Barcelona Restaurant Recommendations

[Bux]

But what's with the ant?

Good question. There appears to be an hommage to the ant in the Flash introduction. Unfortunately it's in Spanish and I don't speak Spanish. I can't copy and paste the text from a Flash media web page. Web pages are fascinating. This one has links to other restaurants--exactly six at this date--two Spanish restaurants, three French restaurants and one American restaurant. "Enlaces" seems to be the word they use for links.

[blackduff]

Here's what it says:

hormiga (Del latin formica.)

Himenoptero que vive en sociedad, en galerias que abre generalmente en el suelo. Le gusta sobre todo los jugos azucarodos de las plantas de los pulgones y las cochinillas.

el azucar, el jarave y la miel.

Penetra en las depensas mejor cerradas y las colmenas poco pobladas o decadentes para apoderarse de la miel.

I'll try a rough translation:

hormiga (ant)

Himenoptero that lives in society, in the galleries that open generally onto the ground floor. They like, above all, the sugary juice of the plants of the "Fleas and the cockroaches" (I'm not sure of the translation exact of this last phrase)

The rest of this is pretty difficult to translate. There's something about being spread about in all the corners everywhere and loving honey and sugar but this is just the gist of what it means.

I think that the idea is that the love of sugar and honey is universal and as widespread as ants are in our universe.

Okay, maybe a little poetic license but it's a tough text to translate.

Blackduff

[Bux]

You got me intrigued. With the Spanish text I've got a translation from someone who speaks new world Spanish. The first paragraph is fine, but my source offers "soles (of the foot)" as the more likely alternative to "plants" for "plantas." The dictionary concurs on that definition and also offers "wood louse" for "cochinillas" but my source goes with "fleas and cockroaches" or "fleas and lice" as good poetic translations.

For the latter and harder paragraph I am given:

"Sugar, syrup and honey.

It penetrates the areas most tightly closed and the barely or scarsely inhabited highest peaks to take possession of the honey."

Hard to say if the chef is speaking of the ant, his own taste for sweets or his clientele.

[blackduff]

"The dictionary concurs on that definition and also offers "wood louse" for "cochinillas" but my source goes with "fleas and cockroaches" or "fleas and lice" as good poetic translations."

I looked at a dictionary today and cockroach wouldn't be appropriate. I think "lice" is better, as your source mentioned.

It was midnight when I did the translation and I should never forget that cockroaches are called "la Cucaracha" in Spain. God knows I've seen a lot of them in restaurants there.

Blackduff

[Bux]

Indeed, in Mexico the cockroach has it's own song.

[vserna]

Espai Sucre is Catalan (a cross between French and Spanish). 

Please! That's like saying English is a cross between German and French.

[vserna]

God knows I've seen a lot of them in restaurants there.

Well, I've seen many more in NYC restaurants (and shops and apartments and elevators) than in Spain. There's no place in the world where cockroaches seem to thrive more than in New York...

That said, 'cochinillas' in this context are the cochenilles, tiny insects traditionally used to make natural carmine color.

The text simply states, tongue-in-cheek, that ants just go nuts over sugar. And sugar is what drives people to Espai Sucre.

[Bux]

How did I miss that comment about Catalan? It's one of several romance languages that didn't get its own modern country with political boundaries. I am usually floored when people refer to it as a dialect. Naturally all of the romance languages share a common heritage and some have developed adjacent to others with which they've likely cross pollenated. Barcelona is such a popular tourist destination for both Americans and British that I assume most astute travelers are aware of its existance. Gallego was even more fascinating to me when we visited Galicia. I suppose because it was my first experience with it. I wonder if it suffers the fate of being mistaken for a cross between Portuguese and Spanish. Interestingly enough Portuguese, Gallego and Catalan seem to share some sounds that are not used in French or Italian. Chalk it up to ignorance and a fertile imagination, but I remember hearing someone talking to a waiter in a beach restaurant on the northeast coast of Spain and assuming they were Portuguese tourists. I was suprised the waiter knew enough Portuguese to reply. Only years later did I realize they must have been speaking Catalan.

[Peter B Wolf]

The following translation is from my brother-in-law, who is a journalist and translator/interpretor, is married to "una Madrilena", both living in Spain.

Ant (family Formicidae)**

Hymenopterus that lives in societies, in tunnels that it generally opens in the soil. Above all, it likes the sweet juice of plants, plant lice and woodlice.

sugar, syrup and honey.

