Day 2: Sun and Yum

As those who have read my previous post will be aware, last night was a late one. The consequence was that I slept through the hostel´s breakfast and woke up with a ravenous hunger. As this post will make clear, it took rather a lot to satisfy this. Venturing back out of the hostel I found a somewhat dodgy cafe and had a somewhat dodgy breakfast of a cheese sandwich (more of a toastie), hot chocolate and orange juice. Once again, this was hardly the culinary experience this blog is supposed to be focused on. Still, it filled the gap.

My hostel offered a free walking tour of Madrid this morning which I joined. We spent 3 hours following a rather touristy route with a commentary akin to ´Madrid for dummies´ - a direct quote from which is "Queen Isabella looked like the back of a bus and her husband was also a massive queen, if you know what a mean". Enlightened stuff.

More important though was the fact Madrid was unseasonably boiling today. Shedding layers like an Essex girl entering a club I basked in the warm glow. I even had to consider whipping out a bit of the suncream.

The tour eventually finished at 3.30pm and I lunched soon afterwards at a great restaurant I found on the Gran Via. The starter (below) was a mixture of baby garlic, leeks, mushrooms, egg and cheese. It was really rather delicious. A little Masterchef point was made as well; it doesn´t matter how you present the food so long as the plate is rectangular.

The main course described itself as vacio de ternera. My elementary Spanish suggested that vacio is similar to the Spanish word for ´cow´ and so I was ordering a beef dish. My first bite however suggested I should have paid more attention to ´ternera´ as it became clear I had accidently ordered veal. Whilst I of course felt guilty about the suffering of the poor baby animal, the deed was done and so I feasted. (PS the homemade chips were phenomenal, though the veal was a little overdone).

Desert was ´tarta de Santiago´ - a tart of almonds and lemon. Another Masterchef tip for you (somewhat contradicting the above point); don´t serve canned cream on a rectangular plate!

The rest of my afternoon was spent searching for a Spanish-English dictionary to avoid my lunchtime menu confusion. I eventually found a German dictionary intended to teach Spanish people English. It will do!

I returned to the hostel and met lots of great people in my room. I love how easy it is to strike up conversation when abroad. A quick change into the tightest shirt ever made I head out to meet one of my father´s friends for dinner. I got horribly lost on the way there and ended up on the wrong side of Madrid´s version of the M25. Failing to find a bridge and running out of time I leg it across 6 lanes of traffic all the time trying to remember how much my travel insurance will pay to my estate upon my death. Alas on the other side a pack of feral dogs smelt the fact I hadn´t had my rabies injection and decided to attack. A little jog later I end up at my father´s friend´s house. I had last visited it 5 years ago and it was even more stunning now. The two daughers were incredibly articulate and a symbol of the effectiveness of the Spanish education system. The 13 year old was reading David Copperfield in English while the 8 year old had such confidence in her English that she explained to me lucidly how to conjugate Spanish verbs.

After a little while we set off with a few other friends of my dad (all lawyers) to the local country club. My father´s friend was determined to show us the best of Madrid´s food and my God did he provide both quality and quantity.

First we have the olives.

 Then the bread with tomato, garlic, olive oil and Spanish ham

Then a rather unusual dish of Spanish watercress (very different from English watercress) and a spaghetti made of squid and octopus. This was unbelievably delicious!

Next came baby scallops which were baked in their shells (rather than the more usual method of friend and returned to their shell). 

Then squid with paprika. This was my favourite course.

Then green tomatoes, tuna and tomatoes. At this point after several glasses of wine and gin and tonic I am beginning to feel a little full.

Then the somewhat incongruous dish of eggs, chips and bacon.

Then pigs cheeks. It helped that I laboured under the misapprehension that this was beef until after I had finished.

Then I had a liquorice ice cream in an edible basket. It appears I got over-excited and ate it all before I had time to take a photograph

Then some Northern Spanish traditional liquors. They tasted heavily of aniseed and were powerful enough to knock out an elephant.

One of my father´s friends who shall remain anonymous got up from the table at this point and promptly fell over - always the sign of a good night! Anyway, barely able to walk we summon a taxi home and I crawl into the hostel. The lovely people I met earlier on in the day were happy to let me drone on about the food and now I´ve decided to share with you all!

Now to waddle up to bed