Copa Mundial 2010

Friday saw The Gastronomic Traveler welcoming the opening of the World Cup with the rest of the world in the only way we could see fit: with good friends, good food and drink, and hopeful aspirations for the USA over the next four weeks. 

After coordinating the arrival and pickup of friends at London Heathrow, we were soon off to The Fat Badger on London’s Portobello Road for some antipasti and an inventive parma, peach, and mozzarella salad. 

The Fat Badger is truly a gastropub in the strictest sense: the food is orders of magnitude better than a traditional pub’s, yet it retains that casual vibe and low-key sense of process so typical of London pubs.

After enjoying the first two games of the Cup, we headed across the street to the aptly named Galicia for some northwestern-Spanish tapas: our favorite pub food. 

Settling finally on a few seafood offerings such as the squid in ink, grilled octopus with paprika, and white anchovies – all washed down with ice-cold Estrella Damm, naturally – we were back at reminiscing of our Spanish adventures and getting excited for the coming week’s festivities in Madrid. 

While the octopus was a tad chewy and the squid a little more ‘of the sea’ than we’d have preferred, it was all in all a nice way to end the evening, wonder about tomorrow, and get a taste of things to come.