Doesn't TaZte Like Chicken

Location: Barcelona, Spain

Author: My Husband

Barcelona is a beautiful city, and because it was our first time visiting, we spent more days here than in any other cities on this trip. The five days we were in Barcelona allowed us to visit the sights at a leisurely pace, and also enabled us to explore and taste more of the local food. We did take “leisurely” to a bit of an extreme though, as there were one or two days where we didn’t leave the hotel until the afternoon – but hey, it’s a vacation after all.

Because we did not do much planning for the trip, we toured the city in a very ad-hoc fashion. We even eschewed the guide books in favour of locating points of interest on tourist maps and of googling terms like “five days in Barcelona”. The results returned from such searches were quite helpful, and provided us with a recommended list of things to do. If you should find yourself in the same situation, you can save a lot of time by googling for other travelers’ suggestions instead of reading an entire guidebook.

Though we didn’t plan the tour itinerary for the city, there were several things we knew we wanted to do. (1) We wanted to visit the famous Gaudi works. (2) We wanted to visit the National Art Museum of Catalonia. (3) We wanted to eat a lot of tapas. And armed information gleaned from our tourist map and our nifty little netbook, we managed to do all that.

I had written about two works of Gaudi in my last post. Those works were whimsical, fun, and childlike in many ways. However, Gaudi’s most famous work – the Sagrada Familia – does not exhibit any of the aforementioned qualities. Indeed, the Sagrada Familia, shown below, feels gothic and somewhat foreboding. I cannot ascribe any childlike qualities to the cathedral at all, unless the child in question is a very young Tim Burton…

This is the older facade of the Sagrada Familiar, which was built in the late 1800s/early 1900s. A quick lookup on Wikipedia will show that construction work on the Sagrada has been ongoing for 120+ years. The work is supposed to be completed in 2026.

This is the newer facade of the cathedral – not sure when construction work was begun. While the overall spirit of the design is in keeping with the old facade, you can see that the details are vastly different. I’m not too fond of the style (see photo below) used for the statues on this side of the building; it may be somebody’s idea of modern gothic, but it reminds me too much of Stalinist-style monuments.

The interior of the Sagrada is still being worked on, though with what seems like a skeleton crew. There is still a lot of finishing work to be done, but many major structures seem to be in place. There is a lot of intricate detail work in the columns and ceiling, and I didn’t understand what the inspiration for these details was until we happened upon a small exhibit in one of the wings of the Sagrada. Gaudi, as it turns out, was heavily influenced by nature, and many designs found in nature are adapted and reflected in his works. In the case of the Sagrada, the details in the ceiling is supposed to remind you of tree canopies in a dense forest. The columns are of course, the trunks of the trees, and the oval shapes jutting out from the columns are supposed to be reminiscent of the joints in trees from which branches sprout. After it was explained, it made a lot more sense.

Interspersed with the sightseeing was, of course, the food. Here are some of the tapas that we had at Mikel Etxea, a restaurant on a sidestreet just off the Rambla. The food there was traditional journeyman-like tapas, not the OMG experience that Cal Pep was. However, because tapas was still pretty novel to us, we thought everything tasted very good. The other thing about Mikel Etxea is that it is rather expensive – but it’s par for the course for a joint catering mainly to tourists. We should have known better, but we got tired of walking… Here’s what we had.

A half litre of draft San Miguel for me.

Mussels in a tomato sauce. The shellfish was nicely fresh and plump, and the tomato sauce was good for dipping bread with.

Meat on a stick. On the left, we have pork; on the right, lamb. Spanish chefs do wonders with pork, and we both liked the pork better.

Another potato omelette. This was our “carb” for the meal.

Deep fried chili and jamon on bread. This was sorta blah…

Deep fried calamari rings. Crispy batter outside, tender squid inside. Nicely seasoned. Yummy.

Sliced octopus served on a bed of potatoes. Very tender and slightly stronger in taste than squid.

