Culinary Adventures: Sobrino de Botin

Exterior of restaurante Sobrino de Botin

                One of the true joys of central Spain cooking is the asador.  Asadors are restaurants that feature a wood fired oven in which a variety of meats are roasted.  The two most popular of these are cordero (lamb) or cochinillo (roast suckling pig).  Although there are wealth of these restaurants located in the city and the surrounding countryside, only one can make the claim of being the oldest.  Madrid’s Sobrino de Botin is the oldest asador in Madrid, but it doesn’t stop there.  Not only is it the oldest restaurant in Spain, it is documented by the Guiness Book of World Records as the oldest restaurant in the world.

            Since 1725, the cooks at Sobrino de Botin have prepared their mouth-watering roast meat dishes.  The restaurant itself is located just down the hill from Madrid’s famous Plaza Mayor on Calle Cuchilleros, or the street of the culters.  Most likely the name comes from the cluster of workshops that were once located in this busy corner of the city. 

            Even before the present day establishment was opened in 1725, it is highly possible that another restaurant operated on the same spot.  As early as 1590, an inn and restaurant are believed to have been serving meals to the muleteers and traders who had recently completed their business at the nearby Plaza Mayor. 

            Much like those early traders, our family negotiated the wide square of Plaza Mayor and headed down the hill to Calle Cuchilleros and Sobrino de Botin.  Unlike those early traders, we weren’t celebrating a successful day of business.  Instead we made our way to Botin to celebrate my 35^th birthday.  After all, where better to celebrate a historian’s birthday than at the oldest restaurant in the world. 

            The entrance to Botin off of the street is nothing spectacular.  It has a wooden front with big picture windows showcasing the restaurants history and signature dish, Cochinillo.  After lingering a moment to read some of the history and excerpts from some of the world’s best known authors about the restaurant, we headed inside for lunch.    In regards to some of these famous authors, Botin had been no stranger to the literary world.  The restaurant is mentioned by several notable writers these include Spaniard Benito Perez Galdos, American James Michener, and of course lover of all things Spanish, Ernest Hemmingway. 

Interior of Botin

            Towards the end of his seminal first novel, The Sun Also Rises, the main characters of the novel lunch at Botin.  To quote Hemmingway, “We lunched upstairs at Botin’s. It is one of the best restaurants in the world. We had roast young suckling pig and drank rioja alta. Brett did not eat much. She never ate much. I ate a very big meal and drank three bottles of rioja alta.”

View from our table upstairs at Botin.

Like Hemmingway’s characters we ate upstairs, I dined on roast suckling pig, and drank rioja.  Unlike his characters though, I stopped at half a bottle.  Had I followed the passage exactly, I think they would have had to carry me out of the restaurant.

The restaurant itself is a delightful maze of rooms spread thoughout three floors and a basement.  Some claims are even made that the cellar may be part of the foundation of a much earlier building.  Today it is just another dining room.  After being seated upstairs we all placed our orders.  Douglas ordered his favorite croquetas, and heuvos revuelto de la casa.  The huevos revueltos are essentially scrambled eggs with different ingredients added to them.  In the case of the huevos revueltas de la casa, that meant scrambled eggs with potatoes, and crumbled blood sausage.  The dish was actually quite good and Douglas was very happy with his choice.  For her part, Kelly ordered ensalada mixta and pollo asado.  Ensalada mixta is a house salad that usually features iceberg lettuce, fresh tomatoes, onions, and canned tuna on top.  It is traditionally dressed with olive oil and vinegar.  The pollo asado is roast chicken prepared in the same wood fired ovens that are used to cook the lamb and suckling pig.

When it came time for me to order, I decided to go all out and have the Menu de la Casa.  At Sobrino de Botin, this means a first course of Sopa de Ajo, a second course of Cochinillo, a dessert, coffee, ½ a bottle of rioja wine, and bread.  With a feast like this, Benjamin was the luckiest of the bunch, getting to sample off of all of our plates.

Sopa de Ajo

The Menu didn’t disappoint from the first course.  Sopa de Ajo is a garlic soup topped with an egg.  The soup is similar to french onio soup with a tasty broth supplemented by chunks of fresh bread.  Unlike french onion soup, the dish is not topped by cheese, but instead by a poached egg.  It is also not nearly as salty as french onion.

Cochinillo

The second course of my meal was something that I had been looking forward to ever since I began to familiarize myself with food of central Spain.  Despite this, I held off on ever ordering this signature dish.  I guess my reason for this is that when I ordered Cochinillo for the first time, I wanted to make sure it was top shelf.  If you’ve read my earlier blogs, you’ll remember that I took the same approach when it came to Cocido Madrileno.  Cochinillo is roast suckling pig that is cooked in a wood-fired oven. When you first put your knife into it, the skin is thin and crispy.  Underneath is a thin layer of fat that keeps the meat moist.  Under that is some of the most delicious pork you could ever eat.  It truly lived up to expectations.

To complete the meal we all indulged in dessert.  I stuck to the traditional Arroz con Leche (rice pudding), Kelly had an apple tart, Doug white chocolate cheese cake and Ben enjoyed flan.  Overall, it was a wonderful traditional Spanish meal in a truly special location.  The only drawback was that the place can be a bit touristy.  Despite this, it is a must visit if you are spending time in Madrid.

Douglas and Benjamin enjoying lunch at Botin.

Culinary Adventures - Restaurante Malacatin

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 24^th.  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 15^th and 16^th 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 18^th and 19^th 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.