Last night, right before turning in, we found out that our room is equipped with some serious garage-style metal shades that come down automatically between the two (thick!) sets of windows. This came in very handy since we were still getting over our jet lag and since today was a national holiday. People were singing and dancing in the streets all night. Those shades were the perfect touch. The next thing we knew, the hotel staff was knocking on the door to clean the room. I immediately wondered what in the world crazy country would clean your hotel room at 7AM! Well, after we turned the guy away and opened the shades... yep... 10:30. I guess we needed the sleep, but we lost a lot of our morning.
We had a great breakfast in the hotel and headed south to see if El Rastro, the flea market, might be running due to the holiday. We found that it was and had a happy stroll all over the area, almost to the river, but were forced to move on when the locals started shutting everything down for the afternoon siesta. We used the time to check out some nice landmarks. The church in the picture at the top was built in 1643. Ramon reverently laid on the dedication and slid down it.
We met Joanna Wivell with Insider´s Madrid outside Botín, the oldest restaraunt in the world. She was a wonderful guide and told us things about the place that we could never have known had we simply made a reservation. The basement of the building dated to the 1500s. Strangely, they let us walk right in the oven room with all of the preroasted suckling pigs (they take 2.5 hours!) and make ourselves at home. We had the place to ourselves before it opened at 8PM. The location is so full of history it would take me forever to go through it all here. The one story that stood out to me was how, during the Spanish Civil War, Botín almost was no more. A faction of the left stormed into the restaurant and held the owner with a gun to his head. To them, any store or shop owner must support their enemy, the monarchy, and so they set about to execute the man. His quick thinking wife said, ¨What good is this man to you dead when alive he can feed you?¨ She saved her husband´s life since so many were without food during this time. So, Botín was also saved. After our tour and history lesson, we were seated at a preferred table in the dining room. It was also Ernest Hemingway´s preferred seat. We had ham, manchego cheese, fried eggplant, a type of thick gazpacho, marinated mushrooms, ham croquettes, scrambled eggs with a local sausage, bread, wine.. and THEN the main course... the roast suckling pig. This was supposed to be a lunch offering!
At this point, my conversation devolved into three words: Oh. My. Goodness.
Yáll... Oh my goodness.
This pork was the best thing I have possibly ever had in my life. We tried to get a video of me cutting the skin so you could hear how loud it was. It was SO crisp! They cook it simply, with a few herbs sprinkled on the whole pig, a cup or so of wine, and throw it in the 300 year old clay ovens. It is just beyond words how good it comes out, though. Ask Ramon. He only heard those 3 after they set down the pig.
Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm!
Our paella making class is set for Thursday, so tomorrow we will explore more, heading north.
Hope everyone is well back home! We don´t miss it yet :)
No comments:
Post a Comment