Finally, a whole sea bream cooked on the plancha. The fish was cooked just right – the meat was flaky and tender, and tasted fresh and sweet. A winner, this dish.

Between all the tapas eating, we spent an afternoon browsing the exhibits at the National Art Museum of Catalonia, which is housed in the Palau Nacional on Montjuic hill. A 8.50 Euro ticket allows admission for two days, and is a pretty good deal. Except for Picasso, Dali, and Miro, we weren’t familiar with Spanish art at all. Until I visited the museum, I thought the Spanish were only interested in Surrealism! The museum showcased the works of many Spanish masters, and all I can say is that the French and Italians were probably better at marketing their artists. The exhibits that I saw in the museum will easily hold their own compared to the works of many of the Italian/French masters…

This is the Palau Nacional on Montjuic, home to the National Art Museum of Catalonia.

A view of the city from the doorstep of the Palau Nacional.

Also on Montjuic, an extended stone’s throw from the Palau Nacional, is the 1992 Olympic Stadium.

In addition to Montjuic, we visited a park on another hill – Park Guell. This particular park is famous because many of the structures in the park were designed by Gaudi; you can see from the photos below that unlike the Sagrada, childlike whimsy is again the order of the day.

Not sure what this grotto is for, but it makes good echos.

With our visit to Barcelona drawing to a close on this trip, we decided to have tapas for the rest of our meals in the city. The evening before we left, we had the following dishes at Ciudad Condal on Rambla de Catalunya, which is an avenue that extends north of La Rambla. This place is cheaper than Mikel Etxea, and caters to both tourists and locals alike. The food here is ever so slightly more satisfying than at Mikel Etxea, but it’s also no Cal Pep. Ciudad Condal also has a large selection of international beers, and most are priced very reasonably. For instance, a 375ml bottle of Heineken was just 2.50 Euro, which even after currency conversion, is cheaper than in Canada.

Believe it or not, we had more Iberico.

These deep fried chili peppers are a common tapas item. I don’t know what the varietal is, but it tastes almost as mild as a green bell pepper when eaten. The tiny amount of heat, together with its slightly crisp exterior and chewy flesh, combined to make these peppers very addictive to eat (once you start, you can’t stop!). We had two orders of these that evening.

Deep fried squid. Pretty standard stuff, good but not outstanding.

Grilled razor clams, or Navajas in Spanish. These were bigger than the ones we had at Cal Pep; Ciudad Condal’s version did not have the smoky grilled flavour or the texture that Cal Pep’s did. However, these were still pretty good.

Deep fried whitebait. Fried till perfectly crisp, this was an excellent drinking dish.

These ham croquettes had a soft and runny mashed potato “wrapping” that held a payload of julienned ham. The very crisp breaded exterior, along with the gooey insides made this a very satisfying dish.

Pork chop sandwich; generous pieces of pork chops, with a slathering of cheese, on light crusty bread. My wife loved this – even more than her beloved 豬扒飽.

This foie gras sandwich was made with pate and a little blue cheese. It was scrumptious.

The day after was when we had to fly back to Paris to catch our flight to our third destination. But before heading to the airport, we wolfed down the following at yet another tapas place:

Grilled mushrooms that has nicely absorbed the flavours of the ham and herbs.

And another seafood paella. Excellent flavours again, but rather skimpy on the amount of seafood given. Ah well…

Barcelona is lovely. The people are warm, friendly and laid back. They know how to have a good time, and can cook circles around almost anybody else. There are lots of great food as well as lots of culture on offer. What’s not to like? Before we left for the airport, my wife said, “Let’s come back here again.” And I couldn’t agree more.

I’m sure that sentiment is shared by many others. Even Roman Abramovich likes Barcelona – we saw his yacht – Pelorus – sitting in Barcelona harbour.

The very sleek and very pretty Pelorus. Only 300 million USD.

So, hasta luego Barcelona, until the next time…

Sunset over Montjuic.

