Mercado de San Miguel and Restaurant Botin

I'm sure I have said it before, but one of my favourite things to do is visit markets. Not only does it give you a great idea of what is fresh, local and in season, but seeing what locals are buying and cooking is a great way to understand the cuisine of a new place. So that's what I decided to do next in Madrid.

I had heard about an old market that had been closed down and renovated to be almost like a food court, but with a great selection of fresh produce to choose from. The Mercado de San Miguel is based on an idea I haven't seen before.


No row upon row of the same thing over and over again, but a spacious area designed for eating and selecting food from one of the specialty providers that surround it.

Mostly there is one of each type of stall, there is a seafood bar selling fresh and cooked seafood.


Another stand sells oysters, priced by size and shucked to order.


Not far away is a deli that sells small rolls with various jamons and other meats for 1 Euro each.


A cheese stall not far away sells samples on bread for 1 Euro each and there are a couple of wine shops selling wine by the glass. This is a great way to put together a lunch full of variety and try several different things.



You then take your plate and find a seat at a table or bench (or wherever you can) and enjoy your food.


For dessert you have a couple of options, there is a cake shop selling some great looking slices of cake and a selection which makes it very hard to make up your mind.


Also, for all my chocolate loving readers, there is a whole shop full of it.


This market is reasonably expensive as far as markets go, but this is more like a combination of a market and a food court which sells incredibly fresh and high quality food.

The next restaurant on my list is, according to Guinness World Records, the oldest operating restaurant in the world. Casa Botin in Madrid has been operating continuously since 1725, almost 300 years. Their specialty is cochinillo asado -Roast Suckling Pig, something I was very much looking forward to.


Walking into the restaurant is almost like walking back in time, they obviously focus very much on keeping the feel of history and tradition alive.


As delicious as that jamon looks, I wasn't here for that. Walking down the stairs into one of the various dining rooms, I had to watch my head on the low ceilings. Looking at the menu, the house menu of Gazpacho, Suckling Pig and Ice cream seemed like the way to go.

The bread and Sangria arrived first.


The gazpacho came out as a bowl of plain, cold soup and the waiter brought around a tray of garnishes to add to it, including cucumber, peppers, tomato and bread.


Bursting with bright, fresh, summer flavours, this was a great cold soup and a delicious was to start a summer dinner in Madrid.

Next came the star of the show, the suckling pig.


Tender, juicy and full of porky goodness, simply prepared in a way that has stood the test of time. No fancy embellishments or showy techniques, just a fantastic, fresh ingredient allowed to speak for itself....and yes, I did eat the tail.

There was also a live band which found their way down the narrow staircase to play and sing during the meal.


For dessert, the menu says dessert is simply "ice cream" and I wasn't expecting much, but whatever was in the chocolate topping they used on it, it was surprisingly good. Unfortunately the photo came out blurry, so I'm not posting it here. Needless to say, I very much enjoyed this meal and if I had more time in Madrid, I wouldn't mind a return visit to try the Roast Baby Lamb or the Baby Squids In Their Own Ink. Another dish on the menu which is worth a mention is the Baby Eels, a traditional Spanish dish of baby eels quickly fried in a small pot of olive oil with garlic and a small dried chili is one of the most expensive side dishes you will see at around 130 Euros per serve. This is apparently due to the rarity of these eels.

Another great day in Madrid and it's not over yet, look out for more updates coming soon.

Madrid

The last stop on my European journey is Madrid. Looking back over my trip, there were many highlights, no regrets and still one more week in a country that had already been the location for many great experiences. I was hoping that Madrid would continue this trend. Looking at the weather forecast, it looked like my entire stay in this city would be in the 30s. Hot and sunny, a great buffer between me and winter in Melbourne.

I was staying only a few steps from the Plaza Mayor, one of the large plazas in Madrid and a focal point for tourists and street performers alike.


The capital of Spain is well know for its food culture. Even though it is far from any coast, fresh seafood is flown in daily from all over Spain and other produce is available in abundance. While each region of Spain has a unique food identity, Madrid seems to be the place where everything comes together. Even though Valencia is known to have the best paella, I had heard that there was a restaurant in Madrid which was famous for their paella and so I had to give it a try.

