August 12, 2023 Lunch - Madrid Airport. Dinner - Luciano’s,/Rose, Santander

 August 12, 2023 Lunch - Madrid Airport. Dinner - Luciano’s/Rose, Santander 

As I start to write this blog it is 5:15 a.m. on Sunday, August 13.  i am in our Air BNB apartment on the fourth floor of an apartment building on one of the main streets in Santander and the noise of people yelling and having a good time in the street below is now just subsiding.  

These people know how to party and last night was a party scene in the streets of Santander I have not witnessed since Carnival in Nassau, Bahamas in 1967. No one was dressed funny in Santander. There were just mobs of well dressed young people out in the plazas and at restaurants and tavernas celebrating and having a good time that reverberated through the narrow street of our apartment and many others I suppose.p in downtown Santander.

Our flight from Dallas arrived at Madrid Airport at 3:00 more or less and we did not leave for Santander until 8:00, so we were able to walk slowly to the inter airport tram and transit from the international terminal to terminal K for our internal flight.

We had checked our baggage through to Santander, so we were only carrying a pack of overnight things like computer and pillows and a shopping bag with some meds, my New Yorker, and our travel documents.

We walked about a mile through the cavernous Madrid Airport past several snack bars like the one in these pictures and finally stopped at an appealing snack bar named MasQMenos where we ordered a charcuterie assortment of Iberico ham, Serrano ham, chorizo, and salami slices on a plate for 20.95 € that was served with toasted baguette slices garnished with a sauce of pureed tomato and a small plastic container of olive oil.

I had my first funny conversation in Spanish in Spain with the lady who served me at the counter where I placed my order. When I ordered the surtido (assortment) she asked me “con pan?”, to which I responded, “Si.”, after she sliced three slices of wide baguette and threw them into a horizontal continuous feed toaster she asked me, “Con Tomato.” to which I responded, “Si.”, after she squeezed a fresh tomato purée onto the toasted slices of bread and put them on a second plate, I asked her, “Nada Mas? And she laughed and I realized that I had exhausted the options of extras that came with the surtido and was introduced to the joy  that Spaniards associate with their food.

I took the surtido back to the table where Suzette was sitting and then walked to another food bar next to MasQMenos and bought a small bottle of chilled Cune red wine from Rioja and a small bottle of Cordenui Cava sparkling white wine for about 15 €. Both of these major brands of Spanish wines tasted more fresh and delicious than any we get in the U.S. the Cava simply came bursting out of the bottle in a torrent of bubbles.

I took a picture of Suzette in MasQMenos (more Or less) and then we drizzled olive oil on the three toasted pieces of baguette spread with fresh tomato sauce and shared the bread and charcuterie and toasted each other and our first meal on Spanish soil with glasses of bubbly Cava and then ate the sandwiches we made by laying slices of charcuterie on the tomato and olive oil drenched slices of bread with glasses of Rioja Tempranillo.

We then walked on to our gate in Terminal K and ate a little trail mix and watched the world Championship off road bike race in Glasgow, Scotland televised on Spanish TV in the waiting area. The British bike racer, Tom Pidcock, who competed in the Tour de France this year, won.

Here is some info on Tom: 

Thomas Pidcock MBE (born 30 July 1999) is an English cyclist who currently competes in the cyclo-cross, mountain bike and road bicycle racing disciplines of the sport for UCI WorldTeam Ineos Grenadiers.[4][5]

After a prodigious junior and under-23 career with World Championship victories in all three of these disciplines, Pidcock turned professional in 2021. Since then his biggest victories have been the cross-country mountain biking at the 2020 Summer Olympics, the 2023 Mountain bike cross-country World Championship, the Cyclo-cross World Championships in 2022 and the prestigious spring road classic, Strade Bianche in 2023. Across all three disciplines, he has won numerous other races, with his biggest victory on the road in his first season being the 2021 Brabantse Pijl road classic. In his second season, riding his first Tour de France he took his first Grand Tour stage, winning solo on the climb of the iconic Alpe D'Huez, the youngest rider ever to do so.[6]

At 8:15 we took the short 40 minute flight from Madrid to Santander and arrived at sunset.

We taxied to the apartment and showered and changed out of our dirty traveling clothes and then around 10:00 went out to explore the area around our apartment.  As I stated at the beginning of this blog the sidewalks, taverns, and restaurants were packed with young people. Our strategy to stay in downtown Santander where there were lots of restaurants and taverna without a car for the first three days of our trip was working perfectly.  We went to several restaurants that were full and finally found a table at a restaurant on a plaza several blocks from the apartment named Luciano’s that had attached to it a bar named Rose’.

                                                          Bob at the table at Luciano’s

We were served by a young lady who spoke English and ordered a bottle of Roman Bilbao Rose’ made from mainly Grenache grape juice that was delicious, especially when we added large cubes of ice to it to tame the slightly sharp tannic aftertaste that enhanced its floral fruitiness. We liked it a lot and the price of 15€ was also pleasant.

Luciano’s was not highly rated and we decided that was probably because who would seek out Italian cuisine in the heart of Spain.Then Suzette ordered two dishes for dinner, Monkfish in a Puttanesca sauce.

“The origins of puttanesca sauce are disputed, but food historians agree it was created in Naples in the mid-20th century. The classic combination of anchovies, olives, garlic, chile flakes, tomatoes, and capers gives this sauce a robust flavor. It comes together quickly and can be prepared in the time it takes to boil water and cook the pasta.”

When the dish came it had a pile of breaded fried tender fresh monkfish slices, just like in the Jose Andres PBS TV series, on a bed of puttanesca sauce served with a small bowl of Papas Bravas (fried and salted potato wedges).

The other dish Suzette ordered was Asparagus Risotto, which was a wonderful dark green color and infused with small bits of asparagus, green peas, and pea tendrils while retaining the wonderful creaminess of a good risotto.

We loved both dishes and sopped up the last of the puttanesca sauce with the crisp wedges of fried potato.

It must have been midnight by the time we finished dinner and we saw no let up in the celebratory mood in the populous. When we walked the two blocks back to the apartment we made a reservation for Monday night at Restaurant Cachelote, across the plaza from Luciano’s, that was the most crowded and happening restaurant and tavern we saw, where we were unable to find a table tonight.

Then we stopped at Goya Restaurant downstairs from our apartment that is highly rated and made a reservation for tomorrow night.

We went to bed happy that we had made the transit to Spain without incident and fit right into the dining scene of eating lunch after 2:00 and dinner after 9:00 seamlessly.

It looks like the beginning of a good trip.

It is now 6:55 and the gulls in the harbor three blocks away are beginning to call and the humans in the street below seem to finally have ended their clamorous behavior as day breaks and I can go to sleep.

It has been a while since I have stayed in a crowded city and it may take a while to get used to the constant cacophony of city sounds.

Thank goodness they do not seem to disturb Suzette whips is sleeping like a rock.

Bon Appetit