And where are we headed to next? Home to this…

Fom here on in, the serious eating begins…

Location: Barcelona

Author: My Husband

Before coming to Barcelona, we knew that we wanted to eat at Cal Pep. We had heard many good things about it – one of the best tapas restaurants in Barcelona – on various media, but had never seen/heard/read a bad word uttered about it. It had to be worth a visit, right? So we knew we were going to Cal Pep for dinner the day after we arrived in Barcelona, but we weren’t sure what to do before dinnertime that day.

As we hadn’t had the time to plan our vacation itinerary, we knew we were going to go about it in an ad-hoc fashion after we arrived at our destinations. The day we arrived in Barcelona, we got a tourist map from the hotel concierge, picked out what we thought were interesting places, and made up a schedule for visiting them.

We started our second day off by going the La Boqueria Mercat (market that’s on Boqueria Street) just off La Rambla. Because we got there in the early afternoon, many of the market’s stalls were already closed, but enough businesses were still open to give us a sense of what the market is all about. La Boqueria Mercat is all about selling things that you can eat. Meat, seafood, veggies, fruits, dairy, tapas and other ready-to-eat foods – you name it, you can buy it here. Granville Island Market – eat your heart out. We bounced around from stall to stall, taking in the sights and smells that each had to offer. We bagged some gelato for me, and we also got some Iberico ham for my wife. Below, you can see the stall we bought our ham from, the vendor hand-slicing the ham to fill our order, as well as the different types/grades of hams on offer.

We got a small amount of the “Guijuelo” for Christina to snack on. You might recall that I mentioned Christina’s fondness for prosciutto? Well, she’s now a certified (perhaps certifiable) fan of Iberico jamon. She had it EVERY DAY when we were in Barcelona. She would have had it every meal if I hadn’t put a stop to the insanity…

Some other products sold at the mercat.

As far as I know, there isn’t an equivalent to the mercat in Vancouver. Like I said, Granville Island Market doesn’t come close.

Seeing all the food in the mercat really whetted our appetites, but we didn’t want to have too heavy of a meal since we were really anticipating our dinner at Cal Pep later in the day. So we wandered down the side streets of La Rambla in search of something light for an afternoon snack. We found Cafe Saula, and the following is what we had:

Next to the ham, this is perhaps the second-best known food item in Spain – churros and hot chocolate. The chocolate was thick, and it coated the churro perfectly. It was good, but no more than that. To be perfectly honest, my wife makes a hot chocolate at home using a combination of Valrhona chocolate, cocoa powder, and cream that is way richer and more chocolaty that what Cafe Saula served.

The lemon cake was very good. The cake had a good texture, and the cream was nicly lemony without tasting of artificial flavorings.

After our brief pitstop, we walked north up the Rambla to check out some of Gaudi’s work. It’s original, whimsical, and utterly original. Unlike say the form-follows-function and engineering prowess of a Frank Lloyd Wright, Gaudi’s works are flights of pure whimsy. While you don’t get the sense that great feats of civil engineering have been achieved in Gaudi’s two buildings below, you do feel happy looking at them because they appeal to the inner-child in all of us. The whimsical shapes and colours, the details – it’s as if somebody has taken a child’s design of a building, scaled it up, and built it. Very nice, and definitely worth visiting. In many sense, these two buildings below are very different from Gaudi’s later work on the Sagrada Familia – while these buildings are about fun and whimsy, the cathedral (which I’ll post about later) is all about gothic sensibilities that border on foreboding.

Casa Mila

Casa Batllo

After our visit, we made our way towards the part of the city that Cal Pep is located. The restaurant doesn’t take reservations for customers in groups of smaller than 6, so the only option for us was to get there early and wait in line. Because Cal Pep is a VERY small restaurant, the only way we could guarantee ourselves a first seating was to get there early and be one of the FIRST customers in line. But we were a little too efficient and were a little too early; so we decided to have a pre-dinner snack at Xaloc (restaurant we had dinner @ the night before) before heading over to Cal Pep. Here is what we had:

A giant plate of Iberico ham, and two glasses of Rioja. It is really important for the ham to be sliced into bite sized pieces – large pieces of it, even the good ham, just doesn’t taste as good. Xaloc did a really good job of carving the ham into the perfect size for us.

