These bars are among the favorites of older natives of the region. The tradition of bars started when someone decided to open a bar where people could keep warm and have a drink while waiting for their favorite lady. Closed Wednesdays and during the San Mateo wine harvest festival. Bar Soriano is unquestionably the most popular bar in the old town. The mushrooms are cooked in a little olive oil with salt on a very hot griddle. They are speared three at a time with a toothpick topped with a small piece of shrimp and put on a slice of bread.
What does this tapa, made with olives, hot green peppers and a salted anchovy have to do with Rita Hayworth? Sierra La Hez is also a great place to listen to Spanish music from the 70s and 80s and if you speak Spanish, owner Miguel Ruiz is a walking encyclopedia of this genre. Classic recipes for patatas bravas use only the spicy red sauce but the Taberna del Laurel, red sauce and a mayonnaise-like sauce to the red sauce. Bocadillo small sandwich with a half sardine in olive oil and a spicy green pepper.
Manolo, the owner of the bar, takes a piece of bread, slices it in half lengthwise, opens a can of sardines in olive oil and a can of spicy green peppers in olive oil, puts half a sardine and a pepper on the bread, and wraps it in a paper napkin. It tastes delicious with a glass of young red rioja. If you want to know what bars were like 50 years ago, this is the place. It features a zinc bar and a huge sink where tomatoes float and bottles of wine are chilling.
No kidding! These bars are also places where customers can enjoy words of wisdom as they eat and drink. Here are some examples. Sometimes I even add it to the food. Notice the tins of anchovies and sardines in olive oil behind the sign. The government hates the competition. Chop the onion and slowly fry in a little olive oil. Before the onion browns, add the sweet and spicy paprika, mixing them with a wooden spoon. Add the flour, fry it for a minute it or two and when the mixture starts to blend with the olive oil making a roux , add the chicken stock little by little to make a creamy sauce.
Simmer for ten minutes so that the paprika and flour are cooked through, mix it in a blender and then strain. Some recipes recommend just frying the pieces of potato while others suggest first boiling them for two minutes and then deep frying them. For the last five years Spain has suffered the devastating effects of an inflexible labor market, an economy based on overbuilding residential property, banks with questionable lending practices and politicians who thought they were above the law.
