The Urban Foodie: June 2010

Friday, 4 June 2010

Gazetteer: Mercado de San Miguel, Madrid

Mercado de San Miguel is a real foodie haven in the middle of Madrid, and was a real find. A historic Art Nouveau covered market that dates back from 1911, the Mercado is now teeming with sellers, purveyors and food stalls selling hot squid ink and salt cod croquettas, oysters from the Atlantic coast and a dizzying array of delicious pintxos served with glasses of bubbling Cava. There are also specialist stores selling Jamon, Bread and pastries, wine fruits and vegetables (including Cacao pods) and a fishmonger selling the famous Percebes from Galicia, as well as all sorts of sea urchins, crustacea and flat fish.
Well worth checking out if you are in Madrid, it gets very busy at the weekend and at lunchtimes.

Thursday, 3 June 2010

Blogspotting and falling behind

For those of you that follow my erratic blogging, I have to apologise for not updating the stream of colour and food porn voyeurism that I so love to engage myself with. I'm conscious it's been a while, but work demands and a birthday that has come and gone have kept me way from writing and posting up photos. I have added a few posts from a trip to Madrid, and have more to come. And not just travel stuff, recipes too...
I hope you like what I post, or continue to post.. feel free to say hi!
Steven

Thomas Schutte at Museo Reina Sofia

Tapas at La Casa del Abuelo

Wednesday, 2 June 2010

Tapas at La Casa del Abuelo

I found this place near to my hotel in Madrid, it was around 10.30pm and my friend Sebastian and I decided to stop, take a look inside and have tapas here. It was packed, and we waited ages for a table - pressed tantalisingly against the counter, watching plate after plate of delicious morsels be assembled, and waft past our eyes. After a long wait we sat hungry and light-headed from the Rose wine, and greedily ordered lots of dishes from the menu.
From peering over the counter, I could see so many delicious treats, all lined up in dishes ready to be eaten: plump prawns in their raincoats, fresh seasonal asparagus, crab claws, oily chorizo, pink prawns from the Mediterranean, squid, Iberico ham, and plates of crisply fried Patatas Bravas.

CaixaForum - Madrid

This is the stunning CaixaForum building in Madrid, built by the architects Herzog & DeMeuron.

MUSINGS AND QUOTES ON FOOD

"My weaknesses have always been food and men, in that order."

Dolly Parton

"Fish, to taste right, must swim three times - in water, in butter, and in wine."

Polish Proverb

"A fruit is a vegetable with looks and money. Plus, if you let fruit rot, it turns into wine, something Brussels sprouts never do."

P.J. O'Rourke

"An empty belly is the best cook."

Estonian Proverb

"A gourmet who thinks of calories is like a tart who looks at her watch."

James Beard

"The smell and taste of things remain poised a long time, like souls, ready to remind us...."
Marcel Proust

"When the girl returned, some hours later, she carried a tray, with a cup of fragrant tea steaming on it; and a plate piled up with very hot buttered toast, cut thick, very brown on both sides, with the butter running through the holes in it in great golden drops, like honey from the honeycomb. The smell of that buttered toast simply talked to Toad, and with no uncertain voice; talked of warm kitchens, of breakfasts on bright frosty mornings, of cosy parlour firesides on winter evenings, when one's ramble was over and slippered feet were propped on the fender, of the purring of contented cats, and the twitter of sleepy canaries."
The Wind in the Willows, by Kenneth Grahame

"People are more violently opposed to fur than leather because it is safer to harrass rich women than motorcycle gangs."
Unknown

"Scallops are expensive, so they should be treated with some class. But then, I suppose that every creature that gives his life for our table should be treated with class."
Jeff Smith, The Frugal Gourmet

"Never eat more than you can lift.."
Miss Piggy, Diva.

"The squid is so cooperative. Its body forms a tube that can be stuffed with marvelous fillings. You don't have to be Greek to enjoy this one. "
Jeff Smith, The Frugal Gourmet

"The joys of the table belong equally to all ages, conditions, countries and times; they mix with all other pleasures, and remain the last to console us for their loss."
Jean Antheleme Brillet-Savarin, The Physiology of Taste