That Green Gunk!

See that slimy green gunk on the left? The one that looks like
        a) radioactive waste
        b) something  that´s meant for the garbage can  or
        c) something that´s ermmm, too gross to mention.

Well, that green gunk is the one food that I love above all else in The Netherlands.

An Almond A Day...

I  just realized that  I have been eating a lot of almonds these past few weeks.  I always thought of almonds as these nubbins that´s  supposed to be a healthier snack option to chips.   Rich in Protein! Food for the Brain!  Well, you know the drill...

On days when I get into one of my get-fit-or-die  mindset, I  do turn to almonds to carry me through my snack cravings. Although to be honest, I do get bored eating almonds after sometime, because let´s admit it, absolutely nothing is as satisfying and guilt-inducing as munching through a bag of  lipsmacking Ruffle´s Cheddar & Sour Cream potato chips!

CHOCS

And then there´s Almonds with Chocolates, or is it the other way around? Let´s just say that whoever discovered this delicious combination is a food hero.  Because let´s admit it,  life, hard as it is already,  would just be a bit harsher if there were no chocolate-covered almonds  in the world to perk us up!

 Meiji Almond from Japan

A Sweet Hello to Gu´s Delicious Treats

Hello! How are you? Sorry I´ve been quiet for some time.  I just moved countries and although The Netherlands is only an hour and a half away from Madrid, my base for the past two years,  there were still a lot of things to get used to.  The weather, for one thing.  It´s always cold and drizzling in Holland.  But the past few weeks there have been pockets of sunshine.  People are all looking forward to spring and the tulips in full bloom!  and the sun! How I miss the  hot scorching rays of the sun!  I never imagined I would say this, but there are days when I miss Madrid so much.  I miss the  mild weather and the good, inexpensive food  that can be had at the restaurants all over Madrid.  Here in Holland, the groceries are not really expensive but eating out is.  I miss Madrid´s 10€ two course meals with dessert and wine! Ah but that´s life.  One has to make do with what is on her plate at the moment.

One good thing about Holland is the plethora of grocery goodies from Belgium, France, Germany and the UK.  Take for example my super delicious find this weekend.  It´s a brand called Gu from the UK founded after the owner got inspired by the desserts he tried in Belgium.

The first time I tried this was on a brief trip to Paris. I remember I bought a chocolate pudding and it  was delish but relatively expensive at about 2€ for a small ramekin.  Imagine my happiness then when I saw packs of Gu at my local grocery today and they were on sale!  From 3.5€ for a double serving pack,  they were only 2€ a pack!

Brunch at Baguio's Most Loved Restaurant

A last minute decision to make a side trip to Baguio on our way home to Manila from Ilocos found us  in Baguio's most loved restaurant for brunch. It's been years since we went up to Baguio, and despite the new restaurants popping up in the City of Pines, I wanted something familiar and comforting, like how Baguio is to me even after years of not visiting.

First we tried to find Star Cafe which to my memory was the best Chinese eatery in Baguio only to find out that it has closed.  Thankfully, my other favorite Baguio eatery, what many consider as Baguio's most loved restaurant,  is still standing tall. Like a serene and regal beacon  amidst the crazy commercial buzz that has overcome the once genteel Session Road.

Cafe By The Ruins is still as beautiful as ever.

                                 That bamboo canopy  at the al fresco dining area

Sweet Treats: Why You Should Try Nestle UK's Caramac Caramel Bar

One reason:  It tastes pretty close to Nestle's Alpine White Bar

                                                                            The much missed  Alpine White Bar

The Alpine White Bar is a  discontinued but much loved white bar of deliciousness.  It was my, and I suspect most of my generation's  first and most pleasant encounter with what is now known as white chocolate.

My love for Alpine White is deep as it represented my childhood summers.
  I, a city child,  would go to Ilocos every summer to spend two months with my grandparents.  And often, my parents would send me off on my summer adventures  with a six-pack of my beloved Alpine White bars.  Thus these white bars wrapped in shiny silver paper marked the start of my carefree summer days,  away from school, away from the city,  nestled happily within the indulgent love of my grandparents.

