Friday, January 24, 2014

StreetXo

El Corte Ingles, 9th floor, Plaza de Callao. Here is where you'll find me, amidst a plethora of gourmet experiences. In this major plaza next to Gran Via (a very central shopping street in Madrid), the Corte Ingles building is a major tourist spot. The top floor of this famous department store offers you not only a breathtaking view of the city (see below, and also were I snapped the pic for the label of this blog), but your choice of drinks, tapas, and entrees from many different restaurants. I give you, El Corte Ingles, Gourmet Experience.





These pics are from google images- not mine
One day, about a month ago, our hungry stomachs led us to StreetXo (Xo pronouced like Show as 'X' is 'sh' in Basque, a language of northern Spain). With house music blasting and people crowded around the small, square open kitchen, this restaurant tantalizes all five senses. The chefs are young, complete with tattoos and mohawks, and they sure are talented.   


Derived from David Muñoz's 2 Michelin Star restaurant DiverXo, StreetXo allows you to taste the wonderful fusion of Japanese and Spanish flavors at a more appealing price. Although our plan was to have some lunch then go Christmas Shopping, after 2 beers each and an hour or so planted at the bar of the kitchen, our focus shifted from shopping to enjoying this gastronomical show.

We tried the butterfish, the pork belly and the chili crab. All three were amazing.
Pork belly with mussels

Chili crab

Pure satisfaction.
Above you will see the head chef chopping up the live crabs. One tried to get away, crawling over the stove in a last attempt of survival. Unfortunately, he became my lunch..

Wednesday, January 22, 2014

Comments!

A few people have asked me about commenting. Many were unable to comment because of the settings I had, but I have recently changed things to allow anyone and everyone to comment! So please do! I'd love to know that people are reading, and hear your thoughts, reactions, questions, etc.


Thanks! 

Tuesday, January 21, 2014

Let's Talk About SPACE

No, not outer space, we'll save that topic for another day. But no, I'm talking about physical space. Before moving to Spain I hadn't given the topic much thought. But since my time here it has become something I think about quite often. And it's time to vent a little..

Sunday, January 19, 2014

Hello again!

It's been a week, I know, and I really haven't had a chance to fill you all in, so I'm sorry. I am really busy with work Monday-Thursday (read: 12 hour days) and the perfectionist in me is forcing daily trips to the gym as well.. although we'll see how long that lasts, and Friday-Sunday I'm also really busy with this thing called having fun.. so blogging falls to the back-burner. But please, let me fill you in: