Pim, thanks for the recipe for croquetas. Yum! I didn't make any myself, but the 78 year old mother of my ladyfriend prepared (precooked) 2 dozen ham croquetas for me to bring back with me to the states. She always does this for me and I love her even more for her gesture. So last night, I HAD TAPAS!! The freshly olive-oil fried croquetas complimented the anchovy-stuffed green olives from Spain. I was SAD to NOT have waited until I could buy some Spanish wine, but I simply COULD NOT WAIT to eat those delicious croquetas! I finished them off for lunch today. YUM!!

Saludos, MadridMan

Hi MMan!,
Hey, you don't have to thank me....I've met great people thanks to you!
You know? last night Iwa, Shawn, Antonio and two friends of mine went to Maceira the 'pulpería' that I talked to you about, it seemed impossible to get a table, but we did!. And we had ray CROQUETAS (yes the fish!), and lacón, chorizo criollo, carne mechada, ALBARIÑO, etc....I even tried the octopus in your honour (because I don't like it). We didn't stay for la 'queimada' at around 1:00AM because we wanted to go see some flamenco, although we went to get desserts instead.
We also went(while we waited for the table) to La Dolores which is quite a popular place.

Well, it's been quite a week!. And Shawn, saludos, I was also at the parade with Andrea and Maddie, and I agree, watching the McDonalds 'carroza' was so weird!


Pim, who's been a good girl tonight and was already home by 2:00AM.

So the MadridMan's Party v 3.0 is extending itself for days? I should have stayed more time

I'm now inmersed into the pre-exams period, but next time I will join you and the others Pim (if you don't mind ).

Fernando

Pim has forgotten to say where we had our desserts. We decided to try a new place and we enter Café Central at Plaza del Angel, 10. It seemed a good place and they had cakes on the bar.

They have the most expensive coffe I had in my whole life. The "standard" price for a coffe with milk in a "standard" cafeteria in Spain is about 0.78 €. At Cafe Central it was 2.40 € and it was just a normal coffe, not a special variety or with liqour or any other thing.

Furthermore, the waiter was very rude and came several times wanting us to pay before we finished eating our cakes. I considered it to be extremely impolite for a waiter to do so.

By the way, Cafe Central is one of the few places where they have live music (jazz specifically). However, if they charged us so much without music, I wonder which would be the supplements if you want to have a coffer while listening to the music.

As for the cakes, people thought they were very good but Paloma and I agreed they were just ok and there are places where you can have better cakes.

It's definitely not a place I would recommend to anyone.

[ 01-06-2002: Message edited by: Antonio ]

Thanks Antonio!

I had already forgoten the name of that place. Not only were the price very high by Spanish standards, but more important to me was the rudeness of the waiter. It was the first time that I had ever been hurried to finish my coffee and desert. From my point of view, one of the things about Spanish culture that is so refreshing is that it permits the full enjoyment of life without unneccesary haste. I have had a few occasions where I have had to remind the waiter to bring me the check, but this was the only time where I (we) was pestered.

It is worth noting that this place had plenty of available tables and that there was no entertainment. Despite the fact the tarta de chocalate was quite good, I will never eat there again.

Yep,
I also forgot to mention that when we met at El Brillante at 21hrs. on Friday it was 18ºC, so warm!, specially compared to the same time, same place last Saturday at MMan's party, when it felt below 0ºC and it was so foggy. Go figure!


Well, about el Café Central, apparently it is one of the best places for live jazz in the city, so I guess it's too bad we missed some of that; and I'm so naive that I still think they made some mistake with the "coffe rip-off"!
Anyway, I thought I'd suggest another place in the same area(plaza de Santa Ana), it's called Salón del Prado, on calle Prado 4. They also have live performances, because once I saw a very nice sort of belly dance.

And the prettiest and 'de toda la vida' include: Café Comercial, Café del Principe, Café de Oriente, Café Gijón, Café del Espejo, Café del Círculo de Bellas Artes,....there are more but these are the ones I know well. Now, they aren't "dirty cheap", but they're worth every Euro(in my opinion).

BTW, last night I went for the first time to two more modern cafés; Café La Palma, in calle La Palma 62, great for those into more alternative stuff; and café Mama Inés, on calle Hortaleza 22, very nice, with lots of beautiful(gay) people.

MMan, please excuse me(us), I realize this is the wrong thread!

[ 01-10-2002: Message edited by: pim ]

Quess what my wife is making tonight? Ham croquetas and they are good! Brings back good memories from 3 weeks ago. You can take us out of Spain, but not Spain out of us!