Chelsea Market or Reading Terminal? We're not in America anymore...

So...after a long layoff, GrubDaddy is back, with a new twist. You've already met GrubGirl and she'll be posting quite a bit (hey, we're engaged), but we'll also be reviewing restaurants and various other food related items, and still bringing that "bachelor-hood" type recipes as well. 

Our adventure led us to "El Mercado de San Miguel."  For those of you who don't hablo espanol, that means the Market of Saint Miguel. 

This indoor market has it all, the hustle and bustle of the Reading Terminal Market in Philly, with the choices and upscale options at Chelsea Market, two of our favorite places.  Walking into the market is very overwhelming, but in a good way. How you ask? Two words...TAP AS.  (GrubGirl: hey GrubDaddy, tapas is one word.  GrubDaddy: oh, right. I knew that.) (another side note: it's pretty cool that GrubGirl actually calls me GrubDaddy when speaking to me)

Anyway, the market is incredible with so many choices to choose from. 

See how many choices? And that wasn't even close to what we had, as we were too busy stuffing our faces that we didn't take as many pictures as we wanted to. Most of these dishes were served tapas style, so the salmon on a piece of bread seasoned with basil was €1,50. Paella was €3-4 per little bowl and most deserts were €2-3. 

So now to the best part - a drink called a Caipiroska, or as we were calling it, liquid crack covered in fairy dust. Caipiroska's are made the following way:

- Get a 16 - 20 oz cup

- Cut up a lime into small pieces with the rind still on and put about 8 pieces in the cup

- Put some other juicy fruit in the cup, to fill up over 3/4 of the way. We used strawberries, pineapple, blackberries, raspberries and / or blueberries. 

- Add some mint 

- Add 3 teaspoons of sugar

- Smash the fruit down to get the juices out of the fruit

- Add crushed ice to fill the cup. If you don't have crushed ice, put ice in a ziplock bag and use the handle of a butter knife to break the ice. Or just use a blender. 

- Add vodka. Yup, lots and lots and lots of vodka. 

- Stir, drink, enjoy, then fall on your ass because that's a lot of vodka. 

Here I am, with two friends, enjoying our wonderful drinks. 

The great thing is that you can not only walk around the market with your drink, but wandering outside is no problem either. That was the best part of the day which also included Nutella gelato. Yeah, it was as good as it sounds. 

So to recap...go to Madrid, go the El Mercado de San Miguel, get a Caipiroska, eat tapas, get another Caipiroska, wander around and find Nutella gelato. And that's a full day. 

Madrid, Spain - Day Tres

A review of our second grocery store experience at Mercadona near our apartment in Madrid.

We kind of figured out the layout of the store. Not as surprised this time by the section of very fresh meat. Still couldn't figure out how to unlock the shopping carts, but the pull basket worked just fine. 

We stocked up on huevos and pimento verde for breakfast, pan and pechuga pollo for sandwiches, muesli con chocolate and manzana roja for snacks, and my favorite, pepino granel for salads.

The grocery store is a great deal. We spent less on a grocery run which will cover us for 4 meals than on our "so so" lunch in the touristy area of Toledo this afternoon. 

Grocery store - 1; tourist trap cafe - 0

Time for dinner!

Signing off,

GrubGirl

Madrid, Spain - Day Uno

Adventure 1 - getting ourselves from the Madrid airport to our first AirBNB apartment. Three metro trains and a lot of walking later, we found our place in the Numancia neighborhood of Madrid. We had some time to kill before meeting up with our host so we stopped by Mercadona, a grocery store we passed on the walk from the metro.

Once we got into the apartment, we took a much needed siesta - does a 4 hour nap count as a siesta? After waking up we decided to explore the neighborhood and try to find a tapas bar for some food and cervezas. We walked up and down the main street, explored some side streets, but decided to go to a small bar we had passed on the walk back from the market. Casa Ibericus was a great choice. We tried Mahou beer on tap, and got 2 tapas plates - pollo con ensalada and tostada jamon. Both dishes were delicious - especially the pickled egg in the salad. Nice touch. The waiter asked what we thought when he took away our empty plates, and I confidently answered "mi gusta!" Wrong. Clearly those 7 years of Latin didn't translate to Spanish. I'll stick with "bueno" from now on.

N

Such a cute place - I decided I want our future dining room to be decorated with Casa Ibericus inspiration. Minus the apparent pig leg (?) sitting pretty in the corner of the bar. One needs to have limits.

Signing off,

GrubGirl