Bievenidos a Madrid!

After an easy train ride back to Schiopol Airport and an approximately two-hour flight from Amsterdam, we’ve arrived in Spain’s capital city. Madrid’s public transport system – just like pretty much all of the public transport systems across Spain – is well-marked, clearly organized, and user-friendly even to the casual user and sometimes-Spanish speaker. Following a quick metro ride into the Sol station and a four-block walk to our hotel (the Room Mate Alicia), we’re out in the Plaza de Santa Ana enjoying the sunshine and that palpable Spanish conviviality as we meander toward our afternoon destination to watch the Ivory Coast take on Portugal.

After a lazy walk around the old city center, we settled in at a local tasca (that’s a tapas bar) to catch the second half of what may be the tournament’s most boring game thus far. The 0-0 draw suits us fine, however, and frees us up to enjoy some sherry and tapas at La Venencia – named after the wine-sampling tool otherwise called the “wine thief”. Despite their strict no-pictures policy, we managed to catch some snaps anyway. 

La Venencia is about as purely-Spanish as any place can be: simple, unadorned, and delicious. You can choose glasses of five or so different types of sherry, select a plate of chorizo, olives, or other delectable treats, and settle in for light conversation amidst the locals. Wonderful.

 

Another leisurely walk around, and soon we found ourselves ready for Round Two. Thankfully the Toscana Taberna was right there, and we were treated to crispy boquerones, plates of jamon iberico de bellota, and a truly amazing morcilla (cumin-scented, slightly spicy blood sausage.) 

Matched with the house rioja, the morcilla was absolutely what it should be: rich, meaty, and just a hint of those elusive spice notes. Mmm! (Too bad I didn't manage to get a photo before we devoured it.) Now hopefully tomorrow La Furia Roja can match the brilliance of our meal tonight...

Want to experience it for yourself? Contact us now and we’ll get you there!

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. 

An Overnight to Reading

Our first adventure outside the London city limits takes us to Reading, a moderately-sized town in Berkshire just about 40 miles west of London. History buffs will already know that Reading was an important stop along the River Thames during the medieval period, and became a place of pilgrimage with the founding of the Reading Abbey in the early 1100s. The Abbey was all but destroyed by Henry VIII’s Dissolution of the Monasteries in the mid-1500s; the last abbot was hanged, then drawn and quartered in front of the Abbey church.

And where exactly is that church? Why, adjacent to the Forbury Hotel, of course! The Forbury is the top luxury hotel in the area, a classic reuse of the former Berkshire Shire Hall and a beautiful example of townhouse-style construction from the early 1900s. Each of the 23 rooms and suites boast original works of art from the region and around the globe; pieces in the public areas of the hotel are on loan rotation from La Galerie in Pimlico.

Our stay included an overnight in a Superior Room on the first floor (second floor to us Americans); each room in the hotel is lavishly-appointed and no two rooms are the same. As is befitting a true luxury hotel (and that term gets tossed around inappropriately quite a bit) the staff were welcoming, knowledgeable of the area, and happy to assist with even minor trivialities (RJ11 phone cord adapter, anyone?) with a warm smile. And, as you know, a competent and resourceful staff is the backbone of any successful luxury establishment. Couple this with simply prepared, delectable offerings from the kitchen – the Eggs Benedict is my standard rule by which hotel breakfasts are measured, and this one came with a surprisingly lemony-fresh hollandaise (albeit a tad more than needed) and parma ham – and you have a recipe for success.

 

My main goal here in Reading was to explore the Hosier Street market – 60 stalls selling food, flowers, plants, crafts, and household goods – and see how many of the more than 100 pubs in town we could visit (quite a lot of pubs for a town this size…) The sheer number of pubs around the central town square was enough to fill both afternoons and evenings, and as is the case with many pubs in the UK, a diverse array of real ales and local pints were available at each stop. My personal favorite? The Abbot Ale from the Pitcher & Piano…

All in all, the trip was a pleasant diversion from the recent stress of getting the new office established. Up next for The Gastronomic Traveler? Ten days in London, Amsterdam, and Madrid watching the World Cup with local fans. Follow our gastronomic and sporting adventures over the next two weeks with live postings every day as we seek out the classic and the unusual in these three cosmopolitan capitals!