Sadly,  Nestle discontinued the Alpine White Bars in the 90s.

                                The Caramac Bar

Shopping High: Finally! UK Treats On The Cheap in Madrid!

I woke up to an aubergine sky, perpetually wet streets and this mist-filled air. Hello, dreary saturday! You remind me so much of  London´s bed weather.

I was tempted to stay under the covers all day, catch up on Homeland, my current  series obsession, order greasy Chinese food and be the sloth that I am.  But N, my cheery and very reliable Pinay friend who comes to my flat twice a month to  clean, reorganize and straighten my stuff messaged me that she was arriving at half past two, so I had to move my lazy ass off the bed and get out of the flat while she did her cleaning magic.

I walked the cold, drizzling streets with a few tasks in mind.  First, get a replacement sim card for my phone, next, window shop for a  pair of winter boots.  I wasn´t in the mood to ride buses or the Metro so I  just walked to the nearest mobile phone shop. Closed.  Hmmm, okay, I suppose I have to go to the mobile phone shop´s bigger branch at the city center tomorrow.  And sige, I´ll do the window shopping for boots tomorrow na lang din.  Didn´t I tell you I am the laziest sloth ever? 

Instead of going off to accomplish the tasks above, I decided to just walk ahead and find  a coffee shop where I can have a hot cup of tea and a soft couch to laze on while I pass the time. So walk I did and that was how I stumbled upon a shop called Dealz.

Dealz? with a Z? Isn´t it a bit lame  for a shop name? In Filipino lingo, it is ohmygawd jologs!  But then I saw something that made me stop.  Dealz, Part of the Poundland Family. Huh? Poundland UK? And my memory turned to that delightful Poundland discount shop in Hounslow, London which I visited without fail every weekend in search of great deals.  I recall buying a lot of Neutrogena items, Toffifee, shortbread biscuits, and other sweets there on the cheap! I peeked inside  Dealz and saw a lot of people shopping, so of  course, my bargain hunter Amazonian self went in and attacked!

The first thing that´ll make anyone happy at Dealz  is the price.  All items are just 1.5€ each! The pricing makes sense since one British pound is roughly 1.3€ and in the UK, the shops are named Poundland.  Sure, there´s a bit of a price adjustment but 1.5€ is still cheap since it´s less than 100 Philippine Pesos!

                                        Tempting Sweets at Dealz  Image from economica.es

Istanbul, Turkey: Kibbles, Kebabs and All Things Delish!

At the time I booked the flat for our  Istanbul trip, the only considerations  were that it was relatively cheap and should be near a Metro station.  I found one in Beyoglu, just a five minute walk from Taksim Square.  It turned out that Beyoglu is not only the city center of modern Istanbul,  it is also considered as the culinary center of the city with the most concentration of restaurants, bakeshops, cafes and bars.  Were we happy with our stay in Beyoglu? Suffice to say that we never went hungry in Istanbul!

Simit for Breakfast

                                Image from Simit Sarayi

Istanbul, Turkey: Bazaar Fever and Baklava

It is true. Istanbul, with its history, beautiful mosques and palaces, is captivating. 

Sultanahmet,  Istanbul´s old town will not let you down.  A day can be spent just walking around Sultanahmet.  There is no need to feel harried here since the great Istanbul structures  are located  close to each other.

                                          The Blue Mosque, Sultanahmet

                               Hagia Sophia, Sultanahmet

                                            Basilica Cistern, Sultanahmet

  

 In between these grand architectural and historical marvels are parks, open spaces, eateries and benches to sit on.

                                Green spaces around Sultanahmet

                

But here´s the truth.  What we enjoyed most about our trip to Istanbul were the bazaars and the delicious, inexpensive food.

We were in Istanbul for only three days, and because this was really more of a chill, explore leisurely and bond with friends trip we didn´t want to cram our schedule with so many activities.  But on top of our to-do-list in Istanbul was to visit its famous bazaars.



