¡España! — Travel, Food, and Drink in Madrid, Valencia, and Seville
Tapas bar in Spain — Photo by J. Sharland Day
I’m diverting my attention for a bit from our travel adventures to talk about food…the fabulous food we experienced in Spain…the best food, consistently and overall, that I have ever eaten. That’s a huge statement to make, but it’s true.
Not only did I love the taste of the Spanish food, I felt healthier eating it. There wasn’t the processed stuff that we were used to seeing in the States and Mexico, and the meals were always fresh and seemed more organic. Which led me to believe that was the reason for my ‘healthier’ state of being. I was also losing weight. Granted we walked a lot, which was helpful in the weight loss department, but even when we didn’t walk so much, taking the trains or riding all day in the car, and adding on delicious sweets each morning, I still felt healthier and more fit.
When I wondered aloud how that was possible, someone suggested that it might be the Mediterranean diet we’d been on that was making me feel so good. Could be. But whatever the reason, I liked it.
The food was always perfectly spiced and perfectly cooked. I enjoyed every single meal and could have licked the plates clean, had I not been embarrassed by the effort.
There was only one thing I didn’t enjoy, didn’t care to finish, and found to be a big disappointment because it had sounded so delicious. And that was a plate of cubed fried potatoes covered with cheese sauce. Not the healthiest choice, but this was early on in our travels, so I must have felt the need for carbs and fat to have ordered such a thing in the first place. However, as much as I thought I wanted the concoction, it turned out to be nothing like I’d imagined. Instead of the creamy orange cheddar I’d expected poured over crispy potatoes as described, the cheese was gray, unappealing, and lacked the taste of any normal cheese I was used to. And the potatoes were soggy. But that was the one and only disappointment for me during the entire trip. Not bad for someone who has been known to be a ‘picky eater’ due to food sensitivities.
Gin bar in Madrid, Spain — Photo by J. Sharland Day
On our first night in Madrid, my husband, Marty found a fun-sounding gin bar online that was just around the corner from where we were staying and made reservations for dinner. On the outside, the place looked like an old worn-out hippie hangout with peeling paint and dirty windows. But when entering, it was very upscale with warm pale-yellow walls, lots of greenery, ambient lighting, and comfortable chairs at black tables covered with squares of white linen.
We were seated in a back room that was cozy and intimate and our waiter, Charlie, doted on us.
Being a gin bar, the varieties of gin drinks were astounding. I wanted to try them all but started with a grapefruit and cardamom gin drink while Marty ordered a cardamom and lime. Oh, my! It was so delicious, I was suddenly a fan of gin, never having cared for the taste of juniper berries before. This was a whole new experience.
We both ordered something from the three courses offered on the menu after Charlie told us that having three courses was a common custom in Spain. Along with our drinks, we were served, instead of chips and salsa as we were accustomed to, fresh bread and olives with a small ‘pit bowl’ for the pits of the unpitted olives.
Enjoying our drinks, it didn’t seem to take long for the first course to arrive, which was a salad with dried fruit and seeds, mixed with lettuce and a flavorful dressing, and one of the best salads I have eaten.
With our salad bowls cleaned, Charlie then served us a platter of grilled steak strips with grilled baby potatoes, broccoli, and carrots.
The flavors exploded in my mouth as I chewed. The spices were unusual and indistinguishable because they were blended so well, which made the taste go far beyond the expected flavors I was used to on grilled beef. I was in love with the food and the restaurant. Toward the end of our meal, and after our second gin drink with cardamom and lemon, we were served a wonderful, melt-in-your-mouth cheesecake that was unlike any cheesecake I had experienced, and I love cheesecake. An extraordinary meal.
Lebanese dish in Spain — Photo by J. Sharland Day
That gin bar, a first-time experience for me, was exactly what I was hoping for to start our holiday in Spain. And we were pleased to find that the flavor of the foods we kept eating at each new eatery only got better, even though I didn’t know how that was possible. The word “better” may be a misnomer, however, as the food was not so much ‘better’ as it was ‘different’ but equally wonderful.
Our first experience in a tapas bar was perfect. Tapas in Spanish means ‘top’ or ‘cover’ and one of the many stories handed down about their origin was when people in the region where sherry was made would place a piece of crusty bread over their glass of that sweet drink to keep the flies out. As time went by meat and other things were added to make a snack while drinking.
We booked in advance, knowing the place could conceivably be busy. It was a small bar with two rows of tables, seating about forty people squished together with barely enough room for the waiter to squeeze by, but it was charming with its old polished wooden floor, trim, and bar that had a large mirror behind it to give the room the illusion of being larger, and different sized and styles of tables and chairs sitting under ambient lighting.
The eatery was packed, but our reserved table was at the window with a tall, bistro-style table and chairs, and a red rose in a vase. We couldn’t have asked for anything more charming.
We ordered beer, which seemed more fitting in that atmosphere than having a cocktail, and the usual three courses. A bowl of olives with a small empty side bowl for the pits were set in front of us — pitted olives were never served any place we ate — and a plate with cheese. Our pre-dinner appetizers.
We were really liking the fact that the olives we’d been served were not only delicious, but they went with any drinks we could order. So we decided to adopt the custom when we returned home, and never buy another jar of pitted olives again — except for cooking.
Our first course was a platter of breaded eggplant with a bowl of smoked paprika hummus for dipping — Marty loved that one.
Then more beer.
Our second course was a tray of cheeses, spreads, and bread, and the third was a platter of meat chunks that nearly melted in our mouths. All were wondrous with their special flavors and were way beyond our expectations. Unfortunately, that bar’s high standard of wonder for us was never equaled, we were sad to find and even though we had amazing dishes everywhere, Madrid’s first impressions were not to be exceeded.
Beer and olives at a tapas bar in Spain — Photo by J. Sharland Day
We ate paella in Valencia, which was not what we’d expected, although delicious, and found many more tapas bars that were good, but not as magical as the first one. We experienced mouth-watering differences in some Lebanese dishes while in Seville, and hamburgers that Marty couldn’t resist, which were much bigger and juicier than those he was used to eating in North America. One of the fun desserts we tried was a bacon-from-heaven mousse with caramelized pine nuts. Tasty, but I’d expected ‘fabulous.’
So many wonderful food experiences, but there is one that makes my mouth water to think of it, which we only found twice in our travels, and that was churros served with a cup of creamy hot chocolate sauce for dipping and sipping. Oh! My! God!!!
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Read all the other parts of this story series by clicking one of the links below:
Part 1 - España — My First Trip Away from North American Soil
Part 2 - Madrid and the Train Ride to Zaragoza
Part 3 - Zaragoza to Barcelona - España Continued
Part 4 - Nuestro Dia de San Valentín en España — Our Valentine’s Day in Spain