The restaurant is La Barroca and is famous for....well, I better let them tell you what they are famous for.


There are several different types of paella on offer here, many with seafood, but I decided on the Valencian, which is with chicken and rabbit.


A very basic, traditional version of the dish, this was not bad, but not fantastic. All the flavours were there, but perhaps I should have had the seafood after all as this just seemed a little too simple.

The next restaurant on my list was one that until recently had two Michelin stars. This last restaurant is La Broche and was started by Sergi Arola and his executive chef at the time was Angel Palacios. They worked together in El Bulli and left to start La Broche. Recently, Sergi has left to start another project and Angel has become head chef here.

While getting a reservation for El Bulli is almost impossible, the influence of what is being done there is possible to see all over Spain. Therefore at La Broche I expected to see modern techniques used to present traditional flavours and maybe a few surprises thrown in for good measure.


The cool, modern exterior leads into a cool, modern, white interior which I found a little sterile, but that may have been due to that fact that I had booked a mid week early dinner (9:30pm) and was the first customer there. Some other customers did arrive later, but only 3 or 4 tables were occupied.


To begin, a snack was placed on the table.


On the far left is a bowl of spherified olives. They look like olives but when you bite them you realise that they are liquid made from olives and then formed into a spherical shape by a chemical process. You get the flavour and shape of the olive, but the texture is purely liquid. The third from the left is Chicken Crackling, the crispy deep fried chicken skin is delicious and crunchy.

The first appetiser course came out in a covered bowl and as the bowl was placed in front of me, the lid was removed and a billow of smoke wafted out. This was Smoked Mussel.


Served on a vegetable "charcoal", this was an interesting dish to watch unfold in front me, but unfortunately the smokiness was so strong that it overcame the whole dish and that was all I could taste.

The second appetiser is called Pizza Margherita.


A playful take on the traditional combination of dough, cheese, tomato and oregano, the base is a cracker with a slice of cheese on top. The red ball on the left is tomato flavoured and tastes a lot like the red sprinkles on Barbeque Shapes (YUM). On the right is a ball of what I assume is oregano foam, because once you break the surface, a green foam comes pouring out. This was fun and tasted great, giving me high hopes for the rest of the meal.

After this came Truffles, Ham and Corn.


A beautifully presented dish reapeating the theme ingredients in several ways, a corn puree, single piece of popped corn, served on a polenta base with paper thin crackling and a small cube of grilled ham. While this was great to look at and try to work out all the different elements, unfortunately it was lacking in depth of flavour and seemed a little bland.

Following this was a cold Strawberry Gazpacho.


A strawberry soup with a prawn in the middle, you'd expect it to be sweet and served at the end of the meal, but instead it was savoury and really brought out another side of the flavour of the strawberry.

The first of the main courses is Ox Crab.


Wrapped in a crepe made from soy milk curd is a gentle, smooth crab filling. Not strongly flavoured with crab, but the texture is silken and decadent.

The fish course is Salmon with Aniseed Flavours.

This is a great way to explore the different ways two tastes can work together, the salmon is perfectly cooked and combined with ingredients which each have a different type of aniseed flavour, including fennel and aniseed flowers.

Sirloin and Garlic is the meat course.


The meat is cooked medium-rare and falls apart at the slightest touch of the knife, tender and juicy. Once again, as with the previous dish, this is an exploration of different ways of preparing garlic to go with the beef. Half a blub of oven-roasted garlic, grilled garlic shoots, a garlic puree and a garlic custard are all on the plate. This was my favourite dish of the meal by far and the taste of the garlic was not overpowering at all, in fact I was trying to get all the different garlic elements into one bite with the meat and when I did it was still not too much garlic.

Dessert time already? The first dessert is a combination of Lemon and Green Tea.


The stick on top is made of green tea and it has a very strong, refreshing taste, the sorbet and gel disc are lemon flavoured and all served on biscuit crumbs. As a palette cleanser this works well and leaves me ready for the sweeter desserts to come.

The second dessert is called Tribute to Principe Biscuit.