It penetrates the most enclosed pantries, and little inhabited or decayed beehives, in order to obtain honey.

[Wilfrid]

No, it's simple. If you cross the Spanish for "closed", cerrado with the French, fermee, obviously you get the Catalan. Tancat.

Bob's your uncle.

Edited February 13, 2003 by Wilfrid (log)

[joler]

If you have not been to Barcelona before, you might be interested to know that you can request a menu in English at most of the finer restaurants (a fact I learned about 2 days too late - but better late than never).

There are some nice seafood restaurants along the waterfront in the Olympic Village - follow the crowds.

Don't miss Parc Guell or the Sagrada Familia.

[Bux]

Espai Sucre is Catalan (a cross between French and Spanish). 

Please! That's like saying English is a cross between German and French.

How did I miss that comment about Catalan?

In my own belated defense, I didn't miss it the first time around. Here's what I said and the link I included last fall:

Catalan, to give it it's full due is a separate langugage that developed from Latin alongside French and Spanish. It is closely related to Occitan. It bears some resemblance to both Spanish and French. Catalan is an official language of the semi autonomous province of Catalunya, as is Basque and Gallego in the Basque region and Galicia.

[Bux]

If you have not been to Barcelona before, you might be interested to know that you can request a menu in English at most of the finer restaurants (a fact I learned about 2 days too late - but better late than never).

And you can always get one in Spanish if you don't speak Catalan.

I still remember the time years ago before we realized how great a comeback Catalan had made since Franco had departed, when the waitress asked in Spanish if we wanted a tourist menu. My wife replied in Spanish that I should get the tourist menu. I got one in Spanish and she got one in Catalan. We switched and my wife ordered for both of us, but that's when I began my study of Catalan menu items. I'm still rather illiterate.

In support of Wilfrid's ever rational line of thought, I offer up further evidence of something or another by noting that trucha means trout in Spanish and omelet or something like that in Catalan, although I think it may also mean trout sometimes. One should always enter a restaurant in a foreign country with an open mind about what you are going to eat.

[vserna]

In support of Wilfrid's ever rational line of thought,    I offer up further evidence of something or another by noting that trucha means trout in Spanish and omelet or something like that in Catalan, although I think it may also mean trout sometimes. One should always enter a restaurant in a foreign country with an open mind about what you are going to eat.

That's actually a slightly weak point of the Catalan language: they have one single word, 'truita', for both 'trout' and 'omelet', thus creating a few anxieties en restaurant clients who read a menu...

[Wilfrid]

And beware the "English" menus, which can sometimes include quite misleading translations. Best tip is to have a guide book with a good list of Catalan food, dishes and cooking terms with English translations. The Rough Guide to Barcelona's not bad.

[Bux]

That's actually a slightly weak point of the Catalan language: they have one single word, 'truita', for both 'trout' and 'omelet', thus creating a few anxieties en restaurant clients who read a menu...

Do you, or does anyone else (not that we have many members who can understand a word of Catalan let alone instruct in it) have any idea why "truita" can mean such two disparate food items. If I didn't find the Catalans so hospitable, I'd almost believe the word was invented to take advantage of tourists who wanted fish, but who would get eggs. Of course those tourists so targeted would more likely be Spanish rather than American or English.

[vserna]

No problem for Spanish tourists, Robert: when they see a Catalan menu with the word 'truita' in it, they can turn to the Castilian side of it, which will either say 'trucha' or 'tortilla', so dispelling any ambiguities.

Then again, Mexican tourists would be in trouble if they didn't know beforehand what kind of 'tortilla' to expect in Spain.

[Bux]

It seems to me that I am seeing less and less Castilian in Barcelona and the rest of Catalonia. That includes monolingual road signs and menus written on blackboards or posted in the windows. Of course a Castilian menu always seems available for the tourists, while an English menu is less universally available. While the best restaurants will usually have an English, or at least a French menu, sometimes an English menu is a bad sign--the establishment is cooking for tourists.

Spanish speaking visitors from latin America may suffer more surprises in Spain than an American in the UK, especially when reading a menu.

[vserna]

Of course a Castilian menu always seems available for the tourists.

About one half of Catalonia's six million population can't speak Catalan, so restaurants make sure they have a Spanish-language menu always available. Even very nationalistic places. Business is business...