The Grand Bazaar

                               One of the five gates of the Grand Bazaar


The Grand Bazaar is the queen of indoor markets in Turkey.  Even the term grand seems to be an understatement,  it being a whopping 30.7 hectares complex of shopping and entertainment.  There are five gates and thousands of shops,  which for  a shopping connoisseur, must be heaven on earth.

Truth:  I was a bit scared about the Grand Bazaar.  I have been to  a souk in Fes, Morocco and was aghast at how rude and persistent the touts were.  I was afraid that like the souk experience in Morocco, my Grand Bazaar would let me down. It however turned out that the bazaars in Istanbul play to an altogether different melodic tune.

                                  The beautiful painted walls and ceilings of the Grand Bazaar

First, the Grand Bazaar is an indoor market housed in a spectacular structure.  The ceilings are curved and intricately painted.  And while there are touts all over the bazaar, these were not the pushover types I´ve encountered in Morocco.

As they say, anything you need, you´ll find at The Grand Bazaar.

                                            Silk Scarves and Pashminas
                                         
                                         

                  The kid on the left has the most beautiful  bone structure I´ve seen!

                                Blings

                                Turkish tea sets

                               Ottoman style figurines

                                Turkish lamps

                                            Carpets and Beddings

The key to buying success at the bazaars is to haggle hard, something that we Filipinos, veterans of Divisoria and tiangges, are good at.  The sellers will  often give  high initial prices.  If you stand your ground and maintain your indifference to the item they will eventually lower the price into something more palatable.  Case in point, a friend successfully haggled for a silk hand embroidered beddings set from an initial price of 1500 liras to  only 300 liras (about 6000 PhP).

One can spend a day at the Grand Bazaar and still not see half of the stalls. There is however a sort of camaraderie /symbiotic arrangement between the stall vendors: Once you enter a shop and buy something, the seller would most likely gently recommend you to another shop selling other types of wares. One can also easily ask the seller for their recommended shops and they´d happily point you to a shop of their friend or relative. I feel that as long as you have great haggling skills, this setup bodes well for shoppers who might otherwise be overwhelmed by the vastness of the bazaar.

One good thing about the sellers in these Turkish bazaars is that they do not resort to hard sell.  They are pleasant and solicitous even if you don´t buy anything from them.

The Spice Bazaar
The Spice Bazaar despite being one of the larger bazaars in Istanbul is tiny compared to the  Grand Bazaar.  And that´s sort of a good thing.  It is still the centre of spice trade in Istanbul with stalls upon stalls offering spices, dried fruits and teas.  Perhaps to cater to tourists like us, there are also stalls offering jewelry, leather goods and cheap yet pretty souvenirs.

Cinnamon, Saffron, Curry Powder, Paprika and strange unfamiliar spices are spread out in a tapestry of colours

                                           Dried fruits and vegetables, teas and  more
         

                               Teas and spices

                                All sorts of olives

Walking through the Spice Bazaar, one is offered free tastes of all kinds of goodies : teas, turkish delights, olives, candies, dried fruits and such.  It´s not a bad thing to try the goodies and not buy anything .  The touts don´t force you to buy and truthfully most of the goodies are delicious!  But apparently the prices of these goodies are about 20% higher if you buy them inside the Spice Bazaar building.  Outside, in little alleys crisscrossing the main bazaar building are where most locals get their spices and sweets, so that´s where we bought our stash of nuts and sweets.

Lokum and Baklava at Hafiz Mustafa 1864
Every little corner in Istanbul has a sweets shop selling Lokum (Turkish Delight) and Baklava

                                Halva

                               A Baklava Shop

Before coming to Istanbul, I searched the web for  a bakery where we could have great Turkish sweets and  saw  the great reviews for the century old traditional bakery Hafiz Mustafa.

 As luck would have it, our rented flat was just a few minutes' walk from the Hafiz Mustafa shop in Taksim Square.  So on our first night, after dinner, we dropped by the shop for desserts.

This well known Turkish patisserie  is a beautiful yet chaotic place. It is always full of customers but because of the gilded gold walls, the beautiful soft lights, the mountain of sweets on display,  and the pleasant service offered, this is a not to be missed experience in Istanbul.

