Sevilla & Madrid, Spain

Since there are already a few great guide-style threads re. Madrid and Sevilla, I wanted to share some pics of the tasty stuff we ate during our week there.

But first, a few quick shout outs, in no particular order:
jbw, great call on Casa Lucas!
Zeeshan: Maribel's Guides are great! Thanks for mentioning them in your post.
Mike G: Your excellent Madrid post gave me a great idea of what to expect...I really appreciate all the effort you put into it!
Jefe: the heads-up on pimientos de Padrón was great...I kept an eye out for them, got a raised eyebrow from the bartender when we ordered them, and enjoyed looks of awe and respect from the surrounding patrons after we happily devoured the entire plate

And now on to the food (and restaurant pics):

Sevilla


Our fave tapas place in Sevilla (mostly because we loved everything we tried there, but partly because every item cost €2.10 or less, including beer):
Bodega Santa Cruz Las Columnas (referred to by locals simply as "Las Columnas")
C/ Rodrigo Caro 1
41004, Sevilla, Spain


The delicious jamón ibérico de bellota at Las Columnas, with a glass of Tinto de Verano (1 part cheap, sweet red wine, 1 part sparkling limon soda, over ice) in the foreground


Montedito (little sandwich) de chorizo ibérico de bellota...that chorizo was so good, I went back a few times for either this little sandwich or just a plate of the chorizo straight-up


Great little dive of a wine bar just down the street from Las Columnas (and just as cheap)...it was home of the smallest men's room I've ever seen: 18" wide, 18" deep, containing a urinal & a bare lightbulb overhead :
Alvaro Peregil
C/ Mateos Gago, 20
41004, Seville, Spain


The tiny glasses of vino de naranja served at Alvaro Peregil, enjoyed on a random table out on the sidewalk


One of the many orange trees that are found all over Sevilla

Edited to dump Picasa for Flickr

Madrid


This place is on one of Madrid's main drags (which leads from the Prado to Puerta del Sol)...we popped in looking for a quick lunch with low expectations, and ended up very pleasantly surprised:
Restaurant Café La Catedral
C/ de San Jeronimo, 16
http://www.la-catedral.es/


A nice, cold cerveza San Miguel at Café La Catedral, along with the free bar snack, two boiled shrimp


Patatas bravas at Café La Catedral


Pimientos de Padrón at Café La Catedral...we batted a .500 on hot ones, and when they're spicy, holy crap are they spicy! They came with a side of little, slightly-cheesy fried dough puffs that worked really well for taking the edge off after eating a hot one.


Champiñones a la plantxa at Café La Catedral


This trendy tapas restaurant (apparently it's a local chain now) was recommend by a girl at the concierge desk at our hotel...the prices were surprisingly reasonable:
Lateral
Plaza Santa Ana, 12 (and 4 other locations)


A baked potato (that must have been brined, the skin was crispy & salty & delicious) stuffed with jamón and parmesan, and topped with a fried quail egg, recommended by the waiter at Lateral as one of their trademark dishes


A trendy Rande Gerber (of Whiskey and Mexx fame) hotel bar next to Lateral, where we had a round of €12 Hendricks-and-sodas before running away in disgust:
Midnight Rose
(in the ME by Mélia Hotel)
Plaza Santa Ana, 14

In Madrid we also went to La Broche, which was a really cool experience. I posted those pics in a separate thread.

Edited to dump Picasa for Flickr, and add La Broche link

Madrid (cont.)


Halibut topped with olive tapenade, accompanied by caramelized, balsamic-glazed onion halves and quenelles of ratatouille...a great recommendation from Maribel's Madrid guide (and literally 100 feet from our hotel - bonus!):
Paradis Madrid
C/ Marqués De Cubas, 14


Crema catalana at Paradis Madrid


Mercado de la Cebada
Plaza Cebada S/N


Mercado de la Cebada


This place on Cava Baja was packed at a relatively early hour (8:30pm, when everything around it was still closed) with young locals & a few American tourists (who seemed very open-minded...while I was waiting to order I heard a 20-something girl telling her friends, "I don't know what this is, but I think it might involve sardines, but ohmygod it's AWESOME"...gotta love that )...I recognized the name when we saw it, because it was a place that Mike G spoke highly of in his Madrid report:
Taberna Txakolina
Cava Baja, 26


The tapas we had at Txakolina...I have no idea what it's called, but it was heavily-spiced pork sausages wrapped in thin slices of potato & fried, on a slice of bread, topped with a fried quail egg. It was awesome.


A tiny little Cava Baja tapas place, highly recommended by both jbw and Maribel's Guide, with great food and warm, friendly staff:
Casa Lucas
Cava Baja, 30


Solomillo (veal loin, apparently) at Casa Lucas. Very tender & tasty.


A very stylish, yet completely casual wine & tapas bar at the southern end of Cava Baja:
Taberna Tempranillo
Cava Baja, 38


The wine selection at Taberna Tempranillo


My wife's favorite dish of the trip: garbanzos con chipirones (tiny baby squid) at Taberna Tempranillo


This is what we came home to. I'm still not fully clear on why we got on the return flight in Madrid.

Edited to dump Picasa for Flickr

Nice posts, except that other than 3 - 4 pictures, including the one of Crema catalana at Paradis Madrid, none of your pictures are showing up in my browser.

stevez wrote:Nice posts, except that other than 3 - 4 pictures, including the one of Crema catalana at Paradis Madrid, none of your pictures are showing up in my browser.

D'OH! Stupid Picasa. I think I'm going to have to move them to Flickr.

Thanks for the heads up!

When I lived in Sevilla I had a place in Barrio Sta. Cruz, so I used to go to Las Columnas quite frequently. For a cheap and tasty bite. I really liked their flamenquines. Thanks for sharing those pics!

Wow - I think I'm going to make that Sevilla orange tree picture my screen saver. No - maybe it will be the wine selection at Taberna Tempranillo. Thanks for posting!

Thanks for the pictures. The great thing about Spain is you don't have to adjust your body clock to go there. Normally eat at 6 PM? No problem, that's 1 AM in Spain when people are just sitting down for dinner.