La Barriga Llena

One late Saturday night, Ange, I and a few of her school friends headed out to silence our growling stomachs. Venturing to Chueca, one of my favorite neighborhoods to eat in in Madrid, we ended up at La Barriga Llena, a Mexican place whose name guaranteed an end to our hunger: “la barriga llena” translates to “a full belly,” something we were all desperate to have.

Since it was 11:30 p.m., standard supper time in Spain, we knew there would be a wait, but we happily shared a bottle of wine to make the time pass. Thirty somewhat foggy minutes later, we were led downstairs to the small room that seemed full of fellow Americans. I immediately gravitated to my Mexican go-to: fully-loaded nachos. Reed agreed to share them with me for an appetizer, and I was a happy camper. But, as my eyes are so often bigger than my stomach, I also ordered a tomato-based soup.

After torturously awaiting our food, watching savory looking dishes fly by to other tables, our food eventually arrived and we promptly dug in. Our nachos were beautifully traditional. Warm corn tortilla chips, sweet, smoky meat chile, guacamole, salsa, drippy, tangy cheese and hot chile peppers all piled up on a plate of messy deliciousness. It had been so long since I had had Mexican food and this definitely met my overdue expectations.

My one complaint, which isn’t only to this particular plate of nachos, but plates of nachos in general, is that the chile was on the bottom, making it nearly impossible to enjoy immediately. My perfect nacho has a little bit of all the flavors on one chip, and chile is a hugely important component. Depriving the chip of the chile is just sad.

After satisfying my nacho craving, I moved on to the soup. It was an oily tomato-based broth, accompanied by cheese, mushrooms, tortilla strips, avocado chunks and something else. I really have absoluuuutely no idea what it was, but I’ll do my best to describe it. All I can say is that it was black, crunchy and tasted like charcoal … needless to say, I didn’t add that to the soup. The broth was a little spicy for my palette, but once I added all the sides, it calmed the heat down to where it only accentuated the flavors. It was a good soup, but a little too greasy, as you can see from the fat floating on top.

La Barriga Llena was a fun atmostphere with straightforward Mexican food. Nothing too fancy, but still yummy.

La Barriga Llena, http://www.lapanzaesprimero.com/, C/ Libertad 31, Madrid, Spain

Los Galayos

Think Spanish food, and you think paella; it’s just inevitable. This risotto-like, saffron-infused rice mixed with meat, seafood and vegetables is a classic Castellano dish that has to be explored if in Spain. And since I was, I had my fair share of paella. But I waited until my family came to pay for the good stuff (is that so bad?), which is when we headed to Los Galayos, just off Plaza Mayor in the old section of Madrid.

They had an extensive menu, in more than five languages, of traditional Spanish food, but we stuck with the paella. As in most Spanish restaurants, the paella could be ordered for a minimum of two people, which was no problem as our table of eight all ordered it. We wanted it all, so we opted for the mixed version, which came with chicken, prawns, mussels, calamari and a white fish, as well as assorted vegetables like peas and green beans.

 

Seafood and fish paella

The flavor was spot-on. We squeezed lemon on top to add an acidic touch to the savory dish. The prawns and peas added a sweet flavor, while the saffron gave the lovely, deep yellow hue to the rice. We made sure to scrape from the bottom of the pan, where the flavor was caked onto the pan; eating those crunchy bits are by far the best part.

We also had the more adventurous black rice paella, which is flavored and colored black with squid ink. It really is delicious and has a buttery flavor. If you’re in the mood to try something new, I would give it a try.

Los Galayos delivered exactly what we were hoping for: simple, traditional, delicious paella.

 

Los Galayos, www.losgalayos.net, C/ Botoneras 5, Madrid, Spain

Revuelta

I’m not really sure why I’m trying in the land of bread and ham, but I’m doing my best to keep Passover in Spain. For those of you not following, Passover is the Jewish holiday celebrating when the Jews fled enslavement in Egypt, having no time to bring anything to eat except unleavened bread. So, hundreds of years later, we Jews commorate this victory by forgoing all bread products for eight days. There are virtually no Jews in Madrid, so no one really seems to get it. My señora, the woman I live with, is continually offering me pizza and cookies, despite my constant reminders that I can’t eat that right now.  Which is how we ended up at Revuelta.

