Doing Tapas

Last month, in the early part of this trip, I wrote about a Spanish restaurant in the "Centro Histórico" that served so-so food but at a very reasonable price.  Last Thursday after doing a bit of shopping downtown, I came across a Spanish tapas bar called "Pata Negra".  I looked at the menu and it included many of my favorite Spanish tapas, so I decided to have my afternoon dinner there.

To drink I ordered a glass of sangría, which was excellent.  I began with gazpacho, the classic, cold Spanish soup.  It was good but it did not taste quite like the traditional recipe from Andalucía, Spain.  I don't think that they blended bread with the vegetables which would have given it a thicker consistency.  I also ordered "croquetas de jamón"... ham croquettes... which were quite good.

I continued my tapas meal with an order of "patatas bravas"... potato wedges with garlic mayonnaise and a spicy dipping sauce.  I also had "tortilla española", the egg, onion and potato dish which is similar to an Italian "frittata".  This was the most disappointing dish... the "tortilla" was not cooked long enough.  Although the top and bottom were browned, the inside was runny.

I would say that the food was generally better than the Spanish restaurant that I visited last month but it was considerably more expensive.  And it did not hit the mark as far as equaling the tapas that I have had in Spain.