stories from zaragoza: what we ate, where
the first night when we arrived and checked in (after a day of small naps and pretzels) we asked the guy at reception where we should go for dinner, and he sent us to "el tubo". back in the day, we had handy mini-maps but zero knowledge of downtown zaragoza:), plus it was getting dark. so we stumbled into the tubo rather than found it on the map - aided by the fact that downtown zaragoza is small and cute...eerrrr really compact.
anyway: beginner's luck: we found "la republicana", a lovely and very picturesque place on a side street to calle alfonso. it was exactly what we needed at that exact time. a great introduction to the colorful and welcoming spirit of social life in zaragoza. being there was comfortable, homey, we felt we fit right in (among the crowd which spoke mostly spanish), and we went daring by ordering a big plate of tapas and halving each of them so we both could taste everything. fancy!
it's pretty stupid that we don't have pictures of the meal, but in my defense i think my camera was just starting to signal disobedience. though, also: that meal might have been the most local/typical thing we had during our stay.( except for the cheese, but we'll get to the cheese later.)
what we had: 12 tapas. each one as big as 3 or 4 mouthfuls. each one different from the rest, which is the fun of the whole plate. there was bread with chorizo with a cherry on top; an omelette with veggies in a muffin paper; a sort of mini-spinach pastry; a mini-crepe with sweet filling; a bit of chicken with...something; two or three different types of cheese slices/cubes. the funniest was a small fried egg (quail? mini-quail?) on top of...i forget what. really sorry for no food pics, so here's some of the decor:
the next day we saw "el tubo" by daylight - here's the first testimony that we were at the right spot:
so for lunch we went to a promising place, where we sat at the only free table again: first next to a very classical drunkhard type (bottle on the table, red nose, clouded eyes) then the guy left and a very stern lady sat down instead. she turned out to be the manageress of the place, and kept grilling us (in spanish) about whether we liked the food. which, were too polite/scared to say no. also, this is the place where i had a ...marino con nata???...with frozen whipped cream in it. i thought the filling was icecream...and discovered it was cream only halfway through eating dessert, due to my habit of talking while eating, therefore taking 10 mins. between 2 bites.
this is the chocolate place where we wanted to go so much (from the first night!) but didn't manage to.
the place was freaking crowded every time we passed by, or it was closed. here's a rant about store/restaurant schedules: they are impossible! there must be some logic to it, known only to locals, but we didn't have time to detect a definite pattern. we knew, or assumed, there was a siesta time somewhere in the middle of the afternoon. but most restaurants apparently open after 8 in the evening...if they do open. it didn't help that new year's eve and the surrounding days is not exactly a typical time of the year, but still. rant over.
anyway, so, lalmolda: one evening we got in...there was a group of people at the door, chatting. inside, every table was taken (of course) so as we sidled to the bar behind some people who were standing, waiting, we kept eyeing the tables for the eventuality of someone leaving. two different big groups seemed like they'd be done pretty soon...so we wait for a bunch of minutes, and finally an old lady comes in from outside and pulls at giulia's sleeve and starts explaining (in spanish! yes!) that, you know, the line is actually outside.
really? so we gave it up, and it never happened again.
so, to quench our thirst for thick, luscious (etc.) chocolate, we ended up going to "valor", on the last day, a bit after noon. this chocolate (+ the additional churros, pictured) served us for lunch that day, because we were too taken with...visiting/buying to stop for any other type of food.
other meals, adventurous or not:
- breakfast at the hotel every morning. the two biggest discoveries: 1) cappucino (that was me); 2) how people seemed to be burning their bread on purpose in the toaster, instead of....well, toasting it.
- an all-you-can-eat buffet one evening, at a point where we were super hungry and our legs. ached. so.much. we spent over two hours in there, had two helpings of food and two helpings of dessert each, and amused ourselves watching the other customers come and go. man, we surely stretched that bill. and our stomach walls.
- two pasta dinners, at the same italian restaurant (which was right next to the buffet, like - i forget to mention - 'lalmonda' is right next to 'la republicana'. easy.) - again: huge plates; dollops of parmesan. talking over dinner until we got too tired. this is what restaurants are for.
on new year's night, after visiting a castle til after dark and managing to shop until everything closed for the year, we were left with no other option but our brilliant plan b: return to our hotel room to rest our legs and eat cheese with apples and pretzels. the cheese was amazing goat cheese that we'd bought from the marketplace that morning (cut with a plastic spoon), the apples and mini-pretzels (more accurately, covrigei...mediteraneeni? giulia!!) were carried over from romania. seriously: that goat cheese was fantastic, and went so well with the apples! on a par with any other good dinner we've had in zaragoza. (also healthy, we kept saying, sitting down on our beds like to a picnic. this, we said, is a good sign for the year to come!)
