In Barcelona, a terrace in a plaza or down one of the ramblas (except the main Rambla, just don’t go there…) is a great place to catch up with a friend or two, to people-watch and discuss the comings and goings of one’s work or love life. Another good options is a night out tapeando on Carrer Blai.…
In December I visited Albert Adrià’s Bodega 1900, the go-to alternative to Tickets across the street. I was new back then to the world of vermouth with canned things, and thus very lucky to have stumbled upon one of the best representations of this Catalan dining tradition at Bodega 1900. It’s where I first learned an important…
Reus. It’s where Gaudí was born. It’s also home to the market where my coworkers and I used to buy fresh produce, the laundromat where I had my clothes sent for dry-cleaning, the hospital where my tooth was filled when I chipped it on a fork eating a fresh summer salad with figs and mató that one time. I…
The pristine, blue gem that is the Siurana Lake offers a wonderful escape from the sticky, salty seawater and looming influx of summertime tourism on the beaches of Barcelona. It’s a place to get away and enjoy fresh mountain air, while sunning on a dock, surrounded by silence. Every once in a while a family or two will set…
A few days into my father’s visit to Barcelona we had grown a bit weary of tapas. We were craving the opposite, a thoughtfully assembled entrée complete with a protein and a side or two. No more bar snacks, no more homogenous mounds of just one thing, no more small plates designed to share. Of course, our relationship…
Further south of Calella de Palafrugell on the Costa Brava is the town of Blanes, perhaps best known for hosting a spectacular fireworks competition during the Santa Anna festival in late July. I’ve heard there are also some neat botanical gardens there to visit and, of course, beaches that stretch far and wide. We didn’t see too…
Not a very long drive north of Barcelona is the coastal town of Calella de Palafrugell, one of the three coastal towns forming the Costa Brava. The seashore boasts a beautiful string of pebble-floored coves, naturally U-shaped beaches that look as if small bites of coastline were taken by a hungry sea. Bright beads of sunshine glitter white…
In discussing the myriad of culinary experiences I’ve been part of in the past few years I generally make it a point to avoid delving into the quality of the service, especially when it does not significantly affect the atmosphere of the venue or the quality of the food. I’d like to avoid being mistaken for the narrow-minded, overprivileged snob tourist…
WRITTEN IN NOVEMBER, 2014 IN PRIORAT, SPAIN I haven’t been to too many restaurants in the past month but I’ve been eating well for the most part. On some days it’s defrosted ragout dumped over still quite crunchy pasta cooked on a stove whose gas source doubles as a hot water heater for the shower.…
“I will never move above Diagonal,” I solidly declared back in January. “That’s where old people and families live.” Maybe. But, as it turns out, El Barri Gòtic is for the most naive of tourists, Erasmus students and the shrewd, local pickpockets who rob them with ease. It’s the Disney World of Barcelona; far from the typical Catalan neighborhood for which…
That Best Bite 