Madrid & Valencia: Oct. 27 - 31

I recently got to do a girls' trip with my good friend Liz, who just moved to London with her husband Jeff! It is so nice to have a good friend nearby that is going through a similar experience. It was such a great trip! We'll be meeting up again soon...next time with the husbands in tow!

We stayed at the Westin Madrid, a beautiful hotel with a great location. On our first full day we walked around Retiro Park, drank cava in Plaza Mayor, and found the Mercado de San Miguel, a market with different food booths.

 

         

We went to a Flamenco show at Cardamomo! Definitely one of the highlights of the trip. I wanted to post a video, but can't get it to work! 

Last meal in Madrid! Breakfast of champions! Mmmm meats.

  

Other Madrid highlights: 

  

Next stop, Valencia!

We took the high speed train from Madrid. It was only a 90 minute ride. It is a great way to get around Spain. I should note that weather in Spain was fantastic! It was in the mid-70s and sunny the whole time so we had to go to the beach.

  

We also had to have paella...and more meat!! This Iberic ham literally melted in our mouths.

Other Valencia highlights:

NOMA

 Noma is known for its reinvention of Nordic Cuisine. "New Nordic" is a big trend in Copenhagen, and it started here. All ingredients are foraged in Denmark and seasonal ingredients used to update more traditional Danish dishes. Noma has been voted "Best Restaurant in the World" 4 out of the last 5 years.

It was such a special night and experience, and the service was out of this world. I would highly recommend it for those who are open to a culinary adventure and not worried about the price tag. You do not have to do the wine pairing, but it really is a must if you want to experience all that Noma has to offer. The wines were delicious and really complimented the dishes.

The Manager printed out the menu, including the wine pairings, for us at the end of the meal. This was a nice touch! 

Look closely! Those are real ants! This was one of my favorites of the night. These particular ants add an acidity and tangy-ness, which complimented the tartar beautifully.

 This was their take on a shrimp ravioli. The shells were similar to lily-pads.

 This was the pumpkin and beechnuts. I love having pumpkin dishes this time of year!

 This was the egg yolk, potato, and elderflower dish.

Bone marrow "tacos"? The leaves on the side were used for the shell, topped with the flowers. Mmmm!!

I tried not to take too many pictures so I wouldn't take away from the evening. A couple of other dishes I really liked were the reindeer moss and flatbread with rose petals. The reindeer moss was lightly fried and came with a creme fraiche dipping sauce. The rose petals on the flatbread had surprisingly a lot of flavor and it was light and crispy.

We can scratch this off the bucket list! 

    

Stockholm: Sept. 21 - 24

Seth had some meetings at the Stockholm office for a few days towards the end of September, so once again I tagged along! We flew in on Sunday afternoon so we had time to walk around the city together. It reminded us a lot of Copenhagen. The weather could have been a lot better...it rained everyday and dropped down into the 40s. When Seth was at work, I spent a lot of time ducking into coffee shops and shopping around Gamla Stan (Old Town) to avoid the elements.

   

I did manage to make it to the Fotografiska, a modern photography museum. The below photographs are by Anders Petersen.

 I don't have any photos, but the Swedish meatballs were delicious! Our first night we stumbled upon this tiny restaurant and hid out from the rain. We enjoyed the meatballs with one of our favorite wines! It was heaven. I look forward to going back with Seth when the weather is warm and sunny!