When I was making this album, I literally thought that we were pigging out today, or getting hammed, whatever the cooler term is.

We were literally pigging out as we went to Meson De Candido, which is a restaurant in Segovia historically known for serving suckling pigs.

Prior to serving  the pigs, a man came down and blessed them, saying a prayer or declaration of sorts.  He then smashed the pigs with a plate, and then tossed it in the ground (I wish I had a shot of it, but I’m pretty sure someone has the video.)  Talk about culture.

I have a slight bias towards the suckling pig because it is part of the Filipino culture.  I remember going to the province and having lechon, slightly similar to the suckling pig, but meatier - It had the crispy skin, flavorful meat and the sauce (Mang Tomas.)

The portions were so huge that I barely finished it.  But seriously, the crispy skin, the flavorful meat… I  wanna have it again.  I’m kind of having a serious craving now as I’m typing this.

File this under “Best Things I Ever Ate.”

I find eating pastries in the morning weird.  Apparently, the  Spaniards think that it’s perfectly normal.

Today, we went at Mama Frambiose here in Madrid.  Amazing bakery/pastry shop ran by Chef Alejandro Montes who has won  several awards for his work.  TIL that the business model that they have is to make pastries hip and cool, per se.  They collaborate with soccer stars, DJ’s and other celebrities to promote the Mama Frambiose name.

What really stood out to me was their methods of success:  If you knew that google has game rooms for its employees to decompress hopefully leading to more success, MF does the same thing - they have a game room in their production kitchen fifteen minutes away, and they’re also now building a gym.

Oddly enough, Mama Frambiose kind of gave me a solid foundation to build my business on.  Days like these, I can’t wait to see myself at the top of the totem pole so I could do cool things like these.  But for now, I’m gonna enjoy Spain.  And tomorrow’s our last night in Madrid.  Going big!

Cocido Madrileno is a stew that’s traditionally here in Madrid, in the province of Chinchon.

Let me explain this very simply:  The cocido is made the night before, as it is a braised dish.  As shown in the second picture, what’s braised in the broth is beef, shank, cabbage, morcillo and chorizo (two spanish type sausages).  These are removed after they are cooked and pasta is added to the broth, making a soup for the first course.  Spanish Ramen, if I recall.

This dish, to be honest, reminded me a lot of the Phillipines, a dish called Nilaga.  It’s almost the same concept:  a hearty broth, braised meat, potatoes and cabbage.  It’s kind of cool to me to find such similarities knowing that the Filipino and Spaniard Cultures have such similarties.

Happy eating!