Tuesday 24 June 2008

Barcelona III: Paco Meralgo, Dry Martini

Well, you would think that after the mammoth lunch we had at Alkimia we would have given up the ghost, oh no not us!
That night we headed off at a very respectable 9pm to Paco Meralgo which was not only the first of our tapas places but one of our favourites. I don't know if it was the calm surroundings or the mixture of cold and hot tapas, but my companions seemed to like it.
I think our waiter had drawn the short straw it that not only did he have us, with my pigeon Spanish and Catalan, he had some but also some folks from Japan and Germany.

We ordered



Jamon, Pan amb tomate, pimentos de padron, grilled summer veg, summer asparagus with garlic,



solomillo with pepper, steak tartare and chupitos which I think are breaded veal chops.

My favourites were there solomillo with pepper, steak tartare and pimentos. Little did I know that they were to be star guests on our next trip!

We then hit Dry Matini a favourite of mine and HI.



We spent a couple of hours here drinking some very fine cocktails which passed muster even by HI standards. It is very old school, lots of wooden paneling, cocktail waiters in black and white, and that air of sophistication that is lacking in any other venues. It reminds me of The Algonquin, in New York.

We then optimistically left for the Ideal Bar which HI had come across oon his research. Amusingly it seemed to be a Scottish themed bar with old school charm.



Rachel should have known better when she ordered a French Martini and the guy had to check with the bar, what she ended up with was essentially a dry martini which was really the last thing she needed. Choiti on the other hand got the most stonking marvellous moscow mule we have ever seen, since we were 19..



I stupidly had marked Tapac 24 wrongly on my map and after spending ten mins or so looking for it we admitted defeat and ended up in Ciudad Condal which seemed to get ok reviews online and was certainly packed. Given it was midnight and we were than a bit tipsy, it hit the spot..

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