When I first moved to Madrid, I had a few initial goals: get an apartment, make new friends, and find a badass bakery where I could satisfy my carb cravings—not necessarily in that order. I don’t know what it is, but there’s something about bread that makes me feel right at home. For me, it’s the ultimate comfort food and the simplest culinary pleasure. So when I moved to a new city thousands of miles from home, finding good bread was clearly a priority.

Luckily for me, it didn’t take long. Soon after I moved into my apartment in Lavapiés, I stumbled upon the perfect place entirely by chance. Panifiesto doesn’t look like much from the outside—or the inside, for that matter. It’s a minuscule, minimalist space on the corner of Calle Mesón de Paredes and Calle Juanelo. The tiny storefront features a bench and a counter, behind which the fresh bread is displayed on tall metal shelves. If you peek through the loaves, you can see the magic happening in the kitchen in the back.

When it comes to bread, I’ve learned that simple is almost always better, and Panifiesto confirms that conclusion. All they do is bread—no pastries, empanadas, or even tostadas. You can’t come here for breakfast or a drink with friends. In fact, you might not even notice it if you aren’t specifically looking.

They offer around five to eight varieties each day: wheat, whole wheat, rye, spelt, baguettes, and gallego (half wheat, half rye) are almost always available. Some days they also have tritordeum (a grain that’s a combination of wheat and barley), seeded (full of poppy seeds, sunflower seeds, and more), and heavenly golden-hued corn bread (my personal favorite). Also look out for seasonal specialties, like the raisin, rosemary, and honey loaves they offered last Semana Santa.

The prices are, naturally, a bit more than you might be used to paying for bread: €1.35 for a baguette or €3-5 for a full loaf. You can also buy half a loaf for half the price, and they’ll slice it for you if you ask!

So what exactly makes this bread special? The short answer is that it’s made with masa madre. If you’re as gluten-obsessed as I am, you know what that means. If not, pay attention, because this is important. There’s not an easy English equivalent for this term. The closest thing we have is “sourdough,” but while all sourdough is pan de masa madre, not all pan de masa madre is what you might think of as sourdough.

Essentially, it means that the bread is made without chemical leaveners like baking powder—just flour, water, and salt. It rises due to the natural bacteria in the dough (sometimes called a pre-ferment or “mother dough”), making it denser and lending it a slightly sour flavor. You can bake any kind of bread with this method, as you can see from the variety of options on offer at Panifiesto.

Have I convinced you yet? If not, I dare you to go to this place and not immediately fall in love. Forget about the sad, stale barras at your local alimentación, set aside a few extra euros, and indulge in some of the best bread money can buy. It’s worth it.

Info

• Website & Facebook
• Phone:  694 44 90 20
• Address: Calle Mesón de Paredes, 10
• Metro: Tirso de Molina & La Latina

Madrid is a city that loves its bread. On nearly every block you’re likely to encounter the mouth-watering aroma of freshly baked barras, baguettes, and pastries wafting out of one of the city’s many panaderías. But if you’re looking for something beyond the standard selection, you’ll be happy to know that there’s a new trend sweeping the streets of the capital: artisanal bakeries.

At the forefront of this fad is MOEGA, an authentic Galician bakery opened just over a year ago by Manoel Cabana and Jon Padrón. Its storefront in Barrio de Las Letras is minimalist and unassuming, perhaps reflecting the simplicity of its concept: to bring traditional Galician baking methods to Madrid. According to one customer, MOEGA’s bread tastes just like something her grandmother might make—a hearty, flavorful, handmade staple made from nothing more than flour, salt, water, and a lot of love.

During a rare respite from the constant flow of customers, I was lucky enough to have the chance to talk with Manoel. He explained that in Galicia bread is often still made in the traditional way, without the artificial leavening agents found in mass-produced products. Instead, the loaves are made with masa madre and left to ferment naturally due to the lactic acid bacteria present in the dough. The result is moist, flavorful, and slightly sour—perfect for toast, sandwiches, or just devouring straight from the bag.

MOEGA offers several different varieties of bread, from simple bollos to centeno (rye) to maíz con pasas (cornbread with raisins) and even the occasional preñao (a mini loaf stuffed with chorizo).

But what truly makes this place stand out from the rest is their other specialty: Galician empanadas, double-crusted delicacies that bear more resemblance to large savory pies than the bite-size empanadas you might be used to.

Here you can stick to classic flavors or sample something more creative; filling options include beef, tuna, veggies, octopus, scallops, sardines, and cod with raisins. If you’ve never tried empanadas gallegas, this is definitely the place to do it.

Prices range from €0.60 for a bollito to €3.60 for a massive loaf, and the empanadas are priced by the whole unit from €16 to €23. It’s a small price to pay for a truly authentic taste of Galicia. And if you don’t have your own Galician granny to bake for you, MOEGA is certainly the second best thing.

Info

• Facebook & Instagram
• Address: Calle León, 26
• Phone: 633 13 30 25
• Metro: Antón Martín
• Hours: Monday to Friday 10:00-15:00 & 18:00-21:00, Saturday 10:00-15:00, closed Sunday

When I used to live right near the Museo Sorolla and took the Number 16 bus every morning to work, I had to be out the door in time for my first coffee run before the bus would take me over the Castellana to Chamartín. Like clockwork, I would be out of my apartment around 7:55 so that I could be one of the first in line at 8 AM sharp when the doors of the Pancomido Café would open. I would walk in, order my coffee with skim milk and sweetener in a to-go cup, and as I had the amount it cost memorized, have the change ready to give out at a moment’s notice so I could merrily sip my coffee as I fell asleep on the bus to the colegio.

Sometimes, on Saturday mornings, I would drink that coffee more slowly (and albeit in a much more madrileño manner than a New York one) while one of my friends would order a croissant with raspberry jam and butter, but I stuck with my coffee. But the robin egg blue (or better Tiffany blue) inside and out with the menu items offered on a blackboard allured me.

One of the biggest disappointments of having to move after the holidays was not being able to stop there on my daily commute. After my move, I decided to have a breakfast adventure to celebrate being able to actually order something other than coffee.

Besides coffee with skim milk (and having skim milk is a vital component of my coffee consumption), Pancomido has a whole variety of breads and pastries.

As you can tell…

The French-style pastries look absolutely exquisite (even though I can’t have any), and you can take my friend’s glowing recommendation for croissants as proof.

If you happen to be in the vicinity for lunch, there are also a number of salads and sandwiches as well as soups that look like an excellent little menú.

The Zurbano location has plenty of seating space in the back which I have taken full advantage of reading The New York Times on my iPad on one of those weekend mornings after a long, hard workout at the gym.

If you’re on the other side of the Castellana in Barrio de Salamanca, there’s another Pancomido very close to IE Business School and the US Embassy.

Your bread will most certainly be eaten up, as the name pan comido implies, and your little breakfasts wil have an extra spring in your step.