PS Whatever, Catalan has the same roots as Spanish and it takes Spanish speakers about two minutes to learn the basics and read a menu correctly (except for 'truita'!) It's a lot more complicated with Basque, and a much smaller percentage of the Basque Country's population does speak the vernacular, so that it can be safely said that 100% of Basque Country restaurants have menus in Castilian.

Edited February 16, 2003 by vserna (log)

[Elissa]

Does anyone know that restaurant down by the port where there is no menu: you walk in down some steps to a womens kitchen, have a look at what's for lunch, sit down and eat it?

Edited February 22, 2003 by lissome (log)

[Elissa]

Bars in barcelona:

anyone remember Birimbao? Round the corner from Gimlet. and the jazz club down the road.

[robert brown]

As preparation for my three-day visit to Barcelona, I eschewed the usual guide books and relied on the Spain & Portugal thread of eGullet to get a handle on dining in this "hot" culinary city. Relying on the posts of Lizziee, Victor de la Serna, Bux, and Wilfredo, I moved their collective wisdom into MS. Word and cut and pasted my way to the creation of a concise but concentrated document I can fold and put in my pocket. I can tell that their collective wisdom, along with a bit of excerpting of confirmatory magazine suggestions, will just about guarantee that I will be availing myself of the best possible recommendations. I hope that other members will try this approach with other cities. Perhaps someone can adapt the idea into a permanent, readily-available feature. Please pardon my not attributing the various commentaries to their authors. You can always find their original posts in the Forum. My primary motivation was to demonstrate how the gastronomic traveler can customize the wisdom on the site for his or her own purposes. Please excuse the lack of formatting that got lost from copying the document from Word to here.

BARCELONA

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(Victor de la Serna).2002, the list (not going into the restaurant-rich suburbs and nearby coastal areas) would include Neichel, Àbac, Gaig, Jean-Luc Figueras, Racò d'en Freixa, OT, Peixerot

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Bar Pinotxo - real Catalan food such as shredded salt cod salad and white beans with baby squid. Counter service. Breakfast/lunch. Inexpensive.

Ca L'Isidre Les Flors 12, phone (34) 93 241 11 39- Bux and I have both mentioned this. Colman Andrews says," Our vote for the best restaurant in Barcelona."The owner is Isidre Girones. We got there around 1:45 and the place was empty. By 3:00 every table was filled, no tourists, mostly affluent businessmen. Our waiter, Joseph, spoke perfect English and with his help we orchestrated a perfect lunch. We started with tiny whitebait deep fried. Every time they fry up a batch, they use fresh oil. Next an incredible gazpacho with clams and shrimp with a slight dollop of oil floating on the top. Next quickly sauteed squid in olive oil that were so tender they melted in your mouth. Then their specialty - roast baby goat with small onions and white wine. The owner's daughter, Naria, is the pastry chef. She did a wonderful dessert - in an egg shell she placed sabayon which represented egg yolk

I commented on Ca L'Isidre in another thread, but will briefly comment here. This is a real find. We got there around 1:45 and the place was empty. By 3:00 every table was filled, no tourists, mostly affluent businessmen. Our waiter, Joseph, spoke perfect English and with his help we orchestrated a perfect lunch. We started with tiny whitebait deep fried - every time they fry up a batch, they use fresh oil. Next a gazpacho with clams and shrimp - the gazpacho was pureed with a little oil floating on the top. Next quickly sauteed squid in olive oil that were so tender they melted in your mouth. Finally, their speciality - roast baby goat with small onions and white wine. Cabrales, they do a humorous "egg" dish for dessert. Naria, the daughter does the pastry. In an egg shell, she placed sabayon which represented the yolk, white chocolate was the white of the egg and underneath it all, liquid dark chocolate.

Cal Pep, Plaça de les Olles 8 (00 34 93 310 7961). Get there early for a seat at the bar, and prepare for some of the finest seafood in the city. The squid is as tender as you'll find, the tallarines (wedge clams) are divine, and if Pep lets on that the day's prawns are good, you'd be a fool to demur at the price. A lively crowd at a brightly lit counter. Specializes in seafood: razor clams, sea snails, fried baby inkfish. Dinner, moderate. He suggests that you visit the La Boqueria Market at Rambla de Sant Josep 101 which is open Monday through Saturday from approximately 8 AM to 8 PM.

