Wearing my bib at restaurante Malacatin. .
As we age, we learn to appreciate what makes a good restaurant. The interesting thing about this is that each person develops their own criteria.
To me a great restaurant must have three things. The first of these is, of course, great food. This is a given and without great food we can all agree that you can’t have a great restaurant. The second factor that makes a great restaurant to me is character. Your experience there should be memorable. Character can come in many forms whether it is the setting, the staff, the presentation, or the locale. Any one or all of these things contribute. If you leave a restaurant and a week later can’t remember what the place looked like, it wasn’t a memorable experience and that restaurant probably lacked character. The final factor I use to define a great restaurant is a personal preference. To me, a great restaurant has to have history. Whether it’s a traditional dish, a historic setting, or a family history with a restaurant, to me this is the icing on the cake. After all, bad restaurants don’t last long enough to develop a history, especially in a city like Madrid.
Exterior of Restaurante Malacatin.
With all of these criteria in mind, I headed to Restaurante Malacatín on Saturday September 24th. Restaurante Malacatín is a Madrid institution known for the city’s best Cocido Madrileño. It is located in the gritty neighborhood of La Latina. La Latina is in an older section of Madrid known for its great restaurants and tapas bars. It’s also the site of Madrid’s ancient Moorish quarter of Mayrit. Malacatín though is not set among the trendy restaurants on Cava Baja. Instead it lies just off the Plaza de Cascorro. Located on Calle de Ruda, a small side street, Malacatín is surrounded by shuttered stores, flats, and Asian clothing stores. The difference between Malacatín and all of these neighbors is that this tiny little restaurant has operated out of this spot for over 100 years.
Restaurante Malacatín was founded in 1895 by Julian Diaz Horcajo de Santiago. Originally the restaurant was operated as a wine bar. It was often frequented by locals including a guitar playing beggar who would sing, “tin tin tin Malacatín tin tin”. The name stuck.
Julian and his wife Maria had twelve children. They passed on the restaurant to their youngest daughter Florita beginning a tradition that continues to this day. Malacatín is now run granddaughter Dona Conchi and her son Jose Alberto. It was under the management of Florita that the restaurant expanded to add a kitchen and came to be known as Malacatín after the beggar’s song. It was also around this time that they started specializing in the most sacred of Madrid’s culinary traditions, Cocido Madrileño.
The origins of Cocido are believed to go all the way back to the Middle Ages and a Jewish dish called, adafina. Adafina was a slow cooked meal that catered to the Jewish Shabbat or Sabbath. At the time of the Inquisition in Spain during the 15th and 16th centuries, Adafina was changed greatly and pork was added to the dish producing a more recognizable version of Cocido. As time passed and the city of Madrid grew in the 18th and 19th centuries, the dish gained popularity for its simple ingredients, heartiness, and fairly low cost to produce. Today this dish, above all others, has come to represent true Madrid cuisine.
Cocido Madrileno
The first thing you need to know about Cocido Madrileño is that although the dish is prepared in one big pot, it is served as three courses. The first of these is the soup course. For this, the broth that everything is cooked in is separated and then small noodles are added. In addition to the soup, you are also served a small platter of pickled gherkins, pearl onions, and guindillas. Guindillas are small picked hot peppers. They also serve a plate of whole raw onions alongside the soup.
The second course of Cocido is the vegetable course. The stars of this course are the chick peas. These are slow cooked and take on the saltiness of all the various meats. They also give the soup its heartiness. In addition to the chick peas, there is cabbage, and potatoes. It is also with this course that the pork belly appears. This is the one part of the dish that simply didn’t agree with me. Pork belly is the layer of fat between the skin and the meat of the pig. Although it adds a great deal of richness and flavor to the dish, the texture was simply something I couldn’t stomach.
The final course of Cocido Madrileño is the meat course. This is by far the richest and most filling course. It’s like salty meat heaven. The meat course consists of chicken, pork ham bone, roast beef, pork knuckle, fresh chorizo, and morcilla (blood sausage). The result of all these bended flavors is magical. It is also incredibly filling.
Interior of Restaurante Malacatin.
After our meal we paid our bill we were met by one of the restaurant’s owners. Because the place is so tiny (only ten tables) he shakes everyone’s hand and asks them what they thought of their meal. He also thanks you for coming to Malacatín. Although much has changed in the restaurant’s 116 years of operation, the hospitality hasn’t. If you are looking for an authentic culinary experience in Madrid, Malacatín can’t be beat. Just make sure to book ahead.
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