10/8/2015
I pre-booked the train tickets from Sevilla to Madrid way
back in July because, like every other long distance journey in Europe, the
earlier you book, the cheaper the seats. Plus you run the chance of trains
being sold out. I’d even looked up which side would be facing the sun, so to
avoid booking those seats. The sun was pretty harsh, so we were all glad to be
in the shade for the 2.5 hour ride.
Our hotel should’ve been pretty close to the Madrid Atocha
train station, but typical us, we exited the wrong way and ended up circling nearly
the whole damn station. It’s a huge ass station too. Our hotel is on Calle
Atocha, which on the map looked like a relatively easy 5-10 minute walk…only
the map doesn’t show topography, and the street is a big bustling street that
goes up, up, and up. I was panting when we got into the hotel lobby.
Our apartment is very shabby chic, and Angel thinks that
they bought the décor at Casa, a store she really likes in Spain. It’s like the
shabby chic version of Pottery Barn, minus the price tag. Some of the
restaurants we’ve ate at use Casa plates, table settings, and chairs. Angel’s
even googled where the nearest Casas are to our hotels, so she can go and fawn
over everything. The apartment is very spacious, with two bedrooms with desks
and spacious closets, a massive dining room and living room, and a relatively
big kitchen, considering it’s Europe. It’s such a big contrast to Munich, which
we all remember because we were basically stumbling on top of each other in
that tiny little room.
For lunch, we went to Txirimiri, a popular chain that serves tapas-like cuisine, although in proper entrée-like portions, which means higher prices. Our bill came out to be 76 euros, which is significantly more than everything we’ve eaten in Seville. It was delicious, but expensive. Dad likes Vinermia San Telmo best so far, and I love La Brunilda. There was a bit of a hiccup as our waitress didn’t understand English (funny enough, most people in Madrid don't speak English, which is so weird! Out of all the cities in Spain, you'd think Madrid--the capital--would be the one to know the most English!).
Croquette – the menu said there was truffle oil in it, but
we couldn’t taste it. It was good, but I couldn’t tell what I was eating:
Beef carpaccio rolls – Again, the menu said there was
truffle mayo in it, but we couldn’t taste it. But the pairing of everything on
this dish was perfect; from the tang of the balsamic vinegar reduction to the
arugula, flakes of sea salt, beef and soft tortilla, the chef got it right on
all counts. Dad couldn’t even taste that the meat was raw—that’s how much he
liked it! Surprise, surprise.
Mushroom risotto with foie gras:
How is it they get their mushrooms that soft? It’s so incredibly creamy and delicious!
The beef tenderloin and foie gras:
We ordered the oxtail, but what came on was the beef tenderloin. It was really good, so we just thought screw it, we’ll eat it. But we still wanted the oxtail, so I asked the waitress to add it on. She kept insisting that the beef we ordered was the oxtail, and since we couldn’t convince her otherwise, we thought to just settle the bill and leave. Only she charged us for the tenderloin price, when she clearly thought it was the oxtail! She had to go confirm with the chef which dish was what, and finally acknowledged that she gave us the beef tenderloin instead of the oxtail.
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| Oxtail: she finally got us the right dish. Finally! |
Since that was one of the major reasons we picked this restaurant, we asked her to add on the oxtail as well. That pushed us all over the edge in terms of how stuffed we were. But man, it was the best dish of the day. So, so tender, thick, tender and flavorful, with pieces of foie gras tossed in. It came with wonton wrappers because it was supposed to be an oxtail “strudel,” but in this case, it was a deconstructed version. I’m still thinking of the oxtail eggroll at Vinermia yesterday.
After lunch, we wandered to the Plaza Mayor, which is like
most squares in Europe with historic buildings flanking all sides. I’m
particularly reminded of the Piazza San Marco in Venice. Two of the four
buildings in the plaza were under construction (what else is new?), so we could
only take pictures from certain angles. There are half a dozen streets that
branch out from the plaza, some leading down sloping cobblestone pathways like
a Disneyland maze.
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| Plaza Mayor |
One such street goes toward the San Gines Chocolateria, which is famous for their hot chocolate and made-to-order churros. It opened in 1894 and is still going strong today. You order at the counter and give the ticket to a waiter, then seat yourself wherever there’s an open table. It’s a hugely popular café for tourists and locals alike. It’s open 24 hours, and locals like to go there in the wee hours of the morning after a night of partying (or so I’m told). Madrid’s known for its nightlife and we weren’t disappointed—near our hotel is a nightclub with two lines three-to-four-people thick snaking all the way down the block! It’s not even like that in LA!