Can Majo. Almirall Alxada, 23. 93-221-54-55 - Seafood based rice dishes such as black rice made with inkfish. Dinner, moderate.

Closer to funky--I recall having to shell shrimp that were cooked in olive oil, tomatoes and onions to eat a dish recommended by the waiter at Can Majo. It was food well worth getting into tomato sauce up to your elbows to eat. Excellent very fresh shrimp. Good rice dishes here. I'd recommend some simple seafood a la plancha perhaps and then a grand rice and seafood dish. This restaurant is on a corner of the Barcelonetta area and across the street from the beach. It's a great lunch spot. In fact one of the best one two culinary punches I've ever had is lunch here the day after a meal at El Bulli.

Restaurant Hispania in Arenys del Mar. It is, I suppose, the quintessential Catalan restaurant. We had lunch there and the restaurant was full of locals--couples and many businessmen, but more white collar workers enjoying a collegial lunch than what appeared to be business lunches. The menu is too large for a stranger to easily figure out what to order and the owner/hostess was quick to help us. No tourists here and it helps to speak Spanish, but I have a menu from last year and can get you a copy some way. Be very careful of the turnoff from the road here. Make too tight a turn at a point that's poorly marked and you will be on the wrong side of the road and the railroad tracks on a dirt road that leads to abandoned factories and a nude beach. To add to my frustration the beach was all male when we tried to find Hispanya.

Jean Luc Figueras. Santa Teresa, 10. 93-415-28-77. Liked very much. The cuisine is very contemporary and the decor stark. We found the service exceptional. Our waiter, Mikial, had worked at Guy Savoy. The sommelier is a young woman, Helene, who selected wonderful, inexpensive Catalonian wines. It is difficult to describe the food. There are separate flavors on the plate that need to be mixed as you eat it. It is not the 20 ingredient syndrome of some American chefs, but the chef focuses on a number of ingredients and wants the mixing at the moment. We had the tasting menu - 2 amuse were served beforehand. Memorable dishes were: Rare ducks chunks, iced tomato with shrimp, gazpacho soup with apple puree, snails with a red pepper mousse and baby pork with peach honey and hot goat cheese.

Two factors diminished my appreciation for our dinner. I came down with a head cold that affected my appreciation of food and particularly of finesse in flavor. We requested that each dish be split into half orders so two savory courses became four, but they followed so quickly that we never had time to reflect on a course. As I recall the next course was in the hands of the waiter at our side as the last course was being cleared from our table. The restaurant seemed eager and ready to accommodate our request with the recommendation that we change one of our courses as it would be hard to plate as a half order. We had two of the specials listed in Michelin. The canelones de cigalas, without a binder for the seafood, tomatoes and black olives, seemed more like a summer roll than either an Italian or Provencal pasta and more applealing intellectually than delicious. It was unadorned except by a sauce that was mostly on the side. My wife thought it was buerre blanc, I wasn't at all sure. The Tarta fina de butifarra del perol a layer of rustic (blood, guts, hoof and head as far I would guess) sausage meat on phyllo disk with with sliced ratte potatoes and black truffles was less intellectual, but impressed us very favorably. The simplicity went with the simplicity of the decor, and the earthyness contrasted with the elgance, both in good ways. We were tired, I was not in the best of shape. We enjoyed two fish dishes, but they made less of an impression on us. The service was quite good, if too efficient.

It was a meal not quite up to the starred meals we had in the provinces and not quite as relaxed as the less formal meals I've had in Barcelona, but it deserved its star and I need to return to better evaluate it. Lizzee's been there and recommends it. I'd guess it's a short taxi ride from the train station, but then again there are several stations and some of the metros stations seem to serve the main train lines as well on separate tracks. Sants is the only train station I've used, but you can also get the train I took at the plaça de Catalunya. Food is reasonably priced in Barcelona, hotels are expensive and taxis are inexpensive

. Bar del Pi, in the square outside the Sant Pi church, for a couple of heart starters. I breakfasted on montaditos, little slices of baguette with various toppings: smoked salmon and quail's egg, catalan (a pale, soft slicing sausage), ham and anchovy.

