The Search for Delicious Part I

I've eaten a lot, and I've eaten well thus far in Europe.  In terms of expenditure, I would say about 30% of my money has gone towards food and drink, 50% towards housing, 15% towards travel, and 5% towards clothes and decor.

The first thing I ate in Spain was what I later realized to be fairly shitty paella and a small glass of wine for 5 euros at El Mercado San Miguel, right by Plaza Mayor.  Despite the overall mediocrity of paella, it was a shining moment.  I was in Spain.  I was eating paella and drinking wine. At the time, that's all that mattered. Even if it was an inauspicious beginning in terms of quality, it was a beginning.  El Mercado San Miguel was also a great place to start, and I've gone back many a time for a quick snack or a drink.  They have a lot of different stalls.  Cheeses, olives, all sorts of tapas, Galician seafood, wine, San Miguel, jamón, empanadas, tarts, chips, vermouth, etc etc.  A wonderland in other words.  Here's a picture from a later visit of two tapas:  baccalao and pulpo (octopus) a la gallega:

A lot of my first few weeks in Madrid was spent walking around, gawking at the buildings and the people and the sights, and every couple hours, stopping at a restaurant or a café and having something to eat and drink.  One of the first such experiences was very simple, but very good...a bocadillo (sandwich) de calamares (fried squid) and a caña (a small glass of beer).  As seen below:

In general, the norm in Spain, at least as I've experienced it in Madrid is that you'll order a drink, whether that be a caña (or doble or jarra if you're thirsty), a glass of wine, or a cocktail, and you will get something to nibble on.  This something varies widely depending on where you are, and it is generally known here as a tapa.  Potato chips are very common, and better than your run of the mill Lays.  Also, olives, which I had never really eaten before I came, but which I now tend to enjoy.  Popcorn, some sort of dip and chips, nuts, basically anything salty or crunchy that goes well with alcohol.

The reigning king of tapas thus far for me, just in terms of sheer generosity, is an establishment known as El Tigre.  They have three locations in the Chueca neighborhood, right next door to Malasaña where I live.  They're self described as a sidrería (or cider house), but their food and cheap prices are their real calling card, their true glory.  The first time I went I was with two friends, early on in our time in Madrid.  We had heard good things about El Tigre, but didn't know much else about it.  We ordered three drinks, and received two large mugs of tinto de verano (wine with lemon soda) and a glass or copa of vino tinto (red wine) with a very solid amount of wine.  Each drink was 3,50 euros.  What happened next changed everything.

The waiter first brought out one heaping plate of food, slices of French bread topped with various sorts of jamón and tortilla (the spanish omelette/quiche hybrid).  Then he brought out a plate of chicken wings.  And then he brought out a full plate of paella, which was considerably less shitty than the paella I had at San Miguel.  So three whole plates of food.  For free.  Mind you tapas are always a little bit of food.  This was unprecedented for us.  In general, actual meals in Madrid are pretty expensive, definitely above 10 euros, especially at night.  So you tend to survive on what tapas you can scrape together and beer more or less.  So this was like the doors of heaven opening, a revelation.  I haven't been in the last few weeks, but I've been to El Tigre more than 5 times since living in Madrid (which is now almost at 2 months).  Every time and every location it's the same deal.  Lots of good food and big drinks for cheap.  The fact that they have multiple locations is a testament to their greatness.  They have overflow locations.  So when it's too packed at one location, you just go down the street to the other one.  When I went with a largish group (like 8 people), they just kept giving us food, asking us if we wanted more jamón, more croquetas (fried cheese and ham balls), more paella, and giving us the occasional free shot.  Someone told me that you can tell the quality of a tapas bar by the amount of napkins on the floor.  All the napkins here are white and say "Gracias por tu visita," thanks for your visit.  The floor of El Tigre is like it's just snowed.  This is a picture of the paella from that first fateful encounter:

As I was saying, actual meals here are pretty expensive.  I've mostly tried out various menus del día (menus of the day), which tend to be pretty reasonable for the amount and quality of food you get.  The first one I had in Madrid was at a place in Malasaña called El Rincón (the corner).  It was called bacalao a la riojana, which is codfish in the rioja style.  Rioja is one of the big wine producing regions of Spain.  It was essentially lightly fried cod topped with a tomato wine sauce, served with scalloped potatoes.  Most of the menu del día come with two plates (primero y segundo), a drink (alcoholic or not), bread, and dessert/coffee.  The median price is about 10 euros, depending on where you are and the restaurant itself.  The bacalao:

Undoubtedly one of the best meals I've had in Madrid was at a restaurant in Lavapies, one of the main immigrant neighborhoods in Madrid and a generally hip place.  It consisted of arroz negro, a variation on paella that's rice with chopped up squid and cooked in squid ink, giving it its name and its distinctive appearance:

This was delicious and had been on my list of things to try for a while.  What followed was even better:  trucha a la plancha, grilled trout.  Very simple, but so so good.  

It's also worth noting that until it got colder recently, I ate almost all of my meals outside, which always makes food taste a little bit better in my opinion.  

Continuing with the seafood line, I was perhaps most excited about the oceanic options in Spain and elsewhere.  Coming from Indiana, good seafood is in pretty small supply.  Another one of my highlights so far has been the grilled pulpo that I had at a restaurant called El Viajero (the traveller) in La Latina, a neighborhood famous for their food and tapas specifically.  Poorly prepared octopus can be chewy and generally unappetizing, but when done right it's to die for.  Especially when grilled, the flavor of the charcoal is absorbed by the meat and the crispiness combined with a slight chewiness (but when the flavor is there, you don't mind chewing a few extra chew) ends up being a wholly delightful dining experience.  

This is the beginning of a running series, under the title The Search for Delicious (taken from a song off of Panda Bear's album Person Pitch, and found below), in which I'll talk about my gastronomic experiences in Spain and elsewhere.  The next post will focus on my trips to Paris and Lisboa, both culinary gems in their own right.  Until then, buen provecho!

Search for Delicious