It was Holy Thursday, the Thursday leading up to Easter, and my señora insisted on taking me to get the best bacalao in Madrid before the famous Semana Santa processions. “Of course I want to try the best bacalao in Madrid!” I exclaimed, “Thank you so much!” Or, I mean, “Por supuesto quiero probar el mejor bacalao en Madrid! Muchas gracias!” It was very generous of her to offer to take me out to eat, and I was excited by this offer. Revuelta ended up being just around the corner from our apartment; we arrived quickly and had to push our way through the Madrileños for a coveted spot at the bar. “Two orders of bacalao!” my señora shouted. We prompty received our order, and I was absolutely horrified to see this:

Fried temptation

I hadn’t realized the bacalao would be BREADED and fried. It was Passover, and I was doing so well! I couldn’t break now–but it looked so good. I forced myself to turn to her and say I couldn’t eat it. She didn’t understand; I wasn’t sure I did either. It just looked so good. But I bravely tore away the fried casing and ate the bacalao inside. From what I tasted, I believe my señora that it’s the best bacalao around. The fish, which can easily become so dry, was tender and juicy. And, luckily, still had the leftover flavor of the fried outside. I can’t wait for this holiday to end so I can go back…!

My senora, Paz, or Peace, felt so bad that she insisted on ordering something I could properly eat. I chose the toresnos, or yummy little fried pork cubes. They’re not for everyone–they’re basically fried until they have an extremely hard, crunchy exterior, with soft, fatty meat inside. They’re a great little snack, though, and go quite nicely with some nice cold cerveza, more commonly known as beer.

Basically...fried pork fat

Revuelta hasn’t seen the last of me … I will get that bacalao!

Revuelta, La Latina, Madrid, Spain

Calcuta

When I told my friend Daniella that I had never had Indian food before, she couldn’t believe it. “But you have a food blog!” she said. “You HAVE to try Indian!” So off we went to Calcuta in Madrid’s Lavapies neighborhood, which houses most Indian and ethnic restaurants. Now I have nothing against Indian cuisine, I just had never sought it out before (probably due to my aversion to curry). I figured I’d try it when someone took me to an Indian restaurant.

While perusing the menu, we were presented with crunchy flat bread and two dipping sauces. One was a medley of onions, cucumbers and scallions in a sort of creamy-mayonaissey sauce. The other was a minty cream sauce with a variety of herbs mixed in. The minty sauce wasn’t for me, so I munched on the onion salsa as I pretended to understand the menu.

Munchies

I had no idea what to order or what most things meant, so I let my friends take the reins. They ordered various chicken dishes, like tikka and tikka masala, and chose a spinach dish for me. The server asked me if I’d like naan or rice with that, and considering I had no idea what naan was, I chose the rice. I didn’t know what to expect from my order, whether I’d love it or hate it, but I was excited to try something new. When it came out, I was pleasantly surprised to discover that it was a sort of creamed spinach with melted cheese blocks mixed in. Combined with the blandness of the rice, it was a delicious meal. Creamy and sweet from the, well, cream, yet tangy from the cheese and bitter from the spinach. And the rice had various herbs on it which only contributed to the flavor explosion.

My first foray into Indian

I also stole some of my friends’ garlic naan and dipped that into the creamed spinach, which was also delicious. In fact so delicious, that I proceeded to finish their naan. The garlic combined well with the flavors, and the sweet bread was a nicer texture with the creamy dish than the rice. I’ll know to order naan in the future.

After the meal, our server offered us complimentary shots–a nice finishing touch. But my goodwill buzz toward him only lasted so long. When we got the check, we realized that the rice and naan was not included in the price of our meal, yet our server had asked us which one we wanted with each of our dishes. To me, when a server asks that, it means it comes with the dish. But, it was still relatively cheap, so no big deal.

So how was my first Indian experience? Pretty damn good! I’m ready to try again.

Our deceptively friendly server

Calcuta, Madrid, Spain

Bocaito

My friend Ange and I were looking for a break from the (delicious) monotony of tapas, so we consulted our guide books and headed to Chueca, Madrid’s gay neighborhood, for some sushi delights. On the way, we passed Bocaito, the tapas restaurant one of our books claimed as the best in Madrid. I pointed it out excitedly to Ange, eager to return another night. We continued our journey for sushi, only to find that since the guide book had been published, our original destination had been converted into none other than a … tapas bar! So we turned right around and headed for Bocaito.

The front tapas bar was packed when we arrived, so we ordered some house white wine and munched on salty, spicy olives soaked in chili pepper oil as we waited for a table to open up. Smiling down on us from pictures on the walls were various celebrities that have dined at Bocaito–we toasted to Penelope Cruz, Sandra Bullock and Hugh Grant. The wait was pleasant; as we chatted, the people around us downed tapas and smoked their lives away.

Busy Bee Bartenders

The friendly hostess seated us after about fifteen minutes, and she was nice enough to note that we were Americans and offer us the English version of the menu–which proved extremely helpful. Ange and I scoured the menu, trying to find the best options at the cheap(er) prices. I settled on smoked crab on toast, while Ange chose bacalao on toast. We shared mushrooms sauteed with garlic and oil.

