What to eat Madrid? culinary specialties and gastronomy

It's a surprise for no one, the Spanish eat very late for our French standards. Although restaurants in the country's most visited cities extend their opening hours to accommodate tourists, it's rare to see Madriders having lunch before 1.30pm and dinner before 9pm - or even 10.30pm - on weekends. It must be said that Spaniards in general are very attached to the ritual of tapo. A piece of ham in one bar, a few squids in the next, a glass of wine and a beer and so on. Enough to work up an appetite before starting dinner much later.

Tapas are varied and Madrid is home to the great classics from all over Spain, including all kinds of cold cuts such as jamón ibérico (especially the bellota, known for its excellent quality), chorizo, salchichón (Spanish sausage, sometimes spicier than the French version) or lomo ibérico (similar to a dried filet mignon). We also serve cooked chorizo, which is not fully cured and would look more like a spicy sausage, as well as morcilla, a blood sausage close to our black pudding. Cheeses are rarer, but it is common to have on the plate a few cubes of queso manchego, a Castilian cheese made from sheep's milk. Anchovies (anchoas) salted (en salazón) or smoked (ahumadas) are also appreciated. Most of these bites are served on small slices of bread in the form of rustic canapés called montaditos.

There are many other tapas, often fried - which is also one of the characteristics of Madrid's cuisine - such as puntillas (baby squid), merluza frita (fried hake) and soldaditos de Pavía (cod sticks). The gambas al ajillo are small shrimps cooked in olive oil with a lot of garlic and parsley. The same version can be found with mushrooms (setas al ajillo). The classic tortilla de patatas - or potato omelette - is very thick and is cut into cubes. It is also a must, as are the croquetas, a kind of béchamel dumpling with jamón serrano, breaded and fried. Another tapa - typical of Madrid's cuisine - patatas bravas are made from quartered and fried potatoes, which are topped just before serving with a hot pepper sauce, known as salsa brava. Savoury almonds or olives - however simple - are popular tapas.

Although tapas generally do not stay on a table for long before being devoured, some are reserved for a more regular audience, such as oreja a la plancha (literally grilled pig's ear), which is flavoured with a lot of garlic and sometimes chilli pepper. Gallinejas are also popular tapas in Madrid. They are simply grilled sheep intestines. Finally, caracoles a la madrileña are snails cooked in a spicy sauce with diced chorizo and jamón serrano.

Traditionally tapas are included with the drink in a bar, prompting customers to order more alcohol, as tapas are saltier the more thirsty they make you feel. However, this is no longer automatic and more and more bars no longer offer tapas. It is therefore necessary to find out before picking up tapas that are apparently available and then adding them to the bill. Note that the term tapas generally refers to bites. If you would like to accompany your aperitif with larger appetizers, ask for a racion or half a media racion.

Although the difference between tapas and main course is sometimes subtle in Spain, as the size of the portion often makes the difference, there are also more hearty dishes typical of local cuisine, which can make up a whole meal in themselves. Gastronomy in Madrid is simple and although the city has been the royal capital for more than four centuries, everyday cuisine includes specialities made with inexpensive ingredients but worked with a lot of flavour.

Probably the best known dish is the cocido madrileño, a popular meat and vegetable stew made with chickpeas, beef or pork, vegetables and sausages. This speciality is eaten in three courses: first the broth, then the chickpeas and vegetables, and finally the last course includes meat and sausages. Simpler, carne al desarreglo is a beef stew with tomato and white wine. Judías a lo tío Lucas is a typical Madrid recipe mixing white beans and bacon with a lot of spices. The sopa de ajo madrileña is a soup prepared with a rich meat broth flavoured with a lot of garlic, often eaten during Holy Week. Although Madrid is located in the heart of the country, 350 km from the nearest coast, the city has some fish specialties such as besugo a la madrileña, a recipe for baked sea bream, or merluza a la madrileña

, a dish of hake in a tomato sauce with sherry wine.

The Spaniards are masters in the preparation of giblets. Callos a la madrileña is reserved for a more discerning public, but is a very popular dish among connoisseurs, made from tripe - veal or lamb tripe - with chorizo, blood sausage (morcilla), all seasoned with sweet paprika. There is also the hígado encebollado, which includes veal liver with onions. The lingua de vaca estofada, or beef tongue, is cooked in a vegetable and white wine sauce. Finally, mollejas empanadas are simply breaded sweetbreads. Bull meat is also very popular in Spain. Although it often comes from bullfighting, it is nevertheless the basis of several recipes such as rabo de toro, a stew of bull tails, where the meat is cooked until it falls off the bone, served in a rich red wine and tomato sauce. Increasingly rare, criadillas de toro

- including testicles - are usually eaten as a soup or stew, sometimes fried in southern Spain. Although disconcerting, this dish actually has a fairly mild taste. There are also simpler dishes that can be eaten on the go, such as huevos estrellados, a hearty snack made from fried eggs served on a bed of French fries, with slices of jamón serrano or chorizo, very common in Madrid's bistros. The bocadillos will be perfect for tourists who don't have time to sit down to eat. These baguette sandwiches are garnished with just about everything imaginable: cold cuts, pork, fish, seafood, roasted vegetables, cheese, omelette, etc., often served with lots of aïoli (garlic mayonnaise). The most famous in Madrid is the bocadillo de calamares, filled with rings of fried squid and mayonnaise, which can be ordered in almost any bar. And although the capital's gastronomy does not abound in fresh vegetables, you can still enjoy an ensalada San Isidro made with lettuce, tomatoes, tuna, hard-boiled eggs, olives and capers.

