On the Tapas Trail in Madrid, Spain
Author: In the Spanish capital, David Whitley discovers that there’s more to tapas than a bog-standard dish of patatas bravas.
Dining out in Madrid
When it comes to eating, it’s hard to find anything to dislike in Madrid. One of Spain’s great inventions is the menu del dia – a three course meal, often with a drink thrown in, for around EUR10 to 15. That’s lunch taken care of quite beautifully, and when it comes to the evening, there are tapas.
Octopus in Cerveceria Cervantes
The word ‘tapa’ in Spanish means ‘lid’. It is thought that tapas originated when drinks were served out in the dusty, fly-blown open. The theory goes that people used bits of bread to put over their drinks and keep them clean, and things gradually developed from there.
How Tapas Works
Of course, tapas is no longer a concept limited to the Iberian Peninsula. The concept has spread worldwide, but while you’ll go to a tapas restaurant elsewhere, in Spain the idea is still to eat the small dishes throughout the evening.
Of course, there’s no set way of doing things. At some old fashioned joints, you’ll sit at the bar and they’ll throw the odd morsel on a plate towards you as you drink. In other bars, you pick out what you want, either from the menu or the display cabinet on the bar. Sometimes it’s free, sometimes it isn’t and sometimes it can be darned expensive – depending on what you’re choosing.
Some places are almost restaurant-style, some look like they haven’t changed in years and some are adding contemporary twists to famous recipes in stylish environments. The joy, of course, is flitting between them, trying a bit of everything as you embark upon a rollicking good night out.
Tapas Crawling
It’s possible to do a tapas bar crawl in almost every area of Madrid. Near the centre, Chueca, Malasana and Huertas are almost overflowing with options, but the classic route is through the La Latina barrio.
Calle de la Cava Baja, in particular, is ready made for a bar crawl. It has a mixture of vibes, but is widely regarded to have many of the best tapas joints in town. On a Friday and Saturday, the street can be absolutely heaving with people.
You most certainly don’t need a guide to enjoy a great night out, but where a guided tapas tour comes in handy is picking out specific bars and allowing you to learn about the differences in tapas culture across Spain.
Bread, ham and cheese in El Escarpin
The Asturian Sidreria
Our first stop was at a traditional sidreria – El Escarpin. Cider is a big deal in Asturias, northern Spain, but before you can drink it, you need to learn how to pour it. The Asturians pour the cider from on high in order to let the cloudy, sediment-heavy drink release its flavour molecules and gain a bit of fizz. Alas, for the clumsy, this means a lot ends up on the floor.
Asturias also produces some rather magical tapas dishes, as we soon discovered. Cabrales cheese is not for the faint-hearted. It’s a rich blue cheese, traditionally made with both cow and sheep milk and left to mature in a cave with mushroom in the middle. Mash it up with some of the cider, however, and it’s delicious. So too are the potatoes with a buttery olive-oil taste, and the slow-cooked chorizo which are quite unlike any other chorizo I’ve ever tasted. It’s soft, almost gamey. And, of course, it’s cooked in cider.
El Madroño
Our second stop was for a palate-cleanser. El Madroño is one of the few places remaining that still sells madroño liqueur. It is made from the berries of the tree of the same name – and the tree has long been a symbol of Madrid. The shots are served in wafer cups coated with chocolate and the drop is actually rather nice. Bottles are on sale for 8.50 euros if anyone really takes a shine to it.
El Lacon and the divine dogfish
Madrono ‘glasses’ in El Madrono
Stop number three was at El Lacon. It’s a bit of an old school place with waiters clad in black bow ties and a ceiling that wouldn’t look out of place in a Tudor house. They’ve got some pretty good wines in stock, and it seems as though the more you splash out on the wine, the more free food they’ll give you. We ended up with eight tapas ranging from a chick pea stew to an empanada. Again, they were mostly delicious. But when we actually got round to buying one, I found a new favourite. I’ve no idea what it was called, but I could have happily eaten the little chunks of breaded dogfish soaked in a divine vinegar dressing all night.
Bring on the Octopus…
From there, we headed to Cerveceria Cervantes. The name may suggest a beer-swiller’s paradise, but you only need to look at the octopus legs in the window and aging hams hanging up on the wall to know that it takes its food rather seriously.
We picked a mushroom dish that manages to appease even those who aren’t too keen on mushrooms, plus the big one: octopus. It comes with potatoes, salt crystals and paprika – and boy it’s good.
Rapidly devoured dishes in El Lacon
By now, this doesn’t come as a surprise. The quality of food in Madrid is absolutely sensational. It’s a place where every tiny bar – and there are supposedly more bars here than in any other city on the planet – has its own specialties. Hopping between them is a joy, but to get a lesson in the tapas of the various Spanish regions and to have gorgeous backstreet tabernas and cervecerias pointed out to you is a real treat. It’s a uniquely Spanish bar crawl – and one where cheese and seafood are far more important than beer and shots.
Planning a trip? David did Viator’s Madrid Tapas and Night Walking Tour – which visits different venues every time – and was a guest of the Chic and Basic Mayerling hotel in Madrid. For more ideas, browse Viator’s Madrid tours & things to do, especially the Flamenco and Tapas tours.
Source: Brittany