Tripe, Beef, Fish Tapas in Toledo

I randomly went into a bar-restaurant in the center of Toledo (a small town in Spain). It was almost empty besides few coffee drinkers because it was only noon. No one eat lunch that early in Spain! But I don’t care, I was hungry!

The waiter didn’t speak a word of English and there were nobody to help out. I can only point through the glass window to order food. It was hard to know what exactly I ordered.

The dish on the left is stewed beef with peas. Really tough meat!
On the right is a chunk of sea fish with roasted tomato as topping. The fish texture is dry and old. I only had one bite, what a terrible dish! What kind of fish is it?



The only dish I liked is the tripe, which is slow cooked in tomato sauce. Can’t go wrong with that! Really tender and flavorful.

Editable church

You can eat every piece of that church. Impressive work!

Snake and Sword pastry in Toledo

The pastries in snake and sword form can be seen everywhere in Toledo’s bakery. Quite interesting fit with medieval knights and armor souvenir stores.

Bakery in Toledo - 1

The bakeries in Toledo.

Toledo is a municipality located in central Spain, 70 km south of Madrid.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toledo,_Spain

Sudestada Restaurant - Fine Asian Cuisine

Located at Modesto Lafuente, 64 / Madrid, Sudestada is a minimalistic decorated fine Asian restaurant. Every dish is prepared with interesting Asian ingredients and various fusion spices. From grilled meat to stir-fry, each dish is a present treat. I am surprised to see pig ear salad on the menu. As Chinese, I eat them all the time, but it may be a bit weird for other culture. The crunchy cold cuts of pig ears fits well with fresh salad.
Generally speaking, fine Asian food is more expensive in Europe. The average price is 30 Euros/person.

Student chefs - Public Restaurant

In Madrid, a friend told me that the restaurant Public serves very good food with economic price because the chefs are students from the cooking school. What a great idea! They could get hands-on experience in real restaurant kitchen and we could enjoy a nicely prepared dinner.

http://www.restaurantpublic.com/

For starter I had shrimp ravioli. For second plate I had beef cheek with mashed potato. Both dish are beautifully prepared and quite tasty. The most interesting thing I had is the dessert: Ice-cream in mojito with jelly cubes. It didn’t have alcohol taste. Instead, very refreshing and light dessert. Love it!

Vegetarian in Madrid

After eating many days of meat and seafood, I am so happy that a friend took me to a vegetarian restaurant. It is close to the city center metro stop SOL.
http://www.yerbabuena.ws/

I like the interesting combination of fresh ingredients and their presentation. I had wheat tortilla cannelon (pic left down): mushroom, zucchini, asparagus, spinach, broccoli and touch of curry over oregano-seasoned tomato sauce wrapped in a rice & poppy seed tempura with a coating of coconut and seeds sauces. It is delicious and it is vegan!

For dessert I had Crema Catalana (Spanish version of Crème brûlée”): a dessert consisting of a rich custard base topped with a contrasting layer of hard caramel. It is a bit too creamy for me. But since I had a healthy lunch, it is ok to indulge a bit. Not sure it is vegan.

Chickpea stew at LABOLA- Cocido madrileño

Many say you have to try Cocido madrileño before leaving Madrid. It is a traditional chickpea-based hearty stew with vegetables, potatoes and meat.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cocido_madrile%C3%B1o

Many restaurants serve it during winter season. I went to La Bola (http://www.labola.es) on my last day lunch (for dinner is always packed, so have to make reservation first). Even for lunchtime (around 2-3pm), the place is packed with people at a Tuesday afternoon. How many hours do Spanish have for lunch break?

The waiter comes with a plate of thin noodles and a small brown pot. He poured the soup from the top onto the noodles. That is how you eat it. The noodles are very fine and soft. The soup is simply full of meaty flavor. After finishing that, the secret from the pot is revealed: chickpea, meat and potatoes. The waiter then added more cabbage. How could I describe the divine taste of slow-cooked meat stew flavor to you?
Try it yourself when in Madrid!

Squid stew in Black ink

In Barcelona I tried rice with squid ink. This time in Madrid, I ordered squid stew in its own black ink. The squid are very tender with the savory fishy ink sauce. If you don’t like eating fish, do not order it! My friend had deep fried fresh anchovies. For veggies, we had spinach with garlic and mixed veggie. Everything is very savory and big portion with economic price. For dessert I had traditional Spanish rice pudding (Arroz con leche) with cinnamon. It is lighter than I thought.

Fried Lamb Intestines

After one day at Reina Sofia museum, I went to a food court just one block from the museum, right across the train station. That place claimed that they have the best-fried calamari in Madrid (advertised on their signage). In Madrid people put fried calamari with a sandwich bun. At lunchtime, the place is full of people.

