Tapas Crawl in Granada

So, you're in Granada, Spain with your fiancé, (GrubGirl) and two great friends. The main attraction, The Alhambra, wasn't open until the morning and GrubGirl and I had a stressful time getting into our apartment. What to do?  Oh, good call, eat and drink on a tapas bar crawl. 

The first place we went to was La Cueva. It was right on the main strip, so it may have been a little touristy, but whateves, we needed some eats and drinks. The bread and "marinara" sauce came with the drinks (it's a theme in Granada) and the jamon was amazing as it was freshly cut off the animal. While it wasn't amazing, we also knew that we were off to a good start with the crawl. 

The beer was an Alhambra brew, but just the regular kind. It's OK, but the Spaniards aren't known for their choice brewing so we moved along to the next place. Overall spend between the 4 of us, €15. 

The next place was in a main strip of restaurants, but slightly off the beaten path. We walked by a chalkboard and it said "6 tapas, pitcher of sangria, €12."  SOLD!  Here, the waiter says "instead of sangria, their speciality is "rebujito" which is white wine and 7up. When in Granada, right?  

The food was better, but still not what we were looking for, as the 6 tapas ended up being 2 pieces of smoked salmon with cheese, 2 pieces of ham and mayo and 2 pieces of tuna and a roasted red pepper, all over bread. GrubGirl also purchased a tortilla de patata, which kind of looks like an egg sandwich. These were pretty good too. Off to find our next spot, spend for the meal was €15. 

The final place we went to was called La Tana, and this, my friends, is what we wanted all along. Inside, the bar tender was very helpful, though his English was limited. Many different high-end Spanish wines available for €3-4, while pouring a healthy glass of wine, just to try it out. 

This is also where I found my beer, the Alhambra 1925, that comes in a cool green bottle. 

This is the beer in the movie Beerfest which they brew the long lost beer and, well, just watch the scene. youtube.com/watch?v=70Ak4nW1Rg8. Anyway, the beer is delicious, the perfect combination of taste, flavor and drinkability. Lets just say I had quite a few of them. 

So with every drink order, free tapas came out as well. First was some green olives, which GrubGirl devoured. (She loves green olives). Next drink order, we got this bread with a healthy dose of guacamole, some sausage and more olives. 

The next tapas was this smoked white fish and some spicy mayo and more green olives. (GrubGirl was having a field day with the olives) While not as good as the guacamole, still pretty good. This place was so good and had such a great atmosphere that we went back the following night. Overall spend at this place was €25. 

We ended our tapas crawl getting some ice cream at Los Italianos, and if you have the chance to do that, take advantage and go. Amazing ice cream. Spain is known for their gelato, but this was amazing. 2 scoops for €2 and worth every penny. I got banana and strawberry and GrubGirl got double chocolate. With all the salt we had from the olives, we went back for a round two, which was ice cream cake inside a large wafer cone, called a cassatta. The flavor of the cake was orange/coffee/vanilla. Unbelievable!  

The total price, for four people, was €65, which is around €16 a person, for good eats and great sweets. If you're ever in Granada, you need to go to La Tana and Los Italianos, and this night started a great 3 days in Granada. 

Pastelerias - Sevilla Spain

Mmmmmm...cookies, cakes, breads, croissants, muffins...and we haven't even made it to Paris yet! The pastelerias in Sevilla are amazing. The smells waft through the streets in the morning and draw you in without warning. The first one we found near our apartment was called La Societe - http://www.paneslasociete.es/. 

I had been craving chocolate cake, and since it was my birthday, I thought it acceptable to purchase a decadent chocolate brownie at 10:30am. No rules on your birthday, right? It was clearly a difficult decision since their selection of baked goods was a bit overwhelming. Luckily my chocolate brain kept me focused. The brownie was amazing - a perfectly crusted top with a creamy soft brownie batter inside. Well done my friends at La Societe, well done.

Later that same morning, I still hadn't had my morning coffe. Luckily we stumbled upon Colette - http://www.colette.com.es - on the Plaza Nueva near the main cathedral (the largest gothic cathedral in the world). 

We ordered a cafe con leche for GrubDaddy and a regular cafe for me. It was delicious. The perfect rush of caffeine to counter the post sugar crash after the brownie high wore off. 

We didn't partake in the macaroons (saving ourselves for Paris) but they did look delicious. 

Later that day the birthday celebration continued with a Bizcocho pastry from La Societe - a buttery crumb cake with hints of lemon, dusted with a fine coating of powdered sugar. If I drank milk, I'd definitely request a glass to accompany the Bizcocho, but alas, I washed it down with tinto vino (red wine).

So if you find yourself in Sevilla, have no fear - pastries and coffee are never too far out of reach.

Signing off,

GrubGirl

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.