We finished our pre-dinner snack 45 mins before our reservation and high-tailed it to Cal Pep. We got to the restaurant at 7pm, a good half-hour before it’s opening time (and before there was even a line). So by default, we were first in line!! We picked a spot near the unopened doors of the restaurant to stand at, and kept a lookup for any other customers who might be evil enough to sneak into “line” ahead of us. But nobody did. The next group of people to arrive asked us if we were there to eat, and when we said we were, they formed a line behind us. And for the next half hour, the line grew and grew, and by the time the door was opened, there were about 40 people behind us.

When we arrived, the square the restaurant in which the restaurant is located was pretty empty. By 7:30pm, a 40+-long line of customers had formed.

We could hear the prep work going on behind the closed door.

The door finally opened at 7:40pm, five minutes after one of the waiters came up to try to raise it. For a whole five minutes, they had problems with the door retraction mechanism, and we were thinking we would crawl in through the windows if that was what it took to eat there!

As the first customers in line, we were seated at the far end of the bar, where all the expediting was done. Pep Menubens, the owner, took our orders himself. Since there wasn’t a written menu, we simply told Pep to order us a mixture of tapas that he thought we’d enjoy. We made sure to let him know that we wanted seafood. With a nod of his head, a swish of his pen, and several short orders to the kitchen in his raspy voice, Pep had our meal ordered and ready to go. We had no idea what was coming, but we had pretty high expectations….

This very drinkable Rioja was served first. I was a little puzzled as to why a bottle was served when I asked for a glass, but I decided to roll with it. When the bill came, I realized I was charged for every glass (@ a very reasonable 1.90 Euro/glass) that I poured. Very sensible way to dealing with it.

This tomato bread was next up. It was good, but not very different than what we had at Xaloc.

I took several bites of the bread, drank a little wine, and looked down the bar that we were seated at. The bar constitued the entire seating space of Cal Pep (save a small dining room in the back that was used for groups and VIPs – we didn’t see anybody seated in there that night). Only about 12 to 15 people were seated at the bar at a time, and the “second wave” of customers had to stand behind the people eating to wait their turn. About 20 people were waiting in the restaurant, and a whole bunch of others waiting outside the restaurant. So, if you plan to visit Cal Pep and don’t want to want, arrive early!!!

First dish of the evening – clams cooked in a ham/white wine sauce. This were the best clams we’ed ever eaten, bar none. The clams were super fresh, sweet, and perfectly complimented by the savory broth. The broth was soooo good we soaked it up with the tomato bread, and when that was finished, additional bread from the kitchen.

Next up, a plate of simply fried squid, fish, and small prawns. Everything was *perfectly* fried – it was all crisp, light, and displayed no signs of excess oil. The natural flavours of the squid, fish, and prawns were highlighted and enhanced by the deep-frying, and everything could be eaten. We ate the prawns whole (heads and everything), and the entire body/tail of the fish. The fish heads, we didn’t eat (though we probably could have).

Next up came a plate of fried artichokes. Christina and I don’t like artichokes much, but we finished up this dish. The fry job was perfect, but the ingredient, to our tastes, is inherently flawed. So, this was the only dish of the evening that we didn’t feel 100% satisfied with.

Next up, a dish comprising chick peas, squid, chicken, and mussels in a white wine sauce. This was also awesome, with the squid perfectly tender, the mussels perfectly cooked and the chick peas soaking up all the flavours. I can’t help feeling this is Pep’s take on the classic French cassoulet, except made with chick peas.

Next up, the star of the evening – grilled razor clams. So awesome, I’m at a loss for words. Just… awesome.

Last dish of the evening – braised hake with potatoes. The fish was perfectly (note I used the words perfectly quite a few times?) cooked, tender and flaky, with a slight amount of heat from the chillis.

