Madrid remains impressively distinctive. The
taxi drivers have strong opinions on the restaurants they take people
to. Restaurants which are empty at 1.30pm are packed at 3.30, and
cigar smokers are encouraged at every turn. But radical change is
afoot. The city's traditional taverns are closing even faster than
the almost weekly opening of a new Asian-influenced restaurant.
In
the middle of this flux, it seemed an opportune moment to visit
restaurantes de producto , raw material restaurants which have been
the staple of the capital's restaurant scene for decades. Their
leitmotif is the best, freshest produce, served as simply as possible
so that vegetables and potatoes have to be ordered separately.
Asador
Fronton II, close to the Bernabeu Stadium that is home to Real Madrid
football club, exudes an air of culinary confidence. A long list
of first courses encompassed fish soup, Iberico ham, various lettuce
salads, salt cod wrapped in red peppers and, best of all, hake cheeks
sliced into small strips, then fried crispy. What followed were
three of the juiciest, largest and most flavourful steaks my 21-year-old
student guests had ever come across, which, despite their enforced
abstinence in expectation of a free dinner, they could not finish.
A dish of monkfish braised with sliced garlic and chilli showed
that there was considerable delicacy as well as grilling power in
the kitchen.
Pescadera
Coruñesas, run by Evaristo Garcia, is the link between the fishermen
of La Coruña and the best Spanish chefs but the Garca family originated
in landlocked León in northern Spain. Sixty years ago, they swapped
their business of transporting other people's goods for fish wholesaling,
and have created their own Spanish fish-empire which includes the
renowned O'Pazo restaurant.
Although
I know from visiting Santiago de Compostela that fish from the north-western
region of Galicia is the best in Spain, the taxi driver I asked
to take me to Casa d'a Troya proceeded to give me a lecture on why
it is his wife's favourite. As he would not start his engine until
this discourse was over, and we were already 90 minutes late, we
arrived somewhat flustered. But we were greeted with smiles. In
the 35 years that the women who run this restaurant have been in
business (buying their fish directly from their cousin in Santa
Uxia de Ribeira near La Coruña, who sends it to them by overnight
train), I am sure that they must have seen more harassed customers
than us - but rarely hungrier ones.
We
managed to do full justice to a plate of the most tender octopus,
authentic empanadas stuffed with stewed onions and fresh cockles,
a dish of the freshest lobster with diced egg and capers, a plateful
of tiny, sweet queen scallops gratineed with breadcrumbs, a couple
of hake steaks two inches thick, and finally a traditional Galician
winter dish, lacón con grelos, a shoulder of pork cooked with turnip
flowers, potatoes and chorizo. Our unanimous consensus, before we
paid the bill of 204 euros for lunch with two bottles, was that
should there ever be a particular award for a restaurant serving
the freshest fish in the most incongruous of settings, the prosaically
suburban Casa d'a Troya would win hands down.
El
Club Allard is situated in the corner of one of the capital's few
art deco buildings opposite the Plaza de España with its statue
of Cervantes. The entrance, steps and rooms are truly impressive
as is the charm of Cristina Goicolea, the maitre d' dressed in chef's
whites and a bright, multi-coloured scarf. Gradually, the food is
reaching the same standard. Best of all was a white soup of fresh
cockles with asparagus, roasted scallops with rice thickened with
cod tripe, and modern variations on classic Basque dishes involving
baby squid and salt cod. Walking home at midnight, my companion
said: "Twenty years ago, even at midnight these streets would be
bustling. Now it is only like that on Friday and Saturday nights,
just like the rest of Europe." Fortunately, Madrid's restaurantes
de producto remain very distinctive.
Asador
Fronton II, tel: +34 91 345 3696
Casa
d'a Troya, tel: +34 91 416 4455
O'Pazo,
tel: +34 91 553 2333
El
Club Allard, tel: +34 91 559 0939
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