The heat is on...

...and life as we know it has begun to disintegrate.

Bonjour Paris

July's instalment of The Year of the City Break whisked us off to Paris to see Devendra Banhart playing live.

Rather lazily, aside from the gig we didn't venture far from our favourite arrondissments, the 3rd and 4th; Le Marais just has too much on offer.

Thanks for letting us know, Paris

One thing that did tear us away from the chic boutiques and scruffy cocktail bars of the 3rd and 4th was a reservation at Michelin-starred Yam'Tcha, one of the city's most exciting restaurants.

Opened by French chef Adeline Grattard when she returned from living in Hong Kong, Yam'Tcha is an exquisite fusion of French and Chinese flavours.  The restaurant itself is tiny - seating just 20 diners - as is the open kitchen, but what emerges is innovative, delicate and delicious.

The tasting menus change daily according to the ingredients picked up that day.  A creative touch is the choice between wine pairings with every course or tea pairings instead: keeping with the fusion theme, we went for a mix of the two.

After crab spring rolls came carrot and chorizo soup (above left), both bursting with intense flavour.  Roasted squid, mussels and sweet potato noodles sprinkled with zingy sesame seeds was my favourite dish (above right), closely followed by a blue lobster, chanterelle mushroom and almond salad.

Steam turbot and black rice in a chicken broth

Chicken, corn and basilic with black rice vinegar

The tea pairings were beautifully matched to each dish, bringing a lightness and a freshness, as well as a welcome booze break in between wine pairings (it was lunchtime, after all).

Before the final sweet course our waitress asked if we'd like cheese as well.  What a question - who doesn't want cheese?  What arrived was an innovative mix of Chinese and European traditions: a steamed bun, tacky and slightly sticky just like in Hong Kong, filled with hot, oozing Stilton.

I'd go all the way back to Paris just for one more of these gooey parcels of deliciousness.

A fresh, crisp apricot and sorrel tart with almond sorbet woke us up again, ready to face the afternoon.

That evening we skipped off to Le Trianon, a beautiful, crumbling old theatre-turned-gig venue, to hear Devendra Banhart falsetto his way through his latest album (no surviving photos I'm afraid; I was too busy dancing).

On the ramble back to our hotel through the bars of Le Marais we dropped into Candelaria.  We'd had a drink with friends earlier in the day at its new sister bar, Le Mary Celeste, and they'd recommended big sister Candelaria for cool cocktails in a cool setting.

So we were slightly fazed not to find a speakeasy-style, dark and intimate cocktail lounge, but a brightly-lit, shabby Mexican taco cantina, so small that just a handful of late night diners were squeezed up at the bar, gulping down margaritas and scooping up guacamole.

Before becoming a madrileña, I had a past life in Mexico City, so a late night Mexican feast posed absolutely no problems.  We elbowed our way to the bar and wolfed down some spicy tuna tacos and several plastic tumblers of margaritas, before we noticed our fellow diners sneaking off through an almost-hidden, unmarked door at the back of the cantina. 

The penny dropped.  Sure enough, there was our speakeasy cocktail lounge, just as promised.

A change from the traditional Parisian café-et-croissant breakfast is Breakfast in America, Le Marais's very own American diner, not unlike our London favourite The Breakfast Club.

Having worked so hard to find our cocktail bar the previous evening, we'd been reluctant to leave once we'd found it.  BIA's thick banana shakes, spicy Mexican omelettes and sweet raspberry and blueberry pancakes put us in a much better mood to face the day.

A lazy, sunny Sunday in Paris means one thing: a stroll along laid-back Canal Saint-Martin, which feels like a world away from the rest of the city.

The cobbled pavements and wrought-iron bridges are perfect places for lounging in the shade and people watching; there are plenty of shabby-chic wine bars and bistros along the banks and surrounding streets when it's time for an aperitif.

Merci Paris, à bientôt.

http://www.yamtcha.com/
http://www.letrianon.fr/
http://www.candelariaparis.com/
http://www.lemaryceleste.com/
http://www.breakfast-in-america.com/main/

Toro toro!

Madrid's top tapas

The biggest problem living in Madrid is deciding where to eat next (sigh, woe is me).  Madrid's tourist board proudly claims that the city has more bars than any other, and where there are drinks, there are tapas.

