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The Wild Asparagus Hunters are Out and About

It´s that time of year. Cars parked in odd places, the solitary person - usually a man, popping up above a bank or from behind an olive tree. The hunters of the wild aparagus are here. The plentiful rain scattered with a day or two of sunshine has brought them out in droves. Some have their route, others instinctively know where to go. They appear, walking back to their cars, with a huge bundle of foot long green spears of asparagus. And off they go, probably not to be seen for another year - or another week if the rain continues. No matter how hard the shoots try and hide the older men hunt them down with stick in hand, to fob off the spiky old growth, and uncover the tender new stems of wild asparagus. Everyone has their favourite way of cooking them but the most common seems to be in a Tortilla - the thick Spanish potato omelette to which you can add anything that comes to hand - or is hunted down. My one or two shorter stem finds don´t come close to the experienced hunters catch. I...

The World’s Smallest Chocolate Factory - Mijas


“Chocolate Factory” we both read the sign at the same time and looked at each other. Eyebrows raised, eyes alight and a nod of agreement and off we trotted in the direction of Mayan Monkey Mijas Chocolate Factory - MMM, the smallest chocolate factory in the world and within our reach in the delightful town of Mijas just inland from the Costa del Sol, Andalucia.

Cocoa butter, Cocoa beans, Cocoa flakes

The queue of people waiting to enter and others leaving the shop doorway with delicious looking choccy ice creams told us we’d found the spot and we weren't the only ones. What interested us more than the ice-creams were the home-made chocolate bars on display and the option of making your own.

Another almost imperceptible nod and we found ourselves donning hair protective caps and heading towards taps running with chocolate. Chocolate on tap!

Chocolate on Tap

In our element we patiently listened to the history of chocolate, eager to get our fingers under the stream of chocolate. Ice creams came and were waved under the stream of plain and milk running chocolate and off they went into the stop and into eager hands.

Out came molds and tough decisions were made whether to make milk or plain chocolate bars which of course necessitated a fingers-under-the-tap-tasting session and how they should be decorated.

MMM's Display of Homemade Choccys

Constantly running chocolate, chocolate on tap what a joy – I asked hubby if we could have our own (he is a plumber!). First we drizzled some milk chocolate over the base of the mold then filled it with plain chocolate, vibrating it to settle it and get rid of any air bubbles and then popped it into the fridge for the longest 20 minutes of my holiday.


And the results were mouth-wateringly divine, melt-in-the-mouth, home-made best ever chocolate bars. Sadly it didn’t last long.

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