Now I've never had or seen a Principe Biscuit and I can't even name all the flavours here, but it was sticky, sweet and delicious with lots of chocolate.

Lastly is a Lemon Jaconde Cake.


A jaconde is a type of sponge and with almond cream and ice cream, this was a delicate, airy and while not bad, not anything amazing as far as taste goes.

Another thing worth mentioning is the coffee selection.


With so many different types of coffee to choose from, coffee connoisseurs would be happy with this list. For me it was too much choice and a random selection, so I chose the Arabic.

As petit fours after the meal, the waiter comes around with a cars filled with six different containers with chocolate inside and asks which I would like to try. You can probably guess my answer already, so here are all six.


Some are filled with lemon sherbet, some with almonds, but the two that stand out are the popping candy inside dark chocolate and the cocoa covered corn. One of my brothers favourite snacks is something called corn nuts, large deep fried kernels of corn coated in a dusting of salty flavouring. The cocoa covered corn is basically the same thing and reminded me of corn nuts in a big way.

At the end of the day, I had a good meal at La Broche and the techniques on display were modern and skillful, but something seemed to be missing. Perhaps an over concentration on the techniques themselves and not enough attention to flavour balance is to blame, but dishes like Sirloin and Garlic are standouts for me.

French Connection

Ahhh, Paris - the city of a thousand cliches. The home of towers and temples, bistros and bars, food and fashion, bakers and brandy, merchant and markets....I could alliterate all day.

French cuisine has long been held in high regard by cooks the world over and is home to many classical cooking techniques and dishes. The list is long and I certainly don't have time to experience them all in the few days I am spending here, but I do intend to try as many as I can. Let's start with a bistro classic and one of my personal favourite dishes of all time. Confit de Canard (Duck Confit) is a preparation of duck (usually the leg and thigh) where the meat is basically cooked in its own fat. The usual result is meat that is rich and strong in flavour and usually falling of the bone tender and delicious.


In this version, the duck was not as tender as I have had it previously and not as strongly flavoured, but still delicious. However, the highlight of the dish is the potatoes. I could smell them coming from a mile away they had so much garlic on them and I suspect they were also cooked in duck fat because the taste was amazing and they didn't skimp on quatity either as you can see.


This next classic of French cuisine often has people covering their eyes or avoiding it all together. Steak Tartare (raw steak) has always been one of those challenging dishes for some people, although many who try it actually enjoy it, some people just can't get past the fact that they are eating raw meat.


The meat in this case is Limousin Beef, one of the highest grades of beef available in France and is minced moments before coming to the table and is normally served with condiments and additions like onions or capers and sometimes raw egg. This was a very large serve and after about three quarters of the way through I gave up because I couldn't even taste it anymore. I'm a big fan of steak tartare, but in smaller quantities.

For dessert that night I didn't go for a classic, but I was very interested in the Peach Soup.


Served cold and with icecream this was delicatly sweet in flavour with a strong peachy aroma and taste. A very nice way to end a meal.

Another food commonly associated with the French is Foie Gras. There is much ethical discussion about the process surrounding Foie Gras and I'm not going to get into it here, but if you would like to discuss it, there is a comment section below and I'm happy to put forward their feelings about it or start a discussion. In many bistros around Paris you will see Pate de Fois Gras and that was the way I tried it first.


This was rich, smooth and delicious. Much nicer than many of the liver pates commonly available in Australia.

To follow this, my eye was caught by a sausage listed on the menu as Andouillette AAAAA. Now I have heard of Andouille sausage which is a spicy cajun pork sausage and thought this would be similar, and with all those A's after it it had to be something special right? Well when it came out I was a little taken aback.

Not the prettiest looking sausage in the world is it. That was the first surprise. The second came when I cut into the sausage and discovered not mince or ground meat, but chunky roughly cut substantial pieces of meat. This had a very strong porky flavour and the texture was not like any cut of pork I had had before.


I figured that mystery meat is what most sausages are made of anyway and this is no exception, so I got over my initial trepidation and got stuck into it. This was not the most delicious sausage I had ever had and it had a very powerful, not altogether pleasant flavour. The texture was quite gelatinous and took some getting used to. Now that I have done some research on this sausage I have discovered the reason for the unusual texture and flavour.

