Good morning to our first day in Madrid, Spain! We actually slept in until 10am, which is unusual for the both of us. Tired and jetlagged! We finished eating out leftovers from last night while lounging around in bed for a bit, which was still delicious at room temperature.
Afterwards, we walked to a nearby coffee shop for some morning coffee. We looked this place up to make sure we don’t accidentally sit ourselves at another cafeteria. The interior was cute and lightly decorated with tropical plants.
Vince ordered the cortado and I the espresso. I’m used to them offering milk and sugar to add on the side in other European countries so when this place didn’t, I got worried. Even with Vince trading his drink with me, I added almost 7g of white sugar and it still felt like it needed more milk. I asked them for some more milk and the barista kindly gave me more steamed milk. I think I will stick to my cappuccinos.
On the way to Puerta del sol (Heart of the City) and Plaza Manor, we were talking about what is the main dessert to eat in Spain. Just as soon as we talked about it, we saw a churro place. We got an order of 5 churro and porra with hot chocolate. They gave us some porra as extra, which is similar to the savory Chinese donut. The hot chocolate for dipping was thick and hot. The churros were perfectly crispy and chewy. But 5 was too much for us to finish!
We then went to the Mercado de San Miguel, which is like an inside food market of wine, beer, tapas and dessert. It is way more fun than Anaheim Packing District and Liberty Station combined! There were just so many vendors everywhere with all sorts of things from fresh oysters to smoked salmon to fresh fish on toasts and croquettes.
Vince got a sangria to start. Tasted stronger than the one we had at Lateral last night.
This was such an appealing station to me. Each toast was 1,50 euro.
Fresh snow crab legs with pickled seaweed and carrots topped with caviar. The snow crab legs were Vince’s favorite. It was just so fresh and tasted like the sea. Easy to eat too.
At the station, Salazones, I got 4 types of toasts.
Codfish brandada topped with caviar. I definitely wanted to try this because it looked like codfish tuna and I appealed immediately to the caviar. Taste was a bit milk and not as oceany as I wanted it to be.
Codfish Ajoarriero style. I don’t even know what type of style it was. A lot of people were ordering it and it looked spicy. It was a little spicy and the codfish tasted good but overall it was an okay toast.
Octopus. Vince really wanted octopus and it actually tasted good!
Icelandic Smoked codfish liver. Oh my goodness I only got this because it said liver but man codfish liver is so good. It tastes similar to chicken liver but less grainy. It was so good I went back for seconds!
There was an oyster station.
I got 6 oysters for 3,10 euro each and it’s two of 3 types of oysters. All were very refreshing and smooth.
Afterwards, we walked to the Royal Palace of Madrid and the La Almudena Church that was also nearby. Both structures were right next to each other and both very impressively beautiful. We didn’t get to go in the palace, but inside the church was so beautiful. The artwork was intricate, especially the praying chapel room. Each artwork was put together by little stones.
After finishing up those touristy things, we went to the Sharma Climbing Gym to get our climb on! The gym is very big and last. Very thing is spread out and so we’re the climbs itself. It only took us an hour to round the whole gym.
Then we went back to our hotel to walk to our next dinner location. We went back to Lateral, same place as the sangrias from last night. We were so impressed by the cuteness of the place and the menu looked so good.
Negroni. Campari, vermouth, gin star of Bombay. Of course, Vince always orders a Negroni if he sees it on the menu.
Daiquiri Santa Teresa 1796. Santa Teresa 1796 rum, passion fruit and lemon juice. I never order anything in a martini glass but this was a first. It was sweet and fruity.
Melted Brie with Iberian cured ham. This is my favorite thing to eat tonight. The toast was thin and lightly crispy. The cured ham is perfectly mildly salty and savory. The Brie melted perfectly.
Angus skirt steak. Classic Argentine cut of beef accompanied by French fries, green salad and chimichurri sauce. We were coming this to Madison and decided that even though the steak is better meat quality here, the quality of the book and the chimichurri sauce is just so good at Madison. French fries were lightly salted and kind of soft like Mcd fries, which I love. Salad was a good thing to eat while on vacation.
Sirloin with foie gras. Sirloin was perfectly cooked. The foie gras gave it a nice creamy salt kick. Loved it!
Battered cod in roasted red pepper with mint aioli sauce. I didn’t get any roasted red pepper from the fish. The mint was too light, but the cod was very flaky and warm. Think of it as an elevated fish stick.
We were content from dinner but it was only 8am so we decided to walk back to the Mercado de San Miguel to see what it’s like at night time.
After that Iberian smoked ham with melted Brie, I wanted more! A cone of this is about 18g, which costed about 18 euro.
Here is our heavenly piece. Lightly salted and delicious and freshly sliced. We saw people ordering cones and cones of these and just eating them like chips. How do they do that?! I took it back home and only ate 1/3 of it.
Tomorrow we hit a pause on Madrid as we take the train over to Barcelona. Well be back in Madrid towards the end of our trip to relax!