El Xampanyet Montcada, 22. is indeed in the guides, but is worth singling out. Get there at opening time if you can (around 6.30/7) not just to drink the local artisanal cider (which is okay) or cava (which is distressingly sweet) but to eat the delicious little open sandwiches which are spread out on the bar (catalan sausage; tuna and pimento; anchovy; tortilla; etc) or order canned seafood tapas. I am not joking - they have every kind of wonderful little sea thing canned in oil, from sardines and anchovies to baby squid and cockles

Set Portes A landmark restaurant, it is now heavily used by tourists (but still by locals too). It is scattered with memorabilia and promotional gimmicks, but I have always found the food to be fine. The paellas are famous, but I also recommend their simple meat dishes - roast, kid and roast rabbit especially.

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Alkima. Carrer Indústria, 79; 207-61-15. "Fried egg" appetizer, with cauliflower cream, unsweetened egg-yolk ice cream, and sevruga caviar; terrine of guinea fowl with pistachio-and-green-apple "guacamole" and trumpet-of-death mushrooms; squid with creamed rice and squid ink. $95; tasting menu, $30.

• Cata 181. Carrer València, 181; 323-68-18. Pig's trotters with figs, walnuts, and honey ice cream; three squares of rare tuna, each topped with a different mustard; sugared cruixents of cheese and tomato. $25; tasting menu, $20.

Comerc 24. Carrer Comerç,24; 319-21-02 Asparagus with mayonnaise foam; sardines marinated in balsamic vinegar or fried in Parmesan cheese; onions tempura with a soy-foam dip. $40; "festival menu" of tapas, $40. . (In the case of this particular restaurant, this is the only restaurant in Barcelona that Adria recommends unconditionally. The chef is Carles Abellán, 38, a veteran of El Bulli.)

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• Hisop. Passatge Marimon, 9; 241-32-33. Purée of green melon topped with spicy mâche; pigeon with sweet purées and arrays of different salts and peppers; chocolate madeleine soaked in rose syrup, with strawberry-pepper ice cream. $80; tasting menu, $35. •

Espai Sucre. Carrer Princesa. 53; 268-16-30. Smoky tea cream made from Lapsang souchong, with yogurt, a black sesame wafer, grapes, a coffee-and-chocolate cake, and chocolate ice cream. Seatings at 9 and 11:30 p.m. Five-course menu, $30; simpler three-course menu, $20; savory dishes, $9-$11. •

OT. Carrer Torres, 25; 284-77-52. Peanut "vichyssoise" with quail eggs, cabbage, and carrot; a deconstructed suquet (a fish, potato, and tomato stew); pigeon with shiitake mushrooms, baby corn, and popcorn. Prix fixe, $40. •

Santa Maria. Carrer Comerç, 17.; 315-12-27.International standards such as sushi, falafel or tuna mojama (thinly sliced, dried and cured) are competently rendered as designer tapas, but the desserts get really interesting. Tiburon shark with carrots and okra in a red-pepper sauce; botifarra (pork sausage) with white beans and cèpe mushrooms; parfait of coffee foam, mango cream, and white chocolate; rice pudding with cinnamon ice cream.

Tiburon shark with carrots and okra in a red-pepper sauce; botifarra (pork sausage) with white beans and cèpe mushrooms; parfait of coffee foam, mango cream, and white chocolate; rice pudding with cinnamon ice cream. $30; tasting

menu.

Cata 181, Carrer Valencia, 181 ( 93 323 6818) €. A wine lovers' paradise with a superb list of wines available in 25cl decanters and dinky saucer-fulls of food to go with them. The list includes little hamburgers with tiny cones of chips, salted liver specially treated with liqueur and sugar with strawberry sauce, and miniature parcels of cheese and tomato; but all are overshadowed by soft, treacly pigs' trotters with figs, walnuts and honey ice-cream

Catalan

Cafe de l'Academia, Carrer Lledo,1 ( 93 319 8253) €€. With cosy, shaded tables outside on a tranquil medieval square, this might be the best place in the city for modern Catalan dishes. Try cold anchovy lasagne with chargrilled peppers; roast guinea fowl with a tiny tarte tatin, or the rossejat - Catalunya's answer to risotto. It's excellent and cheap so book.

Casa Calvet, Carrer Casp, 48 ( 93 412 4012) €€€. Gaudi's dazzling modernista interior with swirling woodwork and graceful stained glass is the showcase for pea soup with chunks of squid, succulent pigeon with Szechuan pepper and roast fennel, and tasty lamb 'meatballs' with creamy risotto. Puddings are supreme - especially the crunchy pine nut tart with foamed crema Catalana - and the wine list encyclopaedic.

