Ah, yes, familiar Fridays with menú del día. This one was from last week. I went a place called Aió (pronounced kinda like Ah-ee-OH, but really fast and smushed together). Its a stone's throw, if that, from Amargo. I had walked past it a couple of times and had always wanted to try it. Peep my journey below:
The space. Loved the decor. It was a fresh-feeling quaint cafe. I felt instantly at home.
I took a pseudo panorama without even realizing it at the time! Ha! This was from sitting in one of the corner tables.
The menu! I love that it changes daily (makes me believe more that a place cares about the food and the ingredients they are using). Most places have at least one meat option, one seafood or fish option, or one vegetarian option (though to be honest, Spain is a country where it's somewhat difficult to be a vegetarian and not eat the same thing over and over and over again. Props to my veggie friends!!) Also, one of the great things about menú del día is that if you aren't feeling super hungry, most places will let you get just one course, a drink, bread, and dessert or coffee for a slightly reduced cost. Let's carry on my wayward son, shall we?
Pan (bread) + bebida (drink) = YUMMMMM. Also, + my Kindle because homegirl loves to read.
Close up of my drink. This was a clara: a mix of Fanta Limón (lemon Fanta) and cerveza (beer). It's like a shandy. It's light and refreshing and has the perfect amount of sweet citrus.
For my primero (first) course, I got "Pasta con crema de espinacas". It was penne pasta with a cream sauce and spinach and a healthy dose of cheese. Though I found this dish erring slightly on the side of too salty (slightly too much salt in the space plus the saltiness of parmesan cheese), I was really pleasantly surprised by the toasted pine nuts in the sauce.
For my segundo (second) course, I got "Pollo a la cerveza con veduras". This was beer-braised chicken with veggies. The chicken was good and for the most part tender and juicy, but I found it somewhat lacking in flavor. I think it could've used a touch more salt (maybe from the previous dish) to help bring out some more of the flavors that were developing.
My café (coffee)! I forgot to take a picture as soon as I got it because I was so excited for it. After eating all of that food and being out late the night before, I was quickly falling into a food coma and needed something to perk back up. I got café con leche AAAAAAAAND I asked the waitress to give me nata (cream, in this case whipped, as in whipped cream...) on top. I'm sure this is not a normal thing that Spaniards do, but I like my whipped cream, so I shot for the stars and was rightfully rewarded.
After all of that, I was super stuffed and quite sleepy. I continued reading for a bit more before leaving to go home and nap. Also, apologies that these photos are slightly below my normal subpar photo taking abilities. I took these using an iPhone3, which sadly does not have the greatest camera. But, da igual, you get the picture. Also, I'm really unsure as to why I can't resize these pictures, so you're welcome for really large pics!
Al final Total cost: €9.50. Thoughts: Would definitely return again. Loved the ambience and the service. The food was good, though I found the first dish a little too salty and the second dish lacking in salt. I loved that the waitress managed to get me cafe with whipped cream on top even though the bartender gave her such a confused look as to why anyone would order that.
It's Friday, so you know what that means: MENU DEL DIA!!! Today's menu, courtesy of my fave: Cafe Amargo. Buen provecho (good eating/enjoy)!
It's the weekend, so here's my requisite glass of wine. This is a Ribera.
Delicious accompanying bread. Not quite sure of the flavors, but I kinda wolfed it down before really taking notice... Soooo oops? I was hungry.
First course: Pesto penne pasta. Delicious! Aaaand in a shocking twist of events, had perfect proportions of sauce to noodles to salt to cheese. Bonus: the noodles were cooked (duh), but then sautéed in a pan, which gave some of them a nice slight crispiness.
Second Course: hamburger with goat cheese and fried berenjena (eggplant) slices and fries. The goat cheese was not overpowering as it tends to be. It was balanced with the eggplant and the meat as well. The fries definitely tasted homemade. I loved the varying sizes of the potato and they had a slight hint of garlic added to them as well. I ate most of the burger, but not all of it because I was saving room for...........
DESSERT!!! My favorite meal of the day! This is arroz con leche (rice pudding) and it's one of my favorites when made well. Margo makes it well. Soft and creamy with a slight hint of vanilla. It's drizzled with sweet honey-esque sauce that hardens and turns into a thin candy. The white/pale yellow jelly near the front of the plate was a lemon jelly that perfectly complimented the sweetness of the dish. It was almost like a refreshing sorbet in the fact that it was more tart than sweet.
If you haven't seen it already on snapchat, this is the view from my favorite table. Look how cute!! Go to Cafe Amargo and you won't be disappointed.
Tried to discreetly take a picture. I really just wanted to show off that ceiling piece. Super cool light fixtures with mixed metal rods. Also, in the background you can check one of the waitresses wearing the Amargo uniform. Sneakers, denim jeans, and a denim shirt. Everyone that know me knows I love jeans and denim, so of course I looove this Canadian tuxedo look.