Our tummies were overflowing at this point, but we ordered a dessert to share as well. We got this giant crema catalana. Unlike vanilla flavoured creme brulee, this one had an anise-y/lemon-y flavour to it. It also had an airier, less heavy, texture than creme brulee. It was very good, and I enjoyed it.

After dessert, we settled our bill, and stumbled out of the restaurant into the square where there were another 20+ people waiting. I had a huge smile on my face, and was feeling very pleased with having had dinner at Cal Pep; the food was perfect, the service was friendly, and it was pretty good value for money. It has been a very long time since I’ve had such a satisfying meal, and it will be one that we will remember for a while. This restaurant definitely merits a re-visit, and we are definitely looking forward to it.

Having dinner at Cal Pep was a memorable experience. Besides the exceptional food, we were given really good service. We had a server who waited by our seats almost through our entire meal. When we needed water, he poured it into our glass without us asking. When we asked him about certain dishes, he explained with a smile. The food at Cal Pep is rustic, but the service is comparable to that of fine-dining.

- Christina

Location: Barcelona

Author: My Husband

An Air France A320 took us from Paris to Barcelona. For a short flight of just over an hour, they conducted a quick and complimentary meal service, consisting of a sandwich and drinks (which included alcoholic beverages). All this, without having to deal with buy-on-board, all for a fare that was cheaper than flying from Vancouver to Calgary. There are some lessons for Air Canada here for sure.

Air France flights leave from terminal 2 at Charles de Gaulle airport, which is the most modern and likely most efficient of CDG’s three terminals. No tubelike walkways to deal with here, although in typical CDG fashion, they put some ad hoc security measures in place to ensure that passenger traffic wouldn’t flow smoothly. An example: armed guards carrying sub-machine guns were posted in front of the only escalator leading to the departures area from the CDGVAL train, forcing passengers to drag heavy luggage on an elongated detour through the arrivals area with no instructions on getting back to the check-in area. Lots of confused and/or unhappy travellers that day, especially those who didn’t speak French or English.

A word of advice if you find yourself travelling through CDG – get to the airport early, very early. Murphy’s Law has a special affinity for CDG, I tell ya. On a previous business trip to Paris, I was flying out of terminal 1 for Canada; in somebody’s infinite wisdom, a decision was made to deploy only 3 passport control officers to process a line of passengers that must have stretched 400 – 500 deep. After 2 hrs of waiting in line, I was nowhere near the front of the queue, and my flight was about to leave. Fortunately, I was in good company as a group of about 50 other Air Canada passengers were stuck in the line with me. It took the herculean effort of the local Air Canada agent, plus airport personnel, to convince the passport control agents to process us first. That day, the flight was delayed by 1 hr to allow the group of us stuck in the line to make it onto the flight. This, despite the fact that I was checked-in at the airport almost 3 hrs before my flight time. So get to CDG early if you are travelling out of that airport.

Happily, Barcelona airport’s terminal 1 where we landed was a complete contrast to CDG. It is brand spanking new, efficient, and a breeze to navigate. Despite it being a huge terminal, signs were clearly marked, traffic flow was excellent, and the many automated traveletors made things easy and convenient for passengers. Getting off the plane, retrieving our luggage, and getting a cab took no time at all, and it made a really good first impression of Barcelona on us.

Tip: Unlike Paris, Barcelona’s taxis are a bit cheaper. Where it would take at least 50 Euros to get from Paris’ CDG to say the Etoile area, it would take approx 30 Euros to take a cab from Barcelona’s BCN to the city centre. If you don’t fancy taking a bus or a train (especially if you have heavy luggage to handle), cabs are a better idea than airport shuttles.

Our hotel in Barcelona, located in a residential part of the city, turned out pretty well. As you can see from the photos below, it is modern and very clean. What’s more, the staff was very professional and friendly. The closest metro stop was a 5 min walk away, and it only took 10 mins to get to La Rambla on the metro. We were pleasantly surprised, and also quite happy with the hotel.

