Eat Your Way Around Madrid

If you’re heading to Madrid, go hungry and take comfy shoes.  Better yet, go hungry, take comfy shoes and visit friends who live there (if you’re lucky enough to have them).  If not, take a few of these tips and you won’t go wrong, I promise.  Our culinary adventure in Madrid was almost completely in the capable hands of our friends Pili and Tomas.  We were most definitely the sheep to their shepherd and willingly ate our way through whatever appeared in front of us.

The four days we were in Madrid happened to coincide with Spain winning the European Championship (which gives you an indication of how over due this post is...) and the city was absolutely alive.  The Spanish sure know how to party – thousands and thousands of people stormed the streets, flowing down towards Plaza de Cibeles, cheering "viva la roja", drinking, waving their flags and whipping each other into a frenzy.  And this was just our first evening.

We spent our days wandering the streets passing time between lunch and dinner (breakfast seems to be fairly low on the priority scale when you wake up at about 10am...), dropping into the odd museum (the Prado, the Thyssen.... those old chestnuts) but the food was the hero.  The food, oh the food.

Where to start... Let’s start with the best croquettes in Madrid.  Casa Julio's red door makes it fairly distinguishable.  Otherwise you could be forgiven for walking straight passed, which would be a tragedy for your taste buds.  The place is tiny with only four small tables and bar seating, and so authentic that his grandmother still works there.  I have it on excellent authority that a good croqueta has the perfect ratio of creamy béchamel sauce to filling so the flavour is enhanced by the sauce rather than being over powered by it.  This perfect balance is then encased in a crispy crumbed outer shell.  Do not miss the gorgonzola, the mushroom or the jamon.

The best croquetas in Madrid

If you’re not sure exactly what you want, head down to Mercardo St Migel.  It’s not really a market per se, more or a collection of lots of different stalls under one big roof selling all sorts of tapas, drinks or treats.  Take your time to wander each aisle, checking out the huge variety of things available.  If you buy gazpatcho from the Italian guy at the end of the market give him an ‘hola’ and he’ll love you for it (according to him the Spanish – and tourists, it can be assumed – have all forgotten their manners.  Get yourself a beer or a vino tinto and try your luck finding a table - be prepared to stand.

 After lunch, wander the streets a bit longer and call in to Chocolateria de San Ginés for churros con chocolate.  It’s recommended by the Lonely Planet, so LP snobs could be tempted to give it a miss, but this place is so good that the locals also flock here.  It’s open from late in the afternoon until about 6am (apparently) so order a coffee and a churros and replenish those caffeine and blood sugar levels before hitting the streets again.

Churros con chocolate - yum!

I’m not sure I’m cut out for the Spanish rhythm of life.  Being a farmer’s daughter at heart, I’m an early to rise and early to retire sort of girl usually.  Dinner for me feels late at 8pm, so you can imagine the shock to my system adapting to heading out for dinner around 10pm.  It’s a good thing I had coffee and churros for afternoon tea!  I hope you’re in town for at least two evenings, because I’d have a hard time choosing between these two places:  La Cocina de San Antón in Checua, and Juana la Loca in La Latina.

If you’re heading to La Cocina de San Antón book ahead to get a table on the terrace, or be prepared to sit and wait at the roof top bar for one to become available.  You might be waiting a while, but it will be worth it.  Don’t miss the salmorejo – a gazpacho style soup, but made of roasted capsicum sprinkled with a little bit of jamon (more on the wonders of jamon later).  The gazpacho looks a lot like the fake nachos cheese we get in Singapore – orange and plastic - but this soup is incredible – don’t miss it.  Also not to be missed is the chuletón con papas y pimientos al padrón – a fatty beef t-bone whose moist slices taste so good you ignore the centimetres being added to your waist with each mouthful.  If you still have room for dessert, try the chocolate, but give the pyjamas and dressing gown a miss.

jamon!!

