08 September 2010

Madrid Tales - Part 1

Mercado de San Miguel


Jamon Iberico


Palacio Real


The gardens at Palacio Real


Stunning architecture 


La Violeta Bombones


Violet Sweets


The English version (which we love by the way)


Boutique Oriol Balaguer


Some of Oriol's product


Fantastic local dishes at Maceira


Restaurant Botin - Famous for two things, suckling pig......


........and it's the oldest restaurant in the world!


Well it is great to be back in Europe and Spain in particular! It is steaming hot here in Madrid at the moment but we are settled and have already had some amazing moments in this city. As you know we are over on consultancy and we will post some information on this in our next post. We have been eating the finest Galician seafood and enjoyed a couple of stunning glasses of wine. Our first stop as soon as we landed was a trip to Mercado de San Miguel, Madrid's equivalent to Barcelona's La Boqueria. Although it is not as vast as the Catalonian version, it is still a special place and we tried some of the famous Jamon which we have been missing after last years trip to Barcelona. Chef Adam Melonas of Madrid Lab was our guide and he took us through this beautiful city on foot and the architecture is stunning. The Palace is spectacular as are the immaculate gardens and everywhere you walk there is something historic and interesting to see. We stumbled upon a cute violet sweet shop and the smell reminded us of violet sweets as a child. On the other end of the pastry spectrum we visited Oriol Balaguer's Madrid boutique and the fit out and packaging (not to mention product) were very impressive.
Lunch was Almejas en Salsa de Albarino (Bi-valve clams in local white wine sauce), and Pulpo a la Gallega (local octopus dish) at restaurant Maceira. This place is always busy and produces stunning simple, traditional dishes at an amazingly low price, we were full but squeezed in a few sweet things to end. So we have had time to settle and work started Sunday on our project, this will be a very informative and innovative period for us and we are relishing the coming month here. Possible trips to London and Barcelona may be necessary and we will update you as and when this happens. Tomorrow we will post as much as we can on our work at Chef Paco Rochero's lab at Casino de Madrid which has been hired for the month, but confidentiality means it will be an ambiguous overview. Check out the links below to what we have seen already and check back regularly for a more in depth analysis of food and pastry in this magical city.

http://www.mercadodesanmiguel.es/
San Miguel Market

http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palacio_Real_de_Madrid
Madrid Palace

http://www.lavioleta.es/
La Violeta

http://www.oriolbalaguer.com/
Oriol Balaguer

http://madrid.salir.com/maceiras_huertas
Restaurant Maceiras

http://www.botin.es/web/?q=en
Restaurant Botin

http://www.casinodemadrid.es/sp/gastronomia/rest_terraza/index.htm
La Terraza at Casino de Madrid

3 comments:

Duffy said...

Thanks so much for sharing! The food sounds amazing, the photos look spectacular and I can't wait to read about what you've been up to in your next post!

Darren Purchese said...

Pleasure! Glad you enjoyed it - look out for more in the next few days or so!

Leigh said...

I spent last year living in Madrid so this was so nostalgic for me! Mercado de San Miguel was one of my favorite spots in the city--I probably ate lunch and went "tapeando" there 100 times! I also visited Barcelona twice and loved the enormous Boquería, but I personally think the quality of food at San Miguel beats la Boquería's any day of the week. Loved that you featured it on your blog. ME ENCANTA MADRID!