Bar Cazorla, Madrid

Fried seafood platter at Cazorla in Madrid. Gold you can eat, I tell you!

Fritura: Fried crayfish, red mullet, baby squid, squid rings, and anchovies.

Those who arrive to Cazorla close to four p.m. on a Saturday will be greeted with the surest sign of a neighborhood gem: metal shutters pulled about a quarter of the way down over the entrance, and the clamor of the crowd within.  Duck inside to join the inner circle beyond the closing jaws of another tapas hour winding down. Or show up at 2 p.m. and dive headfirst into the melée.

Sunny climes resound from the gleam of this bar's white and blue tile and polished wood, even on a dreary day in January. By the way, if you consider around 50ºF and partly cloudy skies dreary, then welcome to Madrid in January. Cazorla has four locations in Madrid with three just in and around upscale Barrio Salamanca, but several factors keep this ode to Andalucía from being a victim of its own success. 

Google image

For one thing, the food is reasonably priced and fresh, quality product.  The menu is Andalusian-inspired, which means that although you won't get your fried chocos wrapped in newspaper like you would in Sevilla, there is plenty of fried everything, and it's the good stuff -- heart-meltingly crispy and salty, not greasy. The langostinos behind the bar flaunt glossy little black eyes, as opposed to brownish or wilted ones: making stripping them and sucking their heads all the more pleasurable.

                                                        Go on, suck that crayfish head!

Clean and bright, this bar transmits the best of true middle-class, small-business Spanish bar service: hospitality and personality. One of my favorite symbols of Spanish simplicity and rusticity in the hospitality industry, a collection of Catholic prayer cards, loom nostalgically from behind the cash register (ubiquitous in down home Spanish bars; view here: http://bit.ly/Catholic-prayer-cards;). These homespun holy trading cards ward off fears that you've walked into a lifeless corporate chain.

The thrumming multitude of a great tapas joint quickens the pulse of passersby, pulling them in like drones to a hive. As for the crowd at Cazorla, it's a multi-limbed, effusive, and well mannered beast. This is Barrio Salamanca, so expect families with children dressed alike playing beneath the bar, nicely coiffed older ladies quaffing sherry, and young men whose collared shirts peep out from brightly colored sweaters downing beer. Shoulders will bump. Squeeze up to the bar and cling to it for dear life.

Google image

Barmen here are gruff and fast with a glass of beer (una caña) or a small glass of wine (un vinito). A guiri (slang for tourist) with an appetite is rewarded with attentiveness and curiosity in the form of sidelong glances. While they're watching out of the corner of their eye, I'm usually oohing and ahhing over the food, which any pro behind the bar will take as a form of flattery. As a reward, Alvaro and I scored chupitos of something very like Bailey's Irish Creme and some chocolates. Okay, they weren't free beers, and who likes Bailey's? But in Spain, hospitality can be summed up with a simple phrase: el detalle importa. And I agree; the little things do indeed count.

A little something extra.

Cazorla on Calle Montesa in Barrio Salamanca

Evergreen Post Pre-Christmas Snowstorm

Okay, so there's no cellphone service within a quarter mile of my parents' house. But the views nearby make up for it.

Pour Over Coffee & The Smorgasm @Brooklyn Flea

Vintage Santas and the Poor Damned Elves of Salerno

Nowhere have I seen lovelier displays of Christmas cheer than in New York. Garish, dopey, comically inappropriate...nothing can put a smile on your face faster than a silent chorus of chipped and peeling carolers gathered round an air vacuum at the body shop. 

I confess to being gaga for Santa. More lights!

Salerno Service Station on Lorimer and Grand in East Williamsburg. Serving the public since 1959! I had to pull my bike right over. This is what Christmas is all about, and there's no snarky drift to catch from my tone on this one, pal.

Not a merciful air filter over Santa's mouth and nose. On closer inspection it's just the normal moustache and beard. 

 A less confused Santa at Brooklyn Flea on Sunday.

I swear I'm five again with this shit.

These three kings of Orient are...drawn here by a giant flaming Gulf sun. Awesome!

More than a one-man job, I imagine. So we'll just assume they all get into it and have a good time.

This elf is like, "My life is the blustery back end of a busted tail pipe for two weeks, and then back in the box. Every year since 1959." Just kidding! He's sweet.

"Ahhhhh!" 
No! I meant, "Awwww!"

La Virgen de Guadalupe Marathon and Parade, Manhattan Ave, Greenpoint

The same thing happened on Cinco de Mayo. Without an SLR camera, there's no way to get a decent shot of all the colors and movement in a good Latino parade. Here's my best effort:

Minamoto Kitchoan @ 49th & 5th

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas. Still no snow, but when darkness falls at about 4:30pm and shops light up across the city, I don't know about you, but at least I'm drawn to spend retail dollars.  

Take this shop on 5th Avenue. On a typical day, I'd hurry by without a glance, intent as ever on exercising the bulge that exists between when an appointment is scheduled and when I arrive. Time isn't money. Time is fat, and it should be flogged into obeisance and stripped or melted away. Occasionally, you may indulge in it. But don't go overboard, or you'll be labeled inconsiderate, or a lollygagger. I strive to be punctual like I strive to look hot in skinny jeans. 

But after work, after dark, after the 6 train left crowds of commuters and me stranded in midtown, what could be more inviting than a collection of serene, sculpted Japanese sweets?

I wasn't too lean on time, so I pushed open the door and walked inside...

Captions are courtesy of http://www.kitchoan.com/

Oh, and please forgive the crap photography. I only had a phone on me (an older model).

Ayashirabe: Milky flavor white bean paste(contains egg yolk)
wrapped in Japanese cake. Unfortunately, I couldn't find a caption for the little fish cake called Tenkataihei (but it's probably chestnut and red bean paste.)

This is Japanese style jelly made from fresh high quqlity white peach.
It gives light smooth texture to the jelly and brings natural white peach jelly.

Japanese Cherry covered with lightly sweetened jelly.
Packaged in Spring-like colors.
Brings you the natural Cherry flavor.

Below, Daikitchoimo: Fluffy sweet potato cake with Egg Yolk flavor bean paste.
And above, Oribenishiki: Japanese traditional Kurimanju, using chestnut and sweet red bean paste wrapped in Japanese cake.

Ante Meridian @ Parsons The New School for Design

The frequent opportunity to walk past somebody else's art project is part of what makes you love NYC even more...and those adorable kids! With faces like these, later your students can be forgiven for yawning in class.