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In this mess of de - escalation , it seems that phase 1 will be the one in which we can begin to follow the suggestions on this same page a week ago: finally come to eat a bite of those typical and good bars, near where we live, and start again to live a little. Although there are several areas, among which are the cities of Madrid and Barcelona (so our friends from Barcelona and Madrid will have to wait a little longer to get closer to Maitea and Asturianos ) where you will have to have more patience.
In these imprecise circumstances - like all this Kafka confinement - but now closer to something more than those current walks, we can hope that the irresponsible people who mistake them for bottles, without protection or separation, will not bring us a new outbreak of the virus. And it is also time to reveal that for our family -three together at home- one of the incentives to endure the confinement has been the priceless effort of those restaurants, few at first, that have served their cuisine at home, facing risks. Once a week we have thanked the novelty and the good taste of those great Madrid waiters , and this week we honor them on this page.
At the beginning it was not very clear - for them and for their clients - if the food could be picked up at the door of the restaurant, and it was Pepe Román, from the historic De la Riva, who told us that the Municipal Police had warned him that only could send . But soon after it was authorized, and this gastronomic confesses that since then he has gone to pick up those meals on foot or by car: one suspects that the dishes always come home hotter ...
The first small feast, from the octogenarian tasca De la Riva , with its famous conger eel in green sauce and roast beef brisket like lamb, and good French toast, filled us both with nostalgia and joy, and so we have continued.
Italian quality
Much younger is one of the establishments in our neighborhood, that Madrid Little Italy around the Italian Lyceum and the Italian Consulate, aVànvera, whose patron Luigi Bertaccini was helped in the beginning by his friend Andrea Tumbarello, from the unavoidable Don Giovanni , but which already flies very well with its own wings: its Parmigiana eggplant in which the cheese arrives in the form of ice cream, its contadina pizza with Parma ham or its spaghetti carbonara - without cream, naturally , like in Rome! height, although it is not one of the most famous Italian houses in Madrid.
Little by little, other restaurants became animated, realizing that even the reduced activity of the home service partially mitigated the ruin that this confinement had brought about. The first with a Michelin star that took the step, or so it seems to us, was the original and creative Gofio, with the modern vision of Canarian cuisine that Safe Cruz has . Here things get very serious, although the atmosphere of each restaurant is always missing, of course. You can not have everything...
Gofio makes this offer under the name of El Lagar x Gofio , with several of its most popular dishes. From the rabbit trout (dumplings) in salmorejo to the majorero cheese cake with paprika, passing by an exciting grilled red tuna squid with boiled mojo ... and a white wine from Suertes del Marqués, a major festival.
One of the last to open, and there we went to pick up the order with real excitement, has been Chifa, that small dining room in Chamberí where the unforgettable 15 years ago was installed and, unfortunately, Sudestada disappeared . But Chifa continues, with the whole school of that revolutionary of the Asian-American fusion, in a shortened offer these days, but which is not wasted.
With masks and gloves, in bad weather, the products and their size have lost nothing. -A dishes pointing our prices very correct - this week: Peking duck pies, dumplings Chinese-Latin pork with chilli oil Peruvian and Mexican fried rice with chicken and prawns , udon noodles with Iberian pork and shrimp and more the historic red curry Sudestada of cow cheek and coconut milk.
More exoticism: a classic Indian
A few days ago we discovered that one of the Indians that we like in the Salamanca neighborhood, Purnima, is also doing "takeaway" ... and with a surprisingly wide offer. So there we went to pick up our bhindi pakoras (okra battered in chickpea flour), a well-roasted tikka chicken in the tandur oven, and our favorite curry, the rogan josh of lamb with its onion, tomato, ginger and garlic sauce . Of course: you miss the dining room with its tropical plants ... That remains for phase 1, or 2?
Much better than a bar
Very close to Chifa is Paulino, this one is a veteran monument of Chamberí: almost 60 years with a tasca kitchen ... which is not a tasca, because they add a touch of refinement to everything. For starters, the prawn and prawn pancakes and an irreplaceable black pudding lasagna, then the equally classic saffron conger meatballs with wild asparagus, a cheek of Iberian montanera pork with tangerines, a leg of sauteed suckling pig with potatoes and candied vegetables and a canonical cheesecake. As you will see, we are well above the usual tavern territory!
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