Old Vermouth, Guernica, Goya Frescos, the River and the Best Lunch

 Just a few blocks from my apartment is Casa Alberto, a restaurant established in 1827, that serves its own vermouth on tap (vermut al grifo).   Yesterday, I had a late afternoon plate of manchego, olives and glass of their vermouth, while sitting in the beautiful historic bar area with a nice view of hanging jamon Iberico.

Today I got to the Reina Sofia museum right around when it opened.  I got the audio tour in part because the beautiful building with high ceilings is an echo chamber and school groups were out in force — it was a way to shut out the clamor and focus on the art.  Although works by Antonio Lopez Garcia are in their collection, they are not on display right now, so one goal I had was thwarted.  However, the collection of works by Dali, Bracques, Picasso, Miro and many others was really spectacular.  I particularly thrilled at seeing Picasso’s Guernica, a painting I’d last seen in Paris in 1999 when it was on loan to the Picasso Museum.  I remember then it was in a hard-to-see space and here it was in a huge gallery with a lot of room to fully take in the work as a whole and to also see parts for closer inspection.  

It was just after noon when I got the metro to travel way uptown (?) to see the Ermita de San Antonio de la Florida.  I had to transfer trains, but the stations weren’t crowded midday, it was easy.  When I got out at the Principe Pio station, I was no longer in “old” Madrid, but in a somewhat newer area.  I walked from there to the Ermita, which is a very small chapel, to see Goya’s frescos and his burial spot.  The place is tiny, but they have mirrors angled up at the ceiling so you can really get a very good look at the frescos from a few different angles.  They are truly spectacular.  It was a kind of long trek for a small place, but I thought it was well worth it.  

The Ermita is also one block from the river!  I’d read yesterday about the efforts to make the river-side experience a nice walking & biking path … and maybe it was just because it’s winter? It’s pleasant enough if you happen to be up there, and I walked back to the subway station along the river to fully give it a chance, but I’d say it doesn’t really seem like a place you’d plan as a destination (unless, like me, you are mystified by this river situation).  The river is very shallow but there were a lot of ducks, egrets, birds about.  Summer might be much prettier, although the apartment buildings that line the sides are just ok.

When I got out of the subway near my apartment, I walked by a seafood restaurant that looked really inviting.  OMG I think I just had the best lunch (early dinner), in the top 10 of meals ever.  Perlora is described as a marisqueria, which just means seafood restaurant.  But what an amazing restaurant it is.  The descriptions of the seafood all sounded too good, I couldn’t decide, so I ended up ordering four starters:  anchovies, white prawns, lobster, and  a red prawn.  All the seafood is from Spain.

I started off with Cava, an organic one that was yeasty and dry and bright.  They brought me a potato/egg “tortilla” with a sauce that had the tang of mussels and butter to start.    Then, the anchovies, on toast with tomato and olive oil.   When the seafood came,  following their careful instructions, I ate every bit of the prawns and lobster, noting the differences in flavor from delicate to more robust.  

Before cooking

Cooked

After my main course, I had a decaf espresso and they brought me a hazelnut grappa along with the mandarin sorbet with Cointreau. 

I have one day left of this trip and I feel like this day, this meal, can’t be topped!  I may just have to do it all again (and maybe get a main course fish tomorrow?).  For now, I’m feeling muy bueno.