Savory Hongos (Mushrooms)

The mushrooms came out first and didn’t last long; they were salty, soft and savory–the garlic perfectly complemented the earthy mushroom flavor. We next tried our respective toasts. Mine was pretty plain and a little disappointing. The toast was a good balance between crunchy and soft, but the crab was cold and didn’t taste smoky at all. Ange’s bacalao toasts were much fishier and had more flavor, but they still weren’t worthy of the “best tapas bar in Madrid” recommendation. Luckily, we had our leftover garlic oil to dip them in, which greatly improved their flavor.

Crab toast :/

As we nibbled on our disappointing second round of food, we noticed plates of scrumptious-looking entrees and tapas flying past us and wondered where we had gone wrong. We decided Bocaito is worth another try, so we’ll be back in the future to toast Penelope, Sandra and Hugh again.

Food we were soo jealous of!

A couple of notes about eating in Spanish restaurants:

1) Don’t expect American-level service. It is not normal to tip in restaurants, so servers don’t need to work as hard for their money. I’m usually a stickler about good service, but I’ve needed to drop that in Spain. Unless you’re at the top restaurants, you gotta move on.

2) Be really sure you want those extra carbs. Restaurants will charge up to 3€ PER PIECE of bread. So before you go reaching for that bread basket, ask yourself, “Is it worth it?”

3) Drink up. According to Madrileños, their water is the best in Spain, if not Europe. Yet for some reason, restaurants are hesitant to serve it to you. If you don’t want to pay extra for every bottle of water, make sure you specify that you want water from the tap.

Bocaito, www.bocaito.com, Calle de Libertad 4-6, Madrid, Spain

El Tigre

Hola from Madrid! I’m studying here for a semester so my posts for the next few months will be from around this beautiful city! Being a struggling college student and all, since I got here two weeks ago all I’ve been hearing much about is this cheap tapas bar in the gay district of Madrid (Chueca) that I just had to check out. The deal seemed to be that for the price of a cerveza (beer, and only 1 euro), you get yourself a teeming plate of food to boot. It just seemed too good to be true, so the first chance we got, a couple of friends and I headed over to check El Tigre out for ourselves. We went prepared for the worst–we had heard tales of standing elbow to elbow with other patrons as you eat and trying to precariously balance your cerveza, food and coat.

But that’s the thing about preparing for the worst–it’s usually better than expected, which was the case at El Tigre. Yes, it was extremely crowded and smoky (it’s legal to smoke in restaurants, bars, basically everywhere in Madrid), but we somehow lucked out and scored one of the few tables after squeezing through the rowdy crowd. The six of us packed around a tiny table and looked around us at stuffed deer heads and other manly bar decor. The waiter came over, we ordered our cervezas and excitedly awaited our feast.

Two minutes later we had huge plates of bread with jamón ibérico and spanish tortilla on top. We immediately devoured those and had patatas bravas (fried potatoes with spicy red sauce and mayonaisse) plopped down on the table. Those were finished with record speed, as well, and we moved on to ham and cheese croquetas. We hoped more food would come, but it seemed that was the maximum food we would get from our first round of cervezas. No worries, though, we ordered another. The same amount of food came out, but we were a little disappointed that it was the same food as before.

I tried to take a picture before everyone dug in, but it was impossible…hence all you see is the leftover patata bravas sauce and half a ham & cheese croquette.

The food was nothing to rave about, but it certainly wasn’t bad. And for the price we paid, I didn’t expect five-star cuisine. It was all fresh, though, and hearty food typical of Madrid. If you’re in Madrid and want a quick, cheap meal and an unforgettable experience, El Tigre is the way to go.

Corrado Bread & Pastry Café

I stumbled upon Corrado Bread & Pastry Café by hungry accident. I was on an errand for my boss and absolutely starving, so I stopped into this cute, delightful sandwich & pastry café for a desperate bite to eat. I knew I hit the jackpot right when I walked in by the size of the line that wrapped around the tiny space.

Display that drew me in

I took my spot in line, and while I waited I checked out all their offerings: traditional and unique sandwiches, colorful salads, a variety of fresh baked bread, pastries galore and several coffee & espresso drinks. Everywhere I looked there was exotic cheeses, exquisite meats and flaky bread.

scrumptious smorgasbord!

By the time it was my turn to order, I had barely finished reviewing the plentiful options, but I ended up settling on a roast beef sandwich on rye bread with horseradish sauce, dijon mustard, provolone cheese and tomatoes. The roast beef was perfectly red and tender, and the horseradish sauce and dijon mustard added great tangy, spicy flavor. And though there were so many good pastries to choose from, I decided to only get a mini blueberry tart. The pastry was flaky and buttery, and the blueberries were sweet and soft. There was a layer of raspberry sauce, which was a nice complementary flavor. 

cute baby tart

Corrado Bread & Pastry Café was a lucky, on-the-go find that I hope to return to soon. There are several locations in NYC–I’d check for one in your neighborhood, because Corrado is the perfect place to pick up some decadent breakfast, presentable desserts and delicious lunches.

