Food History

We’re about to get a massive thunderstorm, so I thought I should post now, while I can still get online. What does this mean for you? It means you get more of that amazing foodie travel guide by Algernon Bastard and his mate (um, I mean ‘mate’ as in the Aussie sense of the word, not ‘mate’ as in significant other - I would hate to confuse you). Since no-one has indicated a favourite place, I’m choosing something entirely at random. Well, as random as it comes when I’ve been waxing nostalgic about places I’ve visited. Tonight I’m nostalgic about Spain, quite obviously.

Seville

At Seville you dine and breakfast at your hotel, whether it be the Madrid or the Paris, both very good hotels for Spain. There is a table-d’hôte dinner at each after the style of the meal of which I have given a menu under the heading of Madrid. At both hotels an extra charge is made to those aristocrats who will not sit at the long table which runs down the centre of the highly ornamented dining-room and are accommodated at little tables at the sides of the room. The great patio of the Madrid, with its palm grove and creepers, is a delightful place to sit in after dinner.

The dinner-hour at Seville is seven o’clock. There is a Restaurant Suizo in the Calle de las Sierpes, and a little restaurant, the Eritana, with a pleasant garden, is to be found near the turning point of the drive that the beauty and fashion of Seville take on fine afternoons down the Paseo de las Delicias by the river. If you are tempted to try the Manzanilla wine with its proper accompaniment of snails or langostinos, visit the Taberna, opposite the Madrid Hotel; and if you are a bachelor, do not mind an atmosphere of smoke, can make yourself understood in Spanish, and like local colour, take your café au lait of an evening in the Café Cantante of the Calle Sterpes. You will recognise the house by the little dancing-girl on the lamp.”

and, because that’s not a lot, the section on Madrid, especially for my friend Rosario:

Madrid

“The capital of Spain cries aloud for a Carlton, or a Ritz, or a Savoy, and is, I believe, soon to have a really large hotel with a restaurant managed on the lines which we are accustomed to in all the important European capitals. The Hôtel de Paris, one of the two noisy and expensive hotels on the Puerta del Sol, has always had a reputation for its cookery, always remembering that the standard in Spain is not high. There is a table-d’hôte lunch and a table-d’hôte dinner, of the latter of which I append a menu which is a fair specimen:–

Consommé Julienne.
Merlan Sauce aux Câpres.
Filet de Boeuf Renaissance.
Galantine Truffée à l’Aspic.
Haricots Verts Sautés.
Cailles au Cresson.
Crème au Chocolat Glacée.
Desserts assortis.

The cookery of the house is French, but Spanish dishes can be obtained by an order given in advance. There used to be a manager at the Paris who was known as Constantino–what his other name was no one knew. He was a universal provider, and the Englishmen who knew him and who used to stay at the Madrid, never hesitated to ask him for anything procurable in the capital, from a ticket for a bull-fight to a genuine Murillo, quite sure that next morning they would find in the office what they had asked for the previous evening.

Lhardy’s, in the Curera de San Jerónimo, is the typical Madrid restaurant not attached to an hotel. The appearance of the ground floor is that of a charcutier’s and pastry-cook’s combined. The restaurant you will find on the first floor, where a table-d’hôte dinner and lunch are served. The annexed menu shows what the daily lunch is like:-

Potage Tortue à l’Américaine.
Turbot Garni. Sauce Crevettes.
Filets de Boeuf à la Vatel.
Bellevue de Perdreaux à l’Ecarlate.
Dindonneaux rôtis au Cresson.
Salade Russe.
Glace Condé.
Dessert.
VINS.”