I wanted to try something new, so I pointed a picture and had no idea what I ordered. It looks like chicken, later I founded out it is zarajos: a very typical traditional of Basin (Spain) prepared based on intestines of young lamb marinated that later are rolled up in a vine and themselves fried in olive oil or they are roasted in an oven until they remain golden. I like the outside part: crispy with strong flavor. But the non-fried intestine taste is too strong and gamey; I had a hard time to finish 3 of them.

The blood sausage sandwich is truly a delicious. The Spanish blood sausage morcilla contains pork blood and fat, rice, onions, and salt. In Italy, I had the ones without rice. I like the Spanish version better because the crisp of the rice add extra texture and the blood taste less strong.

Tapas

“Tapas is the name of a wide variety of appetizers, or snacks, in Spanish cuisine. "

The history of Tapas is quite interesting: “According to legend[citation needed], the tapas tradition began when Castile's king, Alfonso X of Castile or Alfonso the Wise, recovered from an illness by drinking wine mixed with small dishes between meals. After regaining his health, the king ordered that taverns were not allowed to serve wine to customers unless the beverage was accompanied by a small snack or tapa. The word became a kind of loophole in the law to allow drinkers to consume alcohol.”

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tapas

Too bad I don’t speak Spanish, therefore didn’t know what I was eating. I believe most of them are fish; some are raw mixed with spices. The best part is they are small portion, I always feel hungry. Every bite is yummy, try them yourselves!

Jamón ibérico –Best Spanish Ham

Jamón ibérico, Iberico ham, also called pata negra, is a type of cured ham produced only in Spain. It is at least 75% black Iberian pig, also called the cerdo negro (black pig).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jam%C3%B3n_ib%C3%A9rico

They say it is the best ham, that is why! “…The pigs are then allowed to roam in pasture and oak groves to feed naturally on grass, herbs, acorns, and roots,…”

It is also very expensive and not widely available abroad. Surly it is very lean meat and heavenly delicious! Ham stores are also very impressive in Madrid, where they have walls of cured ham hanging!

Lamb Couscous

In Madrid, there are many international restaurant districts, e.g. close to metro Chueca. Walking around this gay district, I am sure you could find a bar or a restaurant that meet your needs.

I happened to have an Italian friend co-owner a restaurant there and I was lucky invited for lunch at 3pm(Spanish eat at late hours). The restaurant has a bar area for a quick drink with Tapas and a nice seating area that severs fusion Mediterranean cuisine. For a starter, I had a light Spanish soup with veggie. The main course I had lamb couscous: tender lamb with fluffy couscous soaked in savory lamb flavored stew. I love the dish! Only if they could give me more lamb meat.

Mountain of Chocolate in Barcelona

In Sant Losep market I mentioned previously (Mercat de Sant Josep), they also have many varieties: from chocolate rose to sliver-looking small heart, etc. Even after traveling France and Italy for months, I was surprisingly impressed by the presentation of mountain of varies chocolate in a market. The price is not market, they cost 60 euro per kg. Is it because the tourist location or good quality? Maybe both?

Last Tapas in Barcelona

For my last night in Barcelona, my friend is so nice to organize a dinner tapas with other friends in a traditional popular Tapas restaurant.

We arrived there past 8:30pm, and it was fully packed. Looking through the window display, I thought it could be a very nice good quality dinner. But unfortunately, the food quality was not that amazing. The octopus came with nice spice on top. But too bad, the octopus itself is either over cooked or not fresh. It had a mushy taste that I hate about the non-fresh seafood.

The only interesting thing we ordered is the cheese plate. I forget the name but my friend said it is very traditional (see pic in the middle). They are slightly golden yellow tint and do not have strong flavor, like hardy tofu. I really enjoyed it..

That night was a disappointment for me, although everyone else said they enjoyed the food. Maybe I am asking too much?

Snail Take-out!

When visiting Barcelona, no one will miss Gaudi's Sagrada Familia (Sacred Family) Church. One beautiful sunny day, I was on my way to visit the church but get distracted by the local food place, which just opened its door at 11am. I am not sure what to call them, but those kinds are everywhere. They sell cooked food ready for take-out and sometimes wines at the other side of the store. The one I went to, they are roasting chicken also. That is how they attracted me into the place.

There are many foods, which look well prepared and have lots of varieties from meat to vegetable. I tried codfish with pin nuts and raisin on top. The cod is very tender but the dish is bit too oily.

I was surprised to see snails in Barcelona (did not know Spanish eat snails too). Different than the ones I had in France (which is mainly cooked with garlic and parsley), snails are cooked in a strong tasty tomato sauce. The snails are smaller than those I had in France. Maybe they are different kinds. But the weird thing is that the snails are not tightly in the shell; instead, you can even see their little head and mouth. As if when the snails are taking afternoon stroll, the chef just freeze that moments.