Thank goodness I got some pictures up. This blog was starting to get reeeeeealllll dry. The meal was delicious. normally I like to go home to power nap and prepare for the evening (especially tonight as it's my friend's birthday), but I have decided to stay and try to write at least one more post and maybe play around with the layout/theme of this thing. Now to order another glass of wine!
I'm officially on my weekend and to my knowledge, I have no responsibilities. Well, perhaps this weekend I will plan my classes (lol okay, games) in my free time instead of doing it at 11pm/12am the night before. Vamos a ver (we shall see). At any rate, I have a ton of updating to do, so we shall see how much I get done. I will probably make a few separate posts to organize them all. Also, I will add pictures later, though I don't recall having taken many pictures. I should start carrying my camera around more often given that my iPhone from home works like an iPod (aka only on WiFi) and the camera on the iPhone 3s is less than stellar. I digress.
Currently, I'm sitting at my new favorite cafe/bar. It's called Amargo: place to be (I'm not really sure if that last part is part of their name or a slogan or what...). This is my third time and counting having been here this week and I love it. Yes, I know, you may be thinking "How can you say that you're broke when you're constantly spending money all the time??". To that I reply, first and foremost, thank goodness for credit cards. Without a credit card, there is no way I would have been able to buy groceries, sheets, towels, my hostels/AirBnB stay, a gym membership, or running shoes (all necessities in my opinion). I'm all about smart credit card use (shockingly so considering how absolutely horrible I am at money management), but that's another post for another time. Anyhow, one of the reasons I am able to go out frequently is because certain things are quite cheap here. Namely, coffee and alcohol.
Rarely will you find a coffee that's above €2. If you encounter ludicrously high prices, then either A) that coffee should be better than delicious or B) YOU'RE DOING IT WRONG. A safe bet is café con leche. Coffee with heated and foamed milk, like a latte (I think.. Never been a barista so my coffee terminology is not up to par. I normally just kinda pick something off the menu at random...), and served with sugar on the side to your taste. Of recent, one of my favorite things to order is a cortado. A cortado is just like café con leche, only instead of coffee, it is a shot of espresso with foamed milk. Today, I decided to switch things up and order a café bombón. This is a shot of espresso mixed with sweetened condensed milk. 'Twas delicious, but probably a poor choice for me because I practically gulped it down and I'm now sitting here shaking while I'm trying to type because of all the caffeine. I'm the picture of health.
As I mentioned in a previous post, northern Spain has an excellent wine region called La Rioja. Throughout the country, wine is quite cheap and quite delicious. I'm currently drinking una copa de Crianza (a glass of Crianza wine) and it is simply divine. Beer is also relatively cheap here. I've not found much craft beer, though I have found some (which I will review for your reading pleasure at a later date). Typically you get Mahou or Cruzcampo or Estrella on tap and that's about it (aside from whatever bottled beer the bar has of those same brands). You rarely ask for a beer by name, but instead by size (caña: small, doble: double/large). Da igual (it's all the same) and it's better than Keystone, though maybe not by much.
Back to the cafe: I LOVE IT. It's relatively small, but it has huge floor to ceiling windows with tables right next to them. It gets lots of light and it's nice to be outside and looking at the world around me, as opposed to sitting in my windowless room (more on that later). Also, it has FREE WIFI that actually works (waaaaay better than McDs). To quote 510Fun (can't remember who started it originally...), PRAISE!! The owner of the cafe is super nice and remembers me (I even have my favorite table, that he knows!!), which I guess is bound to happen in a place that's quaint and cozy that you've been to almost every day of the week. Amargo also has an arroz con leche (rice pudding) that is out of this world. It was creamy, sweet, but not overtly sweet, with the faintest hint of citrus. This place is so perfect.
What else have I done? Oh! I officially joined a gym. Granted yesterday was my first day, but so far, so good. It's called Urban Fitness and it's maybe a 5 minute (at most) walk from my apt. For 6 months, my membership was €209, including the typical gym equipment/machines (obvi), all of the classes the gym offers (kickboxing, yoga, pilates, TRX, among many others), and personal training. Heaven! Especially considering the amount of weight I've gained and how steadily my health levels have declined since my arrival in this country. Last night I ran a 5k (though was slightly more with warm up and cool down) and it was shockingly easy considering I haven't run since the 10k in Chicago over the summer (side note: I totally meant to write a post about how awesome Chicago was and I forgot until just now). Quizás (maybe) I will run in the Rock & Roll 10k like I did last year. I'm thinking of checking out a yoga class later on tonight, so I will let ya know how that goes!
What else? Teaching is going to be a separate post. Apartment updates and legal things will be separate as well. Also, Barcelona things and some weekend things.
Sooooooooooooo I believe that is all for now! Ta! xxxx