Here are some of the goodies on offer at Hafiz Mustafa. Prepare to drool!

                              Dates filled with nuts

                                         Turkish Delights

                                         More Turkish Delights

                                         Chocolate and Nut-filled Turkish Delights

                               Baklava in various forms

                                More Baklava!

                                Rice Pudding

                               

                        Our desserts: Pistachio Baklava, Chocolate Baklava, Lemon Turkish Delight and tea

All the sweets were delicious. The pistachio baklava while rich wasn´t as overly sweet as we have feared.  I personally liked the lemon turkish delight just because I love anything lemon flavoured but the truly unforgettable treat for us was the chocolate baklava.  Rich chocolate flavoured flaky pastry interspersed with caramelly sweetness and the nuttiness of pistachio.  It was a baklava like no other.  

At about  15€ for our orders, these are not cheap by Istanbul prices, but still reasonable considering the hefty servings and nice ambiance. Plus the fact that our leftover sweets were packed prettily in a bag for us to take home.

                                Our doggie bag of scrumptious sweets

Coming up next: Turkish Kebabs and All Things Savoury

Baking At Midnight and Other Crazy Things

Busy
Work has gobbled me up the past few weeks.  This week in particular has been, to use my teammate's  term, "hellish".   I know, I know I have no right to complain.  I should count my blessings and all that schtick.  It´s just that most days I am just too tired to do the things I used to have time for.  I no longer do my evening walks.  I can´t find the energy to write, and worst,  I even sometimes sleep through Skype calls from family and friends.  And   I have not baked in close to a month.  My current  place  in the sun is a  tiny bubble crammed with work and to-do lists.

Some Sort of Pampering
My one small indulgence the past month is a  weekly massage session at a salon and spa owned by a Filipino couple in Madrid.  The massage therapist at the Spa is actually the wife-owner who was once a religious missionary. She has that refreshing kindness that makes one open up to her. But of course,  her  best feature is those utterly nimble hands which knead unfailingly to untangle tight muscles and ease my usual complaint of  sore back muscles. She uses hot stone massage and oh, it is heavenly! The spa´s massage room is soothing and conducive to relaxation: a table top water fountain provides the calming sound of water streaming down .  The lighting is  muted, scented tea light candles providing both atmosphere and aromatherapy.  There´s instrumental music too, toned down low enough to not be intrusive.  At 30€ a week for  70 minutes of bliss it is a splurge, but then it is the one thing that I look forward to week after week.   I tell myself, I earned this.  I need this hour of pampering to help me prepare for the week ahead.

Blasted Good News
This week´s high point is the blasted good news  I got which will definitely change my plans for the next few months.  For fear of jinxing it, I shall keep mum for the meantime, but it surely helped me deal with the week´s stress and  put things in perspective.

Down with Sleep
Fridays correspond to spending only half a day at the office.  Today, feeling unusually tired, I went home at 2 PM and went straight to bed.  A friend I have wanted to meet up with for a month or so now, asked me if we could finally have our girl talk moments, and I said, Sure, but just let me get my much needed sleep first.  But I proceeded to sleep for five straight hours and woke up at 8 PM!  Too late to go out, considering that I have to be up by 7 AM tomorrow for a trip with another set of friends, and so while most people were readying for bed, I  was doing my weekend chores --  laundry, folded my clothes, washed the dishes and amazingly I still had enough energy and time to bake.

Midnight Baking 
Midnight. I realised, hell, this is the perfect time to bake.  A check in the pantry yielded an opened pack of dried cranberries, some leftover toasted almonds, an opened pack of chocolate chips, flour, sugar and exactly two eggs.  Perfect!  Just the ingredients I need to make Chocolate Chip Cranberry Muffins.