chuletón con papas y pimientos al padrón

salmorejo

Juana la Loca is a cosy corner tapas bar in La Latina.  The matire d can be a little on the abrupt side (putting it nicely), but don’t let her scare you off because the feast ahead of you is worthy of almost any insult under the sun.  Start with Tosta de Secreto Ibérico y Cebolla caramelizada which is incredibly moist and incredibly delicious (we can vouch for it – we ordered a second round!) and don’t let anyone talk you out of Huevos rotos con jamón y pimientos al padrón.  If describing it crudely you’d say it was a few poached eggs spilling their yolks over skinny potato fries, but that would be doing it an extreme injustice.  The simple flavours are enhanced with subtle herbs and spices and a scattering of roasted large green peppers. Save some room to share some dessert though because the Milhojas con dulce de leche y helado de coco is not to be missed.  The light, sweet, chocolately layers topped with a ball of coconut ice cream make for a divine mouthful (or more if you still have room).

Tosta de Secreto Ibérico y Cebolla caramelizada

Huevos rotos con jamón y pimientos al padrón

Milhojas con dulce de leche y helado de coco

Everywhere you go in Madrid you will find jamon.  Delicious, salty, paper-thin jamon.  The hind leg is the most expensive, but the front leg tasted just as fabulous to me (jamon aficionados around the world may unite in their dismay).  Every bar you walk into will offer you a tapa when you order a drink, often as simple as a zucchini flower stuffed with an olive.  Don’t turn your nose up at the cava casa, the house bubbles.  It usually tastes great and is a great way to start your meal.

Jamon everywhere!

After so much eating you’ll need to walk some more.  We visited two excellent museums and very different museums – the Prado and the Thyssens.  The Prado is free from 6pm, but you then have to deal with the crowds.  The Prado is enormous (it felt as big as the Louvre to me) so it pays to know what you want to see instead of wandering around aimlessly unless you have hours and hours to spare.  Don’t miss the piedras negras – dark, despicable and depressing and rather refreshing after a few anti-chambers of religious iconography (ok, so I’m a bit of an art heathen).  The Thyssens has an incredible range of work dating from the 1400’s to the 1950’s and conveniently has a smart cafe to rest your weary legs with a coffee, beer or similar afterwards.  Unfortunately we missed the Reina Sophia as it was closed on Tuesdays unlike the others who are closed on Mondays.  This is certainly on the list for next time.

Gran Disparate, Goya
(image from Prado Museum website)

Madrid is a brilliant city for exploring on foot, a great way to burn off the previous nights over indulgence and work up an appetite for the evening ahead.  It does pay to keep the siesta in the back of your mind though – almost everything shuts down from 2pm – 5pm which seems incredible in a modern capital city.  It does make you wonder who is fuelling the economy while everyone rests, but that’s a thorny issue for another time.  After four fabulous days in Madrid I can’t wait to explore more of Spain’s cultural and culinary treasures.  I might have to learn some Spanish though, as I don’t think we can rely on Pili and Tomas to be there forever.

Details you need to know:

Food

Casa Julio (Madera 37, 2004 Madrid)

Mercardo St Miguel (Plaza San Miguel, Madrid)

Chocolateria de San Ginés (Pasadizo de San Ginés 5, Tel. +34 91 365 65 46)

La Cocina de San Antón (Calle de Augusto Figueroa 24,  28004 Madrid, Tel. +34 913 30 02 94)

Juana la Loca (Plaza de Puerta de Moros 4, La Latina,  28005 Madrid, Tel. +34 913 64 05 25)

Museums

Museo Nacional de Prado (Calle Ruiz de Alarcón 23, 28014 Madrid, Tel. +34 91 330 2800)

El Museo de arte Thyssens (Paseo del Prado 8, 28014 Madrid, Tel. +34 902 76 05 11)

Museo Reina Sofia (Santa Isabel 52, 28012 Madrid, Tel. +34 91 774 10 00)