But tapas isn't all just plates of jamón and tortilla (delicious though these are).  The creativity and innovation of Spain's gastronomic revolution has shaken up the humble tapas bar, and they stand up alongside the best restaurants in Madrid.  Here are my five favourites.

1)  Le Cabrera

Tapas bar upstairs, cocktail bar downstairs, tiny Le Cabrera is one of my favourite places in the city for a drink, and maybe a plate of seared steak and grilled peaches on the side.  The gastro-coctelería is a name-dropping exercise of the famous faces of Spanish cuisine: Sergi Arola, one of the country’s top chefs, devised the creative tapas menu served upstairs (a review of his main restaurant is coming soon), while Diego Cabrera, the Argentinean mixologist, is in charge of the cocktails downstairs.

2)  Delic

Delic is nestled in my favourite square in Madrid, Plaza de la Paja in La Latina. 

Delic's menu is all about comidas del mundo (food from around the world), which makes a change from the usually patriotic Spanish offerings: Argentine empanadas, Peruvian cerviche and Japanese miso line up alongside the best mojitos in the city.

The black raspberry caipiroskas aren't bad either.

3)  La Gastromaquia

Hidden down a dark street in Chueca, sandwiched between the sex shops and gay bars, Gastromaquia gets my vote as the best restaurant in Madrid.  If you weren't looking for it, you'd walk right past it (you could even walk past it if you were looking for it).

It doesn't look like much from the outside, but each plate is a tiny slice of creative, innovative tapas heaven.  Goat's cheese salad (above left) comes dripping in a basil reduction with a caramelised honey roof, and the tikka masala mussels (above right) almost make you want to pick up the bowl to drink the sauce dry.

4)  Juana la Loca

At the south end of the Cava Baja in La Latina, where almost every building seems to be a tapas bar, sits Juana la Loca.  It's famous for its tortilla de patata (Spanish omelette), but every dish is a winner.  Don't miss the restaurant's self-proclaimed "incredible egg", a soft quail's egg nestled on top of a truffle base.

El increíble huevo ("The Incredible Egg")...

Hoisin duck wraps

Beef carpaccio

5)  La Musa

With a branch in Malasaña and another next door to Delic in La Latina, it's hard not to drop into La Musa almost every week.  My favourite is La Musa Latina for its lazy outdoor terrace in the plaza, although be prepared to queue for a table when the sun's shining.

Like Delic, the tapas veer away from traditional Spanish fare, like Japanese dumplings, Caribbean-style barbecued prawns and a pestle and mortar brimming with tomato, avocado and onion, for hungry diners to mash their own guacamole.

So, where next?

http://www.lecabrera.com/

http://delic.es/

http://www.grupolamusa.com/restaurante-lamusalatina

Paella me please

http://www.restaurantesamm.com/

Il postino

Back to the magnificent Teatro Real, which I last wrote about here, for the final opera of the season.

Daniel Catán's Il Postino is based on the film of the same name, a tribute to Chilean poet Pablo Neruda, one of my favourites.  It tells the story of the poet’s spell living on a southern Italian island whilst in exile from Chile in the 1950s, and of his relationship with the villagers.  He befriends the young postman and teaches him about love and poetry, all against a backdrop of post-war political uncertainty.

Projections of Neruda's scribbles of poetry

The part of Pablo Neruda was written for Plácido Domingo, one of Madrid's most famous sons, who traditionally sings every year in the closing production of the Teatro Real's season.  This year Domingo withdrew during rehearsals due to health reasons.  The role is associated so strongly with him that the audience nearly revolted, but having never seen the opera before, or even the film, I went along with an open mind.

Vicente Ombuena steps in as Neruda (photo: Javier del Real)

The staging was absolutely beautiful; covered in blue and white Mediterranean tiles, the stage often became the sea, a focus of Neruda's poetry whilst on the island.  As the two main characters discuss or write poetry together, their words are projected onto the constantly changing backdrop, bringing it to life.  The libretto is sung in Spanish; it's curiously pleasing to hear snippets of Neruda's poetry faithfully reproduced in his own language.

It had mixed reviews from the Madrid audience, almost entirely due to the lack of their favourite star.  But the music was entrancing, it was sung beautifully and the performance was visually stunning: one of the best operas I've been to.  Domingo or no Domingo.

http://www.teatro-real.com/