Cold Beer and Grilled Fish!
What could be better? If you're looking to try some salty, tasty sardines hot off the grill washed down with endless small glasses of ice cold beer, then Santurce is your place. It's commonly known as "that sardines place in the Rastro" thanks to its strategic location in the Sunday market, and many visitors (and locals) routinely pass up this gem, somewhat intimidated by the intensely crowded interior and surly Madrileño barmen.
It's worth it, though. You go in, order a couple of cold cañas and a ration of sardines (10-12), which are cooked up by a pair of old women on a flat iron grill. The sardines themselves are delicious. Now, I know that a lot of people (Americans and Canadians especially) aren't fond of sardines, lumping them into that "gross fish they used to put on pizza in the 1970s" category with anchovies (another delicacy, but I digress). But try them. The come out hot, flaky, and doused with a heavy hand of sea salt, and are to die for! The trick is to bend the sardine starting at the base of the tail, a technique which effortlessly separates the meat from the bone, and a true testament to the tenderness of these little fish.
