Madrid loves gossip. It is wickedly gossipy. It is chatty this and chatty that while you smoke a ciggie—or puff mango-flavored vapings—in between the second or third course of a meal. It’s hours after hours of food, Rioja and idle talk and laughter, where—with the smoke-skill of two magicians—the server and my hubbo Javi swiftly conjure up full wine glasses so that every moment is FULL. Life here overflows. But more than this, Madrid is where we can feed the wilder, more insistent hungers for giddy indiscretions, hush-hush tales and succulent wicked fun. 

I lived for a few years in Madrid and now—every year—spend a good sum of 2 months there. I know it quite well, which is why I can resolutely declare that when I’m there, it reorients my brain. The electric vibe, the people and of course the food move me from feeling that the universe is massive, unknowable, and indifferent to feeling that I can live more than agreeably in a world full of increasingly disagreeable surprises. 

Since I’ve always experienced Madrid as a foreigner (well-immersed but foreigner nonetheless), I feel as if I’m fleeing mischievously from my daily routines, responsibilities and the ritual, monotonous planning to feed me and my beloveds. In Madrid, it’s as if I’m sneaking away from the repetition of my quotidian realities because there’s always more to try and discover. There’s never a possibility to feel uninspired. Only continuous possibilities for invigorating a lust for life.

Madrid is energy. Ongoing movement, chatter, attention, copas, food…and fun, round the clock. 

The countless and magnificent food markets are, well, my dream. An insatiable excitement, of which I’ll never tire. El Club Gourmet, Mercado de la Paz and de San Anton are my equivalent of FAO Shwartz to a child. As per its shops, museums, and city’s aesthetic, I find these to be some of the best Europe has to offer. And then you have Madrid’s literally endless number of gastronomic restaurants. 

Beloved Madrid, I am yours. And you are mine, to teach and indulge me in the art of eating and mingling. You are mine, to reminisce and boast of with your dreamy food, your chattiest and delightfully wickedest of company, your conversations about what is liked and what is not, who did this and who did that 😮🤫🤭😂. Take me, as I yield wholeheartedly, every time, to breathe in the air, the warmth, and the love that you gift by means of your food, your wine and your delectably juicy chatter.