Pastrami in Madrid

Masked on the Subway

Drinks in Chueca, thinking of Jaimie

Mezze Spread

Thickly sliced Pastrami 

Today was a continuation of getting over jet lag. We started on a quest to get my SIM card. iPhone have dual Sims so I thought (incorrectly as it found out) that I had a an empty slot for a 2^nd sim card. When I switched from AT&T to Spectrum, Spectrum didn’t use the eSim on the phone but actually installed a SIM Card. That meant that if I installed the Spanish SIM I would loose my California phone number while we were here, and I didn’t want to do that. Long story short we put the SIM in Cathy’s phone. This took a long time at the store, and it was frustrating. Oh well. We did accomplish the other two items on our agenda. I successfully withdrew money from an ATM machine and took the Subway back to the Hotel.

 

Cathy stayed behind and I took a long walk into the Salamanca. This is definitely the place where the rich live and shop. It was a very fancy area filled with name brands Timmy would know them all. It is the Beverly Hills of Madrid. When I think back on it, I didn’t see any food stores. Maybe the thin Spanish don’t eat much that’s why they look so good. I decided to taxi back to the hotel. Turns out Spanish taxi’s accept Apple Pay.

 

I am troubled by one issue of spelling. I am the world worst speller. If SPAIN is spelled with an “i” before the “N”, where did the “I” go when they created the word: SPANISH? To my way of thinking SPANISH should be spelled SPAINISH. Its craziness like that makes me a bad speller.

 

We walked from our hotel to Chueca the gay area of Madrid where we had drinks and the ubiquitous olives. We wished Jaimie was here to guide us into proper day drinking, Spanish style. We have found Spanish wines to be incredibly inexpensive here. We noticed that people were drinking and talking and NOT on their iPhones, like you see in America. Apparently Spanish people like to talk to each other! They have so much to say to each other in fact, that they say it VERY fast, so they can get more words in. The plaza was a very happening area, it was filled with people, dogs and strollers. We tried to guess who was a local and who was a tourist. You really can’t tell.

 

Cathy correctly figured out, that we don’t have to eat dinner extremely late. Even though we had an early, for Madrid, reservation at 9:15, we could arrive anytime before then, because we would be among the first customers of the night. We arrived about 8:30 and walked right in and were shown to our table. Actually there were a few other people in the restaurant when we did arrive. I suppose they were tourists or people with late night plans that didn't include eating.

 

We then taxied to Restaurant Fayer a restaurant that David had recommended from his previous visits. It was an Israeli restaurant founded by people from Argentina. It is famous for its Pastrami. It was the most unusual Pastrami I had ever eaten. It was cut very thick; each slice was over ¼ inch thick. It was totally lean, there was no fat. It tasted just like Pastrami but didn’t look like pastrami or have a Pastrami like texture. I wonder if this was one chef’s unique idea about serving Pastrami or if this is how Pastrami is served in Argentina. All I can say is it isn’t Langer’s. We did however have lots of great Mezze as appetizers, but I definitely think a Langer’s #19 is better.

 

We are enjoying Madrid much more than I expected. For some reason we had avoided Madrid in previous Spanish trips. I thought it would be stuffy. It is anything but that. Tomorrow we start dipping into the history of Madrid on our first tour: The History of the Spanish Civil War. We have read much about the horrible time and the ugly legacy of the fascist leader Franco, tomorrow it will come into focus.