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A trip of a few kilometers to put on the boots and fill the pantry.
This is the proposal.
And by the way, meet in person those who dedicate themselves body and soul to preparing some of the typical morsels -and not so much- of the traditional aperitif.
"Why have they stopped taking the snails Madrid style?"
This is what Pilar and David, from Vega Naturalis (@veganaturalis), asked themselves just before the pandemic.
In the plain of the river Tajuña there has always been a tradition of going out to the fields to collect snails.
The phytosanitary zeal seems to have finished with this
delicatessen
.
That is why the biologist and the chemical engineer, both from Madrid, decided to leave the city and create a
snail farm in Tielmes
.
"First we made a small-scale greenhouse at my mother's house," explains Pilar.
"We weren't bad at it, so we decided to go big."
Two and a half years later, with a lot of "trial and error", his two greenhouses can produce up to six thousand kilos of these horned and hermaphroditic beings.
His is the typical Madrid snail, "the one of all life".
They sell them in a store in the center of this Las Vegas town, and at home:
clean and even cooked
in the tasty typical tomato, chorizo and paprika sauce.
The snails of Vega Naturalis, in Tielmes.
It is just now, in spring and until September, when all the snails are raised.
"Is very pretty.
We are seeing how the greenhouse fills up every day with chichetitas».
By the way, entrepreneurs have skin like silk... it's the serum they also make: pure snail slime.
truffled cheeses
Alejandro Rubio and his brother Chema run Arcam (@quesosarcam), the artisan cheese factory that their father founded in 2013 in Campo Real.
These days they are going like crazy dealing with the transportation strike.
"In some places in Spain we have been without service for days. The situation is critical," laments Alejandro.
Of course, in this municipality 40 kilometers from the capital there is no shortage of cheese, one of its most traditional products (and tourist attractions).
His is something different.
They make six different specialties:
sweet paprika, truffle, olive
, spicy, thyme and cured meat.
"People are looking to experiment," says the manufacturer.
His products can be purchased in various greengrocers, butchers and other shops in town, as well as in his own store.
Arcam artisan cheeses.
THE FAMOUS OLIVE
The olive, the other star of Campo Real, also floods every bar in the Villa and Court.
His father and his brothers have been in the sector all their lives, hence Carlos Bernabé Morera knows all the secrets.
A secret, on the other hand, open.
This famous olive comes from Extremadura.
What has made this manzanilla from Cáceres special (and delicious) for about 200 years is the dressing.
"Each of us has our trick, but there is always thyme, fennel, oregano, marjoram, bay leaf, cumin and garlic. Garlic is mandatory," Carlos underlines behind his counter.
There are many producers who try this dressing, but only a dozen belong, like Carlos, to the Campo Real quality denomination.
ear apiary anchovies
We continue the route in
Colmenar de Oreja
, a well-known land of wines... and anchovies.
Look, the Bay of Biscay is far away but, carambola of life, Juan Pablo Sanz Galán makes this sea delicacy by hand.
"There are still those who do not believe it."
A hundred meters from the Plaza Mayor, his factory casts an image more typical of Santoña: women around a table who meticulously cut the anchovies and order them in tubs (about 200 a day).
"We are much more donkeys," says Juan Pablo of this always feminine activity.
Anchovies and anchovies from Colmenar de Oreja.
60% of its production is sold in the north of Spain.
That's because all the product comes from the Bay of Biscay, of course.
But how did he end up selling anchovies in the middle of the bull skin?
"Actually, I was dedicated to oil. What happens is that one day a client from Santoña stopped paying me, so I kept his machines."
This was thirty years ago.
In Madrid there is no sea or beach, but as if there were.
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