Tapas bar hopping in Madrid

I land into Madrid airport and walk out of the Turkish Airways flight into the Immigration area, and am amazed to find, for the next few minutes, our plane load of passengers are the only people in the area.

A ghost airport in recession-torn Europe? Whatever happened to the magic city I had visited in 2008, I tend to panic. But soon another flight lands that lazy Sunday evening and it's the scramble for luggage as usual.

Barely two hours into Madrid and we, a group of six Indian journalists invited by Turkish Airlines and Spanish tourism, are already on our tapas tour. This is the best way to plunge into an essential pastime of the city – having your aperitif with an order of the tapa or delectable starters.

An essential part of eating out in Madrid, a visitor can instantly feel the energy, vibrancy and a favourite pastime of the Spanish capital – the sheer pleasure of eating out – through a tapas tour. Tapas bars dot the city and each one has its unique culture. We dig into the most delicious tapas – green peppers, asparagus, tortilla, swordfish and Iberian jamon (cured, delicious Iberian ham), all of it washed down with, what else, the best of Sangria, the famous Spanish drink made with red wine, Cognac, Vermont and fruit. Latrucha, the bar we are seated in, is within 10 minutes walking distance of our hotel Westin Palace, a historic building opposite the Parliament House.

Our guide Joanna Wivell, explains the culture of Spanish tapas bars. A British woman, she understands only too well the difference in the essential personality of the Spanish compared to her countrymen!

“The Spanish love to eat out, talk and socialise.. they are passionate, vibrant people. Maybe not in this bar, but the next one I'll take you to (El Neru) you'll find things cluttered all over the floor”. Pointing to the delicious green peppers, she says that as people talk animatedly, while enjoying their drinks and tapas, they would fling the stems of the peppers on the floor, along with used paper towels, etc.

“Now, of course, my British or Swiss guests are horrified that they should do anything like that, this is an essential Spanish way of doing things.”

My mind rewinds to an olive oil Spain tour of 2008, when each lunch lasted a minimum three hours, with endless courses of food and wine. When I tell her this, Joanna laughs: “Oh yes, typical Spanish lunch, even on a working day, lasts for two hours… from 2 to 4 p.m.”

Stuffed with delicacies such as the tortilla, a kind of omelette made with egg and potato, the fried fish which we sprinkle with a few drops of lemon, and the Cazpacho, a kind of cold soup made with tomatoes, green peppers, olive oil, garlic and salt, we march on to El Neru, where the barman pours cider from a height that reminds me of our very own South Indian metre coffee! While the cider is downed, I politely turn down the delicious bread and blue cheese. In a few minutes I am grateful for doing so, as the guide marches us to a market selling the most delicious chocolates, macaroons and meringues!

Joanna recalls how, while visiting family in England recently, she tried to make Cazpacho for some friends from Andulacia, and it was a total flop “what with the horrible British tomatoes; I should have stuck to our fish and chips”.

By now it is nearing midnight and listening to her entertaining stories related with typical British humour, we walk into the vast Plaza de Sol, which has been the centre of the Spanish protests against unemployment, welfare cuts, bad governance and political cuts.

Sunday being the anniversary of the present phase of the protests which began in 2008, an estimated 40,000 people had assembled at the place.

Though the protests were peaceful, the overwhelming presence of cops in the area is a grim reminder of how delicately poised are some European economies at the moment.

Unemployment at 22 per cent is the highest ever and it is estimated that nearly half of those under 25 have no jobs. “People in their early 50s are losing their jobs and this age-group not likely to find jobs again, things are tough,” she adds.

We return to the hotel at midnight, grateful for the energy level that allowed this tour bang after landing into Madrid. But then the Turkish Airlines' Business Class – to which we were upgraded at the nth hour – on the Mumbai-Istanbul sector in Airbus 330-300 with totally flat beds, is a new level of comfort in flying for those who normally can't afford such luxury!

(to be continued)

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