El Rincón

By Ali Abramson

For those of you with an appreciation for candy, El Rincón should be right up there with the Palacio Real (Royal Palace) and the Museo del Prado (Prado Museum) for places to see when visiting Madrid. El Rincón ("The Corner") is a self-serve candy store with multiple locations around Madrid. Whether you're just craving some old familiar sweets like gummy bears and chocolate-covered peanuts or you want to try some candy native to Spain like gummy ham hocks (pata de jamón) or cream-filled licorice (regaliz con nata... my personal favorite), this is the place to go. If you're more of a savory snacker, they also have all sorts of nuts, chips, and trail mixes that you wouldn't normally find in the States... all self-serve so you can pick-and-mix to your liking. Just want to pick up a fresh baguette and a cold drink to go? Yep, they've got that too.

El Rincón is the perfect stop to get you through a long day of sight-seeing. And consider it a cultural experience... as I doubt you'd find gummy ham-hocks anywhere outside of the Iberian peninsula.

Cien Montaditos

By Chuche

If you're looking for a quick, cheap, delicious little bite to eat... Cien Montaditos is the way to go. Montaditos are mini-baguette sandwiches (about 4 inches long). And Cien Montaditos has over 100 varieties of these little sandwiches. Each of them vary between 1Euro>1.75 Euro, and worth every centimo.

 They give you a menu to fill out at your table and you bring it up to the counter. I usually get about 4 montaditos to fill me up... but you can always order more. And they are accompanied by a hefty pile of potato chips. Yum!

 My faves: Salmon & Filadelphia (cream cheese), Tortilla de Patatas & Queso Brie (spanish tortilla and brie cheese), Carne Mechada y Mojo Picón (some kind of slow-cooked beef with a spicy sauce). I guess this is considered fast food in Spain, but you don't walk away from there feeling like you do after a Big Mac.

They've even started to have healthier options, and offer pan integral (whole wheat bread) with all sandwiches. There are multiple locations throughout Madrid and the good thing is they are open all day long, in case you're like most tourists looking for someplace to eat outside of the normal Spanish meal times. Enjoy!

Cocido madrileño (Madrilene stew)

Cocido madrileño is a traditional chickpea-based stew from Madrid, although we can find cocidos in other parts of Spain. It´s prepared with vegetables, potatoes and meat and it´s quite popular during winter, but served year-long in restaurants.

The dish was probably created during the Middle Ages as an evolution of a Sephardic -Spanish Jewish- dish called adafaina. The importance of the Spanish Inquisition -during the 15th and 16th centuries- modified substantially the dish because people wanted to prove themselves as christians eating pork in their meals. As a result bacon, chorizo (pork sausage) or morcilla (blood sausage) were added to the dish.

The main ingredient is the chickpea -garbanzo- along with potatoes, cabbage, carrots, and turnips. Usually bone pieces are added to enrich the stew. The final touch is the bola, a meatball-like mix of ground beef, bread crumbs, parsley and other spices, which, it is said, was created as a substitute of the eggs used in the adafaina.

Foto wikipedia.org

Tipping in Spain

Tipping in bars and restaurants in Spain is not like tipping in the States, AT ALL. You just tip what you want to tip. No one is going to think you are cheap. No worries. Just enjoy the tapa.

Spaniards leave what ever's left over when the waiter gives the change back (just coins though). Bar tenders and waiters do not rely on tips for making a living. So you don´t have to expect the fake smile that you have to see a lot of times at home. Say no to the TGI Friday´s culture!



Remember: The American 20% tipping scale is only for the States...

Sobrino de Botin (restaurant)

Sobrino de Botin

is a restaurant established in 1725 and is located very close to Plaza Mayor. It was founded by a French cook called Jean Botín, his nephew took his place when Botín died and that´s why the name of the restaurant (The Nephew of Botin). It is listed by the Guinness Book of Records as the oldest restaurant currently in Madrid and the rest of the world.

They say that a young Francisco Goya worked there as a waiter while he was waiting to get a place at Madrid's Real Academia de las Artes. The Sobrino de Botin also gets a mention in Ernest Hemingway's novel, The Sun Also Rises (1926): "We lunched upstairs at Botin's, it is one of the best restaurants in the world. We had roast young suckling pig and drunk rioja alta". Then again in Death in the Afternoon (1932) he writes, "I would rather dine on suckling pig at Botin's than sit and think of casualties my friends have suffered". 

The Sobrino and its speciality of cochinillo asado (roast suckling pig) are mentioned in the closing pages of Ernest Hemingway's novel, The Sun Also Rises.

Its other signature dish is sopa de ajo (an egg, poached in chicken broth, and laced with sherry and garlic): a favourite pick-me-up with Madrileño revellers.

Contact Info:

http://www.botin.es
botin@restaurantebotin.com

Address: Cuchilleros, 17 Madrid 28005
Spain

Tel: 34 91 366 42 17

Fax: 34 913 668 494



photo madridpedia.com

Chocolate con Churros in Madrid

Chocolate con churros is a popular breakfast (although you can have it at anytime) food in Madrid and Spain. Since the dough isn´t very sweet you should have them with "real" chocolate, thick Spanish hot chocolate. Although some people like to have their churros with café con leche. You can also order porras that are thicker than churros.

It´s common for Spaniards to have an order of hot chocolate and churros on their way home after a night out. In Madrid the classic Chocolatería San Ginés is a popular destination not only for its taste but also for its location and hours, because it´s open all night long.

Chocolatería San Ginés - Metro: Sol, Opera. Pasadizo San Ginés 5. Madrid

foto madridpedia.com

Tapas

Saturday evening. It´s time to decide where to go tonight and I only have a single thought: tapas. When you live abroad you have pros and cons. Among the last ones, the food.

I live in the States and I see "tapas" restaurants everywhere but flavours aren´t the same ones and the places and people... You just need to go to Madrid and just visit some of the "bares" around Plaza Mayor.

Starbucks in Madrid

If you arent´t ready to taste real ;) coffee and you would like to get some at Starbucks, you can look for one of the more than 40 stores that Madrid has.

In Spain, Starbuck is owned by the original company and VIPS, a Spanish chain, that ownes restaurants like VIPS, The Wok, TGI Friday´s, Ginos...

Traditional squid sandwich

The picture shows one of the typical "dishes" of Madrid cuisine. Obviously you can´t fish squid in Madrid, but the fish and the sea food in the capital city of Spain are quite fresh. It´s brought from the coast every night so madrileños can buy and enjoy fresh fish the very next morning.

Bocata de Calamares (squid sandwich) is a really cheap speciality. For 3 euros you can have one in many places around Plaza Mayor. You should have it with a beer -"caña"-.