Barcelona Tapas Tour II

Swedish translation here

 

Tapas Tour is our way of life (ok, not that extreme but something close ;-), and anytime the city organizes it we are in ! Estrella Damm is actually the one in charge of this currently event in Barcelona. Remember that we already attended one Tapas tour in the city and another one in Donosti.

The only thing you should do is:

1) Find a gap in your agenda and head off to the city.
2) Have an empty belly to be filled with delicious tapas.
3) Check the map where you can find one of the 104 restaurants / bars that offer you the tapa + beer combo (you can either check it in Gastronosfera website or stepping in any bar and grab it physically.
4) Remember: you've only got 11 days to enjoy this tapas tour! It is from the 5th to the 15th of June.

Map of Barcelona City with the restaurants you can find the tapa + beer combo

Each restaurant offers 1 different tapa. Total: 104 !

No matter where we are, whether we are just running some errands in a close town or on holidays somewhere else. We always check if there is any food event going on in the location. In our opinion, this is one of the best ways to discover new restaurants and, why not, a different culture, because, when you taste some other places, cities, countries' food, you get to understand so many things ;-)

Here are the tapas we had:

SQUID SANDWICHE
Squid ink bread, Andalusian-style squid and lime mayonnaise

CENTRIC
c/ de les Ramelleres, 27
08001 Barcelona

LAND AND FIRE MEATBALL SKEWER
Skewer with three meatballs and two sauces

CERVECERIA CASTILLA
c/ de la Gravina, 8
08001 Barcelona






 
MINI LA RIOJA-STYLE TIMBALE
Potato and poached onion with mini chorizos from La Rioja served with a quail's egg

LA RIOJA
c/ del Peu de la creu, 6
08001 Barcelona

COUNTRY-STYLE QUAIL
Open sandwich with pear confit, quail, sweet and sour sauce and matchstick potatoes

BARRAVAL
c/ de l'Hospital, 104
08001 Barcelona




 

FROM BARBATE TO RAVAL
Bed of tomato on muxama (salt-cured tuna) with basil parcels

LA TAVERNA DEL SUCULENT
Rambla del Raval, 39
08001 Barcelona

Calçotada

When Christmas is over we start thinking about calçots. Okay, it is not that strict but once you have accomplished all the family-compulsory-Christmas meals you just need to take a break, breath and gather with your friends a little bit. Many times I have mentioned that eating is the best excuse to bring together a bunch of your friends and have a good time.

Celebrating a Calçotada is the most traditional way of eating calçots. And, what is a calçot? It is a type of scallion or green onion from Lleida, Catalonia, Spain although the most popular one is from Valls (Tarragona, Catalonia). Calçots are milder and less bulbous than onions and have a length of between 15 and 25 cm (white part) and a diameter of 1.7 to 2.5 cm at the root. Planted in trenches, like an onion, as a single bulb, and successively increasing the depth of the soil around the stems throughout autumn and winter, they sprout into 4-10 shoots, roughly the shape of small leeks.

Luckily this year we have had the first calçotada in January! The best: we have eaten our own calçots, directly from our orchard. They were scrumptious!

I just thought it would be interesting to show you how to make calçots and how to eat them. And because a picture is worth a thousand words, here you have a photojournalism! ;)

These are the steps you have to follow to make a good calçotada:

1. BARBACUE CALÇOTS

This is the best way to cook them. Lit a good fire. Place them in a "sandwich" grill to hold them and, when you get the flames, it is time to put the calçots in. However, we all haven't got a barbecue at home so you can also roast them in the oven.
Cook them until you hardly see the white first layer and seems that they are burnt. You can also check by pricking on them and see if they have softened. The key is having soften calçots.

2. FIX THE ROMESCO SAUCE

I have never ever done it before. You know I am very pro-homemade food but this time I am going to tell you the truth: if you don't make a good sauce you can ruin the whole calçotada event. Why? Because the sauce must have the perfect consistency: if it is too thick you will only eat sauce and if it is too liquid you will be eaten a plain onion (plus you will end up with spots all over your clothe...I will tell you later why). However, if you feel like trying, here is the recipe: Romesco sauce recipe
Instead, you can buy it. We always buy Ferrer's.This is a very good quality company that makes an amazing romesco sauce. Nearly as good as the best chefs can make!

