Category: food & drinks

  • Restaurante Arzak, Donostia-San Sebastián

    Restaurante Arzak, Donostia-San Sebastián

    Gastronomy is a major reason to visit the northern coast of Spain. At Donostia-San Sebastián, we tried the restaurant Arzak. Arzak received and held onto three Michelin stars since 1989 and is ranked no. 21 on San Pellegrino’s world 50 best restaurants (in September 2016). Juan Mari Arzak earned the stars and is now joined by…

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  • Madrid food diary: Ana La Santa

    We arrived at Madrid in mid-afternoon and missed lunch. So we settled for a snack at this hotel situated in the same plaza as our apartment. This was in June 2016. The eatery is located in the ME Madrid Hotel Reina Victoria situated in the west end of Plaza Santa Ana. There are several different areas…

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  • Madrid food diary: El Caldero

    El Caldero is situated in a central, pedestrian-only touristy area of Madrid. It was only one block from Plaza de Santa Ana where we were staying. It was founded in 1973 and specializes in Spanish rice dishes – paella. Their signature dish is rice cooked in a cauldron (more like a bucket) as illustrated by this painting – which…

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  • El Asador de Aranda, Madrid

    El Asador de Aranda, Madrid

    After all that Russian art that came before this post, we thought a post about a hearty meal is apt. El Asador de Aranda is a chain of steakhouse in Spain that are well-known for their suckling lamb roasted in clay oven. We went to the one in downtown Madrid on Calle de Preciados. Given…

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  • Tokyo Food Diary part 5: snacks

    Tokyo Food Diary part 5: snacks

    The earlier posts in this series are all about Japanese convenience/comfort foods that we have been eating some exported versions of them outside Japan (Part 1 is about noodles, part 2 about izakaya, part 3 is about grilled foods as well as tonkatsu and curry, and part 4 is about wagashi. Japanese snacks is an entire world…

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  • Tokyo Food Diary: wagashi 和菓子

    Tokyo Food Diary: wagashi 和菓子

    The first three posts of the series are all about sampling the Japanese comfort/convenience food that we have been eating outside Japan (Part 1 is about noodles, Part 2 about izakaya, and in Part 3 we ate grilled foods as well as tonkatsu and curry). This post is about sweets – the traditional wagashi 和菓子. The specialist…

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