Madrid, Spain

madrid.
ginos: i met up with fellow smu exchange student sharon in barcelona and she took
yang and i out for lunch at ginos. honestly, the thought 'huh, italian food in spain?' came to my mind when sharon first mentioned it but i am glad we tried it out.

yang ordered the cannelloni rossini, which features creamy white pasta filled with meat and bechamel au gratin.. which clearly set well with her the carbonara-lover. sharon had the lorraine, a pizza topped with hereagain! bacon, gouda cheese and four cheese sauce.. this pizza was difficult to resist..haha.. but i particularly liked my piamontese pizza, which was topped with whatsnottoloveabout bacon and caramilsed onion. two words: love it. the sweetness of caramilsed onions totally spilt my tastbuds and now whenever i order pizza, i want to have my onions caramilsed- no way around it.

santa anna: for dinner, sharon took yang and i out for dinner at santa anna, which was a pebble´s throw away from la ramble. for our entree, we made an advanturous choice of paella arroz negro- black (squid) ink paella.

tip: don't order this dish if you are hoping to impress your first date. eat it only with friends and family whom you can afford to be unglam in front of.

tapas-wise. sharon recommended the pinchos de maruno (grilled pork, seasoned with with cumin and paprika), which is what i would NOW recommend.. and we shared a calamare dish too, note the slightly-thicker batter? though i don't usually prefer thick batters, this got the thumbs-up from yang.

la paca vaca. unbashedly my second buffest in spain, yang and i had such a ball over this unspanish feast. it was such a good deal (at 7.95euros) since there was a high food turnover rate.. luckily we made it to the restaurant at half past one as fifteen minutes later, there were hordes of people queuing and the long lines continued till past three.. erm yes we were there for quite a while.. we gave the salad table a customary visit and launched intos our meats.

CARNIVORES UNLEASHED: yes out-of-the-roastary meats and sausages.. the roast pork was a blissful reminder of those that we had back in singapore (think crrrrcrunchy skin and super-tender meat, sanwiching a thin layer of fat.. ooo). there was lamb too and i made sure i ate enough to satisfy my lamb quotar since i hardly get any protein back in copenhagen! i skipped the pasta and delved into the fresh-out-of-the-oven pizzas which were amazingly good.. when you tear apart the pizza base, a light almost fluffy texture emerges... no kidding, i lost count of the number of slices that i had.. mmmm.

ruffles: this probably confirms your suspicion that i ate EVERYTHING in spain.. BUT BUT.. you got to understand ruffles is soo dreadfully expensive in copenhagen and here they have flavours suited to local's taste. at only 0.95euros for 200g, i tried both the jamon jamon (smoked ham) and york'eso (ham and cheese). verdict? jamon was ordinary but york'eso had me licking the sides of the packet after i polished the entire bag. how on earth does the company frito-lay capture or rather powderify the essence of ham and cheese?! ingenious.

just in case you were wondering, i am still in germany.. hence the lack of updates. keep smiling, kids!