butterfly

I was surprised to see that there is so much seafood on the menus in Zamora. It's quite far and isolated from any ocean. This must be a recent development... unless Zamora was traditionally on the route from Galicia to Madrid. The modern world... you're not kidding. I have been reading about Las Hurdes (to the south) during the early 20th century and it is almost unbelievable. It strikes me as ironic that places where people suffered from horrible goiters (due to a lack of iodine) and countless other nutritional problems related to extreme poverty now export so much delicious and highly-prized food and wine...

Thank you so much for the replies. Is there any corner of Spain that doesn't burst at the seams with deliciousness? Yes, I think we are prepared for the cold... for once, I skipped renting a casa rural and went for a hotel with copious heat. I am studying a bit about the romanesque churches in and around Zamora and had to see them firsthand. Our hope was also to head in the opposite direction from the rest of Madrid and from the reactions we're getting from friends and family (and egulleteers), I don't think we'll have to worry about encountering any crowds of puente folks! Cecina de Leon is one of my favorites. I didn't realize that it is sometimes made with horsemeat. Is it smoked? It has a very nice smoked flavor to it. Sort of what I always wish beef jerky could be... Any particular wines and vintages that you might recommend that we bring back? I don't have any proper storage, so they would be for relatively quick consumption... Thanks again for the great suggestions.

We're going to spend the upcoming puente in Zamora. From a culinary perspective, this part of Spain is a complete mystery to me... What are the specialties in this region? Particular dishes or raw ingredients to look for? Restaurant recommendations? Products to stock up on and bring back to Madrid? I promise a full report when we return...

To the La Latina/Cava Baja/Rastro area recommendations, I would add a smattering among the dozens (hundreds?) of spots in this neighborhood... Six months straight of tapeando and we still haven't made a dent... Some of our favorites at the moment (all extremely informal/downscale): Delic (Plaza de la Paja) for dessert--pistachio tart, dulce de leche pastel--and interesting teas and coffees. They also have tapas. Nice terraza when the weather is nice. Cafeteria Onís (Calle de Toledo) At the moment, my favorite downscale "menu del dia." Best at lunch. Love the revuelta de setas, besugo (sea bream, I believe), fabada, acelgas (swiss chard), etc. Usually a 9 Euro and 12 Euro option. Malacatín (Calle Ruda) Castizo (typical Madrid) dishes. Cocido, pisto, picadillo, etc. Stick-to-your-ribs food. Reservations a must. Taberna Almendro (Calle Almendro) For roscas--pressed bagel shaped sandwiches. Also, tortillas, (omelettes), huevos rotos, etc. Caramelos Paco (Calle de Toledo) For hard candy--romero (rosemary), sidra (cider), violet, and dozens of other flavors. I like all of the herbal combinations that are in a little display on the right side of the counter. Good to take home as gifts. Open during normal business hours and Sundays. Be sure to ask "quien es el ultimo" as soon as you step through the door to find out who is last, so you know when your turn comes. Plaza Mayor cheap eats Avoid the spots in the plaza, if you can, because they are extremely overpriced. Go south out the exit in the southeast corner. On the right side, there are two tiny lunch counter/hole-in-the-wall spots. When one is open, they other usually isn't. Here you can get a generous bocadillo de calamares for 2 Euros and go eat it in the Plaza. La Exquisita (Mercado de la Cebada) A gourmet shop with a small selection of interesting canned goods, wines, etc. El Diamante (Calle de Toledo) Chocolate con Churros and coffee in the morning and for merienda (afternoon snack). Cervecería at other times. Not as good as San Gines and no tables, but a good quck option if you are in the the neighborhood and need a pick me up. Bar Cruz (Plaza de Cascorro) Generous free tapas with your caña/ draft beer. (Friendly tip: in most cases, you will only get free tapas when you don't order food, so order your beer first and see what you get before ordering...) Also, navajas a la plancha (razor clams), boquerones (anchovies), mollejas (fried chicken gizzards), chopitos (tiny fried squid), pimientos de padron (small roasted/fried peppers). Also, in this neighborhood there is probably the highest concentration of wine bars where you can get an impressive selection of wine by the glass. edited because I still have problems distinguishing my left from my right...

