A few weeks ago my father came to Barcelona to attend a neuroscience symposium and to visit me in my newest city of residence. I met him in the hotel lobby at midday and he brought me down a colorful array of conference canapés wrapped in cocktail napkins. (Not the first time he’s done that. It’s become a bit…
Yeah, the line is long. It starts forming a little before 8:00 p.m. and the place doesn´t open until 8:30. If you get there at 8:05, it´s already so long that when the place does open you will not be among the first 50 or so who are allowed in. And that´s because of the friends…
The picturesque and very quaint Catalan town of Girona is a great place to spend an afternoon but not too much more than that. There’s a series of graceful footbridges crossing over a mostly dried out riverbed and a row of colorful riverfront houses on either side of those bridges. There’s a plaza, some charismatic narrow side…
El Cau is the local watering hole in the Priotari town of Poboleda, packed for lunchtime every day of the week. Part of their success has to do with location – it’s the first restaurant you pass on the drive into town from the direction of Cornudella. Parked in front are cars, vans and tractors; parked inside are hungry vineyard…
Empanadas will always hold a special place in my heart. Back in the summer of 2011, a few months after my college graduation, I headed out into the world alone for the first time. A fresh faced 22-year-old seeking a change, I found a place I loved and built a life there, in Buenos Aires. I…
There’s a restaurant near my place that has very good octopus. They have other stuff too since technically they’re a tapas bar. So they have little sausages, papas bravas, grilled padrón peppers, all that good stuff. They have other seafood too: razor clams, mussels, cockles from the tin. And they have cheap beer, sangria and clarita…
Dining options in the Priorat are somewhat limited and each town offers only one or two places that are really worth stopping at for more than just beer and good company. Siurana has Els Tallers; Cornudella has Al Toll and Refugi, Poboleda has La Terrasseta and El Cau. And then, of course, there’s La Venta. I…
I dined not long ago at a relatively new restaurant on the Rambla del Raval, a place called Suculent I had heard only good things about. It’s a project shared by owner Carlos Abellán and young stud/head chef Toni Romero in the kitchen of a converted wine house. Next door is a vermuteria that shares the restaurant’s…
It wasn’t a night for calling ahead, for calling in favors or waiting in line. It was a night for dropping in lucidly without stress or a reservation. We didn’t go to Tickets. We went to Bodega 1900 across the street. The name of the restaurant celebrates the birthday of the building that houses it and the…
We stumbled out of a costume store, the Basque and I, gripping shiny cellophane packages and an orange balloon he had snatched from the counter “sinpa”. It was Halloween in Barcelona and I was ready to play, as I do each year regardless of where I happen to find myself. In the past 5 years…
That Best Bite 