Here´s the recipe I used: Chocolate Cranberry Muffins
(Of course,as expected, I tweaked the recipe, using water instead of milk, because I had no milk. Milk chocolate chips instead of white, and topping the muffins with some toasted, caramelised almonds.  This is what I love about baking and cooking, the freedom to tweak and make do with what´s available.  BTW, the muffins still turned out great. )

I have always thought of muffins as one of the least fussy things to bake.  Most often, you only need two bowls ---one for the dry ingredients (flour, leavener, salt) and another for the wet ingredients (oil/butter, eggs, milk/water, flavourings such as vanilla or lemon juice).  You also don´t need an electric mixer to make muffins.  A whisk and a wooden spoon would do just fine.  It´s easy peasy.  The only thing to remember about baking muffins is to only mix the dry and wet ingredients until combined.  The science geek explanation is that overmixing muffins will  overwork the gluten in the flour making the muffins denser.  To be honest,  it will not really change your muffin´s taste but the texture would vary.  Just mixed muffins will have a more tender crumb with small uniform holes while an overmixed muffin will be denser and will have usually big irregular holes.

So anyway, I baked a batch of muffins to give away.  Truth: I do not eat wheat-based products at the moment because my food intolerances have flared up these past few weeks so most of the goodies I bake, I give away to friends, officemates and to my apartment building´s guards.  Half of these muffins I´ll bring with me tomorrow on a trip for our snacks.   The rest I have set aside to give to my favourite massage therapist on Sunday.

Make Time
So there.  Nothing much is happening in my life at the moment. Some great and possibly life changing news, lots of work, a weekly pampering session, and sometimes, when I find time, little spaces to do my passions --baking and yes, blogging.

So Cheers! I hope that despite life´s buzzes and demands, you´ll find enough interstitial spaces to do what you love most.  Let´s find time to do the little things that make our lives happier. Enjoy the weekend!

Churros con Chocolate at Chocolateria San Gines

                                Image from http://guias-viajar.com

Ah Churros con Chocolate.  The quintessential Spanish breakfast of fried dough sticks and rich, spoonable  hot chocolate.

The first time I had churros con chocolate in Spain, I had a mild shock.  The churros was bland with just a hint of salt, and yes it was greasy.  This was not the cinnamon-powdered sweet dough sticks I have learned to think of as churros.  So I do understand how tourists are divided after they try their first truly Spanish version of churros con chocolate.  It´s   a love-it or hate-it thing but definitely something one must try at least once when he finds himself in Spain.

The past month, I´ve had a couple of people visiting me in Madrid.  My brother came for a two week European vacation, and then just last week, one of my best friends from Holland came for a weekender.  Of course, they had to  have the churros con chocolate experience.

And what better place to have churros than at Chocolateria San Gines,  the most famous churreria in Madrid.  San Gines is just a five minute walk from the Madrid  Puerto del Sol  Metro station,  right in the city centre.   Thus a breakfast at San Gines is a perfect start for a day of touring Madrid since it is close to most of the usual tourist spots --- Plaza Mayor,  Mercado San Miguel, Cava Baja (the street famous for their tapas), and the Gran Via shopping street.  It is also open 24 hours, so you can drop by whenever you want. In fact it is a favourite  after-gimmick stop of revellers from the clubs and bars nearby.

A chocolateria with more than a hundred years of history must be doing something right.  

San Gines, despite its popularity, is quite small and the place can get really busy. On weekend mornings the queue made up of  both tourists and locals ambling for their morning treats can get very long and the place becomes a bit frenzied with the store staff whizzing through with plates of fried doughs and cups of hot drinks.  If one wants some quiet with his churros, then visit San Gines at off-peak hours,  say after lunch or at dinner time when most people are preoccupied with other things.

                                The Chocolateria at a busy time

Despite its fame,  San Gines is in essence a very down-to-earth establishment.  The ordering process is simple,  you go to the till, order your treats,  get the receipt, find a table and wait for a waiter to check your receipt and serve you your churros.

San Gines only serves churros, porras and a cake or two, though why one would go to San Gines for cake is beyond my comprehension.

Churros, I am sure, you are familiar with. But porras?

                                Photo from www.minube.com

Porras is the big, bulky brother of Churros.  Think churros but heftier, like three times the girth of a regular churros.  Because it is thicker, it has a more bread-like texture than churros, but the taste is the same:  the slick, salty, bland flavour of fried dough.

