Josep Pla spent two long periods in Madrid. The first as a correspondent in 1921 From the entries made ​​at the time the author was born Madrid, 1921 A diary, a book that was written in 1928 in Stockholm Pla dove into life in Madrid with its close and we look offers a portrait of manners of the time. By the book parade great intellectuals, like Unamuno, Ortega and Ramón Gómez de la Serna. In fact, Pla attended gatherings the most emblematic of the era, such as the Pombo, and mentions in this book. Some postcards relatives of Madrid, as the morning parade of officials to their jobs, or popular verbanes in parks also appear. "If I understand well, it is to know which of these two things is objectively the best. Carn d'olla defends a Catalan journalist who is in Madrid to not know what daily newspapers. A stiffly comic tenor of a popular theater in Madrid defends the Castilian cooked. Discussion gets heated and a great hubbub is armed. Both sides of the arguments are presented that characteristic confusion of controversy in the country. In the dining room the views are divided into the general din. - That cabbage!And that dumpling! Who can have courage to question the qualities of that dumpling - says journalist putting almost eyes. - Cabbage And what? And chickpeas? What do you tell me chickpeas - answer, indignant, the comic tenor Castilian. When it comes to desserts, the comic tenor rapidly gaining ground because of environmental pressure. In gainsaying it has little encouragement to bow out gracefully. This kind of absurd arguments, our lives alas - is paved. When politics is not like running almost always does, everything ends up in the discussion of the carn d'Catalan and Castilian cooking pot. And so the years go by, lost, useless, wasted. "