Happy Restaurant Day!

Friday is lunch-out day for the Blackwells in Valencia. We left the apartment a little early with the idea of stopping on the way at City Hall, a beautiful building, to see if we could get out on the balcony at the front, something we had not done on earlier visits. It’s supposed to give great views of the square. 

It wasn’t open, as we had feared. I asked why not and got a stream of rapid-fire Spanish of which I understood only the key word: trabajando, working. The balcony was being set up for Fallas, when VIPs will use it to view parades and firework displays. When would it be open again? Not until after Fallas. Bummer.

Valencia City Hall: grand ballroom

We did look around inside again, at the pretty grand ballroom, the council chamber, the very underwhelming art displays and the small, surprisingly interesting museum about city history. The highlights of the museum for me are the mural-size 18^th century picture maps of old Valencia – like hand-drawn Google satellite views – and the astonishing fragment of a pennant, supposedly given to the city in 1238 by King James I of Aragon after his reconquest of Valencia from the Moors.

Plaza de la Virgen: Neptune statue and Basilica

Our researches on Thursday served us well on restaurant day. We headed back to Plaza del Carmen to one of the lunch places we’d spotted there, María Mandiles, right on the square. We were attracted both by the very reasonably-priced menu del dia – €8.95 for three courses, bread, wine and coffee – and the sunny outdoor seating on the plaza, overlooked by the lovely Iglesia del Carmen.

María Mandiles patio, Plaza del Carmen

It wasn’t actually sunny when we were there on Friday, though. The day was intermittently overcast, and it was early enough – 1:45 when we sat down – that the sun hadn’t cleared some of the surrounding buildings yet. Still, it was nice to sit outside, even if a little cool at times. We could have availed ourselves of one of the lap rugs they provide for diners, or asked them to turn on the nearest propane heater, but we toughed it out. It astonishes us that Valencianos will walk around dressed as if for winter in 20C weather, but still sit outside to drink or eat when it’s only 15C.

María Mandiles specializes in “authentic Valencian home cooking.” The menu del dia offered three choices for each course. I had a mixed salad – ensalada variedad – with lettuce, feta-type cheese, strips of ham, a tomato quartered and some kind of sweet veggie marmalade (sun dried tomato, we think). Way better than the simple limp mixed salad with cardboard tomatoes you’d get in an inexpensive restaurant at home, but not fancy. Karen had cream of calabeza (squash) soup with crispy ham bits for her starter. The soup was tasty, but not piping hot.

For my main, I ordered Secreto Iberico, which turned out to be a generous slab of roast ham, served with fries and carrot dice. Spanish-style Iberico ham, such as Serrano, the most famous, is a much-loved delicacy here. The best ham, sold by the thin slice in specialty shops and as a tapas staple, can be jaw-droppingly expensive. This was presumably a much less expensive variety, or possibly prepared by the restaurant itself. Spanish ham is generally drier, with a more delicate flavour than ours. Karen had a curried chicken dish: very lightly curried strips of breast meat on a bed of creamy, buttery mashed potatoes.

(Ed. As my friend Shelley Boyes explained the above information about Spanish ham is mostly rubbish. Yes, Iberico and Serrano are both hams made in Spain, but fundamentally different in that they're made from different types of pigs and in different styles. Beyond that, her explanation kind of zoomed over my head. The important points: it was ham, it was mild-flavoured and dry-ish.)

Plaza del Carmen: the sun came out

We both drank the house white wine (perfectly fine) for our bebida and had caramel crepes drizzled in chocolate sauce for postres (dessert). Everything was prettily presented, fresh and flavourful. All-in total for both of us: €19.85 (about $31 at the day’s exchange rate). You can’t beat that for value.

We walked home by back streets, stopping occasionally to take pictures: of the street art, of course, and the stone carvings on La Lonja de la Seda, the medieval silk exchange across from the Mercado Centrale. We were back home a little after four. Karen, silly girl, challenged me to a Scrabble game. I won, again. Yawn.

La Lonja de la Seda

Today, a chilly overcast day, I ran in the morning, down to the river and back.

It was supposedly free-museum day, so after lunch, we headed back to the City Museum of Valencia, another art and historical museum in a restored palace – the 17^th century Palacio Marques de Campo – near the Basilica. Turns out the information at the web page I read was wrong: it wasn’t free on Saturdays after all. But the attendant offered us, without our asking, the “pensioners” rate of €1 – how insulting! Still, we took it.

City Museum of Valencia

The art, owned by the city, dates from the 15^th to the 20^th century, most from the 20^th. It’s almost all by completely unknown Valencian artists. Much of it is not very good, none better than second rate: muddy modernist daubings, dull religious subjects from past centuries or incomprehensible minimalist contemporary fare. I’m exaggerating only slightly. There is also an extensive display about the history of weights and measures in Valencia. Fascinating (not.)

City Museum of Valencia: one of the better pieces of modern Valencian art

It’s a weird little museum. But the real point for us is the palace itself, which is charming, with lovely marble floors and ornate ceilings, including a beautifully restored grand staircase dome. We spent 45 minutes there and then walked quickly in the chill late afteroon to the local Mercadona for some supplies, before scuttling home. We will not go out again; rain appears imminent. Tomorrow promises a return to milder, brighter weather.

Chapel in City Museum of Valencia

Later. About six, the first of the mascletas, noisy daylight fireworks shows, went off in City Hall square. We had not realized it was going to happen; information on the web about Fallas seems spotty this year. The display thundered on for almost a half hour, echoing off the buildings. We’re only about a ten-minute walk from the plaza so it was quite loud.

We also noticed that the fireworks shop across the street, apparently part of a chain, has just reopened; it had been shuttered since we arrived. It was doing quite a brisk business, especially after the City Hall show ended, to the extent that they had to control how many people at a time entered the shop. We’ll have to watch out for pesky niños and niñas lighting firecrackers and throwing them under our feet for sport; it’s a favourite trick to play on tourists at Fallas time. 

The madness has begun.