Above: Ceviche verde nortena with avocado ice cream at Tampu Restaurante
By now, readers know we rarely stick to the traditional foods of the country we are visiting. The main reason is that we are slow travelers; we tend to hang out in a city for a while. Bearing that in mind, here is an alphabetical listing of places we tried that you might want to experience.
Al-Mounia is probably the swellest Moroccan restaurant we’ve eaten in. An impressive amuse-bouche consisted of filo cigars of feta and lamb accompanied by a rich side of fried eggplant and roasted tomatoes. Our starter was a chicken and almond pastilla accented with powdered sugar. The lamb tajine with apricots, prunes, almonds and pine nuts that we split was absolutely luscious.
Above: Al-Mounia
The collection of the Prado Museum is as overwhelming as the crowds can be. Rushed to try to squeeze it all in, most people elect for a speedy meal in the cafeteria. But, for me to solidier onward, I needed more of a break. Adjacent to the cafeteria, there are booths that feel a little more sheltered and provide full service.
So, we settled in with a bottle of wine, sharing a spinach salad and an order of croquetas for our first course. Mains offered vary daily and are hearty. We lingered over a chicken guisado, and a merlusa rice dish with chiparones, shrimp and asparagus. We emerged feeling energized and ready to appreciate the art we were seeing. A recommended rest-stop.
Above: Cafe del Prado Restaurante
Nothing fancy, Celso y Manolo has the look of a neighborhood tavern that’s been around forever, yet its most celebrated dish is an atypical nuevo Latino salad starring tomatoes. Heirloom tomato steaks are combined with six other cosas – avocados, mangos, red onion, pumpkin seeds, pine nuts and fresh herbs. Wonderful. A dish of fried zucchini and eggplant was as well, and we shared fresh red tuna a la plancha.
Above: Celso y Manolo
Italian cuisine reinvented: A culinary rebellion, a way of seeing cuisine without borders, without labels, without rules.”
Website of InRistrolab
InRistrolab’s website would sound pretentious were not the results of its claims so delicious. Take this pair of croquetas: one ossobuco with gremolata; the other with pulpo and saffron threads. Or gnocchi causa limena reflecting the Peruvian influence of a layer of yellow potatoes fused with several flavorful sauces.
Not straying quite as far from traditional Sicialian pasta with anchovies was a preparation of tagliolini with boquerones. And why not have that favorite Sicilian breakfast dish of a brioche gelato sandwich for dessert at lunch? This one filled with pistachio gelato, pistachio cream and more pistachios.
Above: InRistrolab
The ‘paella’ is part of our culture, tradition and history. A ritual that has been passed through generations as a legacy. A symbol of a popular and familiar celebration that recovers flavors, smells, laughs and memories of the collective happiness.”
Eduardo Solis, founder of La Barraca
Back to old-school no-fusion Spanish food served with a formality we remembered from the Franco days. Our daughter wanted to introduce her husband to the paella she remembered from Valencia. Founded by Valencians in 1935, La Barraca seemed an obvious choice at lunchtime.
A serving of padron peppers was perfect, more fresh vegetable-forward tasting than the salad. We ordered two paellas: one seafood; the other billed as traditional Valencian with chicken, rabbit and beans. The server efficiently divvied them for the four of us. Ingredients were all top-notch, but where was the socarrat – that almost-burnt crispy part that clings to the bottom of the pan in which it was cooked? We wanted to dish up paella Valencian-style, from a sizzling communal pan inviting sparring over that caramelized crust. That critical part of the dish rarely seems to survive outside of Valencia.
Baked Alaska was tasty, but in a tony restaurant like this we expected a more dramatic tableside flaming, resulting in more bits of crispy meringue. Earlier in our trip, Casa Mando in Leon set a high standard for this old-fashioned dessert classic.
Above: La Barraca Restaurante
We shy away from ultra-formal multi-star, multi-course, too-many-course tasting menus with expensive pairings. But that description did not apply to the one offered at La Musa Malasana, an ultra-laidback tapas bar in our temporary neighborhood in Madrid.
