249 330
SPAIN
249
January14
Translation:
In matters of eating and
scratching, it’s all a matter of getting
started.
Spain lays claim to some of theworld’s best
restaurants –El Celler deCanRoca, Mugaritz
andArzak to name a few– but you don’t have
to mortgage the farm to get a good meal in
this country. For instance, I’mhalf way through
one of the best meals of the trip, straight
from the parchment paper it came on. No
maître d’, no Michelin stars – just me and my
pastry on a roadside curb outside
Horno La
Santiaguesa
panaderia
in Madrid.
I’mtakingallmealson thego today;
churros
and chocolate for breakfast and a build-your-
own
bocadillo
picnic with
jamón
ibérico
de bellota
– the famous cured meat cut from
acorn-eating, free-range Iberian pigs – in
Parque Del Retiro for lunch.
Tomorrow I’ll return to the restaurant circuit
– to the remarkable
Zerain
for aBasque-style
piquillo
pepper
tortilla bacalao
(red pepper
cod omelette) and a tender
chuletón
(T-bone)
steak and to
Sol Mayor
for suckling pig in the
touristy Plaza Mayor.
Translation:
Eat a small and early
dinner if you want to get old.
Apparently no one in Spain wants to get
old. I haven’t come across anyone who
believes it normal to begin dinner before
9pm. What’s a jet-lagged tourist to do?
Chase a siesta with a double shot of
café
cortado
and throw portion-control out the
window, I suppose.
COMER Y RASCAR,
TODO ES EMPEZAR.
COME POCO Y CENA
TEMPRANO SI QUIERES
LLEGAR A ANCIANO.
Clockwise from top left:
Jamón Ibérico de Bellota;
breakfast at Horno La Santiaguesa; an artist on the
streets of Madrid