The journey from Rome to Madrid taught us a few things:
1. Due to roads being built in ways to keep historic ruins in tact, Roman traffic patterns are a bit wacky. We got picked up at 9am only to drive all over the city picking more people up and winding up at another hotel down the block from ours at 9:30. Then there was a traffic jam caused by impatient drivers trying to get around a light and subsequently turning a 2 lane road into 5 lanes... only to have to merge down to 2 again to get anywhere. All this in the middle of a traffic circle. Oy! The picture below is when we started wondering if we might actually miss our flight.
2. The Rome airport needs a major upgrade. Chaos.
3. The Madrid airport is huge and gorgeous.
Needless to say, we spent most of the day getting to and from airports, so we really didn't eat much besides fiber bars and fruit. But upon our arrival at Hotel Room Mate Mario, we were greeted by a chilled bottle of champagne along with a "Happy Honeymoon" note from the manager. Sweet!
Then for our meal of the day DJ was able to score us reservations at Taberna Gastromaquia,
rated 5th in TripAdvisor.com's list of top restaurants in Madrid.
We got there at 8:30 and were truly the only people there until around 9:15. These Spaniards like to eat late! But being alone gave us time to chat it up with the chef. He is extremely nice, lived in Brooklyn for a while, and took the time to explain every single dish on the menu.
It is obvious he is very proud of all his creations; after every dish was brought out, he sincerely asked what we thought. And every time we would reply: AMAZING.
Though it was hard to choose what to try, we decided to follow the advice of some reviewers and try the goat cheese and foie gras.
It was Mel's first foie gras experience and she liked it, but still preferred the goat cheese with carmelized honey.
DJ followed the chef's suggestion of combining the two and was quite pleased with the flavor combo!
Next we tried the tikka masala mussels. The sauce for the mussels was so tasty we almost wanted to drink it from the bottom of the plate.
The shell carnage was quickly followed by octopus served with a cool foamy cheese, which made for an interesting and unexpected pairing with seafood.
Lastly, we had to try the pork skewers. They were, quite simply, among the best morsels of meat we have ever tasted. Words would never do them justice. But they left us wishing we had skipped some of the early courses and left room for more meat because apparently this chef does not mess around!
Now, one would think we were stuffed. We thought we were stuffed. But then the chef described his desserts (all made by him) and ended the list with "vanilla ice cream with strawberry sorbet, fresh strawberries and a drizzle of Coke syrup." He had Mel at "Coke."
Yes, we ordered it. Yes, it was incredible. No, we don't regret it.
We'll walk a lot tomorrow. ;)
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