Eating like a Catalonian

WARNING: FOOD CENTERED POST

Well, you’ve been warned, so let’s continue on. Over the last few weeks my job has taken me to a couple European cities that I’d never been to before and a couple that I have. The predominant theme of these trips has been that I get into town, have time for a late dinner, have a day of meetings, and then fly back to the UK. So far I haven’t had any trouble finding good food, though. Some places were better than others, but there really hasn’t been anything that I could say is bad.

My first trip took me to Barcelona, which is in the Catalonia region of Spain. Catalan cuisine is fairly similar to French cuisine, which makes sense given the region’s proximity to France. The evening my colleague and I arrived we had dinner at La Dida, which was close to the Sagrada Familia.

I had found the restaurant in a guidebook that Wife had bought. Luckily they had an English menu since my Spanish competency isn’t nearly what it needs to be to order successfully. My first course was a dish the guidebook recommended. Roughly translated it was called Black Rice, which is exactly what it was. It was a little like a risotto consistency but with long grain rice. The “Black” part came from Cuttlefish ink. A garlic aioli came on the side. Adding a little bit to the top gave the dish a bit of a zing that cut through the richness of the rice. I even got a picture of it, but it was such poor quality I didn’t include it.

The second course was slices of foie gras with a cream sauce and fried whipped potatoes. Beyond rich is the best way to describe it. I can handle rich food, but even this was a little much for me. Luckily they offered a great citrus sorbet for dessert that took away the stuffed feeling from all the rich food.

Dinner was good, but it couldn’t hold a candle to what we had for lunch the next day. The head of the company we met with in Barcelona took us out to another Catalonian restaurant for lunch. We left the starters ordering up to the locals, which was a very smart thing to do. Six appetizers were ordered for us all to share. First there was toasted bread with crushed tomatoes and olive oil. This came out with a platter of fresh and cured anchovy filets. The anchovy had a fishier flavor than I normally like, but paired with the bread was really good. After this was a goose or duck liver pate with crostini. It was good, but I don’t know enough about pate to rate it. Shortly after the pate they brought these small pieces of fried cheese. This was my favorite part of the meal. The cheese was mild with a very pronounced nutty flavor. A thin coat of breading added a little crunch to the contrast with the soft cheese inside. My mouth is watering right now just thinking about it.

And that wasn’t the end. Just when I thought we were done with the starters they brought out a platter heaped with grilled octopus. It was dressed very simply with a little olive oil and lemon and cooked to perfection. Grilled just enough to heat through and not enough to be tough, it was one of the best seafood dishes I have ever tasted. The final taste was a dish of fried anchovies with a pureed red pepper sauce. It was good, but after the octopus it was a little anticlimactic.

For the main course I had steamed hake with vegetables. It was very simply flavored, but cooked very well. Accompanying all this was a great Rioja. Dessert was the Catalan version of crème brulee. The custard had a thinner consistency, but the flavors were very much like traditional crème brulee.

That was it for eating in Spain since we left before we had another chance for a meal. But there was another trip coming up that I was looking forward to even more: Milan.

Cheers,
Frog