Ha, and there you were, thinking we had done with tapas already. Not so fast! I will be done with tapas once I taste them all (probably not anytime soon). Up until now we have managed to avoid food disasters but this changes here and now. Read on to see where Ieva’s seal of approval does not go.

Casa Revuelta, calle de Latoneros, 3, 25008

I will not be exaggerating when I say that you can find Casa Revuelta’s name on ALL of the lists that talk about the best seafood places in Madrid. Not only that but they usually top those lists too. I am here to tell you these lists lie. Welcome to our first food disaster in Madrid. Also, many of these articles tell you to overlook the dirty napkins littering the floor and enjoy the basic (and rather dated) décor. Who am I to say otherwise? *insert a nonchalant shrug*

Casa Revuelta is famous for their bacalao rebozado or battered cod, the recipe of which, they boast, has not been changed since 1966. The restaurant gets so busy these days that they opened up another outlet just around the corner to manage the big crowds. When we came around 20:00 the place was busy but not so busy that we could not get a table. We got a standing table outside immediately but no more than fives minutes later we were ushered inside where we got another standing table (not much seating inside as is).

When you come to Casa Revuelta, you order bacalao rebozado, there is no other choice. You know it, the waiters know it, so the first question after the drinks order is taken, is ‘Bacalao? How many?’. We took two at €3.40 per piece. At this point Matas was discussing the pour of the vermouth (€2.50) which, according to his standards, looked poor (pun intended) and I concurred.

The cod came out quickly. So quickly that it could not have been freshly fried and was obviously picked up from the already fried ones resting on the counter. And that was that. There is no beating around the bush anymore: the cod was very disappointing and maybe even verging on disgusting. The batter was no longer crispy, it had become soggy and the fry oil taste came through quite strongly. The fish itself was gummy and had a very undesirable moist chew the gumminess of which left a bad taste in my mouth for a long while after we left the place. Which we proceeded to do immediate after consuming this godforsaken piece of marine animal. The waiter tried asking us if we liked it but the only thing I could do was shrug my shoulders, shake my head and utter something akin to “eh, meh”.

We literally left 10 minutes after we came and there was already a long queue to go inside. Honestly, I do not see why. Yes, maybe when the fish is fresh out of the frier it has potential to be good but what we were served showed no indication of that. We already had an amazing bacalao rebozado at Casa Amadeo los Caracoles and I am so glad for that because now I have a very clear comparison point of what is great and what is a tourist trap ocurrence.

Ieva’s seal of approval is nowhere to be found. This place was too touristy for my liking, the service was lacking, the food was disappointing and the décor left something to be desired.

Bar La Paloma, calle de Toledo, 85, 28005

We left Casa Revuelta hungry and disappointed and since we started the night with the seafood, we decided to finish the night with some seafood too. Bar La Paloma is located just a few steps away from La Latina metro station, on a busy calle Toledo. Their restaurant does not necessarily look very inviting from the outside but the inside, if a tad simplistic, offers a good enough space to try some seafood.

We were greeted with a decent pour of vermouth (€1.90) which immediately lifted our spirits. The free tapa was a decent enough size to keep the stomachs from rumbling while we decided on what we wanted to order.

What we ordered was half a dozen oysters (€13.20) and grilled prawns (€9). I am beginning to suspect that I am not a big fan of Spanish oysters. Unless Bar La Paloma has the same oyster supplier as El Boqueron (which I guess could be likely) I find these oysters to have a very undesirable bitter after taste which cannot be masked by any amount of lemon juice. Gambas, on the other hand, were very fresh and very yummy. The heads were still juicy and the meat was moist and tender. Highly recommend!

You know me well enough by now to appreciate the fact that when I saw something else I have not had before I had to take it. Bígaros or common periwinkles (€7 for 200 g) are a type of a small sea snail. It comes with these little needles to help you navigate the snail meat out of the snail house. Honestly, I did not find these very tasty. I guess there is not enough meat to justify the game? On top of that Matas invited me to smell the inside of the shell and boy do I have to tell you it smells like a well used outhouse. I kid you not!

I also tried another non-alcoholic drink called mosto. I am not sure what it actually is but it tasted like a sweet grape juice. I did not particularly like the taste, so mosto will not be my non-alcoholic drink of choice in the future. Have you ever tried it? Did you like it? Let me know, I am genuinely curious what other people think.

Anyway, it might sound like I did not particularly like Bar La Paloma (I refer to oysters, snails and mosto) but I truly enjoyed the grilled prawns here. And on top of that, this was such a low key, unpretentious place with great prices that I see myself coming back here again.

Mundane update alert: Spanish classes

I know I told you I will stop with the mundane updates but bear with me if you care to read a little bit about my journey with learning Spanish. When I started learning Spanish on Duolingo a little ten months ago I knew zilch. I knew Spanish as well as I knew Klingon or Xhosa. Basically, I knew it existed.

Before moving to Spain, I did Duolingo daily for 10-30 minutes per session. That gave me enough ground to not feel completely lost all the time as I did manage to navigate us quite well when we visited in December and up until now. However, Duolingo gets quite boring and after a while I felt like I needed a little bit more of a challenge and I for sure wanted to use this opportunity of living in Spain and learn the language properly.

I did not feel like joining an intensive course as I wanted to give myself the flexibility for travelling and just having a relaxing life without having to sweat daily at intensive courses. I found a little language school that is just around the corner and they offered something that looked a little bit like a scam – 1 hour of personal classes with the flexibility to choose my own time day to day and the frequency of the classes too at a very reasonable rate.

I have only been to two classes so far and I am still not sure how I feel about them. The principle is nothing like I have seen before. Basically, you come to the school, listen to a 30-minute long recording on one topic (around 7 minutes of listening, followed by vocabulary (twice in Spanish, once in English), then the same listening exercise repeated again, followed by the same vocabulary, followed by the same recording again). Then you get a few sheets where the entire recording is transcribed with a more extensive list for the vocabulary and the grammar and the exercise bit for you to look over. This is followed by another 30 minutes talking to a native Spanish speaker face to face where you go over the exercise, talk about grammar or just chat away about whatever topic you feel like.

My Spanish teacher is called Hector. He is a young Spanish guy that has lived in Madrid for the last five years, having moved here form Valencia. I do like having this 30 minute window to chat with him about various things as I feel like it really does improve my skill, my ability to express myself and the confidence with which I can communicate now. The 30 minute listening bit is rather boring, on the other hand, I wish I could just read the handout, look at the grammar and do my exercises in peace and then go and have a nice chat.

After the initial free session, I have bought a 20-class package and I am yet to decide whether I will want to continue with this model or whether I will try finding a more traditional class to join in. And as of today I have been to the entirety of three classes. Oops.