This is how we are going to celebrate France Day in Madrid (July 14)
we have toured Madrid in search of the most genuine Gallic flavors. The new ones, the usual ones, the sweet ones, the salty ones... There is something for everyone and for all tastes. So we spent a weekend eating France without moving from the Spanish capital.
On Saturday night, we're going to mr lupin . This bistro with a French accent and Mediterranean touches is the project of Joseph Gallent , a Valencian chef who has passed through French restaurants, Michelin stars and more recently, by BiBo Madrid . He had the opportunity to open his own place and just a year ago, he opened Mr. Lupin, a restaurant that is successful in the Lopez de Hoyos street.
"The name comes from Arsene Lupin , the white-collar thief from the novels of Maurice Leblanc. Also, my second surname is Pin, so I wanted to play with it as a name to call the restaurant”, José points out.
Mr. Lupin's card is changeable, but There are some dishes that everyone acclaims and claims. They are your galette d'escargots , a crispy stuffed with bacon, mushrooms and snails in a butter sauce and their smoked eel ravioli with an American cream. They are not missing either Dijon sirloin_, steak tartare_, entrecôte Café de Paris ... finish with her caramelized apple mille-feuille and tomato caramel whipped cream oh mon dieu, it's almost mandatory.
Another good option for dinner à la française is to have it at one of the best French restaurants in the capital, ** Brasserie Lafayette **. sebastien leparoux , at the head of this cute restaurant, he made us go on a pilgrimage to The tables in search of true French flavors. There he made a name for himself, at a time when French gastronomy, despite being one of the most revered in the world, had not yet succeeded in Madrid.
In early 2019, he was moving his restaurant to the visage and the change could not have been for the better. Now, located in an old dairy , is reborn with an exquisite room and a terrace of which very little -or nothing- had been discussed until now. And what do you want us to tell you, that dining in this special place should be in all the guides and as they themselves say “Es très jolie! Tres Jolie! Once you set foot in it, you won't want to leave it."
In the letter? traditional french cuisine , prepared with a very good hand. Lunches and dinners start with their Echiré breads and butter , to continue with starters such as Breton oysters Legris nº3 , their beurre maître d'hotel snails (clean and with a butter of parsley, salt and pepper) or the foie gras mi-cuit accompanied by brioche bread.
As a main course you can try their Poularde confit with thyme , the duck magret with red fruit coulis or the clean bouillabaisse. “We say that it is clean, because the bouillabaisse is a dish that is usually eaten in two phases, first the soup and then the fish that needs to be cleaned, here we prepare it in a single pass and with all the fish clean and ready to eat, accompanied by toast and rouille”, he tells us. For dessert they cannot miss their tarte tatin or french cheese board that Sebastien himself selects.
Bouillabaisse from Brasserie Lafayette
We are full on Sunday and you wake up hungry, and he stomach growls and it's already France Day . how about a petit déjeuner ? And of this precisely, the croissant is the king. Who doesn't love a fresh, crispy and delicious croissant? Perfection made sweet can be found at **Motteau**.
In the heart of the Barrio de las Letras, Juan Manuel D'Alessandro, a native of Buenos Aires, has managed to create a space that has it all, everything for make us dream with their delicate creations . He was trained in bakery and pastry in Paris and the subject of pastry came from his family, since his grandmother, to whom the name of the place is dedicated, worked in the confectionery Motteau de Yvetot.
You can't get out of there without getting one of his best sellers, like the delicious lemon tartlet , which he prepares with ingredients brought directly from France, or his croissants from him, whose Broken mass it takes a whopping three days to prepare. If you don't want to stay without yours, order it the day before.
Another of the great references in French patisserie and confectionery is, in the vicinity of Ópera, the Santa Eulalia boulangerie. Here everything tastes of France: financiers, pan au chocolat, cannelés, mille-feuille, tartlets, Croissants ... It will be very, very difficult for you to decide what you will keep.
The famous Motteau croissants
Our search for the perfect croissant continues on Maison Melie . This new boulangerie and pâtisserie has just opened its doors and is destined to become one of the favorites of the Lovers of Gallic flavors . Inspiration comes from the baker Melie Denance , who back in 1894 opened the doors of his own workshop in Honfleur, and everyone fell in love with his mastery.
That is why Maison Mélie is specialized in french breads , but there is no shortage of croissants, pain au chocolat, macarons in their display cases... To make them, they use French denomination flour, following the original 19th century recipe , in addition to cream and butter originating from AOP Isigny and organic eggs, among others.
The idea is to visit them to have breakfast, buy it to take away or come at another time of the day, because this space also works as a brasserie, where you can try dishes such as its foie gras micuit terrine with Pedro Ximénez, grilled lobster with semi-salted butter, accompanied by cannelloni in its ink stuffed with herbs or a supreme of free-range chicken with lemon confit and seasonal vegetables as if it were a tarte tatin.
TIC Tac . Time is short and time has run out on us and lunchtime is just around the corner. The chosen one? The brand new Le Bistroman , a project by gastronomic entrepreneur Miguel Ángel García Marinelli. His name will sound familiar to you because he was the creator of the mythical Café Saigon and Le Bistroman Marbella . This time he returns to the capital with an appetizing French bistro, where everything exudes Gallic savoir faire.
From the moment you walk through that verdant facade, until you sit at its tables exquisitely dressed for the occasion, with Limoges crockery, Riedel glassware and silver cutlery, just like in the great French houses. “ Now in summer, when we open the windows, it seems that we are in Saint Paul de Vence ”, they point.
For this project he has joined forces with his partner, chef stephane del rio . “Here we have 'radicalized'. We wanted to create our own proposal, in which everything is French, even the wine list”, he tells Traveler.es. Thus, at Le Bistroman they want us to rediscover true French cuisine, the usual, the classic, all of them revisited and brought to our times.
With a exceptional raw material (the birds, for example, are brought by Higinio Gómez), present appetizers such as Gallic sausages, among which is a fantastic Mirepoix sausage, escargots à la bourguignonne or a specialty from the south of France, the pissaiadiere, a coke with anchovies, onion and tapenade as a base, topped with smoked sardines.
Second, listen to us and try either their bouillabaisse with catch of the day or the veal onglet, known as 'the queen's bite' or the 'butcher's tenderloin', the one that remains to be the best, which they accompany of fried shallots, en papillote and candied.
The perfect ending is put by its impressive -and sweet- baba aun rhum or a seasonal dessert, strawberries with Monjarama cream, similar to the French mara de bois.
The day is over, but you will have celebrated it in the purest Bleu, Blanc, Rouge style and we only have to add... Long live France!
The brand new Le Bistroman