Calle Toledo is one of those streets. Gagging with fumey traffic, lined with a grungy potpourri of odd-bod shops, internet cafes, open-all-hours fruit stores and bars so crusty, so unkempt, that a dos...
Some restaurants are a two-minute walk from home. Easy, comfortable, local. Others are a destination. A pilgrimage. If foreplay begins with the first course, then for a restaurant on the other side of...
GUZZLING MONKEY COURTESY OFÂ FLICKR.COM/PHOTOS/49212661@N06
Visitors sometimes ask me, âIs the tap water safe to drink in Madrid?â, âCan I drink the water in my hotel?â, âWill I die if I drink it?â
T...
Itâs Sunday morning in Madrid. And you have a choice. You could head to mass and beg forgiveness for whatever godforsaken things got up to the night before. You could do one of these 5 activities that...
Six weeks ago I became a Wine Dick.
It all happened rather quickly. Though, looking back, I should have seen it coming. In September Lauren Aloise and I completed the Level 2 Wines and Spirits course...
Itâs funny how the mind works. After seeing my first flamenco performance, I had an unexpected image burned on my brain. The genitals of the male dancer. Big and bulbous,  perfectly cosseted in his ex...
A quick peek into Madridâs summer fiestas. LavapiĂ©s and La Latina and two of the capitalâs oldest neighbourhoods, and every August they let their hair down and go a little crazy. This is how it happen...
YES SIR, THAT CAN ALL BE YOURS FOR ONLY âŹ31.
Seafood does funny things to people. When the Bluff oyster season opens in Bluff, in New Zealandâs South Island, ritzy Auckland restaurateurs fly the priz...
TOMA CAFĂ IS ONE OF THE FEW TORREFACTO-FREE ZONES IN THE CITY. THIS IS CO-OWNER SANTI HIGH ON CAFFEINE.
I love the sound of Spanish coffee. The smack and clack of cups and saucers on marble bar tops,...
The battle lines have been drawn. Madrid â too long awash with sub-par beer â is in the midst of a craft brew revolution. For years Madrilenians have been weaned on Mahou, the ubiquitous local industr...
The menĂș del dĂa is one of the great culinary joys of Spain. Theyâre the filling, often delicious, multi-course midday meals provided by bars and restaurants for a very reasonable fixed price, booze i...
