Still life at Casa Amadeo
Snails are eaten in almost all of Spain. Well known are the Sevillian groupers or the spicy caracolillos from Jaén or Granada. But in Madrid, the thing about the snails is fervor and pilgrimage It is inherited from parents to children, it is something as traditional as tripe or stew. And even though there are a thousand places where they serve snails, Why is there only talk of two snail temples? what is your secret? We've gone to find out.
Entrance to the snail paradise
We started the investigation at ** Casa Amadeo **, which is the typical inn for tourists that you find almost by chance. Located in the Plaza de Cascorro, Casa Amadeo becomes a veritable anthill on Sundays when there is a Rastro in the capital, a mob of hungry passers-by looking to enjoy one of the specialties of the big city: the snails.
Casa Amadeo, an institution
With 72 years behind him cooking snails, Amadeo Lazarus has already left the legacy to the new generations. His house, a narrow corridor flanked by a noisy bar and a wall tattooed with the Madrid of other times, offers snails cooked with spices and chorizo , served in a clay pot, as in the old days. The snails, about the size of a cricket ball (some can be ridden on), have curiously a mild and delicate flavor despite the ultrasonic seasoning inside. The original recipe, made in Burgos and almost a century old, takes us back to those Castilian pots with good substance , where it could be deduced that the vegetable in turn has been replaced by the snail.
Your secret : a slow cooker and a much more than generous portion. Its price, perhaps somewhat higher ( €10 ) arouses the ire of skeptics and purists; not everyone conceives the chorizo in excess in the snails, which perhaps makes Amadeo in particular Jamie Oliver of the Madrid snails. Because if there is something that identifies the secret of Casa Amadeo's snails, it is that love affair of snails and chorizo in industrial quantities; because chorizo, according to Amadeo, it is what “awakens the taste of the snails” . So we can say that we have the "most awake" snails in all of Madrid.
Casa Amadeo atmosphere, on any given day
To say of Casa Amadeo that the service is very fast and the bulk of the menu is made up of quality products. Bonus track for lovers of chorizo, Burgos blood sausage and other products from those lands. If there is food left over, you and they pack it to take away, and to run . Very well. Of course, the snails are NEVER a tapa or an appetizer despite the fact that they are offered as such, but they are rations . Having this concept clear will avoid surprises. Not suitable on Rastro days for claustrophobics; the place is bursting. The bread is charged separately, but not to wet is a sacrilege.
The Snails of The Snails
The other temple of the snails of Madrid par excellence is The snails on Toledo street. Founded 95 years ago, this particular holy grail of shellfish eaters guards with spartan zeal the secret of its recipe, a mysterious concoction in which the rock & roll of the chilli pepper, chorizo, bay leaf and quality raw material . Halfway between the most touristic bullfighting Madrid and the hipster wave that has taken root in the neighborhood of The Latin , Los Caracoles on Calle Toledo welcomes you with a stove above the bar over which a matriarchal pot full of snails. The ritual is almost like that of the pot of magic potion in the Gallic village of Asterix, being Seraph (the waiter behind the bar) the druid who distributes the particular elixir with the ladle.
Escargot sounds better but the product is the same
Michael Good , third generation of the Los Caracoles family, comments that the secret of the house snails is simply that “They are the best in Madrid and that is why people come back” , without further comment. To this we must add that snails have a seamless texture , with a measured cooking and, of course, very clean, without that horrible earth like the ones they serve out there (we are beginning to understand everything) . After the bite, a spicy, almost musky aftertaste , bursts in the mouth honoring the prayer "from Madrid to the sky". And the pairing is offered with beer or a very cold dry tap vermouth, ideal options for an aperitif or to start the night with tapas with substance. So yes. They are possibly the best snails in Madrid, because of the finesse in the recipe and contrasts on the palate. The portions are smaller but in quality they win by a landslide. Just by eating one, you understand that the secret is in excellence.
And of course, on Sundays it is impossible to enter. Come back on a Saturday and be lucky.
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