Can Solé, Carrer Sant Carles, 4 (93 221 5012) €€€. Five metres off the main tourist drag; a small step for the customer but a giant leap for paella: dark and delicious with the rice crisped up around the edges, and spiked with the juiciest seafood imaginable. The scumbled, sea-blue walls of Can Solé heave with awards, photographs and mementoes of past habitués.

Can Gaig, Passeig Maragall, 402 (93 429 1017) €€€€. From the huevo trufado - a soft egg yolk sitting in a warm, soft meringue and speckled with black truffle, or turbot served with its own 'crackling' and a nest of cuttlefish noodles, through to a shotglass holding layers of tangy lemon syrup, crema Catalana mousse, caramel ice-cream and topped with burnt sugar, every dish is as surprising and perfectly composed as the last. The Can Gaig is a trek from the city centre but the the excellent food makes it worth every minute of the journey.

I have no tasting notes. It is traditional cuisine with good service. It has been in the Gaig family for 4 generations, but other than remembering that the room was elegant and the dining was relaxed, I have no recollection of what I actually ate.

Els Pescadors, Plaça Prim. 1 (93 225 2018) €€€. The best of modern and traditional Barcelona, with an emphasis on fresh fish. A tuile basket of baby broad beans comes dressed with chocolate vinaigrette; cod is baked with honey and served with twirls of membrillo (quince jelly). Puddings are also wonderful, with lemon and ginger ice-cream on a bed of mango carpaccio or a fruit lasagne with warm chocolate sauce.

Tapas

Euskal Extea, Placeta Montcada, 1-3 (93 310 2185). Pintxos are the Basque way of doing tapas: they are colourful morsels speared with a cocktail stick - and they are never better than here. For the full regional experience, wash them down with txacoli, a lightly sparkling white wine. Keep the sticks - they'll be tallied up at the end when you pay.

Quimet i Quimet, Carrer Poeta Cabanyes, 25 (93 442 3142). A handkerchief-sized neighbourhood bar with a great little selection of tapas and walls lined with bottles of wine and cava, some of it exceptional. Prepare to stand, possibly on the pavement.

El Portalón, Carrer Banys Nous, 20 (93 302 1187). Every day the crowds surge up this narrow street seeking the authentic and splendid, yet still they manage to miss this fiercely old-school bodega, with its gruff waiters, terracotta pitchers of wines and interior barely changed since its time as a medieval stable. It's an old-style bar, deep in the Barri Gotic. In addition to cheap, rough wine straight from the barrel, they serve tasty, authentic tapas: snails, deep-fried artichoke hearts, blood sausage, cuttlefish, as well as all the usual suspects. They also serve the Catalunyan version of paella, known as fideu, with vermicelli replacing the rice.

Llesqueries. (Not dissimilar to tapas, but where you get slices of tomato bread and cheese and ham.)

Pla de la Garsa, Carrer Assaonadors, 13 (93 315 2413). An elegant sixteenth-century space with marble-topped tables and a wrought-iron spiral staircase leading up to another secluded dining room. As well as the pa amb tomàquet, the ptés, the wonderful charcuterie and meticulously sourced selection of unpasteurised cheeses, there is also a handful of dishes based on medieval recipes.

La Tinaja, Carrer Espartería, 9 (93 310 2250). The old crocks hanging like swallows' nests from the beams, the collection of farm implements and the lofty stone arches create a rustic atmosphere in which to sample standard llesqueria fare, washed down with a good value bottle of wine. Finish off with their fine tarta de Santiago; almond cake onto which you pour a glass of moscatell.

La Vinateria del Call, Carrer Sant Domènec del Call, 9 (93 302 6092). This narrow llesqueria, furnished with dark wood and dusty bottles, has something of the Dickensian tavern about it, but once inside there's an eclectic music selection from flamenco to raî , and lively multilingual staff. The wine list and range of hams and cheeses are outstanding; try the cecina de ciervo - thin slices of cured venison.

Va de Vi, Carrer Banys Vells, 16. 93 319 2900). With its sixteenth-century arches, candles and heavy drapery, Va de Vi is a fabulous place to try wines by the glass. Along with hams and ptés, the real speciality is cheese, with more than 50 varieties from Spain and further a field.

