le hamcat

Amber: this is my friend’s fb status:

Happy 1-year! May we continue to be those two sides of the triangle, pursuing our paths first toward Jesus and then to each other.

Christopher: is jesus the third side?

Amber: i guess? lol

Christopher: cthulhu is our third side

b/c he would obviously beat jesus in a throwdown

Amber: This is why I’m going to spend the rest of my life with you

Spain is the country I’ve travelled to the most (four times) outside of the US besides, of course, the Netherlands where I lived for about six months. This was my first time in Madrid in 11 years though, so there was sort of a distant deja vu. Memories and mental images long-forgotten that would come back upon passing a particular street or edifice. It was sort of disorienting and lulling at the same time. The assurance of your past self in a past place, places that go on buzzing without us, of course. 

When I touched down in Madrid after 14 hours in transit I was woozy, my mind clouded and slow. I met up with a coworker for drinks and managed to lose 32 euro along the way, an event that I tried to not let set the tone for the rest of my week. Whenever these reckless sort of things happen to me I try to assure myself that someone needed it more. We had some wine and tapas, my first meal in Madrid at the Estado Puro. This meal did not set the tone as well - thankfully. The patatas bravas, a staple in Spain, were inviting, served in small potato boats that contained the hot sauce that usually turns the dish quite messy. The other two tapas, asparagus tempura and potato squares with aioli and trout roe, had their moments but lacked balance in flavor- the asparagus too greasy, the aioli overwhelming the roe (although the porcelain ”sack” the asparagus came in was neat). 

The next day at the office, our new friend Marcus, a Brazilian working in New York for our sponsor, in town for our event, insisted we participate in the delightful and alien work shut down known as siesta. We hit up Lateral at his suggestion in Plaza Santa Ana. We sat on the plaza on a warm sunny afternoon - the only one of our entire trip - and ordered a pitcher of Sangria (drinking through lunch is de rigueur…sigh) and had some amazing tapas. Goat cheese melted on a slice of tomato topped with a bed of caramelized onions, more patatas bravas, goat cheese on toasted bread with roasted red pepper (amazing!), lox on brioche, and imitation baby squid on brioche, which I was reluctant to try. It’s common in Spanish cuisine and isn’t actually squid at all but in fact white fish processed with egg and milk protein to replicate baby squid. All in all, not bad. The meal was fantastic and the plaza was full of diners, students, and tourists. 

That night the team went out for a highly recommended meal at Casa Lucio, where Zagat notes you are likely to encounter a famous film star or matador. The restaurant felt like an old wine celler: dimly lit with dark sloped ceilings. The servers were all old-school, white-jacket men telling you what to order and the food was absolutely outstanding. The gambas con ajillo - shrimp in a spicy garlic sauce, was mouth watering. I sopped up the remaining sauce with my wheel of bread and wished for more. I also had a seared bass filet which was also very good, but I couldn’t get those shrimp out of my mind. We finished the meal with arroz con leche. I was expecting the traditional rice pudding but it was served caramelized. It was a hit at the table and the flan that I ordered, while also good, stood neglected. 

When the conference ended Chris and I high tailed it out of the city to Salamanca, one of the oldest cities in Europe which sits below the Seirra de Bejar less than three hours outside of Madrid. Our gregarious cab driver suggested Casa Paca as our “blowout” meal. We had previously decided to splurge on one #baller meal while on vacation so we decided to make Casa Paca the place. It was definitely on the tall end of our budget but entirely worth it. 

Chris got the ox steak with frites and I decided to go for another round of gambas con ajillo, which stood up to Casa Lucio’s. For postre we did a lemon mousse and a “Crema Catalan” (aka creme brulee), but both seemed mediocre after the life-changing arroz con leche at Lucio’s. The service was friendly but formal (Chris was afraid he was underdressed in his sweater which I assured him was not the case) and we were surrounded by families and colleagues sharing a friday siesta meal. 

After our fantastic almuerza, Chris and I walked around in the rain. The Plaza Mayor was emptied by the weather so we visited the San Esteban convent which had intricate geometric ceilings and a lovely, albeit rain-soaked courtyard. I’m not a big fan of the European-cathedral tour, but in the monastery I was overcome with this feeling of stillness and peace. Maybe it was the wine-rain mist combo. It was very quiet besides the storm, and the every few yards or so there would be a mirrored box on the floor, positioned so you could see a particularly interesting expanse of ceiling. I had never encountered this before; Lonely Planet says it’s to better examine the architecture but Chris thought maybe they didn’t want you to spend a blasphemous amount of time staring skyward. 

Unfortunately our siesta that night made us too late for even Spain’s traditionally late dinner, but we were just in time for Salamanca’s lively club scene. We went into Gatsby first (we’re a sucker for a reference) but found ourselves to be some of the oldest patrons in the bar (but the drinks were cheap!). We crossed the street to Camelot - one of Salamanca’s most notorious discos. In contrast to the medieval (like, probably actually medieval) exterior, inside there was a huge, and completely packed, illuminated dance floor and then a second floor bathed in neon green light overlooking it. We were so drunk we had to keep re-asking how to say “shots” in spanish (CHUPITOS!) and needless to say we were dancing to trashy house music until 3 am, having a great time. 

Saturday night we were back in Madrid since I had a 6 am flight in the morning. In the great snowpocolypse of 2010, Chris had been stranded in Madrid on his way back to New York from Beirut. But luckily during this unanticipated stay he discovered the Mercado de San Miguel which is where we decided to do tapas Saturday night. San Miguel reminded me a bit of Eataly except for the fact that we were the only tourists in sight. There were over two dozen small stands offering a huge variety of little bites and drinks, with a smattering of communal high tops in the center of the market for eating. We started with oysters- my first mediterranean oysters ever. I was not a fan. They were very salty (and expensive!). Next we ate an entire plate of pulpo (sliced octopus) served in olive oil with cayenne pepper. At this point I was a bit sea-fooded out so Chris got us some wine and I took a ticket at the most popular stand - QUESO! Since I’m the inconvenient combination of a Lactard and cheese-lover, I asked for an assortment of goat cheese (lactose free - natch!) and one hard cheese. They were out of bread but served them with a handful of breadsticks. The assortment ranged from creamy to hard and they were all excellent. We then overstuffed ourselves with mini pizzas and croquettes, more wine, and macarons and fruit tarts for desert. 

As much as I loved Casa Lucio - the market was probably my favorite stop in Madrid. We spent the rest of the night strolling through downtown Madrid and shared a cheap bottle of wine. 

This was our first time travelling together, and I’ve always considered it sort of a litmus test for any ship (friendships, relationships, potato ships). Sometimes it felt like we were the only two people in the world and sometimes it felt like we were one person - me translating or ordering for Chris, or Chris deftly navigating us through narrow windy streets with his impeccable sense of direction. For most of our trip we were a single wine-drinking, laughing, rained on, eyes open entity. Our little vacation was far too short but each minute was a memory. Back in Brooklyn (and yet more rain) we are already planning our next adventure.