How can I possibly express the Platonic food perfection of Mesón Ibérico with the measly letters of a keyboard? This review is destined to be insufficient, for what I am trying to summarize here is the best meal of my entire life, which will never- I repeat, never - be outdone. Alas, I shall at least try.
I wasn't truly sold on Spanish food until my wife and I stumbled upon the Mesón Ibérico few years ago on a lazy Saturday afternoon the day before heading home to the US after a great stay in Morocco and Andalucía. Yes, I always liked tapas and some of the core ingredients of Spanish cuisine - aceite de olivo, jamón, manchego, anchoas - but I never had experienced them together as an orchestrated symphony of flavors in a single dining experience.
We were staying at the Barceló and looking for a place in walking distance. Wandering through a seedy neighborhood, we thought we were going to have to settle for something mediocre, and we saw the Mesón. It had just opened, and looked surprisingly clean and inviting for the neighborhood, so we sat down at the bar prepared for something humble and adequate.
Moments after taking our seats and being saluted by the camareros, low and behold: trays and buckets of delicacies began to appear on the counter in front of us, as the barmen finished setting up. Fresh-made spinach and pine nut croquettes. Live razor clams (tongues sticking out and moving around) ready to be boiled. Fresh from the tree cracked green olives in brine. Lomo and chorizo. A glorious leg of jamón ibérico. Fresh cigalas (small lobsters),ripe fruits, a sumptuous tortilla, and grilled and marinated setas (large mushrooms). I could go on and on. The friendly barmen began to hand us different tapas as we sipped on dry rosado wine, and they laughed as our eyes grew with astonishment and we ordered more and more. My wife and I are foodies and are not easily impressed, and yet we felt luckier and than Mario Batali on one of his adventures into Italy.
Glass of tinto, followed by a tapa of jamón...glass of blanco, along side a plate of manila clams sauteed in garlic and white wine...glass of port, a plate of fresh fruit..and on, and on and on.... The bar filled up to the point that locals were reaching over us through the crowd to hand bartenders their euros, eagerly eying our seats as if we had any intention to leave. A jolly Spanish businessman and frequent traveler squeezed in next to me, offered me a cigarette, and told me we had found the best tapas bar in all of Spain. I believed him, and still do.
When the experience was over, we were 90 euros poorer, and needed a wheel barrow to get back to our hotel, but it was oh so worth every stomach discomfort and coin spent. We relive this experience over and over again every time we talk about our great meals together, and to this day continue to plot ways to fly back to Europe through Málaga, if only to stop at the Mesón for a few hours... Spanish food is now king in my world. read more