Taste something
There is a wide selection of fish, all of which is fresh and the best is grilled (a la parilla). When you see a chirinqito (beach restaurant), see if they have a fire going outside. If so, pick a fish from the display case and go for it!
Be sure to try sardines (usually "espetos", meaning on a skewer), bream (dorada), turbot (rodaballo) and of course shrimp, crawfish and mussels (lagostinos, gambones, mejillones). Don´t know how to eat fish? Don't worry, the fish will be deboned and filleted in front of you, and you'll get a clean fillet on your plate. This service is common here and you'll find it even on the beach or in a bistro.
Tapas is not just a food, it's a concept. A fabulous concept.
Instead of one big portion, you can try several different mini dishes or you can go from one pub to another and always have something small. Apart from the typical tapas, each place has some "their" special.
Olive oil is a typical local product. Each area has several oil producers, many small ones selling 'from the yard', the larger ones having their own representation in the shops. The province of Jaén, for example, produces more olive oil each year than Italy and Greece combined. If you take a trip there, olive groves stretch from horizon to horizon and you can smell the olives in the air. Our favourite oil is Oro Bailén. Not because it's the best in the world (as evidenced by dozens of awards), but mainly because it doesn't taste bitter at the end.
Like everywhere in the south, every restaurant and bar will bring you a bowl of olives to whet your appetite, or bread and olive oil. Taste, try adding a little salt or honey to the oil. The best combination ever is oil with black salt.
Spanish ham, jamón (or chamón) is famous and the more you taste it, the sooner you will fall for it.
There are four levels of quality, and you dig deeper into your wallet accordingly.
Rum and sugar cane, this combination is best explored in Motril.
The Sugar Cane Museum isn't boring at all - once the manager realised we were really interested, we were stuck there for two hours and there would still be plenty to ask. You'll learn, among other things, where the cork oaks have gone, why rum is no longer made here, and what kind of fruit that chirimoyo is. And you can try it to see if it remembers the Czech word "homole" :-)
And where to taste rum? We recommend visiting the Ron Montero tasting, you can book online.
Aniseed brandy is a traditional drink to finish a meal. If you want not only to taste it but also to see how it is made, head to the small town of Rute. The locals have built a business on tourists, so you'll find museums of sugar, ham (not worth seeing), chocolate and aniseed.
Kids will love the sugar creations - models of famous buildings, a chocolate nativity scene and figures from the movies.
Churros are a traditional delicacy made from battered dough and eaten for breakfast by locals. They dip it in chocolate (it's more like cocoa) or coffee. We found it most useful to smear them with another local delicacy, sugar cane syrup (miel de caña).
Meat...or What to choose for dinner?
Make no mistake, this is not a butcher shop shot, this is a restaurant menu. If you order a beef steak, they either bring it to you to show you or you go to the display case to choose.
The beef (vaca, ternera) here is excellent and aged beef is quite common in shops and restaurants. Whether you want a sirloin (solomillo) or a chop (chuletón), everything will taste delicious.