Un crepe con Nutella y plátano, at a nearby Italian cafe, while perusing the day’s route on the map.

This trip to Spain was not meant to be a grand food tour. But as I maybe, kind of, expected, it is turning out that way. Hey, I’m living with two foodies! As a result, our days are centered around exploring the irresistible food culture here. And you know what? I’m cool with that! This is, after all, a food blog. But, say, if you do want to see photos of los museos, catedrals o Spaniards, I guess I could do a post on such things..

Café bonbon (double shot expresso with condensed milk) at Toma. Why has New Zealand not caught on to this?

Enjoying homestyle delights at Toma Cafe where stuffed coffee beans sacks act as seats and vintage bikes hang from the ceiling.

Cafe culture is incredible here – handmade, rustic, homestyle and fresh.

Toma Cafe is most like this – we helped ourselves to whatever we wanted from the ‘cake table’, and ate off of mismatching antique china, meanwhile practicing español with the barista as he made our café bonbons.

An authentic Argentinian alfajor! Enjoyed immensely while waiting to Skype husband. It didn’t last long enough to show him over the video – it was that darn good. And you know what? Tasted EXACTLY like los alfajores I made back when I had a broken collarbone! ¡Muy agradable!

Panela & Co – Flowers and bagel spreads on the table as we design our very non-Spanish, wrap/bagel on our write-on menu. Write on menus do wonders to assist the language barrier.

Love the way Madrileños eat. The norm is a three course lunch at around 2pm, and tapas for dinner after 9pm. This evening, instead of going out for tapas, I strolled los mercados along our street gathering ingredients for a casual dinner of pan (a rustic seeded baguette) con queso, tomate y jamón serrano (the most wonderful, salty, thinly sliced cured ham). A fantastic way to practice Spanish as very few storekeepers understand any English.