3. SET THE TABLE

The calçotada doesn't need a lot of setting. Choose an open place, set a large table, put the calçots and the sauce and just start eating them. It is very important to wrap the calçots with a newspaper sheet just after putting them out of the fire. The reasons why are to keep them warm and, meanwhile, cook them a little bit more.

4. EAT THE CALÇOTS!
Many foreign people find it interesting, odd and funny at the same time! It is actually a lot of fun eating calçots because you can test everybody's ability ;) 
All you have to do is:

a) Peel the calçot. Hold the calçot from the leaves and with the other hand, press the bottom and just remove the skin by sliding your hand.
    b) Dip the white part (which is the onion) in the sauce. If you want to enjoy the whole process with your friends, place the sauce in a big bowl so you all together can dip them at the same time!
    c) Right after dipping it, hold it up again and take it to your mouth. Just eat it until the leaves and throw the green part away.

We usually have 10-15 calçots each person although I have friends that can have more than 25!

The calçotada doesn't end with the calçots. It is a gastronomic event because after that you just follow the barbecue with botifarras, escalibada and a nice cava to drink!

Hope you enjoyed this pictures :)

P.D: Bear in mind that after the calçotada you will end up with dirty black hands and a nice barbecue smell that... it will lead you directly to the shower!

Barcelona Tapas Tour

 This summer, when we were planning our holidays, we had lot of DO-NOT-MISS suggestions and recommendations: go to visit this museum, enter in this church, etc. Back from our last destinations, a relative asked us: did you go to the museum I told you? Our answer was NO and loads of YOU-ARE-CRAZY-IT-IS-A-MUST words fell on us. Our answer was: we only stand in a queue for a good place to eat.

Yes, we are basic people that LOVE eating (ok, you can also call us SIMPLE ones ;) Obviously we have a budget constraint that doesn't let us going out as much as we would love to so when we face with a plan like the one I'm introducing you next we just jump over the moon and book our agendas!

Tapas tour- swedish version here

Estrella Damm, a brand beer, organized last month a tapas tour in Barcelona called "De tapes per...". It consists on stopping by listed restaurants in the city and trying the combo tapas + beer that has got an especial price for this occasion. Not all the restaurants are listed in this tour. And here comes the funny thing: you can feel you are in a “Treasure route” finding them all! 

All you have to do is printing the city map with the restaurants participating in the route marked with a number. 

Then, in the back of the map, you find the list number of places, their addresses and the tapa they are offering.

Yes, you cannot order any tapa but the one in the combo. 

And here is the second funny thing: the reason-why of the single tapa is because it is a tapas contest! HURRA! Come on, tell me, isn't it fun? What you should do is asking for a paper in the restaurant / bar and vote for the tapa you eat. Then, after 4 tapas, place your paper in the urn that you will find at any bar and wait for the contest result. 

This time it was a smartphone so let's see if I win! :P

We really had a great time and it is an amazing opportunity to try new combination of ingredients and, also, to find out new places we hardly knew they exist in our city.

It seems that they organize this activity during the whole year in many other cities in Catalonia, so stay tuned through their Facebook / Twitter.

Here is our tapas selection (sorry about the quality of the pictures, some places had really poor light):

XEF DELICATESSEN 
Slices of octopus on roasted pepper with sweet onion, cherry tomato and rosemary oil cream

SANTA MARIA

Pl. de Santa Maria, 4

08003 Barcelona

BEEF TARTAR
Tartare of beef with caramelized onions and pine nuts with Estrella Damm 

EL TACÓN ROJO

C/ d'Ataülf, 18

08002 Barcelona

BLUEFIN TUNA TATAKI

Bluefin tuna tataki with tomato coulis and citrus marmalade

LA TAVERNA DEL BISBE

Av. de la Catedral, 6-8

08002 Barcelona

 

EL BOLETAIRE

Crispy cannelloni stuffed with wild mushrooms with walnuts, gorgonzola and blue cheese foam and porto reduction with figs

SET DE GÒTIC

C/ Montsió, 5

08002 Barcelona

Pa i Trago

When I go downtown to do my errands and I pass by the most wanted, turistic and famous (¿?) places in Barcelona, I can't excuse myself from focusing on the tourist and where they eat. Most of them end up in a poor, guiri restaurant in Las Ramblas. They think that because restaurants are there they are good. WRONG. If you are looking for a cold beer you are in the right places because you are surrounded by a fantastic ambient and amazing views (although your beer is going to cost 4€ and above). But if you want to enjoy a typical catalan / spanish food, I have to tell you that you are not only wasting your money but also your time.

