Sunday, November 25, 2012

Un finde madrileño

Por fin, un finde en Madrid! I haven't had a weekend in Madrid for 4 weeks now so I welcomed these few days at home with open arms.
The weekend started off with a Friday evening of tapas with a few friends. When I first arrived in Madrid I was pleasantly surprised to find out that the tapa culture here is to receive a free tapa with the drink you order. What I was used to was the culture in Logroño, where the drink and tapa are served and paid for separately.






Vino tinto and tapa at 
Gambrinus, a chain tapas bar in Madrid.








Saturdays in Madrid usually mean Ultimate Frisbee for me. The Quijotes hold pachanga every Saturday afternoon. The literal translation for pachanga is a party or mixer, however, for all intents and purposes we use it to refer to an informal pick-up game. Saturday pachanga doesn't take place at our usual practice spot. We head to a field called 'La Almudena,' in the Ciudad Universitaria, the university district. I use the term 'field' loosely as it's really just a patch of dirt... With Madrid's dry climate playing at 'La Almudena' usually involves inhaling large amounts of dirt and so the result is dirt-ridden mocos and wounds that take an unusual amount of time to heal. Lately, however, we've had a lot of rain (also great for sailing as Madrid's water levels are higher!) and so our patch of dirt is actually looking quite green!





'La Almudena' last year at Juanito's Open. 
(Photo credit to Reca)










'La Almudena' today. 

Beautiful autumn Saturday, perfect day to throw around a disc!
(Look at the grass!)
Saturday evening was fondue night! Some of the Quijotes head to teammate, Bertrand's house for a night of delicious food and great company. Bertrand is from Grenoble, France and so a specialty of his is fondue. He went to a market and bought a ton of cheese of various types. 




 Bertrand prepping the cheese and Justino cutting some bread.

Note the delicious appetizers (all of which contained cheese) that preceded the amazing meal! 

(Including my personal favourite; pureed beet topped with fresh cheese from Burgos and garnished with an oven-baked cheese crisp.)





So much cheese!




























Once at the dregs of the first pot of fondue (yes, there was more than one) Bertrand added an egg and some Génépi, a special liqueur, to the small amount of cheese left, turned off the lights and lit it on fire! The liqueur made the remaining cheese sweet, it was delicious.









To top off the evening Javi brought all the ingredients for chocolate fondue!

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