Monday 5 October 2009

El Inti De Oro: a place worth getting Lost over.



I thought since My Blog has mostly been about Madrid and up until a few months ago, I was reviewing musicals, concerts and other places I had been to. why not a restaurant. and Since I have made no secret at all that there are certain things I love and certain things I don´t like.

We went when Mia back in April when she came over for a week, for the IL DIVO concert in Madrid.I arrived at her hotel room at midday and we spent the best part of early afternoon looking for a restaurant that some of my friends suggested we go and eat before going to the IL DIVO concert. It was called “RIBS”. Which gave you an idea of what was on the menu. Meat and lots of it. We didn't feel that this place had anything appetizing and since we had a meet and greet, there was no way we were going to this, full, bloated with meat breath.

After that we got a bit lost looking for “Touch Me” a shop where they sell gothic clothes, for example, Corsets, capes and lots of weird and spooking things you might see in a Nacho Cano musical.

We did find a couple of places which were the subjects of hauntings and murders, and there was some pretty interesting clothes shops that I hadn't seen before. This was Mia's first trip to Chueca and of course I couldn't resist showing her my favorite bench on Vasquez de Mella Square. Looking back on it, she wondered how close I must have been to meet everyone at the closing ceremony of Gay Pride in Madrid in 2008.

Travelling all the way down to Anton Martin, we decided to see if we could find the “Peruvian” Place she wanted us to visit, ever since she came out to Support me in March 2008. She couldn't remember the name of the place, only that it was next to a vegetarian restaurant and it was in a corner street after passing the Westin Palace Hotel. The fact that it had been a few years since she had been there with her partner Ulf and their Spanish friends meant that we didn't have much to go on. We spent the best part of an hour looking for it and I suggested that we look for clues for example it might have some tapastry or it probably had a girl's name like a lot of the Peruvian places I'd been to.

After making a wrong turn yet again, I suggested to Mia that we look on the next street. And said if it's not there we'll go else where. Suddenly Mia remembered that the restaurant may have been located where we would have originally turned. I had a feeling that It was around that area. She suddenly remembered that her friend was telling her about the attempted uprising in Congresso de Diputados in the early 80's. It was a bit of a coincidence that I was reading about this place the night before only to find out it was a clue.

After a few steps, from the distance I could see something which looked like a sign with a gold disk. It rang a bell but as soon as I read “Peruano” and Mia confirmed that this was the place. We went straight in.

My God was the place impressive. It everything in there was Peruvian all over. Even the waitresses were dressed in traditional costumes. There were maps, paintings tapastry and a table with every food product you'd find in Peru. We were quite hungry but it took us ages to figure out what we wanted to eat. Since the vegetarian stuffed yucca wasn't on this menu, we decided to try something else. I hadn't tried it yet even since going out with David and he's suppose to be an expert at making this dish. (he is as well, he even taught me.) The ever impressive Ceviche.

Ceviche or “Cebiche” is a dish which is prepared with either fish or seafood. It's marinaded in lime juice for a few minutes. I didn't think there was anything more delicous than Sushi until I tried this. I guess it's Peruvian “Sushi” because the fish is raw. Still that didn't stop us from ordering one between us as a starter. That and a “Pisco Sour” each.

I have to say that was heavenly, but I will argue that David makes a delicious version with Octopus. yum

I may have explained that this, (Pisco Sour that is,) is a typically Peruvian cocktail made with a drink called “Pisco” and from what I understand contains syrup, lemon juice, egg white and sugar. This tasted better than the other version we had in September. It was sweet,it gave you a warm feeling on the inside and even though you could taste the strength of the alcohol, you could feel it. That was what a cocktail was suppose to taste like.

We ordered a “Picante Camarones” each. Which was a sea food dish with a rich creamy sauce. There were about 6 Tiger Prawns or Crayfish, I'm not sure what, the plate was nicely decorated but not to the point where you thought “wait are you suppose to eat it or put it on display?” We thought the music was very relaxing, typical folk music (I'll get back to what it's called.)

I thought the signs on the toilets were a scream. They were typical Peruvian expressions used to describe the opposite sex, like “Guys and Dolls” “Dudes and Chicks” this was “Cholitos and Cholitas” I though it was hysterical. I did explain to Mia afterwards and she told me the stories Ulf told her of his
childhood in Lima.

Time for another “Pisco Sour”. We realised that the glass was a lot bigger than the one that we each drank from in “Fogon de Claudia”.

Needless to say that the second glass was making us tipsy. Very tipsy.

No meal would have been complete without a dessert so we tried something that we didn't know what it was. “Suspiro Limena” or “Limean Sigh” I guess it means it was discovered in Lima. And what a discovery. It was a caramel based dessert. Forget “Dulce de Leche” this was delicious! That and the coffee liquer shot with cinnammon we had each compliments of the house.

It was their way of saying “We know you think this place costs an organ to eat here but we want you to tell everyone the food is great and we treated you really good so you can come back again and again!”

Mia Obviously came back and I did too.

there is a Menu of the day where if you have no Idea what to have as a starter, they bring you a dish with every Starter you can think of, with Papa rellena, Ceviche, Anticuchu, yucca... yum.

Anyway if you happen to be in Madrid and want to try something Peruvian with a 5 star feel. this is the place.

for more details. here´s the website.

http://www.intideoro.com/

2 comments:

Lynn said...

Tina, I was practically drunk and happy just reading your post! Next time I'm in Madrid I will definitely have to go there! In the States people call anything that's diced "ceviche", even the chefs! It drives Patrick and I crazy!

As usual, you and Mia always manage to have a great time!!!

Morgana said...

I can imagine. It fascinates David that I´ve been to more Peruvian places in Madrid than he has.

He´s been nagging me for ages to take him to an Italian place. erm we were in Italy in November? hmm.