I have eaten in those places (because of my guiri friends ;) but if you are asking me where to eat proper catalan food you can't miss Restaurant Pa i Trago (catalan name which means Bread and Drink).

 Picture Pa i Trago from TripAdvisor

When you first step in you realize it's not a luxurious restaurant not even modern. It has got a country and simple decoration and you are not going to sit down in a very comfortable chair with a wide table.

The menu isn't too large but you can choose from tapas to starters and main dishes. They serve good portions so don't be too brave with food (said by someone like me that eats a lot).
We were 2 people and ordered: 2 tapas, 1 starter and 2 main dishes.

Tapas: we went for Olot's potatoes (I forgot to take a picture of them) and snails with an onion, bacon tomato sauce. We also shared an Esqueixada. This is a salt cod salad that consists of desalted and torn dried and salted cod mixed with vegetables, such as tomatoes, onions, and sometimes pepper. Very typical from the catalan cuisine.
 

Then, as main dish, I went for a "botifarra amb mongetes". It is a classic Catalan dish of sausage with white beans. 

 
To make all that food go down, we shared a sangria! Oh, it was delicious! plus it was sunny outside so the sangria was very refreshing (although I guess it was way too much for only 2 px!).

I have to admit that after that feast we didn't have room enough for any dessert but, to be honest, they don't have the best desserts menu (note: they are not even homemade!). But it was just enough.

Everything cost 25€ each which was far for that much good food we had! Oh, and if you go there, be sure you order a table in the entrance. They display 3 tables in that room that are separated from the main big dinning room inside. In the entrance you are close to the bar and the kitchen so you see what is really going on in the restaurant. The best is that you can have a talk with the owner and some nice daily diners :)

You can see the owner in the pictures I took him. He event old us some jokes!

*Pictures by me

Restaurant Pa i Trago
Parlament, 41  08015 Barcelona, Spain
+34 934 41 13 20
http://www.restaurantpaitrago.cat/

Brunch & Cake Barcelona

So here I am opening and new "label" of my restaurants reviews (only me which means that these posts are going to be in English and not in Swedish because my boyfriend and I not always agree ;)
Obviously most of the reviews will be based on restaurants from Barcelona (it's where I do live). However, thanks to my job I have to travel around Spain so you will read ones from all over the country.

Last weekend I met my friends for a brunch. I have to tell you that I'm so thankful the brunch concept arrived in Spain because it allows me to meet people quite early in the morning and not wait till 2 pm after they got up from bed and are starving for a huge heavy meal. 
Anyways... we met at Brunch&Cake Barcelona restaurant. It was love at first sight from the first moment. I loved the decoration: everything white, everything clean, everything cozy & warm that invited onself to stay there forever and eat like there was no end in the world.

I have to tell you, though, that it's a very small place that mainly has got a row with many small tables for two people so one has to sit down in front of the other one. The problem is that the restaurant wants to maximize the room till the point that 3 persons sit in a 2 people table and...eeehhh... no way, I must say. 

Despite this small detail, everything else went perfectly! The menu is based on sandwiches & salads but they mix everything together and offer you nice and original plates called 'Combos'. 

A 'Combo' usually has 2 different dishes and 1 side dish. They cost you from 7 to 10 € approximately. You should add the drink (they have nice juices!) and the dessert. 

Desserts: they say they make one of the best cupcakes of Barcelona. Sorry about that but I have to tell you that I had better ones. However, the cakes looked really nice too although we didn't have any.

Brunch & Cakes Barcelona really surprised me because the staff were really nice people and the food was really good. The best? it's a cool trendy place right now, spotted in the city center with a really fashion calm audience and good value for money.


Brunch & Cake Barcelona
c/ Enric Granados, 19
Barcelona
http://www.cupcakesbarcelona.com/
@ Trip Advisor