From the cassoulet and ice cream of the French capital, I headed to Rome. Rome (and Italy in general as far as I could tell) really live up to their reputation of delicious, yet simple, pasta and pizza, all accompanied by excellent wine.
Make sure to try cacio e pepe when you’re in Italy. It’s the simplest of all pasta dishes – essentially spaghetti with black peppers and cheese, preferably Pecorino Romano. And you’ll never go wrong with a spaghetti carbonara.
The Italian pizza by default comes in a thin crust variety and is usually eaten with knife and fork, which took me a while to get used to.
A day trip to Napoli took me to a 140+ years old pizza store, L’Antica Pizzeria da Michele.
The photos on the wall bear witness to the who’s who of the clientele to have enjoyed pizza here, from Julia Roberts (while shooting for Eat, Pray, Love) to the god of Napoli, Diego Maradona. They make only two types of pizza – margherita and marinara – but they’re some of the best traditional Neapolitan pizza you’ll ever have. The slightly burnt bottom, the runny center, all make for a delicious meal. They’re always crowded though, so prepare to wait or opt for take out (as I did).
A dessert store helped pack me enough goodies for the train ride back to Rome.
Talking of desserts, did I mention the perfect tiramisu I had at Rome? Not a huge tiramisu fan myself, but this was the perfect balance of taste and texture.
And finally after two weeks of travel, I was on to my final destination, Madrid.
The gastronomical exploration at Madrid only helped reinforce the high regard with which I held Spanish cuisine.
There were of course the excellent tapas, diverse and tasty,
from the adventurous black pudding
to the more traditional steak.
Then there was the best bar food I’ve had, huevos fritos con patata y chorizo or scrambled eggs with perfectly fried potatoes and spicy chorizo. Of course this is accompanied by wine or wine based cocktails.
Having soaked in museums, art works, tourist hotspots and the ilk over the past two weeks, I spent most of my time at Madrid sitting in public squares (and there are many of them in the Spanish capital), people watching, all the while sipping on delicious sangria or tinto de verano – red wine with some kind of carbonated soda – and munching on lightly fried green peppers.
But the highlights were undoubtedly Mercado de San Miguel and Restaurante Sobrino de Botin.
First to the market. Mercado de San Miguel is a sort of market that also doubles up as the eatery. While there’s fresh produce on sale, there’re more stalls selling roadside food and drinks. And the options are endless. From varieties of paella to all kinds of seafood and of course, ham!
My favorites were gulas – delicious baby eels – and paella cooked in octopus ink (the latter mostly because of the novelty factor)
Restaurante Sobrino de Botin is, as per Wikipedia and numerous unmistakable signs posted throughout the establishment, the oldest restaurant in the world to have been housed throughout in the same location. They’ve been here since 1725, that’s almost four hundred years, older than the city I grew up in by about hundred. It’s age itself makes it a must visit place. But the food is great too. Their specialty is the roasted suckling pig – full baby pig cooked to perfection, the crispy skin providing a wonderful texture to the flavorful meat inside.
It would be criminal to depart Madrid without trying out chocolate con churros – a fried dough pastry dipped in rich, thick, delicious hot chocolate. And by most opinions one of the best places to enjoy this decadence is Chocolateria San Gines, a hundred year old (famous restaurants in Europe tend to be a tad old, but you’ve got that by now) establishment that’s open 24 hours every day, making sure there’s no reason for you to not drop by.
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