Nerja - Thai and Tapas

Deborah made a point to inform our Thai apartment owner Nuttee that we were big fans of Thai cuisine, and in doing so managed to secure some culinary education. A few days after dropping the hints we went grocery shopping with Nuttee to acquire the necessary ingredients for Yom Yum Pla fish soup and Pad Tai (Nuttee's spelling). Back at the apartment Nuttee and Deborah did their magic in the kitchen – with Deborah taking notes – and later Frans joined us for a delectable meal. Deborah's new-found knowledge of Thai cooking will reap rewards for years to come.

More recently we joined Frans and Nuttee again for a Tapas crawl. Tapas, of course, are small portions of appetizer-like dishes served in bars. The tapas can be anything from seafood to pasta salads to rice and veggies to meat-filled pastries. Most are on display in glass cases on the bar. It's a very Spanish thing to go from bar to bar sampling tapas and having drinks. The nice thing about many of the bars in Nerja is that you get a free tapas with each drink. And Frans and Nuttee know all the best places. We hit four different bars, but Deborah and I switched from beer and wine to fruit juice after the first. Nuttee drank nothing but fruit juice. Frans managed to down a glass of red wine at each stop, although he nevertheless always managed to correctly navigate us to the next bar.

Tapas are available most of the day, which gives another eating option to those of us from non-Mediterranean countries who don't want to wait until 9 or 10 at night, or later, to eat dinner like the Spanish do. Of course, thanks to our apartment kitchen we don't have to rely on restaurants anyway – not even for Thai food now.

Nuttee and Deborah in the kitchen.