Doesn’t TaZte Like Chicken

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