After a whole day of sightseeing, shopping and watching a fascinating football game with nothing to eat except peanuts (okay, so they were sunflower seeds) I was starving. Thank God that we still had a dinner ahead. When in Spain do as the Spanish, so dinner was at 9pm. We met the others who had been shopping in the meantime at the restaurant Villa Paramesa. Everyone was starving by this time so I have no pictures of the first two courses that we ordered.
But the rest of the tapas is well documented in pictures and they were as good as they looked. My personal revelation was the ceviche in a caramelized seaweed boot on a bed of sesame seeds. It produced an explosion of flavors in my mouth. All the others were amazing as well, it’s just that this dish was outstanding to me. To see the dessert miracle egg, please click here.
By the time we were done with dinner it was almost midnight and like Cinderella our host and one of us vanished to their respective destinations but not before we all tasted the “nightlife” of Madrid. We others then embarked on a “bar tour” which ended already after the first one. The bar of Javier Bardem, La Bardemcilla, was as good as any for a last drink that night but nothing special. Maybe because Javier was not working the bar that night (if ever?). Turning home and ready to go to bed we were in for a surprise when our host was already back at the house and up to no good. We all sat down in living room and got huge “copas” to share full of G&T (have you noticed how I tend to drink more and more of G&T? If it was good for Queen Mum then it can’t be bad for me.) Of course once the copas were empty it was way past bed time.
Therefore the next morning started late, so late actually that I have to call our breakfast brunch. It was delicious nonetheless but characterized by a certain urgency to leave the house. Not just we wanted to get into the city, also our host wanted to do some sport. When we finally arrived downtown, we split up in three groups. One went on the Hop on- Hop off bus tour which was good but would have been better on the first day, one went to see a museum and Cat and I decided to go for a walk which ended of course quite soon at a lovely spot.
At Matute we got drinks and olives. But we wouldn’t be us if we didn’t order something else. We settled on the ceviche after a short discussion. It was the perfect combination of fish, seafood, lemon and herbs. So good in fact that we finished the sauce with the bread. Yummy!
Thus fortified we made our way through the city to our meeting point at the Choclatería San Gines. Here we got the obligatory hot chocolate and a portion of churros to share and it was more than enough. Hot, sweet and greasy this really junks up your stomach, so you do good to share it.
And with this last snack our visit of Madrid was over. It is really the perfect place to go for a long weekend. So much to see and so much to taste! Plus we were extraordinarily lucky with the weather, but what can I say….when angels travel! Yours, Pollybert
