Barcelona Eating And Drinking, Spain

Barcelona was nominated the "Gourmand" city of Europe by the prestigious Michelin Guide, which awarded the title to a non-French city for the first time. The amount of restaurants is unlimited: you can choose from a traditional taberna or trendy restaurant, whether to fill up on tapas at the counter of a bar or try one of the Spanish chains which offer baguette sandwiches for all tastes, or try foreign food such as kebab or falafel on Rambla del Raval. Just like in the rest of Spain, lunch is between 2 and 4 and dinner is never before 9.

Catalan cuisine is based on seasonal foods: simple products from the land, herbs, fish and meat, with an abundant use of vegetables and olive oil. Another typical aspect is the ease with which the Catalans mix ingredients which are rarely found together, like fish and red meat.

To start a meal you can choose a rich Catalan salad, "amanida", an escalivada, a tasty cooked salad of bell peppers, eggplant and onion, or the delicious esqueixada, a salad of cod, tomato and onion. Each meal is accompanied by pa amb tomàquet, simple toasted bread flavored with tomato or garlic, which is served with excellent cold cuts such as fuet and butifarra.

Other popular gourmet items include botifarra amb mongetes (sausage with white beans), fricandò (pork stew), faves a la catalana (broad beans with smoked ham), Catalan spinach (with raisins and pine nuts), samfaina a pure of bell peppers and other vegetables served with meat or fish and fidéua (a paella made with pasta).

Fish is very popular and easy to find. Cod is found in many dishes, in particular esqueixada, but other types of fish are also available. Try zarzuela (fish stew) or romesco de pescado (a fish casserole cooked in romesco sauce) or one of the many "suquets de peix", Catalan fish soup. Catalan langosta (lobster) is a bit unusual: it is cooked in a bitter chocolate sauce.

The most typical desserts are miel i mato (soft cheese with honey) and naturally crema catalana.

Wine: Catalonia is one of the main wine growing regions of Spain, it most famous production is concentrated in the Penedés, a DO (Denominacion de Origen) area between Barcelona and Tarragona. This area produces excellent white wines and the famous Cava, Spanish champagne which comes from the wineries of Vilafranca and Sant Sadurnì d'Anoia The best Catalan reds come from Priorat, a DO area south of Tarragona, and the DO Costers del Segre, in the province of Lleida.

Author:
Nozio

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