                                            My brother and his churros

Although tourists troop to San Gines like ants to sugar, it is definitely not a tourist trap.  The staff aren´t artificially cheerful nor condescending. Sometimes, when the place becomes busy, they might even be mistaken as rude.  But don´t take offense and  just enjoy the busy atmosphere.  Madrilenos also love the place.  Because, what´s not to love?  A plate of six churros and a cup of thick chocolate costs only 3.80€.  Beware though,  six pieces of churros might be too much for a single person to consume. Those dough sticks are pretty heavy on the gut.  What we usually do is order a set of six churros and a cup of hot chocolate and one additional cup of hot chocolate (2.5€ a cup). At less than 6€, a pretty inexpensive yet filling breakfast for two.

So how is the churros at San Gines?  Well, they are freshly fried, clean-tasting and crispy.  Nothing to complain about, really.  But to my mind  there´s a limit to the deliciousness of  fried dough sticks.  There´s not a hint of sweetness to them, they are bland and greasy so after a few sticks, the novelty wears off.  Of course, that is why churros is partnered with thick hot chocolate.  Dip the sticks into the cacao liquid and you get the sweetness and chocolate richness you long for.  And that is what makes San Gines a cut above the rest.  Their churros is good, albeit I think not the best, but their hot chocolate is liquid gold.  You dip a spoonful, take a lick and it is the full on chocolate flavour that dominates, not sweetness, not vanilla, but bold chocolate goodness.

                                 Image from www.foodsherpa.com

I can go without the churros from San Gines, not because they´re bad, but because I personally do not like churros that much.  But their hot chocolate, now that´s something worth coming back to.  And so, really I think Chocolateria San Gines is aptly named.  It is first and foremost a place to get a cup of the thickest, most delicious hot chocolate in Madrid.  While it is the churros that draws people  to visit San Gines, I bet that for most,  it is the thick, delicious chocolate that  they remember most, the churros, while good are secondary:  long fried sticks used as edible vessels to carry forth thick chocolate goodness.


Chocolateria San Gines
Pasadizo San Gines, 5 Madrid
Walking Distance from the following Metro Stations ( Puerta del Sol, Gran Via)
Open 24 hours

Pork Knuckles Like No Other at El Chacon Madrid

The tourist leads the way to great food.

One of my BFFs, Liz, is in Madrid for the weekend.  I was a bit stressed on how to fill her three days in Madrid because
          a)  This isn´t her first time, she´s visited Madrid thrice in the close to two years that I´ve lived here.
          b)  We didn´t want to go bar hopping
          c)  I wash´t able to plan for a day trip out of Madrid.

Of course, being the good friend that she is, she kept reminding me that all she wants on her trip was to eat good, relatively cheap food, hoard on jamon iberico bellota and to spend some precious bonding time with me.  I thought, wow,  I really  have great luck when it comes to friends!  I am drawn to  people who are meant to be friends for life!

Well, it turns out that she came prepared with a list of must-eats based on the  recommendations of her Spanish colleague, Enrique.  Enrique, it turns out,  is a certified foodie who used to run their family restaurant before becoming an engineer.  On top of Enrique´s list for Liz  is a  codillo completo meal at El Chacon.

So yesterday,  a Friday,  Liz and I decided to have lunch at El Chacon.

Located on a quiet street just a few minutes walk from the Puerta del Anghel metro station, El Chacon  looks a bit rundown and tiny.  It is a small restaurant with only six tables and a small bar. Liz, who arrived a full thirty minutes before I did, had a quick reconnaissance and saw that all tables were taken.  By the time I arrived, at quarter past 3 in the afternoon,  the restaurant was still full and we were actually willing to have  our codillo completo meal standing by the bar, but luck was with us, as a couple was just easing out of their tables when we ushered ourselves in.  We got a precious table to ourselves with no waiting time!

El Chacon is a restaurant for the locals.  This is not a restaurant you´d choose based on a quick browse through Trip Advisor, although it is there, ranked #719 out of  6, 516, with only 19 reviews, mostly in Spanish.  One may  of course  stumble upon it along aimless walks, trying to discover the streets of the real Madrid, but because it does not really look that pretty from the outside and is almost always packed, outsiders like Liz and I will most likely hesitate to enter the premises.

