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Spain Dinner

Bailliage of Madrid, Spain
Alcalá de Henares, October 21, 2022

An exquisite evening in Alcalá de Henares
" In this beautiful setting we had the opportunity to celebrate our autumn dinner "

World Heritage Site Alcalá de Henares is a city in central Spain, 30kms northeast of Madrid.

It has a long university tradition. Francisco Jiménez de Cisneros founded the Complutense University in the late 15th century. The city currently hosts the (re-founded) University of Alcalá. It is the birthplace of Spanish writer Miguel de Cervantes.

In this beautiful setting we had the opportunity to celebrate our autumn dinner arranged by Bailli José Valdearcos.

After taking a short city tour with a fantastic guide, we headed to La Cúpula, a restaurant located in the historic centre of the city, that would host us for the event.

La Cúpula is one of the restaurants that are part of the Alcalá Gastronómica association, which brings together some twenty restaurants in the city. Today it is a restaurant, but in the past it was the church of the old Colegio-Convento de los Capuchinos.

We enjoyed the reception standing up thus facilitating greeting each other. On offer were oxtail croquettes, foie pralines on brioche and a magnificent cheese selection, all perfectly harmonising with a sparkling wine from the Mar de Frades winery.

Our dinner table was set up in what would have been the chancel of the church. The delights of the evening began with some very special starters: “migas cervantinas” (which could not be missed in the city of Cervantes); lettuce hearts with pickled anchovies; mangetout and sautéed mushrooms with soy.

The marine aroma materialized with corvina “en papillote”. And the flavour of the fields was represented by veal cheek with mashed potato and pickled vegetables.

Dessert was a dish most typical of the city’s gastronomy: the famous “costrada de Alcalá” which consists of several layers of puff pastry, pastry cream, meringue and almonds.

The wines that accompanied us on this occasion were Ramón Bilbao Rioja Crianza 2018 and Ramón Bilbao Verdejo 21 (from Rueda) - both served from magnums.

After the dinner, José Luis Moreno, the owner of the restaurant and who served as Maître D’ on such a special night, was presented with a commemorative diploma in acknowledgement of the exquisite evening we had enjoyed. Bailli José Valdearcos profusely thanked him for his kind attention. He also thanked everyone for coming, especially those who had travelled from other parts of Spain.

Vive la Chaîne!

Abel Gonzalez
Charge de Missions

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