On the dessert side, it should be noted that, as in the rest of Spain, many sweets are produced for religious celebrations. We can mention the rosquillas which are rings of dough baked in the oven. Traditionally made for the feast of San Isidro Labrador, celebrated on May 15 in Madrid, they come in four forms: tonta (plain), lista (lemon icing), francesa (almond icing) and de Santa Clara (meringue icing). Some have surprising names such as huesos de santo (saint's bones), biscuit tubes filled with egg cream, or buñuelos de viento (wind fritters) - known in France as "nun's farts" - which are very light fritters made from choux pastry. The panecillos de San Antón are biscuits traditionally eaten during the San Antón Abad pilgrimage, which takes place on 17 January. They are usually accompanied by brandy. A classic Spanish pastry, the roscón de reyes - known in the south of France as "cake of the Kings" - is a large ring-shaped brioche covered with candied fruit and pearl sugar that is eaten on Epiphany. More modern, the corona de la Almudena was established by the guild of confectioners in 1978 as the official cake for Madrid's patron saint's day. It looks like the roscón de reyes but is topped with vanilla cream and whipped cream. Finally, the torrija

, typical of Holy Week, is a kind of cinnamon French toast that is now eaten all year round.

In order to enjoy all these sweets, Spaniards never refuse a coffee. The solo coffee is the most classic, black, without milk. The cortado is lightened by a drop of milk, while more is added generously for a coffee con leche. Conversely, a leche manchada comes in the form of a cup of hot milk with a dash of coffee. Canaria coffee is softened with a cloud of sweetened condensed milk. As for the tiempo coffee, served with a slice of lemon, it would help to get rid of a hangover. Finally, to obtain a coffee con hielo

, a sweet coffee is poured into a glass filled with ice cubes. Madrid has a few exceptional establishments where the art of coffee takes on its full meaning, such as the Café Comercial, opened in 1887, with its Art Deco interiors, which served as a meeting place for Spanish intellectuals during the Civil War. Café Gijón, opened a year later, was frequented by writers and media personalities such as Ava Gardner, Orson Welles and Truman Capote. For those who sulk a little about coffee, you can order a chocolate caliente (literally hot chocolate), which is known in Spain to be very thick. The Chocolatería de San Ginés, founded in 1894 and located next to the Puerta del Sol, is a traditional place to enjoy a creamy hot chocolate with delicious churros.

Although Madrid's vineyards are not as extensive as those in other parts of the country, due to the size of the territory, viticulture around the Spanish capital has been officially confirmed since at least the 13th century, although there is no doubt that the Romans were already cultivating vines in the area. The appellation vinos de Madrid D.O. dates from 1983 and surrounds the city of Madrid on a total area of about 12,000 hectares, at an altitude of between 600 m and 1,000 m, bathed in a continental climate with fairly cold winters and summers that are generally very hot and dry.

Three areas cover the appellation: the Arganda area, with a surface area of 6,000 hectares, is the largest, with Tempranillo and Tinto Fino for the reds and Airen and Malvar for the whites, and Tempranillo and Tinto Fino for the reds and Airen and Malvar for the whites. The Navalcarnero area, with a surface area of around 2,000 hectares, produces Grenache and Malvar Blanc. Finally, the area of San Martin de Valdeiglesias, of 4,000 hectares, offers very interesting vintages with a dominant of Grenache - in red - and Albillo for the whites. The prestige of Madrid's D.O. wines continues to increase each year. In the 2013 edition of the prestigious International Bacchus Wine Competition, the D.O. Madrid wines won 16 awards, 6 Bacchus gold and 10 silver.

For those who want to bring home a Madrid wine or any other product, from local cold cuts to Christmas cookies, the city is full of markets where you can lose yourself in search of a delicious souvenir or even a snack to enjoy on the go. The Mercado San Miguel

- inaugurated in 1916 - with its beautiful glass and wrought-iron façade, is probably the most famous and spectacular in the city. It has everything a lover of good food could dream of. Built in 1879, the Mercado de la Paz, offers an intimate atmosphere and an impressive number of stalls where to come and enjoy a good meal. More modern, the markets of San Ildefonso and Anton Martin welcome the visitor in a relaxed atmosphere. In addition to wine, spirits lovers will be able to bring back in their luggage the anisette from Chinchón, which is renowned throughout the country. This liqueur can be enjoyed as a digestive, alone, in coffee or with an infusion of poleo menta, a variety of mint. But Chinchón - located about forty kilometres from Madrid - has other specialities for lovers of fresh, local produce with melons from Villaconejos. With their rugby ball shape, dark green skin and whitish flesh, they are very different from our cantaloupe melons. Finally, strawberries and asparagus make Aranjuez a prosperous agricultural region. In fact, a tourist trade has developed with the Strawberry Train(el Tren de la Fresa) which leaves from Madrid and travels to Aranjuez since 1851. On the train, the train staff - dressed in period costume - distribute Aranjuez strawberries to the passengers.