September 24, 2024 Lunch - Museo Prado Restaurant. Dinner - Pecorilo
Today we ate at the panaderia around the corner. We drank coffee con Leche and Suzette ate a a croissant and I ate a Palmier (Palmera).
We then taxied to Museo Sorolla, which is located in his house. We love his work. He is considered the Artist of Light and his paintings capture light and shadow better than any artist I am aware of. He is probably Spain’s favorite Spanish artist of the 20th century.
We went in when the museum opened at 9:30 and finished around 11:30.
We decided to go to the Prado, because we were getting hungry and knew the Prado served lunch. We arrived at the front steps around 12:00 and walked the 1/3 mile to the cafeteria past some of the greatest paintings in the World, arriving around 1:00. We were the first to be seated for lunch. The restaurant had two different Menus. An appetizer, an entree, water, bread, a glass of wine, and a dessert for 38.50 Euros and all of that without an appetizer for 31.50 Euros. The darker bread was raisin bread that I have come to enjoy.
I asked the waiter if the appetizer titled Tomato Steak was a tomato and when he said yes, I ordered it. I have not eaten a bad tomato on this trip and soon a bowl with two 1 1/2 inch thick slices of heirloom or Cantabrian tomatoes garnished with fried basil leaves were served in a sweetened olive oil dressing.
They were not the best tomatoes but better than most and we liked the sweet dressing offsetting the slight acidity of the tomato. I asked for a plate and gave Suzette one of the slices and we each tried both neither of us could finish our tomato steak. We had both ordered Bacalo (rehydrated salt cod) in a hollandaise Sauce and garnished with cooked chiffonade sliced green beans and a thin fried shrimp wafer as our entree.
Suzette had been served her cod when I was served my tomato appetizer but she waited until we finished the tomato appetizer to start eating it, at which time I was served my cod entree.
We had chosen white wine and we were served chilled Cune Rueda, whose mild flavor went well with the cod. The cod was a large filet with incredibly large pure white flakes of meat that neither of us could finish.
Finally, dessert was served and it was wonderful, sliced apples arranged in a circle on a thin crust sitting on a puddle of caramel and topped with a small scoop of homemade vanilla ice cream. Suzette drank a cafe with extra hot milk and I drank the rest of my wine with dessert.
We enjoyed lunch and prepared to see some art. We went through seven or eight galleries of some of the greatest art in the world. Some things were mobbed like Heironymous Busch’s Garden of Earthly Delights Triptych and Velasquez’ Las Mananitas, but some were not, like a wonderful Peter Brueghel the elder’s small winter scene of folks skating on frozen canals or rivers and the newly discovered Caravaggio of Ecce Homo and the Sorolla of two boys sunning on the beach.
We only saw twelve to 15 galleries out of hundreds. After we left we stopped at the Prado Cafe for a drink. I drank a bottle of mineral water and Suzette drank a mimosa made with Moët Chandon champagne. As we recovered from our Prado walk, Suzette suggested going to visit the Thyssen Museum that was 2 blocks across the Neptune Fountain from the Prado.
We walked to the Thyssen and visited a temporary exhibit of foreign subjects that included a really great Russell of Pagdin Indians trying to steal Crow horses and beautiful Fredrick Church painting of Brazil.
We then toured Carmen Thyssen’s collection, which was much smaller than the permanent collection and collapsed in the patio and shared a Vichy carbonated mineral water trying to rest our legs and heal our stomachs.
We then taxied back to the Plaza Pedro Zerolo and walked the two blocks to our hotel.
We worked and rested from 5:30 until 7:45 when we walked back across the Plaza to a fresh pasta restaurant we had seen last night. We waited 10 minutes for it to open at 8:05. The concept is simple two guys with a pasta making machine and a heating unit make and sell fresh made pasta with a choice of six or eight sauces in cardboard bowls with soft drinks or one brand of beer.
We ordered the most expensive item on the menu, beef and ricotta filled ravioli with a tomato sauce with bacon for 12.50 Euros and the two beers were another 5 Euros, which satisfied us and was one of the best meals of the trip for the price. When I returned to the room around 8:45, I checked the restaurant on the Internet and discovered that it had been rated 4.9, almost a perfect 5 points, which goes to show if you deliver a superior produce for a reasonable price, you will be successful and recognized. While we ate we observed one of the two partners making linguine using the pasta machine that was interesting.
When we returned to the room I asked Suzette how many steps we took today in our three big museum tour and she estimated 8,000, which is a new record for me and I felt it.
We rested and packed and Suzette went to bed and I blogged, drank a couple of cups of mint tea, and checked my key stocks and was happy that Nvda moved up today $4.61 to $120.87 and HD rose $8.70 to $400, which I think must be an all time high for HD.
It has been a wonderful trip with a few rough spots, but mostly fun and happy experiences and both towns I picked to stay in were wonderful.
Bon Appetit
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