Leisure & gastronomy

Information about the leisure and gastronomy offer in Madrid.

Leisure.

Madrid has an important range of places to enjoy music, dance and theatre. You can be delighted with an opera at the Teatro Real.
There are also places to enjoy flamenco music; a diverse offer of bars and cafes to chat and other leisure places, like the amusement park, a huge bullfighting square with a wide programme, and excellent stadiums of the local football clubs: Real Madrid, Atlético de Madrid and Rayo Vallecano.

Cuisine and Tapas in Madrid.

The most popular dish in Madrid is the cocido, which combines chickpeas and vegetables with diverse meats, basically pig and hen.

It's served in three fases: first the soup, made out of cooking the meat and chickpeas, with fine pasta, secondly the chickpeas, with its vegetables, principally potatoes, carrots and cabbage, and then the meat: hen, pig's ears, smoked pork sausage among others.

The city has a wide offer of restaurants; local, regional and international cuisine is served in Madrid.

The tapas are also very popular in bars where wine or beer are accompanied with something solid. The most popular tapas are of mussel, squid, and specially the bravas, fried potatoes served with a red, thick and spicy sauce.

Local fiestas.

Madrid doesn't have, like Valencia or Pamplona, a great festive tradition that implies the mayority of it's inhabitants. On the 15th May, the day of San Isidro is celebrated, and the verbena de la Paloma during August.

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