Tours Travel

Food and drink in Barcelona – It’s not just Catalan cream

Crema Catalana might well be Barcelona’s most famous contribution to world menus, but you’re likely to find much more variety in food when you visit this city caught between mar i muntanya: the sea and the mountains.

Known to have flourished since the 13th century, Catalan cuisine is a seductive mix of the best ingredients that the Mediterranean and the mountainsides have to offer. This means that it is quite common to find combinations such as lobster and chicken, often served in a hazelnut sauce; meatballs and cuttlefish; chicken and crayfish; and the rabbit and the rum just sparkling. Barcelonans also like their sauces, especially allioli (garlic and olive oil), sofregit (tomato, garlic and onion) and samfaina (chili pepper and aubergines).

In spring, you’ll find wonderfully tasty wild asparagus in abundance, and plenty of calçots (large spring onions); in autumn there is nothing better than freshly picked rovellons (mushrooms) and in winter you will enjoy a hearty escudella d’olla, one of the best stews you could wish to find anywhere.

The mere fact that Barcelona is a port has meant that visitors here can always be guaranteed to find excellent fresh fish, but it has had the added bonus that people from all over the world have come ashore here. For this reason, the city’s authentic international restaurants are on a par with those of Europe. As you walk through the city, you will find places to eat that represent almost every continent in the world, but, much more importantly, you will find that these restaurants, in the vast majority of cases, offer good quality food. Barcelona’s reputation as a gastronomic delight is well deserved.

There are, unsurprisingly, many famous restaurants in the city: Botafumeiro in Gran de Gracia for its fish, Patagonia Beef and Wine restaurant in Gran Vía Cortes Catalanes for its premium Argentine beef, and El Cangejo Loco in Moll de Gregal for its style and views – and its ‘celebrity hangout’ opportunity. For me, however, one of the pleasures of this wonderful city is wandering the alleys and finding unassuming little places serving homemade Catalan cuisine that you can dream of during the winter months until you can visit again.

And just as Barcelona is a city of good restaurants, it is also a place full of wonderful bars. Spain, of course, is a country where the bar is an integral part of social life and Barcelona is no different in that respect. Whether you’re going to grab your early morning coffee (and maybe something a little stronger with it), sit down for an afternoon drink in the shade, or get ready for a night out on the town, there will be countless bars to cater for you. Many, especially starting on Thursday nights, don’t get going until after midnight, but simply head to the Gothic Quarter, Gràcia, Barceloneta, Las Ramblas or anywhere else in this exciting city and you’ll find great bars. . My favorites happen to be the London Bar and Els Quatre Gats, bars where the very essence of modernism seems to fill the air; L,Elevator, where you will find the best cocktails in the world; and the Bosc de les Fades, which seems designed by Tim Burton.

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