anyway: beginner's luck: we found "la republicana", a lovely and very picturesque place on a side street to calle alfonso. it was exactly what we needed at that exact time. a great introduction to the colorful and welcoming spirit of social life in zaragoza. being there was comfortable, homey, we felt we fit right in (among the crowd which spoke mostly spanish), and we went daring by ordering a big plate of tapas and halving each of them so we both could taste everything. fancy!
it's pretty stupid that we don't have pictures of the meal, but in my defense i think my camera was just starting to signal disobedience. though, also: that meal might have been the most local/typical thing we had during our stay.( except for the cheese, but we'll get to the cheese later.)
what we had: 12 tapas. each one as big as 3 or 4 mouthfuls. each one different from the rest, which is the fun of the whole plate. there was bread with chorizo with a cherry on top; an omelette with veggies in a muffin paper; a sort of mini-spinach pastry; a mini-crepe with sweet filling; a bit of chicken with...something; two or three different types of cheese slices/cubes. the funniest was a small fried egg (quail? mini-quail?) on top of...i forget what. really sorry for no food pics, so here's some of the decor:
the next day we saw "el tubo" by daylight - here's the first testimony that we were at the right spot:
so for lunch we went to a promising place, where we sat at the only free table again: first next to a very classical drunkhard type (bottle on the table, red nose, clouded eyes) then the guy left and a very stern lady sat down instead. she turned out to be the manageress of the place, and kept grilling us (in spanish) about whether we liked the food. which, were too polite/scared to say no. also, this is the place where i had a ...marino con nata???...with frozen whipped cream in it. i thought the filling was icecream...and discovered it was cream only halfway through eating dessert, due to my habit of talking while eating, therefore taking 10 mins. between 2 bites.
this is the chocolate place where we wanted to go so much (from the first night!) but didn't manage to.
the place was freaking crowded every time we passed by, or it was closed. here's a rant about store/restaurant schedules: they are impossible! there must be some logic to it, known only to locals, but we didn't have time to detect a definite pattern. we knew, or assumed, there was a siesta time somewhere in the middle of the afternoon. but most restaurants apparently open after 8 in the evening...if they do open. it didn't help that new year's eve and the surrounding days is not exactly a typical time of the year, but still. rant over.
anyway, so, lalmolda: one evening we got in...there was a group of people at the door, chatting. inside, every table was taken (of course) so as we sidled to the bar behind some people who were standing, waiting, we kept eyeing the tables for the eventuality of someone leaving. two different big groups seemed like they'd be done pretty soon...so we wait for a bunch of minutes, and finally an old lady comes in from outside and pulls at giulia's sleeve and starts explaining (in spanish! yes!) that, you know, the line is actually outside.
really? so we gave it up, and it never happened again.
so, to quench our thirst for thick, luscious (etc.) chocolate, we ended up going to "valor", on the last day, a bit after noon. this chocolate (+ the additional churros, pictured) served us for lunch that day, because we were too taken with...visiting/buying to stop for any other type of food.
other meals, adventurous or not:
- breakfast at the hotel every morning. the two biggest discoveries: 1) cappucino (that was me); 2) how people seemed to be burning their bread on purpose in the toaster, instead of....well, toasting it.
- an all-you-can-eat buffet one evening, at a point where we were super hungry and our legs. ached. so.much. we spent over two hours in there, had two helpings of food and two helpings of dessert each, and amused ourselves watching the other customers come and go. man, we surely stretched that bill. and our stomach walls.
- two pasta dinners, at the same italian restaurant (which was right next to the buffet, like - i forget to mention - 'lalmonda' is right next to 'la republicana'. easy.) - again: huge plates; dollops of parmesan. talking over dinner until we got too tired. this is what restaurants are for.
on new year's night, after visiting a castle til after dark and managing to shop until everything closed for the year, we were left with no other option but our brilliant plan b: return to our hotel room to rest our legs and eat cheese with apples and pretzels. the cheese was amazing goat cheese that we'd bought from the marketplace that morning (cut with a plastic spoon), the apples and mini-pretzels (more accurately, covrigei...mediteraneeni? giulia!!) were carried over from romania. seriously: that goat cheese was fantastic, and went so well with the apples! on a par with any other good dinner we've had in zaragoza. (also healthy, we kept saying, sitting down on our beds like to a picnic. this, we said, is a good sign for the year to come!)
Comments
Post a Comment