Museo del Jamon, Madrid, Spain

Back in June this year, we paid a fleeting visit to Madrid, the capital of Spain. We saw lots of memorable sights and ate some truly amazing food. One of the highlights was at this location, just around the corner from our hotel, near Puerto del Sol, the heart of the city - similar to Piccadilly Circus in London.

The Museo del Jamon (translated - museum of ham) is a chain of restaurants in Madrid and specialised in the obvious, but they were served mainly as starters, which we skipped. Yes, I know, it was like going to A&W and not having the root beer, but we noticed that their portions of main courses were really big and thought we did not have room for starters as well.


They sell ham by the joints and during the day, act as a market where people come in the droves to buy the ham which they are famous for. However, there is a bar downstairs and restaurant upstairs where punters would enjoy their wide variety of popular Spanish dishes. Standing while eating did not appear to be a problem for the Spanish, but we chose to go upstairs to the seating area.


All over the restaurant, there were joints of ham hung up on the wall for sale. Surprisingly, they did not smell at all.



We only had two dishes ... this roast half chicken with chips was the smallest portion they had. Dont let the bland looking chicken fool you - it had the best tasting and crispiest chicken skin I ever tasted! I do not know what they used to marinate this, but I have never tasted chicken like this anywhere else outside Spain. Seems like this is the normal way they do a roast chicken in Spain, as I have tasted similar chickens elsewhere in the city.


And the highlight of the meal was this crispy battered mixed seafood platter. It was huge and only cost about 12 euros. It consisted of prawns, whitebait, squid, some whitefsh chunks (cod?) and pink fish chunks (cant be salmon as they were too small - the chunks were half the fish). Dont let the blandness of the picture fool you - everything was so crispy that I ate the prawns whole, including the shell! And you could literally taste the freshness in the fishes - I have never tasted squid as tender as what was serverd here! I still dream of this dish today and if I am in Madrid again, this is the first place I would dine at!










Museo del Jamon
Carrera de San Jerónimo, 6
Madrid
nearest metro: Puerta del Sol

Cascais, Portugal Sep 2008, Part 2

On the penultimate day of the visit, we took a walk along the coast of Cascais and took in some of the wonderful sights.


This is the entrance to the boca de inferno (mouth of hell) which is basically just a steep cliff leading down to the sea.



And here is the boca itself!



Some anglers near the boca. I included this cuz I thought it was one of the rere good quality pics I managed to take, and directly against the sun too.



Some old buildings on the othe side of the coastline... reminds me of Melaka again!



The bay where mostly fishing boats park up in the evening. By night, there would be 5 times as many boats than pictured.


This is the square in the town centre of Cascais.



Chopped octupus salad is served as a side dish everywhere we went


Green lipped mussel salad served at the buffet in our hotel


A selection of food from the buffet..some tomato rice, a white piece of steamed, reconstituted salted cod, baked chicken breast, the thinnest fries ever, and a fried fish cake.



This is grilled baby octopus with baked potatoes, the meal I had on a previous night.



This is barbecue squid with corn on cob. The idea was good, but the restaurant was sparse and I dont think the food was as fresh as it could have been.


And finally, some Portuguese tarts! They were behind a glass cabinet and somehow my camera focused on the screen rather than the tarts!



Dont know when I will ever visit Portugal again, but it was a memorable visit and the food made it even more worthwhile!

Trip to Cascais, Portugal

In mid September, my team from work were sent to this seaside resort near Lisbon for a few days of work, teambuilding and play. The weather was pleasant and sunny ( mid 20s ) throughout the stay and it was a very enjoyable experience and I have added some photos for you all to see.


We were housed in a pleasant 4 star hotel and here is the view from my balcony. In the distant background is the sea. They also have an indoor heated pool which I had a relaxing dip in one afternoon. Mid 20s is a bit cold to swim outdoors, despite the lovely sunshine.


In the evening, I took a walk along the beach and took this picture of a fort from the 1st or 2nd world war. This place is full of forts. Each one reminded me of Melaka's 'A' Formosa. The Portuguese must really be fond of these buildings.


At night we took a walk into the town centre and this is the main area where all the bars are and where tourists frequent. It was early and midweek, hence not many people yet.


Opposite the hotel was a small supermarket. It seems they have a fishmonger in even the smallest stores. I saw this on the counter but had no idea what they were. Anyone got a clue? They dont look edible to me.


Earlier that evening, we were treated to a slap up meal in a seafood restaurant, apparently frequented by the rich and famous! It was said that Bill Clinton had visited there when President and so has many other dignitaries. You could tell it was really upmarket when there were loads of old men with their 20 year old girlfriends with plastic boobs eating in there. See details at www.portosantamaria.com

Upon entry, we were greeted by a tank of live lobsters. It may look appetising but these lobsters seem to have very small claws.


Next to the lobster tank was a live seafood display. Very impressive! Unfortunately I did not get to pick my meal from there as it was a set menu.


When we sat down, we were presented with a couple of side dishes. This was a prawn fritter and deep fried minced fish meat.


We also had some Portuguese ham (like Parma ham) and some bread rolls on the side.


Next came our starters. This was a lovely prawn with marie rose dressing salad.


My second starter was the highlight of the evening for me. Huge prawns, grilled and lightly seasoned. These were about 7 inches long each!


The main course was nice, but not as good as the previous dish. A pleasant seafood rice dish consisting of tiger prawns and lobster meat with a lightly flavoured seafood sauce, a bit like a paella, but not as strong in taste.

The bill was fairly reasonable too, considering we had a few bottles of the finest wines included in it. If you google for this restaurant, you will see what the fuss is all about.



And that was the first part of my visit. Next time I will have more pictures of the local sights and more seafood!

Spicy hot bean mussels

This recipe has been adapted from my grandmother's recipe for fried lala (clams). As lala is not available in the UK, I use fresh mussels for this dish. Mussels are relatively cheap here, you can get them for about £2 per kg.



Also worth noting that we can get something like lala here too, but it looks different. Look at this picture.. on the outside, it looks like a blood clam (see hum), but once opened, it looks like lala. They cost similar to mussels but I dont use these often because the shells are dirtier and takes a lot of scrubbing before I can fry them whole.


This dish is simply:
- chillies
-onions
- garlic
- capsicum
- hot bean sauce (chilli meen see)
- cornflour to thicken sauce so that it sticks to he mussels

Method:
Fry onions, chillies, garlic, capsicum and hot bean sauce.
Then add cleaned and de-bearded mussels and cook till all shells are opened.
No need to add water as mussel will have its own juice.
Then little bit of cornflour mixture to thicken.
Soy sauce / Salt / sugar / pepper to taste.

Lobster Fried Ho Fun

Another treat for the Chinese New Year fortnight. Managed to get a frozen Canadian lobster. Added some other bits of seafood and then fried it with garlic, rice wine, soy and oyster sauce, then poured stock over it and thickened with cornflour. Then I poured the whole lot over plain fried ho fun (with a bit of sweet and light soy). This is my version of "wat tan hor" but without the egg cuz I never seem to get it right and always overcook the egg.