They are very tasty with the sauce. I only eat the top part of the snail meat, that means I discard the later part of the snail because sometimes they can full of eggs and tasty sandy. But one friend says you can eat the whole thing. Well, that is my personal preference. I was slowly picking snails with my hand in the park right in front of the Sagrada Familia church when everyone else is lining up to see the monuments. Oh, well, I am not in a hurry, it is called vacation!
I think the snail is one of the coolest animal, not only they are tasty, but they can also self-reproduce and freeze in winter then revival in spring.

“Most snails are hermaphrodites. This means that they are both male and female. All hermaphroditic snails can lay eggs. They can "mate" with themselves and thus only one can reproduce in an aquarium or pond.”

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20090104133148AAZTAJ5

I have a snail pet at home, since it is self-reproduce, hopefully one day I can have an army of snails for…

Black Cuttlefish ink with Rice

Since I did not get a chance to try black pasta in Italy, when I saw they have black rice in Barcelona, I was so excited. At least, I get to try the cuttlefish ink. It is commonly used in Spanish coastal area. That is why you can see Black Rice on the menu everywhere in Barcelona.
I went to a small place near the famous street La Rambla, where it sells many typical Catalana foods, but nothing fancy. I could go to more fancy traditional restaurant to try it, maybe will be more amazing. But that was at 16pm, most restaurant is closed- that was a late lunch.

The plate looks a bit scary to try, but actually it is very tasty. For sure they know what they are doing. The cuttlefish ink brings a lot of sea taste to the rice. As for the shrimp and mussel, they are fresh but nothing special. It is all about the black ink!

I want to buy some black ink back home. But they say those sold in supermarket are really fresh, therefore, not very good. According to the Internet, just remove small black sack and then squish them to get the ink. I should try it one day…

Restaurant Taktika Berri in Barcelona

My friend told me to meet there at 20pm at Taktika Berri for dinner, but the restaurant is not open till 20:30pm. I thought that maybe he did not know. But in fact he had very good reason.
At 20 pm there were no people outside that restaurant, except me. Around 20:15pm, people started to line up outside the door. When they opened the door at 20:30pm, everyone rushed into the restaurant to get a good seat, like a flock of sardines. The restaurant is packed within 2 seconds.

Why do they need to do that? It is a traditional Basque restaurant place, which have both sit-down and bar area. They prepared lot of tapas with toothpick at the bar. You can pick whatever you want to eat and leave the toothpick on your plate. They will calculate how much you need to pay based on how many toothpicks you have. The concept is called pintxos, which is from basque, the owners are from san sebastian.

Simple concept and works very well. The food quality is very good. There are at least10 varieties. I love those salted fish with grilled pepper. The blood sausage (see pic top left) is also very good. The most impressive one is the cod fish (see 2nd pic top left). It was so tender that melt in my mouth. When the waiter brought out new plate of cod, they were picked up in few seconds.
We were lucky to get there early so we got a very good seat, right beside the bar. If not you have to stand eating or lean forward to get food when they are brought out. Act Fast!!! Or there will be no food left! And no one is too polite; it was like a food war!

My friend also told that it is ok to throw used napkins on the floor. Actually it is easier for them to clean, rather than left them on the bar. I was looking around and it is true. Everyone else is doing that!

Percebe - Seafood delicacy

The most interesting food I discovered in Barcelona is called: Percebe vivo cantabrico. “Percebe” is the name of the seafood; In English they are called gooseneck barnacles. “vivo cantabrico” means it is alive and was caught in the sea cantabrico area.

“The resemblance of this barnacle's fleshy stalk to a goose's neck gave rise in ancient times to the notion that geese, or at least certain seagoing species of wild goose, literally grew from the barnacle. Most notably, the wild Barnacle Goose (Branta leucopsis), whose eggs and young were rarely seen by humans because it breeds in the remote Arctic , got its popular name because it was imagined to grow from gooseneck barnacles.”

My friend called it “elephant feet”. One friend asked me if I ever tried that. The next day I run to the market and found them with other clams in the fish market. They do look like elephant feet, but a mini version.

With gesture communication, the merchant told me to put them in boiling water for few minutes then open and eat the middle tender part. Since they are almost 30 euro a kg, I only bought a few for a taste. When you buy them they are alive, like the clams, so the dark long part feels tough but squishy. After they are cooked, there is little delicate meat when you open it from the red top. I tried it with nothing added; just want to know what is their natural flavor. The meat is tender like clam meat, but have a very strong interesting flora fragrance. If I had more time, I would discover other methods to cook them, oh well, leave it for the next time.

There is a very interesting article about Canada exporting percebe to Spain:

http://www.billcasselman.com/words_of_the_world/percebe.htm

Barcelona Market - part 3 Fish