Restaurant BotÃn doesn’t just claim to be the oldest restaurant in the world, it’s got the Guinness World Book of Records seal to back it up. Ordinarily such a boast would have me charging in the opposite direction quicker than you could say toro but I have been reading Hemingway in Madrid and the final scene of The Sun Also Rises takes place over a suckling pig at BotÃn. Something about the sudden confluence made dinner a much more authentic prospect than previously imagined. And an appealing one, too, despite having to dine at the unfashionably early hour – by Madrileño standards anyway – of 8PM. Any mention of the establishment, from literary to culinary, takes pains to highlight the cochinillo, or roast suckling pig, and you’d be a fool not to try it. Cooked in wood-fired ovens in the vaulted cellar it’s yet one more elegant Spanish ode to the tastiness of the pig.
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