Two in one.

 

Don Quixote, menu del dia & loads of ham.

Madrid by day. First walk around the city to some of the places to tick of the list. Plaza Mayor, Palacio Real, Plaza de España and then a walk to barrios Malasña to find some of the real Madrilienos in their real local cafe's and bars.

Plaza Mayor is nice, yes. But also hunted down by streets artist trying to earn some coins for the day. And it is their right to try to do somethinglike that, in a country struck hard by austerity measures and where nearly a fourth of every young person is unemployed and with no real prospect for improvement.

Placidio Real the same Tourists and hawkers, and police. Plaza de España a little less as it is also enclosed by the ultra busy Gran Via and that has an ability to soak up the tourists so that we are no clearly visible.

At plaza de España you can have a look at the monument of Cervantes, the great writer of the Spanish soul, and his two most famous characters; Don Quixote and Sancho Panza. 

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 After the touristic goose walk, we integrated into the normal street life of barrios Malasaña and it's huge number of small local cafe's and bars. There the principe is kind of like, every one goes, as it is unlikely that you do not find a good one.

And so it was. We entered one anonymous looking establishment, and behind the door we suddenly found ourselves in the middle of a local neighbourhood lunch environment. Maybe a bit of background information is needed here.A "Casa de comida" is a type of cafe bar that offer a daily menu for small money, a "Menu del dia". Before there was loads of them and they offer a starter, a main and dessert of coffe + drinks and bread. And the drinks can be anything, even a bottle of house wine. Back in 1997 I lived in Spain for 6 months, while studying at the Facultad des Bellas Artes in Cuenca, and I use to eat at a such "comidor" every day as it was cheap and good for a students vallet.

Back to now; we were sitting in this local and it got more and more busy with people coming there to eat. All a mix of workers, business men, students and whatever. No tourists outside the two of us though. 

We were enjoying our drinks and the tapas, that still in these kinds of establishment comes along with your drink. Sitting there in the fumes of good home cooked food, suddenly the hunger starts to get to us as the many tables got served nice simple food, and as I realised that they had "Cocido Madrilieño" on the menu, I knew that this was something that we should have, as it probably is some of the most typical food you can get from Madrid. So what do you know, yes the Mortensens did decide to Ho for the Menu del Dia.

Hours -and the bottle of complimentary wine- later, we were again out on the streets and then what, this establishment ahead of us.

Ham, ham and more ham. I just love Spain.