El Machi

We are El Machi, the oldest seafood tavern in Santander. We owe our name to the steamship 'Cabo Machichaco', which exploded in front of Calderón de la Barca in 1893. Its former owner served vermouth and dispensed train tickets through the small window that faces the street, like a counter - which is still there, next to a sign that says "attention to the train" -.

We recovered the premises in 2009 and went shopping at the sea. A decade later we continue to get up early every day to go to the Santander fish market and bid at the auction for the best fish of the day. We have become friends with the brave sailors who make us Cantabrians the ones who eat the most fish in Spain. We display it in our fish display next to a bed of ice and we bake it in the oven with those traditional Santander recipes.

You will know us by our rice dishes, our traditional recipes and our squid tails. We have a spectacular potato omelette and the author of this wonder is Almudena. And if not, tell it to your legion of fans who punctually have a skewer for breakfast every morning. We use Valderredible potatoes, we cut them one by one by hand, mix them with Anero eco egg and fry them with olive oil. We only make 10 each morning although, yes, we can prepare one to order and to take away.

We have organic beef from Cantabria, from the first cooperative of organic farmers, Siete Valles de Montaña. We make the scorpionfish pie ourselves (and look how much this fish has bones!) and the Russian salad. And fresh fish, in three ways: fried, grilled or baked. Hake, rockfish, anglerfish, sea bass, St. Martin's, rays, sea bass, sea bream, bullfish, sole, turbot... But not always or every day because that's what the sea has: there are wonderful days and others in which almost nothing is caught.

Ask about Gloria's vermouth and order some barnacles from the Ubiarco area. We bought them from a shellfish harvester at the Santander fish market, champion of underwater fishing. Get some homemade Orly prawns and some Cantabrian squid tails on the terrace we have on Calderón de la Barca street. Hesitate as much as you want at the bar about what pincho to eat and don't forget the gilda, the must of all appetizers.

Our squid are from the Cantabrian Sea as we told Juan Pablo Carpintero on the TVE program 'Aqui en la tierra'. We get them at the Santander fish market; fresher, impossible. We make them rabas, flour them with organic stone mill flour and fry them in olive oil. We believe that this is the trick for our customers to tell us that they are one of the best in Santander. The lemon thing is for taste and here we take advantage of the fifth amendment. And you? Are you a fan of rabas with lemon or without lemon?