Find "cocido madrileño" or meat and chickpea stew in restaurants such as the famous Taberna La Bola. This type of stew contains chickpeas cooked with carrots, onions and turnips combined with potatoes in a savory broth. The addition of bacon, spicy sausage or chorizo, black sausage or chicken and marrow bones enhances the flavor. The stew's ingredients "simmer in earthenware crocks over coals and are served in three courses," with broth as a starter, according to Fodor's Spain. The last course contains the meat, sometimes spread on sliced bread.
After a local bullfight, nearby restaurants purchase portions of the bull to make specialty dishes such as Madrid's traditional "rabo de toro." The stew consists of lightly salted and browned bull's tail combined with garlic, onions, peppers and tomatoes. Cooked slowly, the stew braises with bay leaves and saffron in a sherry-based or red wine sauce. Find "rabo de toro" at Taberna de Buenaventura.
Taberna La Bola
Bola, 5
Madrid, Spain 28013
34-1-91--547-69-30
labola.es www.labola.es
Taberna de Buenaventura
Hermosilla, 69
Madrid, Spain 28001
34-1-91--575-83-65
Across from the Atocha train station or the Plaza de Major, visitors can sample a "bocadillo de calamares." Find this Madrid food in bars or restaurants such as "Cerveceria La Campana," cites Damien Simonis, author of Spain, "at any hour of the day." Flour coated rings of squid are fried in olive oil until lightly browned and served spilling out of a Spanish baguette-style roll.
Try the simple casserole, "besugo al horno," which consists of freshly caught red bream baked with sautéed garlic and chili pepper. The fish is rubbed with tomato and basted with olive oil and lemon juice. Herbs include sea salt, bay leaf and parsley.
Cerveceria La Campana
Calle Botoneras 6
Madrid, Spain 28012
34-1-91-364-29-84
Purchase "barquillos" from barquillero vendors in front of the Palacio Real. "Customers pay a fixed price while the vendor spins a roulette-type wheel atop his red cylindrical container that holds the wafers," according to iEspaña. When the wheel stops, the customer receives the amount of wafers as indicated on the wheel. Top the tube-shaped wafers with chocolate or whipped cream, or have one added to an ice cream order from a heladeria (ice cream shop).
The popular "rosquillos de anis" forms a ring-shaped donut with a strong licorice flavor. Fried in olive oil, discover "rosquillos" during the festival of San Isidro, Madrid's patron saint, in November. Look for them in bakeries such as La Mallorquina Pastelería.
La Mallorquina Pastelería
Calle Mayor, 2
28013 Madrid, Spain
34-1-91-521-12-01