Yes, many thanks Louisa! It was your reminder that lit a fire under me. Otherwise, I surely would have forgotten until it was too late. Thank you again for looking out for your fellow egulleteers.

Today I received an invitation to dine at El Bulli at the end of July. I am not ashamed to say that I jumped up and down like a little girl for several minutes. Who am I? Absolutely nobody as far as el estimado Señor García is concerned... My husband and I took a vow of poverty to move to Spain with our three-year-old son and live out our dreams. The one flight of fancy that I was going to allow myself this year was a trip to El Bulli. I wrote a short email (in Spanish) explaining what the experience would mean to me. And now the training begins. I feel as though I have to compete in the Olympics in just eight months. There is so much work to be done to get ready for this experience...

What Kliman doesn't mention is that Jaleo is a very, very ambitious tapas restaurant to start with. You would never find a place like it here in Spain. Andres has taken the huge and diverse culture of tapas in this country and condensed it into a pan-Hispanic restaurant that caters to the very, very different American way of eating. It is a miracle that it works at all. And I believe that it does--I've never had better tapas in the US. But tapas are essentally "middlebrow" bar (fast)food that feeds the masses. In many cases, this stuff is given away for free here with a $2 beer...

Ah, Miguel, I'm afraid that the Spanish have the same mentality when it come to the many delicacies of France (and vice versa). So close, but yet so far... As an American, I find this dedication to one's domestically produced food admirable and preferable (though I won't lie--I would love to be able to buy a nice pain de campagne on every corner...). About Spanish olive oil--there's another shop called "Molino de las Torres" (recommended by Vserna previously) in Madrid--a producer from Jaen that sells direct to the public. It may be bordering on sacrilege, but I've also had some wonderful Moroccan olives and olive oil here in Madrid. About canned tuna... Where can I find the famous "atun del estrecho"?

I've never seen Sabrett's for sale in the grocery stores in DC, but there were other brands like Briggs that are widely available. I don't know anything about the carts downtown... don't they boil their dogs? Halfsmokes are meant to be grilled.

I also haven't received any response to my email. I asked for any date or time...

I think half smokes are valid, if you are talking about DC proper. They are very much ubiquitous. I lived in DC for ten years and saw them all over--at countless block parties, carryouts, community meetings, barbecues, diners, etc. However, you won't find them at all "west of the park." I'd also nominate the "steak and cheese" sandwich. It can be found all over the city (again I'm talking about DC) at almost every carryout--Salvadoran, Ethiopian, Chinese, Soul Food, Caribbean, etc.

Where do the carabinero come from--the Cantabrian sea, the Atlantic? I've seen them at the marisqueria, but haven't had a chance to try them yet (really, it's going to take years for me to eat my way through all of these poor unsuspecting sea creatures). The color really is beautiful. Is there a traditional preparation?

Oops, I should know better than to meter la pata in regional politics! I said Potes, but I meant Panes, which is still (just barely) within the Asturian boundaries...

A woman that I met from Potes, whose family was involved in making cabrales, told me that there is a certain time of the year when the cabrales is best... More specific details are lost in (an appropriately Asturiano) fog. Does anyone know anything about this? Is there a particular time when cabrales is "harvested." Incidentally, this woman shared a bit of her own personal "stash" with us and I've never since tasted a cabrales that was as strong and psychoactive...

Ah, but Bux, in my experience many, many of those newly wedded Spanish husbands are doing the cooking themselves these days!

If you are looking to be near the coast, I think the area from Ribadesella to Llanes is very good (and near the big road, so you can have some mobility if you want). We have rented a self-catering property in Ovio, a tiny town next to Nueva de Llanes and Cuevas del Mar beach. If you want to really, really get away from it all and commune with those happy cows, this place is paradise.

