LANCASHIRE EVENING TELEGRAPH

CASA TAPAS
BACUP ROAD, RAWTENSTALL

For a second I was back eating around the harbour at Cuidadella on Menorca � the crema catalana I was enjoying was that good.
A cross between a creme caramel and a cr�me brulee, the sweet always served in a round earthenware dish � smacks of the real Spain. And it was the perfect finale to delicious concoction of coasta cuisine.
Casa Tapas sits in the same street where already there are two excellent Indian restaurants and the renowned Italian eating-house Nino�s.
At Casa Tapas my only warning is be careful not to over order because while the prices are a little higher than other Tapas bars the portions are proportionally larger too.
We shared four dishes. My favourite a sizzlingly hot plate of prawns and chillies in olive oil; a dish of richly flavoured chunks of lamb cooked in a thick red wine and gravy sauce; a marinated chicken kebabs with salad and a first for me patatas a la pobre. Roughly translated potatoes for the poor! Thinly sliced potatoes were laid over a bed of finely sliced onions. The dish was topped with the yolk of an egg then doused in olive oil and cooked in the oven. A dish simple in ingredients and execution yet devastating in flavour.
For desert crema catalana for me every time! I treated Mrs S to a mouth-watering pear cooked in red wine and brandy.
After a bottle of Rioja for less than �12 and a couple of expressos we were back on the streets of a cold and wintry Rawtenstall. The thought of Cuidadella gone in an instant!

ALAN SIMPSON