One advantage of using Madrid as a base and making daytrips to surrounding places is that you can have dinner at great restaurants every night, rather than being stuck in a town like Toledo where you have to eat partridge all day. Tonight's dinner was at El Chaflan, in the far north of Madrid. Spanish food is at the forefront of the new wave of "molecular gastronomy", where food is run through a science lab and transformed into foams and gels and served in weird ways with complicated instructions. This movement was started by a restaurant outside Barcelona, El Bulli, which is regularly rated among the top few restauarants in the world. When we were in Spain, almost every restaurant was affected by this trend in some way, and El Chaflan was a major proponent of this in Madrid. The room itself was attractive, minimalist decor with a big open kitchen dominating the space. Service was prompt, but sullen and robotic, which was somewhat depressing since as usual we were the only customers. I say as usual because of the Spanish habit of eating exceedingly late, and the jetlagged tourist habit of eating early. Actually we aimed for 8 or 9 pm every night but it was several hours too early for most restaurants, which is a tough adjustment. Anyway, back to the food, it was excellent, and, for better or worse, nowhere near as strange as I'd hoped. Best dish of the night was a strangely spiced lamb and couscous dish, and lots of seafood that was uniformly tasty. The strangest dish of the night, and also one of my favorites, was the beef ice cream with lettuce sauce. (Food: 19, Decor: 15, Service: 10)