Yesterday we chatted a little about the food here in Madrid. I mentioned that there are beautiful meats and cheeses. We had been here 3 days and the meats and cheeses is really all we had eaten so last night we decided that we were going to be brave and try out a little cafe/barra just downstairs from our apartment. These little neighborhood bars are everywhere. They are not what you would think of when you think bar. These are family establishments where you could sit for hours and chat and eat tapas or pop in for a quick coffee, tea, beer or whatever. We decided that it looked cute and it was close. It was around 8 pm so restaurants are not quite open yet. Dinner time in Madrid starts around 9 pm. They tend to eat huge lunches between 2-4 in the afternoon and then little bites (tapas/bocadillas) in the evening. Every meal here is a social event. We were not looking for a dinner type meal, but just a little snack. The bar looked open because there were a few people in it, but I didn't notice anyone with food. When we walked in I immediately asked, "Habla usted Inglais?"...the waitress replied, "NO". We sat down anyway and thought that we could certainly figure this out. I was trying to ask her if we could eat, but had no idea how to put a sentence together asking this. I found a phrase in my Spanish/English dictionary that basically asked if they were serving dinner. Well she said no because really that type of place doesn't serve dinner. She tried to explain to me that on a certain street we would find dinner and possibly English speaking establishments. We were totally deflated that we absolutely could not communicate with her at all. It was very awkward, but we got up and left. We walked a few blocks and found a place that looked to be a chain of some sort. I was able to get my thoughts together a bit and when we went in I was able to ask if they were open for us to eat...sort of...abierta come. :-) She said, "Si". I asked her if she spoke english and she said, "so-so"...oooo I can so relate. We sat down and were pleased to see that under the Spanish menu items were those same things in English. Praise God for that find. We successfully ordered dinner and drinks.
Now we will fast forward to today. We were meeting our co-sponsor this morning so that he could show us the embassy and we had to share our previous evenings experience at the little cafe/bar downstairs. He said, with vindication in his eyes, that we would run around a bit and go eat at that cafe/bar for lunch. After our embassy trip and some other little bits of excitement we made it back to that little place and went in for lunch. Our co-sponsor was able to tell us what to say, "Este es cocina abierta?" Is the kitchen open? The waiter said, "Si" and we sat. We ordered our "refrescas" or sodas and we decoded the menu. We have potentially cracked the code at one little bar/cafe and maybe next time when we try it on our own we will succeed. Chad even asked for the bill, "La cuenta, por favor." Oh and by the way the food was super yummy.
On a bit of a side note, one of my observations at this little place is that couples young and old would literally stop in, order a coffee, leave the money on the table and just go. We had two couples "pop" in while we were there and they ended up sitting right next to us. They had a quick bite and went. It was like they were on a walk or heading home from shopping or something like that, felt like grabbing a quick bite or drink and off they went again. I just loved this. It gives a whole new meaning to "fast food". So much healthier than your local McDonalds and with such character. Love it.
More to come on so many situations and experiences.
Until next time...
No comments:
Post a Comment