Tapas Time!

Thought I’d add an extra footprint here so that I could include a few more pics (they only allow you 10 pics at a time per footprint , so....). We started off the night at Place de la Ville where the original town hall of Madrid was located - met the rest of our group - 4 other couples. Most of us were from the States, but there were 2 girls together, one of whom was from England and the other one from Zurich Switzerland . A pretty congenial group all in all. Host was quite laid back and knew us already by name because he had been corresponding with us. After a short history lesson on the Habsburg Empire (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/House_of_Habsburg) (you hear a lot about the Habsburgs in Madrid!), we wandered off to the first tapas bar where we tried out vermouth straight from the tap. Vermouth is basically white white with a variety of herbs and spices added to it, particularly wormwood. Served chilled with a slice of orange, it wasn’t bad - I think this is the first time I’ve tried vermouth. We shared a plate of olives/red peppers with it and then he passed around little cod fritters served piping hot with marmalade piled on top. Cod was good! He poured us some more vermouth and we were off to a good start!

Our next stop was to enjoy a plate of Jamon (ham), chorizzo, loma, and one other that escapes me If you want to read up on Spanish hams, here’s the place - https://www.jamon.com/about-jamon-iberico.html This was served with a 95 point Robert Parker bottle of Muscat (http://www.jorgeordonezselections.com/single-wi…), which was delicious and on the sweet side. Next stop brought us to our final stop of the evening, where we tried out roasted pork with glazed onions and potato sticks served with some very dry, pucker up wines from Rioja area, . The meat was delicious and all of this was followed up with an intense sweet sherry that was like syrup - they served us some ice cream and we poured it over that! Delicious . By now were were all buzzed and it was. time to go - I think the host was more blasted than we were, but nobody was feeling any pain, that’s for sure!Read more