Food

Food was a big reason for coming to Madrid. And so far I've had pigeon, wild boar, deer, anchovy-heavy tapas and many other unknown things laden atop slices of bagettes in the tapas bars. But ham is king in Madrid, from what I can tell. Hams are hanging everywhere. And just about every bar we stopped in has a kind of ham beast leg with its hoof mounted in a stirrup device like in the picture above. Paper thin slices are carved from it and draped on bread slices...typically, from what I could tell.

It looks gross, but I wanted some. But didn't know how to order it. So I finally got up the courage to go up the bar tender and pointed and I think I said "I want" in Spanish. He looked at me quizically, but then said "Uno?" I said "No, dos, por favor," since Michelle was hungry too. He was surprised, but called his bar helper over, who proceeded to slice up two very large platters of the ham. It took him about 15 minutes to carved the prociutto-like slices with his hand knife and arrange them nicely on the platter. It was delicious, but we could only eat about half of it before the fat and salt overwhelmed our bodies. It cost us about $50 US. Expensive snack. Live and learn.