Eating in Spain or A Tapas Crawl Through Four Cities.

In Madrid we ended up eating tapas at almost  every meal and mostly at the same place.  There was a great tapas bar just across the street from our hotel called Orio.  They feature a kind of tapa called "pinxtos."  This is basically a small delight on a piece of bread.  There are multiple varieties on offer, and you just pick up what  you like and order a drink from the bartender (e.g., cerveza, tinto, cava).  Every pinxto costs the same, about 2 euros, and at the end, they count up the number  of  toothpicks on your plate, add up the price, add the cost of the drinks (which you remind  them of), and there you are. 

At Orio, the variety was great: from anchovies and sardines on artichokes to various kinds of hams, to manchego and other  cheeses, to hot goodies such as little black puddings (Tony likes these) or slices of steak.  It's a marvelous way to eat, as you get to try anything.  And if you do occasionally get something you're not crazy about, you haven't really invested that much.  For example,

In Segovia, the tapas scene was quite different.  We discovered a place called Sitio.  This was a much more "locals" kind of place.  I think we were the only tourists the nights we were there.  They had two bars, one with cold and one with hot tapas.  The portions were large; two tapas were basically a full meal.  And they cost nothing--except for the price of the drink,  That is, for every drink you got a free tapa.  So two drinks each, two tapas; but the bill was just the drinks.  Amazing.

After dinner, we went to another bar that we heard was decorated with beautiful "Moorish" tiles.

We ordered cava, and with that came--you guessed it--another tapa.

In Toledo we didn't find tapas bars but instead restaurants selling what are called raciones or small portions, (which you do have to pay for).  In one I ate something called carcamusas--pork, tomatoes and peas--which is traditionally Toledo (and pretty good).

Our second Toledo meal was at a small restaurant owned by hotel we stayed in, Casa Urbano Adolfo. The hotel had a famous restaurant with a famous chef.  It looked wonderful but was more, in cost and food, than we wanted.  So we went to their small restaurant, Collecion Catedral, and had a great meal.  

Because we were hotel guests, we got lots of treats.  Putting that together with our orders we had a wonderful and really inexpensive dinner.

Free cava to start.  (Remember, Tony is in the middle of bronchitis; he is having more fun than it seems!)

Then we shared an appetizer of scallops with pisto.

Baby lamb skewers with roast potatoes.

And a great, though inexpensive (about 12 euros) bottle of their house wine.

In Barcelona, we mainly ate tapas and ham bocadillos, except for one slap-up, sit-down Sunday lunch, which will be the subject of another post.

#EatingInSpain

#Orio

#Stylo

#CollecionCatedral

#Segovia

#Madrid

#Toledo

#tapas

#pinxtos