On Tuesday, I did go to the Sorolla Museum, which is probably one of my favorites that I have visited here in Madrid and anywhere for that matter. (In retrospect, this weeks seems to have been my museum week in Madrid.) It is entirely unique from any museum that I have been to in that the museum is the artist's house and by house I mean palacio. When Sorolla died, he wanted his house preserved and he did not want anything changed. As a result, all of the furniture, paintings, light fixtures, letters, and other nicknacks are the same as they were 100 years ago. I thought it was particularly interesting that President Taft of the United States had somehow befriended Sorolla. I had seen the photo and letter (written in an indecipherable scrawl that appeared to be a latin-derived language) on a table in the foyer of the house and I thought that the man in the photo was a president from the US. I wanted to say that it was Roosevelt - the mustache. So I asked on of the room attendants, and he said Taft. I was a little astounded and still am for that matter, and thus have tucked this piece of information away for future research whether it be for a thesis or a book I do not know.
On Thursday, I returned to El Escorial to reach the top of Mount Abantos. It was was incredible, my friend and I found wild berries and had great views of Madrid on the horizon. We got back to Madrid around 3, which left me plenty of time to explore a little more before the evening's festivities. I went to the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum of Art. There I discovered another interested piece of artwork - a portrait of George Washington's cook. It is of particular interest because having a portrait made of a black cook in 1776(?) would have been counter to the social norms of slavery and racism.
That night in Madrid, my friends and I did our first serious tapas crawl of Madrid. In the first bar, I had a beer and four tapas. This bar was more or less a self-serve tapas bar. We were seated outside, but we had to go into the bar and choose the tapas that we wanted. I chose blood sausage, chorizo, bleu cheese and proscuito, and a chile relleno. All of the tapas were served on top of a slice of bread, like an open-face sandwich. After drinking our drinks and eating our food we headed up one of the more famous streets in Madrid for tapas. (There is a bar somewhere on this street that Hemingway favored.) We ended up choosing the Meson de Champiñon. Or Inn/Bar of the Mushroom. Contrary to the name nothing narcotic nor hallucinatory was served. You've got to go to Amsterdam for that. Anyway, the atmosphere was great; think old wine cellar, cave, dungeon. It was moderately touristy, but still completely authentic in its fare. We were seated at a table that looked like it was made for two very little little-people, but somehow we managed, wedged between the relatively large Spaniard playing the keyboard and the two Japanese lovers at at a similarly sized table. We ordered a jarilla de sangria and pimientos de pedrón and champiñones. It was all incredible and relatively cheap. The peppers appeared exactly like jalapeños, but they were not hot at all. Not fried, just heavily salted and baked in the oven proved to be the secret to this simple recipe. The stuffed mushrooms were equally good, stuffed with a little chorizo. To end the evening, we went to San Ginés, the best place to eat a chocolates con churros.
The next day, two of my friends and I went to Cuenca, another UNESCO world heritage site that is about 3 hours away from Madrid. Cuenca is famous for its museums and what are known as las casas colgadas or the hanging houses. The old part of the town was build on top of a hill and many of the houses are right on edge of the cliffs of this hilltop. The balconies of many of the houses jut out over the valley below.
Elvira's food update:
Sopa Castellana or Sopa de Ajos
I've found a recipe online that seems to be about the same as what Elvira cooked me. Type in sopa catellana in google. It should be the first hit. It is a mix between egg drop soup and matzo ball soup. There is a great deal of garlic, bread/dumplings, and a partially boiled egg in the center of the bowl. It's incredibly delicious and I recommend that you try this recipe.
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