But the god of foodlovers have seen us fit to discover it through a kindred soul.  And oh! what delicious pork knuckles we had! At prices that made us sing with happiness.  Yes,  Madrid is relatively inexpensive, but even I, who have come to expect reasonable prices and good food in Madrid, was pleasantly surprised by the prices at El Chacon.


El Chacon´s interiors are a throwback from another era. I imagine that this is as what a tavern would be in cowboy country: burnished brown tiled floors and ceiling, chocolate coloured chairs and tables, big paintings, and this mule´s head as its centrepiece.

The bar at El Chacon is lined with traditional Spanish decorative tiles.

El Chaco specialises in Galician cuisine.  Galicia being a Spanish province in the northwestern part of the country known for its seafood and for a dish called Lacon con Grelos.

                                                 Photo from www.cocinarecetas.hola.com

Lacon con Grelos is boiled pork shoulder (lacon)  and turnip tops (grelos) served with boiled potatoes and chorizo.  El Chacon serves a variant of Lacon con Grelos,  using the knuckles (codillo)  instead of pork shoulder,  but really, to my untrained eye they look practically the same.

El Chacon´s Codillo Completo: shredded, tender pork knuckle meats, chorizo, grelos,  and boiled potatoes topped with pimenton de la vera (Spanish paprika).

This hearty platter supposedly serves two.  It comes with Galician-style crusty bread

And a big serving of Patatas Alioli, which is my favourite side dish in Spain.  It is really potato salad stripped down to its essence:  cubed boiled potatoes drenched in garlic mayonnaise and herbs.  Hearty and comforting!

Ah, but it is the pork knuckles that deserve the gold star in El Chacon.

This is the superstar of pork knuckle dishes.  I have never loved pork knuckles.  Not in humba nor in pata tim,  typical Filipino preparations of pork knuckles.  My mother even makes pork knuckles into some sort of lechon paksiw, drowning them in a sweet, vinegary sauce.  Yet as much as I love her, it is  one of my  least favourite dishes  Only the thought of fried, crispy, fatty knuckles in crispy pata form can convert me into a knuckle lover. But then, everything fried, fatty and crispy is transformationally delicious, so that says more about the magic of frying than the deliciousness of knuckles.

But the knuckles at El Chacon is transformational.  Clean, barely salty, tender and with just the right interlayer of fats.  Oh la la!  This is a dish reminiscent of unexpected love.  Pure, no-frills, not the most enticing to look at, but if you just dare, you will be rewarded.  For the taste is so simple, so right in its porky essence, it is enthralling.  The slices of chorizo, boldy spiced and peppery, provides the perfect punch, an intense sashay of umami  in between  the relatively mild flavours of  the pork shreds and veggies.

We loved every component of this meal.  And we ate and ate until we were afraid we could no longer stand,  but even then the waiters, perhaps intrigued by us two outwardly non-Spanish women venturing into their tiny restaurant,  they laughingly shook their heads when they saw what was left of our platter after we had our fill.

Yes, we just barely ate through our Codillo, the serving was just  so large! So the kind waiters packed the leftovers up, including their wonderfully crusty galician bread for us to bring home.  Now, that´sA++ for graciousness!

And how much did we spend for our meal?  That huge platter of Codillo costs only 15€. We had two tall glasses of Tinto de Verano with our meal ( though if you prefer, you can ask for a pitcher of water for free), yet the total cost was still less than 20€.  A delicious food bargain even by Madrid standards!

Truly, sometimes, the best things in Madrid cannot be gleamed from trawling the must-visit lists in the web.  El Chacon is an anti-thesis to all these must-eat restaurants.  It is small and in a nondescript neighborhood.  Its exterior does not look too inviting  and because they only have six tables, they do not take reservations.  But if you want that local experience, and the most wonderful boiled knuckles in Madrid,  do drop by.  It is worth the hassle.


***El Chacon Madrid is a three minute walk from  the Puerta del Anghel  metro station