU OVER IF POSSIBLE.

Public consultation? Effeing joke setup to get cash out of the EU.

The twenty people arrested yesterday in El Ejido’s corruption sting by a Madrid judge -investigation ongoing since 2007, it seems- all spent a cosy night together in jail.

They were arrested in El Ejido, Seville and Madrid – and all seem to be family. Basically, it’s the:

-Mayor (Juan Enciso, the man who bankrupted El Ejido), his wife and daughter;

-José Aléman, the Interventor Municipal, (city auditor), and his wife (they got married in the Madrid Ritz in what La Voz calls a “glam wedding”), José’s brother and wife;

-Jesús Aragón, boss of several companies

-Ambrioso Cuevas, boss of several companies, his best friend Juan Antonio Galán Eslava, Juan’s wife and his daughter;

-José Amate Rueda, ex boss of Elsur (now boss of other municipal companies) with his wife along his son, two daughters and their husbands.

The scam, which El País says netted around 150 million euros over the last six years seems to be paying municipal funds for false contracts and pocketing the cash. Nice and neat. Codeword is: Operacion Poniente.

The PAL have been thrown out of the Diputación (county council) after the PSOE broke the coalition they had with them. Much shock, horror and the usual hand wringing from all sides.

About 60 National Police sealed off the townhall, twenty homes and 12 companies yesterday, while investigators from Madrid, accompanied by tax inspectors, seized documents and computers. Everything is being shipped to Madrid on orders of the Judge. Wire taps on people’s phones have been ongoing most of the year it seems, the investigation started in early 2007. This could roll on for years, although I expect Enciso will be out back running the place in a few days – he’s been running El Ejido since 1991 and the Spanish have a relaxed attitude towards corrupt public officials (the attitude isn’t so much why did he do it?, rather bloody idiot got careless).

Enciso, despite having stellar election results every year, is Not Liked – socialist newspapers across the board are unanimous in remembering him as a “brute – even ill educated” (El País). Who also remember how in El Ejido’s race riots he “ecohed the racist and xenophobic remarks by white farm owners in the area”.

I did enjoy this opinion quote in La Voz: Enciso, possibly with his head in his hands, must be remembering when he was no more than a simple young reseller of second rate fruit and veg.

Or this one: Municipal cleaners outside [the townhall] did not know if they were to sweep up the cigarette butts or the footsteps of fear marked on the pavement outside.

I’m told several other nearby cities had a marathon shredding of paperwork session last night….

After a very public threat to pull out of Granada airport if the Ryanair Revolutionary Tax wasn’t paid by the local town and businesses (the press release mentions changing to the much cheaper “Granada West”, which is actually Jaén airport – about three hours by coach) the Diputacíon de Granada has quietly admitted that an “arrangement” will be found.

Basically, Ryanair wants someone else to pay the landing fees at Granada airport. If not, they’ll go to Jaen. This someone will be the local Diputacion, or townhall, or some government body – ie, you and me via taxes.

Someone appears to have caved in, although details are -as you can imagine- hard to find. All we know is that Ryanair brings 450,000 (usually scruffy) tourists in a year to Granada, and the local chamber of commerce doesn’t want them to leave.

Eeeeyup.

So they finally caught up to Enciso. El Ejido townhall has been closed on the orders of an investigating judge and 20 staff members -including the mayor, Juan Enciso, and the councillor for urban planning- lead away in chains.

No doubt they’ll be back by Thursday, but here’s the latest:

http://www.thereader.es/en/almeria-news-stories/949-police-swoop-on-el-ejido-council.html