Phrase of the week: Raccio pernil ibéric = very expensive ham
Observation of the week: Don’t order 2 of something if you don’t know the price. This weekend, we decided to check out the cava region and visit a few vineyards. (“Cava” is the name given to Spanish sparkling wine after the French mandated in the 1970’s that the only “champagne” that could be called “champagne” had to come from the Champagne region in France . . .). So on Saturday, off we go to Vilafranca del Penedés as per the guidebook to find the tourist office and get a list of the area vineyards to visit that day. Lovely little market town, known for the Human Towers they build during one of the 1000 festivals Spain has (the tallest one in this town is 10 people, a little boy is always the last one to climb on top for obvious reasons.) Anyway, back to the ham. In typical Spanish fashion, the tourism office was closed when we arrived. Of course it was, it was 1:30 and they needed a lunch break until 4:00. We went to have lunch and take advantage of the “menu del dia and vino casa tinto” (please see previous blog post), or in this instance, “cava de casa” and discuss our options for the day. We ordered a variety of tapas, and loved, loved, loved the ham. We ordered another round of jamon, queso y pan. It was too good, and really, how much could it be? We were in a little town eating ham, bread and cheese. Surprise, surprise, I guess the waitress really liked us because she gave us the best jamon de casa. $100 later ($50 of it was for the 10 slices of ham), we realized that everything was closed for the day and that we would have to come back. More on that later.
A few other observations about the food in Spain: it’s much better than its reputation; pig legs with the hooves still on them are considered a delicacy and are EVERYWHERE; the local markets have some of the best produce and cured meats we’ve ever had; ditto with the restaurants that specialize in seafood (yes, Tim had a full seafood dinner at one of the best restaurants outside of town and never complained, even when the lobster was trying to escape from the glass case); the burgers are fantastic and are typically served with a fried egg on top (Ariana swears that it’s the Aussie influence); tapas are a bit much, but we might be spoiled by the restaurant we went to our first night here. Every region in Spain is known for a different style of cuisine, so we’ll keep you posted as we continue our travels.
For anyone who is planning to visit Barcelona on a modest budget, here are our favorite restaurants so far: Cerveseria Catalunya (tapas in Eixample), Bo! (tapas in Gracia, see burger picture above), Moon (food is so so, but it’s 2 blocks away, they play great American music, and show VH1 and CNN in the background), O’Vall d’Ouro (lunch spot in Eixample where we discovered vino casa tinto), Mosquito (Asian in El Borne), Los Choqueros (a seafood restaurant outside of town where we took Oliver, the distant relative of Nic who helped us find our apt, see seafood pics above) and last but not least, lentils in cocina de Alicia . . .
On to our activities of the week – it will be short and sweet. Alicia loves yoga, Spanish class is a bit of a chore, and she and Ariana decided to skip Friday’s class after an in-depth discussion over tapas and sangria at Cerveseria Cataluyna. Work is going well, but the internet is still proving to be a problem. If only we knew the password to the bank’s connection across the street, things would be much easier. Tim’s early morning class is finally over, so he’s able to sleep until 2 (ok 1). Finally experienced the Barcelona club scene at Catwalk near the port. We think the area bars are better, but again, when in Spain. Because everything is closed on Sundays, we decided to visit another park (Sagrada Familia was on the way – we’re waiting to go inside until Alicia’s mom comes to visit) – Parc de la Ciutadella – completely different than Parc Guell, but reminded us of a mini Central Park in NYC, and we loved it.
To continue from our cava story from above, we returned to the town on Sunday with another friend of Tim’s from school (Myles, Duke MBA who just happened to be a the 1998 Rolling Stones concert in Prague that Alicia and her friends Dawn and Heather were at – random). We visited two places, Torres vineyards and Cordineu caves. Torres was a bit like Epcot center at Disney World, but fantastic. Cordineu was a more traditional tour, and our guide was the most enthusiastic guide we’ve ever experienced. Plus, for 2 euros, you could get a 1.5 hour tour and drink all the cava at the end that you wanted (they produce more cava in a year than they can sell I guess). Fun fact! Freixenet, another cava producer in the region (the one in the black bottle that sells for about $3 in the US), sells more cava each year than the French sell Champagne.
We’re going to Bilbao, San Sebastian and the La Rioja region later this week/weekend, so our next post will be a little late. Happy early MLK day.
