eat.madrid

packing stress.  waiting impatiently for ups to deliver me the document and pretty much stay put at home (i cancelled a farewell lunch that my team organized for me and i may have to cancel the meeting with an vip from my company if i don't get the delivery in the next hour or so.) as i don't want to miss the delivery man.

i still need to learn the art of packing light, it's my third attempt and i still couldn't fit everything in my packing list into the luggage.  so i will further reduce and repack again after this.  here is an overdue post.  in fact, it's the first destination of my three parts of summer holiday in 2010, but i didn't get around to talk much about madrid yet. so this post is going to be about the yummy and delicious madrid beside tapas that i already mentioned here.

chocolate and churros

you had your breakfast is the famous chocolate and churros, a chocolatier tucked in a small quiet alley behind the oldest church in mardrid. at chocolatier san gilés, you had your portion, you like the chocolate because it is not sweet but thick and full of flavor. churro gives you enough energy to carry on with the sightseeing. you really don’t mind coming back here again for another choc fix.

thick choco and sinful churros, a perfect match. just like the good old time where you remembered your dad dung his youtiao into coffee...

cocido madrileño
at night you go to tarbena de la bola, you choose this restaurant because it is close to where you ‘live’ and you went to try your luck without a reservation but you succeeded. it was quite outside but there are quite a lot of customers.

everyone come here for the one dish – cocido madrileno. it comes in a small clay pot, you first drink the soup with some spaghetti.

the soup is naturally flavored and sweeten by the meat and saffron.

when you are done with the soup, the waiter will pour out the content of the pot and there’s lot of chickpea, a piece of beef, a piece of chorizo, a piece of pork fat and a piece of smoked leg of ham. extra steam cabbage is added to your plate for a complete meal. it is a full meal by itself, you had a great conversation (sign language, facial expression) with a couple sitting next to me. they are super friendly. although you couldn’t understood each other, you were able to comment on the food.

roast suckling pig


you wanted to try the suckling pork at la botin, but the restaurant is not open till 8pm. to kill time, you go to mercado de san miguel and hang around there till about 8pm until restaurant botin finally opens it door. there were already a long queue trying to get in.

you start with half pitcher of sangria, what a binge but it's the end of the day...


you had a gazpacho cold andalusia soup, that's cool and refreshing... it soothes your throat and eventually your body as you wash it down...


a portion of suckling pig, the pork skin is extra thin and crisp, almost as crisp as a filo sheet. all are great and delicious, although it is the most expensive meal so far.



asturian grilled chicken and cider

you walk all the way to casa mingo. it’s a hot and sunny day; you have to walk a good 10 min from the metro station to where the restaurant is located.

casa mingo serves asturian cuisine and is famous for its grilled chicken and cider.you had a chicken all by yourself...

your verdict: it is over rated. the chicken is not bad but is not up to the expectation plus there is no wing on the chicken. what a bummer, not to be able to bites on the wings...
you also order a chorizo to wash down the bottle of cider. The cider is good though.

you were full (after almost a chicken minus the wings, one chorizo and a bottle of cider).  it's definitely a good way to bid goodbye to this city.

:mi.casa:én.házam:ma.maison:

for the last three weeks, i was hardly at home but yet i found myself very at home in my home away from home.

mi casa at madrid, i stayed at hostal gala. it is neither a hotel nor a hostel or bed and breakfast, it is something in between and a rather new establishment in the city center.i am surprised by the shower unit that comes with a raindrop shower and a hydro massage feature. charlie the night shift reception is super friendly and helpful, the girls are very approachable too. mi casa is located at plaza santa domigo, i am just a few minutes away from everything... two minutes to my west is the royal palace and plaza oriente, two minute to my north i already at gran via (famous shopping street) and metro station

én.házam in budapest is a hostel that is no difference from a home. it is a female only hostel (hostel anadin) in an apartment unit, just a block away from danube river that overlooking margaret island. my host jennifer just leave the entire apartment unit to me and a few other girls. i met and make a few friends in this setting. i went out with some of them and in the evening we shared our traveling tips and day encounter with each other. i feel so much at home here that sometime i just didn't want to get out there...

lastly is ma maison in saint-malo, a city in brittany, france, we rented an apartment just by the seashore. we are surprised by the luxury decoration in a very light, clean and airily environment. it comes with a fully equip kitchen and even a sea view at the side window. we have a large living cum dining room and a comfortable bed.

ma maison also has an indoor swimming pool at our disposal, we swam in it almost every day and we relaxed ourselves in the turkish bath daily. here, at ma maison, we took time to sit at the sun bed at the terrace to enjoy the sun and do a bit of reading or just lying down and do nothing but just take in the view in front of us. we just love our home.

all my home away from home are clean. new. central. reasonably priced. most importantly i feel safe, cozy and very at home, even though i was there only temporally...

madrid:mercado.de.san.minguel

i am sitting at my 'home' now in budapest, finished with packing and waiting for my host and ready to go home. my netbook is having some graphic interface problem that i couldn't fix because it is running on linux, so no photo from budapest. but i have pre-loaded some photos of madrid before so here is a blog about a market in madrid. in fact i just came back from a very local market in budapes too, not too far from my 'home'. but for now, this is mercado de san miguel..

located right besides plaza mayor, this is a rather touristic market although there is enough locals visiting here throughout the day. instead of calling this place a market, it is more appropriate to call it a hawker stalls or food center as there is only one store selling fruits and one selling fresh seafood, the rest are tapas, wine, drinks, ice cream or patisseries stalls....

i think i had quite a few meals here simply because it is easy and carefree to eat here... and the atmosphere is quite vibrant in the evening..