Andouillette is a very traditional French tripe sausage. Made from the stomach and intestines or the pig and wrapped in bowel. This sausage has a large following in France and even has an association devoted to it, that is what the AAAAA stands for, The Association Amicale des Amateurs d'Andouillette Authentic (the Friendly Association of Authentic Andouillette Lovers). Anyone who is not adventurous in their tastes may want to consider avoiding this one...:)

Ok, to get your minds off that one for a bit, here´s something pretty.

People in Paris love their Macaroons. These are a delicate baked good, almost like a meringue, crisp on the ouside, soft and delicate in the middle. These are usually served with two of them sandwiching a creamy filling. The flavour combinations are almost endless and the most famous name in macaroons is Pierre Herme, who has been known to make many weird and wonderful flavour combinations, including Ketchup flavour.

Walking down the street where he has his store, it's impossible to miss it as the line of customers goes out the door. I had to wait at least 10 minutes just to get in, but once I was in, it was worth it.

I could sit here all day just taking photos, but people were pushing me to get moving, so I ordered a few (they are not cheap by the way), including the Olive Oil and Vanilla one and moved on. Now I would love to describe how all the different flavours tasted and how amazing they were, but unfortunately, by the time I got back to my hotel room they had started to break down due to the humidity. I scoffed a few....I wasn't going to throw them out after all that, but the flavours had all started to run together and it was hard to distinguish anything in particular.

That was my quick Paris wrap up, there is one more dinner which I will talk about next post because it deserves its own. I loved this city and all the bizarre and delicious food that is available, if you're ever here get out and try something new. You may not like it, but maybe, just maybe you'll find something amazing.

Perguia - The hills are alive

Driving north through Italy from Rome couldn't have been easier, the roads are clearly marked and the speed limit on the highway is 130 km/hr. I was heading for Perugia, which I had read about as being a beautiful mountain town with great views and good food, especially known for their truffles and the fact that the Baci Chocolates are made there.

Arriving in Perugia, I discovered that it is a warren of tiny streets with almost no parking, but the hotel was able to give me a permit and I basically parked the car as close as I could get to the hotel (about two blocks) and left it there for the one night that I was staying there. Everything in town is within walking distance and it is a gorgeous buzzing town. The centerpiece of the main part of town is a fountain in a piazza with several large sets of stairs nearby. These stairs are the major meeting place in town and every time I walked past them, they were packed with people just sitting and chatting.


Walking past the stairs, I entered the main street, which was full of people enjoying the evening and having appertivo.


Appertivo is a fantastic experience in Italy, it is usually the time between the end of the working day and dinner, when everyone goes out for a couple of drinks. The thing about Italy is that even the drinking is about eating here. During this time, which is their Happy Hour, most bars offer a buffet of finger food to the people who are there having a drink. Even though the idea is to have a little snack to get your appetite going for dinner, you can basically have enough to fill up for the price of one drink. The toughest part is choosing which bar has the best looking selection of foods. Some common ones are cold cuts, parmeggiano reggiano cheese with balsamic vinegar, bread and dips, antipasto, etc.


As the sun had not yet set, I decided to walk to the end of the main street to check out the view. It seems that you can almost see forever and everywhere you turn is a different, spectacular scene.


As the sun started heading down, I headed for a restaurant I had spotted earlier which caught my attention, Caffe Di Perugia. I ordered a Negroni (a bitter cocktail, often served for appertivo) before my meal and was also given a selection from the appertivo buffet which I didn't ask for, but was gladly accepted. I skipped the Antipasto and selected the Tagliatell con Tartufo Nero (Tagliateli with Black Truffles) and was not disappointed by the amount of truffles used as you can see.


This was quite tasty and simple, I really enjoyed it.

The dessert selection didn't really grab my attention, but I decided to try the Semifreddo Nocciola (Hazelnut Semifreddo).



This was way too sweet for me, but I'm sure all you chocaholics out there would like it since it had a chocolate center.

I loved this town and if I were to come here again I would definitely stay longer, but since the next day was Monday the many of the better restaurants are closed on Mondays, I decided to move on to Bologna.