The hotel has a clean and sleek design that is unabashedly modern and chic. While targeted at business travellers, it also works out quite well for vacationers.

A small and homey neighbourhood cafe near the hotel was where we had our very first Spanish meal. A cafe con leche (it’s really just a cafe latte, but made with a slightly milder roast than in Italy) and a croissant combo was on offer for 1.85 Euros. We got two of those, as well as a seafood paella.

The coffee is very comforting; the beans used are roastly pretty lightly, much more lightly than a typical Starbucks roast. It would be easy to make at home. A typical caffe in Spain costs 1.20 to 1.50 Euros. Spanish croissants are more meaty and less flaky than their French cousins, but are every bit as good.

This is not the prettiest of paellas. It didn’t have a lot of meat or seafood in it, but it was very flavourful. It was cooked with arborio rice, and has a consistency very similar to that of risotto. Many restaurants in Barcelona advertise their paellas using a set of standard photos – much like many sushi restaurants use the same table foldouts to show customers what the different types of sushi looks like.

After our meal, we headed out to La Rambla to check out this most famous street. This area seemed to be popular with both tourists and locals alike, and has the feel of a street carnival. Many buskers and street performers work this stretch, and some command large crowds. The performances tend to be in the vein of acting like statues, or some fairy-taled themed creatures, and reacting to the audience’s cash contributions.

There are many restaurants and stores selling knick-knacks lining both sides of La Rambla. This being Spain, many restaurants have also set up al-fresco areas for customers who want to eat outside, or who want to smoke when eating. Smoking cigarettes seems to be a lot more common in Europe than in Canada, but many tourist-area restaurants have now prohibited smoking indoors.

Walking around La Rambla that afternoon, as well as checking out some of the alleys that lead off the main street allowed us to work up a pretty good appetite. By evening, we had wandered into the narrow alleys of the Barri Gottic section of Barcelona, and we just picked a restaurant at random in which to have dinner. The Barri Gotic is the section of the city in which this Cathedral is located.

We happened across this one place – Xaloc – that specializes in Iberico ham. My wife, who really likes prosciutto, came to Barcelona with the intention of eating through all the differerent types of jamon Barcelona and to offer, and it didn’t take much to convince her to eat here. It turns out that Xaloc was a serendipitous choice, because it was here that we found the most value-for-money Iberico hams. While not the cheapest, this placed served the best Iberico ham, by far, that we had in Barcelona. Food prices in Barcelona are much more reasonable compared to those in Paris, and we felt that we were getting very good value for money for the most part.

Here are the tapas we had that evening:

This was truly good Iberico ham (reserva D.O.Guijuelo). It was nicely shaved by hand, with a good distribution of meat and fat on each thin slice. It has more bite and structure than prosciutto, and it also has more richness and complexity (it has a hint of woodiness to it) than prosciutto. And unlike prosciutto, it is not overly salty at all.

This is a popular tapas item. It’s potatoes and eggs, with some bits of ham in it. It was nice, but nothing very special.

This Iberian Chorizo is also very good – not overly salty, but with the right amount of spice in it. Also, it has a good proportion of meat to fat, and it has a hit of nutty flavour.

This is a catalonian pork and onion black pudding. It is very rich, and does not have any of the coppery taste that some other black puddings have.

Tomato bread. This is also very popular, and seem to be the main carb to have when eating tapas.

Over roasted red pepper and eggplant. It was tasty, but also not extremely special.

This is Iberico loin. It is not as flavourful as the ham – it doesn’t have the same richness or complexity.

Finally, we had some manchego cheese to finish off the meal.

By and large, with the exception of the ham, each tapas cost between 2 and 4.50 Euros. The preparation was simple and yet delicious, a common thread that we would find with all restaurant food in Barcelona. Barcelona tapas may not have the same sophicatication as French food, but the simple preparation allows the tase of the fresh ingredients to shine through. We loved it.

The day after we had the above meal, we went to eat at one of Barcelona’s most popular tapas restaurant, Cal Pep. O.M.G. Stay tuned for that post.