City Spotlight :: Barcelona

Brace yourself folks, this is going to be a long one!

our first night of exploring Barcelona

 Barcelona is the capital of the Autonomous Community of Catalonia, and the second largest city in Spain after Madrid. Catalonians, like the Basques, are extremely proud of their autonomous community. The Catalonia flag is everywhere, proudly waving or draped outside balconies, and Catalan (not Castilian) is spoken here.

Barcelona is a feast for the senses. Quite literally. Let me show you...

[Smells] The salty ocean breeze, the scent of grilled and fried seafood emerging from restaurants, the warm yeast from the many bakeries (patisseries) with their hard to resist baked goods

[Touch] The warm sand and cool Mediterranean ocean water.

[Sounds] Random musicians playing their tunes out on the street, or in the metro. The loud clucking of little green parrots that live here. The different languages that are spoken on the streets (there are a ton of people, mostly tourists).

[Sights]

There is TOO MUCH to see here. I had a very busy 2 1/2 days, but I probably covered only the major sights.

Antonio Gaudí - a famous Catalan architect known for his modernisme designs. His work is scattered about in Barcelona.

 
La Sagrada Familia, his most famous, and still unfinished, church.

Casa Batlló

Casa Milá

Parc Güell

Merkat de La Boquería - This open market was AMAZING! Rows upon rows of fruits, candy, nuts, seafood ... you name it.

It was a bustling and vibrant marketplace; very colorful and loud. I drank some freshly made coconut juice and ate a piece of Catalan nougat. If my stomach was not already full from dinner, I would have tried a piece of everything!






















Barcelona´s beach - it´s a small but beautiful stretch of sand opening out to the Mediterranean sea. The water was so calm and cool. It felt like a backyard swimming pool. The water was the perfect temperature for a leisurely swim and the sun was just hot enough for a tan/nap.

La Rambla - Barcelona´s infamous street (infamous for pickpocketing). It is probably the most crowded part of town. It is filled with street performers and people dressed up in crazy outfits. There are small kiosks selling everything from birds, rabbits, flowers, ice cream and horchata.

[Taste]

Barcelona has great eats. More precisely, Barcelona has great people who are eager to recommend great eats.

Case in point # 1 - Can Culleretes

On our second day in Barcelona, we had our hearts set on eating freshly cooked seafood from La Boqueria market. We bookmarked two restaurants that came highly recommended in our guidebook. To our dismay, the market was closed for National Catalan Day! We really did not have a plan B, so we wandered around for about an hour, trying to find a restaurant that was (a) open during the holiday, and (b) not so touristy, because touristy equals bad food with high prices.

On a whim, my brilliant roommate J decided to ask a waiter inside a bar for recommendations. Though he did not understand what we were asking, a petite lady came up to us and gave us directions to a restaurant specializing in Catalan cuisine. She even assured us that the restaurant would be open for the holiday. We trekked our way to the restaurant, found that it was not open for lunch for another 45 minutes, but decided to wait. We went to a nearby cafe and had dessert first.

egg flan with homemade whipped cream

When we went back, the restaurant was packed with people (mostly locals, which was a great sign). We shared a starter plate of fried baby squids, an entree of grilled mariscos (seafood), and a bottle of house recommended vino blanco.

the grilled seafood platter

Oh, we also had dessert # 2!

crema catalan - a catalan twist on creme brulee

It was a memorable meal, to say the least. It turns out that the little lady who recommended this restaurant was actually a waitress there!

there she is! Isn't she adorable?

Case in point #2 - El Dique

In addition to eating great mariscos, J and I had another food mission: to find and eat paella. I know that the best paella is in Valencia, but a friend from Barcelona informed us that paella by Barcelona's beach is a must. We decided to ask another local for paella recommendations. We asked a guy working at the tourist information booth who told us about a paella restaurant that he personally had not tried but heard good things about. That sounded okay to us, so we wrote down the name of the restaurant and went on our merry way towards the beach. About halfway there, we realized that it might be difficult to find the restaurant without further directions, so we asked two policemen if they knew where the restaurant was. When we told them the name of the restaurant, they kind of wrinkled their noses and said that the restaurant was too touristy and not that great. Instead, they recommended two other restaurants and gave us directions. We ran into El Dique first, so decided to eat there.

paella de mariscos

sangria

We finished it all, every last bit of rice. I have wanted to eat paella in Spain ever since Spanish 1 in my freshman year of high school. After 12 years, my dream of eating paella in Spain has finally come true!

Case in point #3 - Taller de Tapas

For our last meal in Barcelona, we asked the shopkeeper of a really cute dessert cafe for recommendations. She directed us to a cozy tapas restaurant. The food was on the pricey side, but we were not that hungry. We ordered three tapas and a bottle of vino rosé (see a recurring theme here?).

sizzling chorizo cooked in Asturian cidrá

fresh sardines with parsley

rosé

Afterwards, I finished the night off with horchata (ortxata), another Catalan specialty. I did not know this before but it is a drink made from a chufa nut. Quite tasty!

Lesson from Barcelona - never hesitate to ask the locals for food recommendations. Chances are, you will not be disappointed.

Here are a few more food pictures, mostly pintxos from various places in Barcelona.

Left: salted cod fritter.  Right: swordfish

steamed mussels and fries

 

That was a long post. I hope you got a glimpse of Barcelona through this post.

Besos,
Pris