my first meal consists of assorted tapas, one euro per piece, six pieces are enough for me as a meal, as the weather is too hot to eat too much food!

a bar or a counter selling drinks, it is just not appropriate to call this a drink stall isn't it?

another day at mercado de san miguel, i went back to the same tapas stall again :) the cod paste and caviar one is the best

the one and only fruit stall, i bought some figs and flat nectarine from them, the fruits are super sweet and juicy...

more scenes of the various stalls, ham, oyster, and shrimp cocktail

lovely oysters on another day while waiting for a restaurant to open at 8pm, i killed some time by eating oysters and a glass of white wine...

a spanish croquette, apparently a delicacy but not to my liking...

i bough three pieces, but they are cold and not so tasty

fresh seafood stall, sometime the display itself is already a piece of art, don't you agree?

a pastry stall with some massive cake displays at the counter to allure the customers

the sweet stuffs on offer, macaron and cakes including some green color ice cream corn

the market at night is quite enchanting by itself, it opens till 2am though....

m@dr!d

i have been silence for a few days already, am on the part one of my vacation. it is hot here, i am already a shade darker....

madrid is a great city escape!!!!

safe.cheap.friendly.great food, super weather.

i took so many photos that my netbook can no longer handling them neither the speed of the wifi from the hostal able to cope.

here are just a few snapshots... more stories on this amazing city will follow when i finally get to sort out my photos...

plaza mayor, my first snapshot of madrid, the square is pretty much empty and only turns into life from evening till late night. i passed by here so frequent that each time i tell myself i am going to skip this place yet this seems to be the cross road for my orientation to get to the next destination...

madrid is full of parks, huge parks are everywhere. they are shady, great place for a picnic lunch or siesta when the sun is too fierce in the afternoon. parks have the cooling effect to madrid...

toledo, a Romanesque city just 30 min south of madrid by the high speed tourist train. a complete medieval city on top of a hill and three sides surrounded by water... this is not the view of the old city but the outlook from the old city to the greater surroundings...

Spanish Ceramics

It's Monday again, a bit of Monday blue so I decided to write something which is the continuation of my recent Andalusia trip. Here are some of the Spanish ceramic that I have acquired in Seville and of course hand carry back home. Most of these would add nicely to our current collection of ceramic.

Spanish ceramics are more bulky and more of earthware but they are colorful, bright and enlightening...

On the contrary, this is not really Spanish but Morocco tea set although I bought it from Seville... Will surely find an occasion to drink tea with it...

My Square - Plaza Dona Elvira

After Plaza de Espana, I walked to Barrio de Santa Cruz in search for a square that named after me i.e. Plaza Dona Elvira (Square of Lady Elvira). I got lost in the old city again, but enjoying the passage through the Sevillian history. Every single building has its own story to tell, the tiles, the bricks, the ruins.... I walked passed and through many squares and finally came to 'my square'.Plaza Dona Elvira is a tiny but atmospheric square with many orange trees line in square and compliments by tile benches and surrounds by small non touristy restaurants. Here are some photos....

Plaza Dona Elvira

The Square in the center, with orange trees and tile benches and of course a small fountain in the middle

A nice tile bench at the side of the square..

A nice charming square that live up to the expectation...

Plaza de Espa�a

After the discharge from hospital, I rested a bit at the hotel and started feeling better again. So I walked to a very beautiful square not too far from the hotel, about 10 min walk but then again Seville old city is really small. Passing through a park and an old tobacco factory (which is now a university), I arrived at Plaza de Espana (Spanish Square).

The semicircular square of the Plaza de Espa�a has an fountain in its center and is flanked by two towers. Bricks are the main material used in this monument, in combination with tiles and marble columns. The building's style today is called Sevillian Regionalism.

I had a wonderful time walking at this place, enjoying the wonderful tile works that tell different stories and histories.. The late afternoon sun also accentuate the color of that hour.

Uploading photo is very slow with the hotel network, I will post more photos of my trip after I got back home.

Alcazar Palace

I had an early start on Friday morning and head straight to Royal Alcazar of Seville - probably the most impressive monument that I have seen so far, not in term of size but in term of the amount of architectural detailed work. It is hard to describe the beauty of Alcazar in words. You got to pay a personal visit to experience it yourself.

Enter through the Puerta del Le�n into the Patio de la Monter�a, which derived its name from the scouts (monteros), who accompanied the king in its hunting parties.

A moorish influence design wall before entering the Hall of King A moorish influence design before entering the Hall of King

It is very impressive monument, rich in architectural details and a confluent of various cultural. Too bad that I actually didn't visited the whole palace which I will share in the next block entry...

Passport to the Sun - Valencia, Spain

We just came back from Valencia, Spain yesterday. We made a very last minute and impromptu journey to the sunny destination refusing to accept the fact that the Netherlands is embarking into a cooler prologue, another episode of winter is lying ahead. Valencia – the third largest city of Spain despite of lack in characteristic and great history, the city still have enough to offer.

An experience that bring us back to the future - the City of Arts and Sciences. A state of art and the largest cultural-educational complex in Europe. Strolling at the compound is a very futuristic experience with buildings and architectures that resemble spaceship and the future.

Journey through the Past – In the city center and the old town, there are still enough impressive architecture in a different era – Gothic, Moorish or Renaissance. The most impressive one is La Lonja (as seen below)

Mediterranean sea , the coast is just 2km away from the city of Valencia, which is perfect to combine sightseeing and sun worshipping. The September Sun in Valencia is still very hot and the sea water is equally warm which makes it a perfect combination for sun bathing in the late afternoon

For now, this is the general thoughts of Valencia. More photos and impressions to come....