Corrado Bread & Pastry Café, www.corradobread.com, multiple locations in NY, NY

Magnolia Bakery

I’m not sure what started the cupcake craze, but Magnolia Bakery in NYC has risen to the top of the cupcake bakeries that have sprung up across the city. Another thing I’m not sure of–why Magnolia Bakery is regarded as so great. I’d been wanting to try one of their famous, huge creations for a while after people had praised Magnolia to the moon, so when the magazine I worked at this summer had some cupcakes delivered, I was really excited to finally be in on the secret.

Magnolia’s standard cupcake comes in vanilla or chocolate buttermilk with vanilla frosting on top available in a variety of colors.

Behold...the cupcakes!

The one I tried was vanilla with purple frosting, and, as you can see, had a cute little daisy on top. Turns out, though, looking at the cupcake was the best part of the experience. I bit in and was immediately assaulted by the disgustingly thick layer of frosting on top. Maybe they put so much, though, to disguise the fact that the cake was so dry that it crumbled everywhere. Needless to say, it didn’t work–I took one bite and didn’t finish the rest, which still left a substantial cupcake behind. I finally had my Magnolia experience, and once was enough for me.

Magnolia Bakery, www.magnoliacupcakes.com, multiple locations in NY, NY

Shun Lee

It’s official: I’ve tried alligator. Yes, alligator. And it’s all thanks to my NYC native friend Ian who brought me to Shun Lee, an upscale Chinese eatery in Manhattan. It wasn’t even on the menu, but when this insider asked our server for alligator, it was no problem. I’m not sure how to describe it–it had a chewy, slightly squishy texture. I wasn’t able to get a good taste of its true flavor because, since we were in a Chinese restaurant and all, it was slathered in a sweet, brown sauce. The alligator paled our other dish, cutely named “Neptune’s Net,” which included lobster, shrimp, scallops and sea bass sauteed together in a thick, salty, white sauce.

Sampling

Ian has raved about Shun Lee to me on several occasions, and this trip gave me a chance to judge it first-hand. It’s definitely authentic, and better than your average, greasy, fast Chinese joint. But Shun Lee is also MUCH more expensive. A simple chicken fried rice goes for $18, and that’s among the cheapest entrees. I suppose, though, that you also pay for location, decor, service and presentation, all of which are a lot nicer than a typical take-out Chinese restaurant.

Dining Room

Ian said this is where his family goes to eat Chinese together, and I think that Shun Lee is a perfect venue for a Chinese family meal. Cause then your parents are paying!

Shun Lee, http://www.shunleepalace.com, 43 West 65th Street, NY, NY, 212-769-3888

Pinkberry

Pinkberry, a minimalist frozen yogurt shop, has somehow taken our nation by storm. Seemingly overnight, American Express commercials featuring this start-up were interrupting my favorite Food Network shows (shout out to Iron Chef America obsessives) and all my Los Angeles friends could ask me was if I had yet tried Pinkberry.

Since I’m not often in LA and spend the year in Boston, I’m almost never near a Pinkberry, which only has locations in LA and NY. So when, on my last day this summer in NYC, I passed a Pinkberry, I simply had to stop and see what all the fuss was about. Pinkberry offers three frozen yogurt flavors: original, coffee and green tea. I went for the original, which is plain yogurt flavored, and chose two toppings from their classic offerings.

Fruity goodness

candy choices

Since it was a nice summer day and all, I opted for mangos and blueberries — a fabulous creation if I do say so myself! Their other fruit choices include kiwis, raspberries, pineapple, blackberries, bananas, blueberries and strawberries. And for those candy lovers out there, Pinkberry’s got you covered. They offer Cap’N Crunch, yogurt chips, almonds, cookies & cream, carob chips, coconut, granola, chocolate chips, Fruity Pebbles and Coco Pebbles. May not be your run-of-the-mill sprinkles or Reeses Pieces, but these somewhat healthier options make sense when you think where Pinkberry was founded: crunchy, health-conscious LA.

The End Product

So was Pinkberry worth the $6 I shelled out for it? I suppose as a last-day-in-NYC kind of thing. And it was definitely worth prolonging packing. I liked the plain, cheesey flavor of the frozen yogurt, although I minded that my mangos and blueberries weren’t quite ripe. What I don’t mind, though, is that there are no locations in Boston. Pinkberry seems more like a hyped-up trend that you’ve gotta try once than a dessert place that becomes a fixture.

Pinkberry, http://www.pinkberry.com/html/pbmain.php, several locations in LA, CA and NY, NY