Most small towns (or polas, as some call them in Asturias) have one or two morning market days a week. A bigger town like Llanes or Ribadesella probably has a daily market. But depending on when you are going, you may be able to buy some produce directly from people in the area who have gardens or small farms. And this is definitely true of raw milk, butter, and cheese, which is produced all along the coast*. Our approach is usually to ask around in the restaurants, bars, bakeries, etc. in a given town, to get people to point you in the right direction. **I highly recommend finding some fresh milk from a small farm. The cows in Asturias are mostly fed sea-salty green hay and have a wonderful quality of life. I've never tasted better milk.

Great post--if it's any consolation, our whole family was suffering from a very bad intestinal bug on that very day (my partner's birthday, in Madrid). As much as I wanted to blame it on the carpaccio de bacalao that I ate the day before, it turned out that it wasn't food related, just some 24-hour virus that my toddler brought home from school...

El Pais also had a very brief mention of this today on page 23, though there were no chefs named directly.

I agree that it is best to clean most mushrooms with a cloth and brush (like the small utilitarian ones that you can find at a perfumeria or hardware store--the kind that you might use to brush on olive oil). However, this method didn't work at all with the black trumpets that I bought here. For these, I really had to trim them well and then rinse them off well with running water to get the grit out of all of the crevices. I then gave them a good turn in my salad spinner and dried them off as well as I could with a paper towel. Given that they are not terribly absorbent and more resilient than most mushrooms, this process didn't seem to have any adverse effects.

> the greatest menestra is the Vizcaya version This sounds wonderful. Is there anywhere in Madrid that does a good rendition that you can recommend?

Thought the DC egulleteers might be interested... I read in El Pais and El Mundo (the Spanish national newspapers) that Jose Andres will be hosting a daily cooking show here in Spain on TVE. He is replacing the well-known Basque chef, Karlos Arguiñano, who has moved to Telecinco. http://www.abc.es/abc/pg040921/prensa/noti...NAC-COM-091.asp P.S. When I read about the closure of the Minibar, I had to laugh. Nothing could be more authentically Spanish than closing down a restaurant for the month of August!

Funny, there was an article a few weeks back in the Washington Post food section talking about the new(ish) obsession with crunchiness and the lost art of really cooking vegetables. Some vegetables' flavor and texture really manifests when they are cooked slowly and thoroughly. Of course most Southern Americans still know how to really slow cook green beans, greens, okra, etc., But there seems to be a prevailing belief in the rest of the US that vegetables are healthier and more flavorful when they are very lightly cooked and "al dente". I can't imagine white asparagus any other way than how it is cooked in France and Spain--to a buttery and delicate consistency. I love how they are right on the line between liquid and solid. Is there really any other way of cooking them?

Malika-- This one is easy. Don't bring the special outfit. Treat yourself and go shopping once you get to Spain--especially for the shoes! Then you'll have a nice reminder of your meal to take home with you...

The erudition present in this forum never ceases to amaze me! Just today I had a nice revuelto de setas at a little cafeteria down the street (Cafeteria Onis on Calle de Toledo). Victor-- Thank you so much for your wonderfully detailed post. This will give me food for thought (no pun intended) for many years to come. The bounty of Spain is a thing of wonder--and with so many mushrooms with which I am unfamiliar, it's clear that I'll need a very good guide (preferably human). I'll definitely look into the Mycological Society. I am far too sensible to be one of those city-slicker neophytes that poisons the whole family (though it strikes me that there are much worse ways to go...). I plan to do some rooting around next week at a friend's "finca" in El Escorial--I'll post back on what we find. It's interesting--but not surprising--that certain edible mushrooms are ignored in one region and prized in another. I suppose it's just a function of the diversity that's available--one can afford to pick and choose. A few more questions: What are the indicators that are used to find the morels in the spring? Are they found on felled trees at the edge of forests? Are there certain trees or flowers that bloom in tandem? Are there any books that you would recommend about edible wild plants? When we've vacationed in Asturias, I've always been tempted to graze on the flowers and greens--even the beautiful sea-salty green hay looks tasty--but have held back due to my ignorance... Any other wild mushroom vendors in Madrid that you can recommend (other than the aforementioned San Miguel Market mushroom stand). Thanks again for the thoughtful response. (edited for dangling participles and repetitive cliches...)