Eight dishes were presented in four courses, starting with gyozas and Japanese eggplant and progressing to caramelized fried brioche and a flan-like cheesecake. The pairings introduced us to orange vermouth on the rocks and wound up with glasses of cava at the end. It wasn’t health food but was creatively delicious and pure fun. I so recommend this for lunch or dinner.
Above: La Musa Malasana
Fresh anchovies, fried, was our quest, a desire satisfied by plump ones at La Pescaderia. We polished off codfish fritters as well. An unexpected pleasure was vegetables. Bright red fresh tomatoes were served with an olive tapenade, while a spicy muhammara sauce complemented grilled asparagus and spring onions.
Above: La Pescaderia
A complicated New York Times recipe for Georgian cheese bread that Lamar has made several times introduced us to Georgian bread culture, and a restaurant in Istanbul led us to an expanded palate of Georgian flavors. We now search for Georgian restaurants wherever we travel.
The cheese bread we tried at Nanuka was delicious but not quite the one we sought. Maybe we should have ordered adjaruli? We enjoyed chicken croquetas and eggplant filled with a nut paste in an almond milk sauce. The unexpected star of our meal was Nanuka’s sort of barley risotto with luscious wine-glazed duck meatballs.
Above: Nanuka
Pizza break time. We went for a wood-fired one at Pizzart Villa Luchana; a spicy njuda one hit the spot. Rich eggplant caponada was served warm with a mound of burrata melting atop it. Italian comfort food.
Above: Pizzart Villa Luchana
Restaurante Solidere Chueca is a handsome spot for delving into Lebanese Halal cooking. Pita crisps and pomegranate seeds topped a fattush salad, and kibbe fried wheat shells were filled with a savory mixture of ground meat and pine nuts. The mains we selected were vegetable-centric baked stuffed zucchini, and a generous mound of couscous.
As customary, steaming mint tea was poured by a skilled specialist from high above the table. The pastries of Restaurante Solidere are so well-known they are offered in gift boxes. Rather than choose, we opted for a sweet assortment of baklavas and babusas, small semolina cakes soaked in syrup.
Above: Restaurante Solidere Chueca
We didn’t eat a meal in Taberna del Colono, a typical neighborhood tavern. It was a stop we made for a quick fix of padron chiles and beer. But I’m mentioning it because of an unexpected accompaniment for our cervezas – potato chips. They had a warm mixture of vinegar and minced garlic poured over them – totally addictive. They usurped my favorite Miss Vickie’s salt and vinegar ones.
Above: Taberna del Colono
Hard to start perusing the seductive menu at Tampu without a pisco sour in hand. We went to this upscale Peruvian restaurant four times: the first time to test it for Chris and Kate; the next two times with them as they fell under its spell; and one final time after they left. In other words, we delved deep into its menu.
First off, you might be entering Tampu for ceviches because you need a break from croquetas, but there is a croqueta here you must order. The crispy cube is filled with aji de gallina, a traditional Peruvian chicken stew. A fried bombita is filled with duck and rice with a yellow pepper sauce on the side. The Japo-Andio black quinoa salad was surprisingly refreshing.
Tiradito Nikkei boasted melt-in-your-mouth slices of red tuna and slices of fried lotus root surrounding a sea of a complicated puree. We sampled tiger shrimp, scallops, corvina fish, mussels, octopus – a lot, in distinctively different sauces. All delightful and bearing repetition, aside from about the most photogenic fried softshell crab ever. I can’t explain it, but the crab seemed flavorless next to everything else. Meats are represented on Tampu’s menu, but we neglected sampling any of the meat main courses.
Desserts were good, but, if I were granted a fifth visit, I would circle back around for one more croqueta filled with aji de gallina instead.
Above: Tampu
Thaidy suited our moods one day. We started with one shrimp and one vegetable order of tempura, both with nice side salads. A generous portion of fish was blanketed in a red curry sauce, and tender squid studded a plate of noodles.
Above: Thaidy
Buen provecho.
Postcards from Barton Springs 