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| San Gines hot chocolate con churros |
Churros here are fried to order:
We were lucky to get into San Gines at a brief downtime;
there were still a few tables available indoors. When we left however, all the
tables were filled and people were lining out the door waiting to order. Crazy!
Mom really liked the churros, and they sell something that looked very much
like the Chinese fried yio tao that pairs oh so well with soybean milk. Dad
said the churros are more tender here than in America, though it’s served plain
and you sprinkle on powdered sugar yourself. So no cinnamon sugar. The hot
chocolate was incredibly thick, almost akin to a watered down pudding. I felt
like they added cornstarch to it. It was good, but not the best I’ve tasted. I
wish the chocolate flavor was stronger, I guess. And it leaves a weird aftertaste. I think it's the cornstarch.
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| Look how thick the hot choco is! |
They fry the churros up in these gigantic spirals, then cut them with scissors:
Another street that offshoots from Plaza Mayor leads to
Mercado de San Miguel, which—I thought—was supposed to be like La Boqueria in
Barcelona. Full of stalls selling tantalizing food for affordable prices. But
dang, San Miguel’s expensive! It was bustling, though, with people standing
around tables eating tapas. There were prawns bigger than your hand, raw
oysters the size of your palm, sea urchins, baby eels (which the Spanish are
very fond of eating). One cocktail will set you back 7 euros, which is pretty
expensive considering you can buy a bottle of red wine at the supermarket for
0.59 euro. A cone of fried calamari is 13 euros, one tapas of bread and baby
eels, 3 euros. We’d originally wanted to buy dinner here, but after the sticker
shock, we headed out in hunt of the local supermarkets.
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| Mercado de San Miguel |
These mushrooms are 54 euro/kilo. Crazy expensive! No wonder the mushroom dishes here taste so good!
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| Iberico! |
Spain's known for its seafood:
Like baby eels:
Angel really wanted to buy this pistachio candy, but it's 2 euro per piece. Dang, this market is freaking expensive!
The big daddy of supermarkets here is Carrefour Market on Calle Valencia. It’s massive, cheap and there’s at least fifty brands of cheese, probably the same amount of different jamons to try out, AND (for those of us stuck with CA prices) 20 eggs are only 2 euros! Just look at the massive variety of jamon here!
Our haul:
Since we’re going on a day trip tomorrow, we’re so stocking
up. A lot of Carrefour’s cheese and jamons are 1 euro/package, so we bought a
shitload of stuff. The grand total? Only 28 euros. The same quality of stuff in
the US would go for $100 easy.
Dinner in our cozy apartment:
Of course, no meal can be complete without wine. The Tempranillo wine from Lidl was only 2.49 euro! There was a bottle for 0.59 euro--yeah, you didn't read that wrong, but this one looked more enticing.
On the back of wine bottles in Spain, a lot of them
designate how dry or sweet they are in a scale of 1-4, 1 being dry, 4 being
sweet. Angel and I were worried that this bottle was a 1 because we all don’t
like dry reds. If this is a 1, I’m really interested in what constitutes a 4
because on my scale, it’s a 2.5-3 in sweetness. Is 4 a port? I’m curious to
know! The Tempranillo was delicious; definitely something that’d go for $40+ in
the States.
We bought a rather unique looking cheese that I thought was
in the vein of paneer because it had that unique soft, lumpy look to it:
The label read “Tarta queso.” We paired it with jamon Serrano and Iberico cheese for dinner, but as it turns out, it’s a sweet cheese! Or it’s a cheesecake—certainly tasted like the Japanese cheesecake Taiwanese people are always raving about.
Dai is a chain of supermarkets that specialize in small,
compact storefronts. The prices are reasonable, but not much in the way of
selection. We went to Lidl too, which we liked in Germany. The one in
Madrid is pretty posh, but also not much in selection. Dia has their own chocolate:
We ate dinner around 10pm, which we’d never do at home, but
we didn’t get back until 9-ish. That’s pretty much been the gist of this entire
trip. Somehow we always think it’ll be an early night, and yet we don’t get to
sleep until 1-2am.
Our dinner was the perfect end to a long day of train ride
from Seville to here, checking in, and exploring the city. After I showered and
sat down with Angel and Mom to eat, I just kept thinking how lovely the
apartment is, how great the food is, and how lucky and thankful I am to experience
these wonderful cities with my family.
Angel really likes Seville because she thinks it’s Venice
without the Italians with good food and cheap prices (she's still thinking of Seville). It’s not very touristy in
the sense that there’s no tourist stands trying to shove products down your
face. The weather was nice, the ambiance charming, the food divine.
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