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5/14/10

Eating in Madrid and Toledo

It's hard to believe that on this day last month I was getting ready for my first trip to Spain: Madrid! I came back with wonderful memories, a few souvenirs, and a few extra pounds due to all the food and sangria consumed during my vacation.

Below are some of the photographs of food I took during 5 days in Madrid.

I already blogged about my first meal in Spain: churros con chocolat.Below is a photo of one of my first tapas in Madrid: roasted green peppers in salt. They were amazing: smoky, slightly crispy, salty, and oh so addictive!


On our second day in Madrid, we went to a little Middle Eastern place for lunch: I wasn't planning on having tapas the entire 5 days. Unlike Anna, I'm a Diet Pepsi girl. Alas, all that was available was Light Coke. But what a cute slogan!



This was an awesome lunch: lamb, fries and a salad.



Another non-Spanish meal was a very long and relaxing lunch we had at an Italian restaurant while waiting for the rain to end. And why not start with a glass of red wine? I'm not a red wine lover, but Anna and Radha prefer it, and I was pleasantly surprised to find out that I actually liked it quite a bit!


We then shared tomato/mozzarella/basil salad, 2 pizzas and tiramisu!




Here's a little treat/snack we bought while on our way to Park Retario: macarons! This was the first time Radha has tried macarons. She chose the "violet" one and said it tasted blue :) I chose pistachio one, and Anna chose a raspberry one.


To be honest with you, I pretty much planned our entire trip: which museums we'll visit, which parks, botanical gardens, etc. When it came to choosing restaurants, I was exhausted. That led to quite a few mini "fights" about where to eat. Finally, I decided we should just play rock/paper/scissors, and the winner of the game will have 10 minutes to decide where we'll be eating. When it came Radha's time to choose, she chose a close-by Irish pub. I had a fabulous lamb stew with potatoes and carrots. The only thing missing was a chunky Italian bread to dunk in the broth.



And of course, we had plenty of ham!!!!


At a flamenco show we went to see we were served olives (!!!), seen in the back of the photograph below and ordered a fabulous flan (check out the pile of whipped cream that came with it!).


We also took a trip to Toledo. For lunch we ordered a 3 course pre fix meal. Anna's appetizer was the Russian Salad. It wasn't the exact version of the Russian potato salad that I've made before because it had tuna. But it was still great!



And for the last dinner in Spain we went to a Cuban restaurant where we had amazing ropa vieja, sweet plantains (pictured below) and a few other dishes which I can't remember because of a rather strong mojito I had that night. After that dinner we all went back to our apartment to pack for our morning flight, and then while Radha went to bed, Anna and I went back to this restaurant for a great night of salsa! It's not vacation unless the Berman sisters go out salsa dancing at least once :)



What are some of YOUR favorite food vacation memories?

6 comments:

Jhonny walker said...

I am a poor graduate student and don't get as much vacation time. Only time I do 'vacation' is when I am attending conferences :) But considering those as vacations..some of the best is roadside food in NYC and san fracisco :) They have lovelt little eateries


your images look droolworthy...awesome

nicole said...

the macarons look so bright and yummy!

Anonymous said...

I'd say our best eating vacation was to New Orleans in the fall of '09. one restaurant, the Green Goddess, was so good that I wrote them a thank you note when I got home, to let them know that they should just keep doin' what they're doin'. :)

Tammy Gordon said...

Love checking out whatever the local dish is... in Spain, the little tapas at the bars were always great. Either veggies, cheeses or jamon. Ole!

But, everything tastes better on vacation, right?

The Duo Dishes said...

You had so much fun! Those peppers sounds quite addictive. They'd be nice to snack on all day.

pigpigscorner said...

How I miss Spanish food! It's one of my fav cuisines!