Food Quest 2010

I've decided there are some kinds of food I can't live without. For example, I absolutely can't live without tortillas (white flour, wheat flour, corn, I don't care) or peanut butter (Peter Pan or Skippy ALWAYS crunchy). Good tortillas are really hard to find in Spain...in fact, I think I might attempt to make them. Peanut butter is expensive, but I packed a few jars, so I'm set for the next few months.

One of the things I love most about Madrid is that I can pretty much find any type of food I want, I just have to put in the effort to find it. I didn't buy an Abono this month (the monthly transportation pass) because I have promised myself that I will walk everywhere so I see as much of the city as possible. To that end, on Saturday, I found a great Asian market because I decided I NEEDED soy sauce (I am too frugal to pay $4 Euros for a tiny little bottle of it). So in typical American fashion, I sought out the place that would give me the most bang for my buck. Not only did I get enough soy sauce to last me for the next 3 months or so (from Japan and only $4.50 Euros), I found tofu, cheap brown rice, cheap coconut milk and all kinds of Asian sauces NOT at El Corte Ingles prices.

My Madrid food find for this week will be Pan di Stelle the amazing chocolate Italian cookie ubiquitous in Italy, but alas, not in Spain. The Italians eat them for breakfast. I eat them all day long. They are so delicious - the perfect balance between sweet and savory - that you don't even notice if you've eaten 20.

To satisfy my weekend food obsession, I found a Bottega about 20 minutes' walk from my house where allegedly, I can get pretty much any Italian product I want. The store is closed today, but I plan to head over there tomorrow after work so I can stock up on fresh pasta, GOOD tomato sauce and of course, a few bags of Pan di Stelle. I'm drooling already.