When we arrived at our hostal in Segovia (Spanish hostals are between hostels and hotels in terms of comfort, amenities, and price), the very nice lady at reception was very excited to inform us that we were just in

time for “La Semana del Dorado,” or Golden Week.  We only understood a small percentage of her enthusiastic explanation in Spanish, catching only the terms cochinillo and half-price.  Turns out, cochinillo is the Segovian specialty of roasted suckling pig, and we just happened to be there for the five days of the year where the restaurants that serve it offer it at half the usual price.  At this point, four weeks into the trip, we hadn’t had a restaurant meal yet.  Most of our meals had been cooked at home at our Airbnb apartment, and we’d had tapas for a few meals, but those were usually consumed standing or while perched precariously on bar stools.  We decided to indulge in a sit-down, white-tablecloth meal to try this famous cochinillo.   We didn’t want to disappoint the reception lady.  She seemed so excited for us.

Cochinillo

We ate at El Sitio, which was conveniently a few doors down from our hostal.  Normally, we enjoy walking around a city to see the architecture and the people, but it was snowing and the brick streets were treacherous, so we appreciated the short distance.  

We arrived a little after 20:00 (8 PM), and while the bar area had some people, the restaurant upstairs was deserted.  We’d been so proud of ourselves for holding out until 8, and it was still too early for Spaniards.  #earlybirdspecial

Craig ordered cochinillo for one, which is a quarter of a regular cochinillo.  If we’d ordered for four, we would have gotten a whole piglet, and I do mean whole – nose, hooves, and all – on our table.  I am not as adventurous, so I ordered gambas al ajillo, shrimp in garlic.

The verdict?  First of all, I was grossed out by the fact that the cochinillo comes with a foot.  This is not a dish for reluctant carnivores, to be sure.  Craig and I were both struck by the fact that while the meat was really moist, it did not taste like pork at all but more like fatty poultry.  It wasn’t bad, but it also wasn’t particularly flavorful.  I think the biggest selling point is the crispy skin, but we were underwhelmed and didn’t feel the need to try it at any of the other 20 or restaurants offering the half-price deal. It was nice to have a restaurant meal with excellent service, and by the time we left, the restaurant had filled up a bit.

Free tapas and expensive dinners

We spent a month in Madrid, so we are very familiar with tapas.  When the lady at our hotel informed us that the custom in Segovia is to get free tapas with your drink, we just sort of nodded dismissively – yeah, yeah, we know – a few pieces of chorizo or some chips, maybe a bowl of olives.  Nope!  That is not how it works here.  You order a drink, which could be wine or beer but also coffee or agua con gas, and then you pick what you want a portion of.  Everything is in a glass case on the bar, so if you are feeling brave you can just point without asking what something is. (I’ll let you guess how this played out with Craig and me.  One of us definitely asked for more details.)  

 It’s still a small plate, but the quantity was more generous than what we would get in Madrid, and in Madrid we never got the chance to pick what we got.  It wasn’t just in the evenings, either.  We were shocked one morning to find out that our delicious breakfast of tortilla (for me) and chorizo with potatoes (for Craig) was only €2,80 for both of us (roughly $3.50 at the current depressing exchange rate).  This is because our food came free with our cafes con leche.  Granted, this was not a large breakfast, but it was tasty and filling enough, and our food plus two coffees cost about what we’d pay for one coffee at Starbucks.

The meals, on the other hand, seemed pricier than Madrid.  Even the menu del dia, which is a set price deal where you pick from a limited number of choices for first plate and second plate, seemed to start around €17 per person at most places and went up from there.  In Madrid, the menus del dia had been in the €11-15 range, only going higher in the fancy places like hotel restaurants.  My theory is that this is how Segovian restaurants make up for the tapas they’re giving away.  It seemed like most of the locals were eating at the bar, so that’s mostly what we did as well.  It was kind of crazy that our options were to spend €4-8 on drinks with free tapas for the two of us or €40-50 if we wanted to sit down and order from the menu.  The food was slightly different on the main menu, but there was a lot of overlap, too.