Observation of the week: Don’t order 2 of something if you don’t know the price. This weekend, we decided to check out the cava region and visit a few vineyards. (“Cava” is the name given to Spanish sparkling wine after the French mandated in the 1970’s that the only “champagne” that could be called “champagne” had to come from the Champagne region in France . . .). So on Saturday, off we go to Vilafranca del Penedés as per the guidebook to find the tourist office and get a list of the area vineyards to visit that day. Lovely little market town, known for the Human Towers they build during one of the 1000 festivals Spain has (the tallest one in this town is 10 people, a little boy is always the last one to climb on top for obvious reasons.) Anyway, back to the ham. In typical Spanish fashion, the tourism office was closed when we arrived. Of course it was, it was 1:30 and they needed a lunch break until 4:00. We went to have lunch and take advantage of the “menu del dia and vino casa tinto” (please see previous blog post), or in this instance, “cava de casa” and discuss our options for the day. We ordered a variety of tapas, and loved, loved, loved the ham. We ordered another round of jamon, queso y pan. It was too good, and really, how much could it be? We were in a little town eating ham, bread and cheese. Surprise, surprise, I guess the waitress really liked us because she gave us the best jamon de casa. $100 later ($50 of it was for the 10 slices of ham), we realized that everything was closed for the day and that we would have to come back. More on that later.
A few other observations about the food in Spain: it’s much better than its reputation; pig legs with the hooves still on them are considered a delicacy and are EVERYWHERE; the local markets have some of the best produce and cured meats we’ve ever had; ditto with the restaurants that specialize in seafood (yes, Tim had a full seafood dinner at one of the best restaurants outside of town and never complained, even when the lobster was trying to escape from the glass case); the burgers are fantastic and are typically served with a fried egg on top (Ariana swears that it’s the Aussie influence); tapas are a bit much, but we might be spoiled by the restaurant we went to our first night here. Every region in Spain is known for a different style of cuisine, so we’ll keep you posted as we continue our travels.
For anyone who is planning to visit Barcelona on a modest budget, here are our favorite restaurants so far: Cerveseria Catalunya (tapas in Eixample), Bo! (tapas in Gracia, see burger picture above), Moon (food is so so, but it’s 2 blocks away, they play great American music, and show VH1 and CNN in the background), O’Vall d’Ouro (lunch spot in Eixample where we discovered vino casa tinto), Mosquito (Asian in El Borne), Los Choqueros (a seafood restaurant outside of town where we took Oliver, the distant relative of Nic who helped us find our apt, see seafood pics above) and last but not least, lentils in cocina de Alicia . . .
On to our activities of the week – it will be short and sweet. Alicia loves yoga, Spanish class is a bit of a chore, and she and Ariana decided to skip Friday’s class after an in-depth discussion over tapas and sangria at Cerveseria Cataluyna. Work is going well, but the internet is still proving to be a problem. If only we knew the password to the bank’s connection across the street, things would be much easier. Tim’s early morning class is finally over, so he’s able to sleep until 2 (ok 1). Finally experienced the Barcelona club scene at Catwalk near the port. We think the area bars are better, but again, when in Spain. Because everything is closed on Sundays, we decided to visit another park (Sagrada Familia was on the way – we’re waiting to go inside until Alicia’s mom comes to visit) – Parc de la Ciutadella – completely different than Parc Guell, but reminded us of a mini Central Park in NYC, and we loved it.
To continue from our cava story from above, we returned to the town on Sunday with another friend of Tim’s from school (Myles, Duke MBA who just happened to be a the 1998 Rolling Stones concert in Prague that Alicia and her friends Dawn and Heather were at – random). We visited two places, Torres vineyards and Cordineu caves. Torres was a bit like Epcot center at Disney World, but fantastic. Cordineu was a more traditional tour, and our guide was the most enthusiastic guide we’ve ever experienced. Plus, for 2 euros, you could get a 1.5 hour tour and drink all the cava at the end that you wanted (they produce more cava in a year than they can sell I guess). Fun fact! Freixenet, another cava producer in the region (the one in the black bottle that sells for about $3 in the US), sells more cava each year than the French sell Champagne.
We’re going to Bilbao, San Sebastian and the La Rioja region later this week/weekend, so our next post will be a little late. Happy early MLK day.
1 comment:
Wow. Y'all are doing a great job with your blog. Funny, informative, and the pictures are fantastic. Some of them are really beautiful. Can't wait to get there and try the ham, burgers and cava, but I'll leave the eel for Tim.
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