La Dama was horrible - old-fashioned, tired food, indifferent service. They rushed us through our tasting menu in an hour.

Botafumerio Gran de Gracia, 81. 93-218 42 30- This is suppose to be one of the best seafood restaurant in Barcelona. It is a huge room so the atmosphere is one of "rush". We had the large cold seafood plate - it was piled high with cold spider crab, crab legs, langoustines, oysters, clams. The fish was incredible fresh - just caught. But this is more a place for a quick, light lunch than fine dining. I ordered an appetizer of angulas, tiny, whole baby eels, served over a salad of frisee lettuce and the delicate local judias - small fava beans. The nest of eels looked like julienned celeriac, or maybe cold spaghetti. On close inspection, they had tiny little faces. My first few mouthfuls made me think - ah, texture food. The flavor was slow in coming, but it did arrive - sweet, very mild, nothing like the strong flavour of full-size eels. Not an explosive dish, but I liked it. Next, a boned pig's foot stuffed with foie gras and a diverting mixture of wild mushrooms, topped with some big slices of black truffle, in its own, sticky, truffle-specked juice. No accompanying vegetables or extraneous garnish, and I didn't expect any. Rich, satisfying, and you could have put up wallpaper with the gravy.The cheeses were a slight disappointment. I had spotted a trayful, with little plastic flags, as soon as I'd walked in. Surprisingly, it turned out to be a selection of well-kept boutique French cheeses, some of which were new to me, and I wondered why he did not serve regional cheeses from La Boqueria market.

No fireworks, but a subtle, serious, grown-up restaurant. Three courses with the wine, around $95 (obviously cheaper for two people sharing the wine) - and this was with luxury ingredients at a high end restaurant. Next thing I knew, I was enjoying a couple of glasses of cognac (Magno) in a new-looking bar full of people younger and arguably sexier than myself. Simple but stylish bars are everywhere around the old city: this one was just a bare room on the ground floor of a nineteenth century building. A big, steel bar. A few nice artworks on the wall. A dj playing pleasant and relatively quiet music. And beautiful people. The night moved on to Bar Pastis, an absinthe-ridden dive on a side street which was once patrolled by transvestite hookers who looked like they'd retired from the WWF.

.

One thing I've noticed in Barcelona over the last three or four years are new food stores/delicatessens which make the regional produce of Catalonia easily accessible. No longer do you have to know which bodega serves a particularly tasty sausage - you can go to stores which serve a whole range, along with cheeses and local wines. I pause now to kick myself, because I have lost the cards I picked up. Anyway, there is a huge craft shop on C. dels Escudellers, on the block after the old Los Caracoles restaurant as you head towards Las Ramblas. Hard to miss it, as the ground floor is a vast repository of regional Spanish ceramics - pots, tiles and so on. Look down through the windows in the floor, and you will see an equally vast cellar where they are aging hams, slicing all kinds of cold cuts and cheeses, and serving local wines by the glass or bottle. I took lunch on my second day at a newer charcuterie called Xaloc, only six months old, where a library of aging hams covers one wall. I watched the staff climbing ladders and dipping long prongs into the hams to check the aroma, and thus presumably their progress. You can order meats or cheeses individually, or eat a selection (and, of course, buy them to take away). I ate the assortment of Catalonian sausage, a big plate of hard salamis, soft slicing sausages, and sweet cooked hams; about $9 with a glass of cold beer. Xaloc is on one of the upmarket shopping streets in the upper part of the Barri Gotic, near the old Sant Pi church - C. de la Palla, 17.

El Ateneu Gastronomic (http://www.ateneu.com/). Placa de Sant Miguel 2, bis. 93-302-1198. I have been eating here since shortly after it opened, seven or eight years ago. It is a labor of love. The restaurant is quite Spartan; bare floor, hard chairs (take a sweater in winter), but with tablecloths and uniformed staff. The menu used to be a lovely affair of deckled parchment, but is now plainer and plastic covered (it's in Catalan, Castilian and English).The menu is divided into plates para picar - essentially for picking at and sharing - cold and hot appetizers, and so on. I mention this because the prices are such that you would be crazy not to order a sharing plate followed by an appetizer and entree. You can pick at selections of sausage and cheese, or big slices of toasted country bread with various toppings. I chose a mixed foie gras plate. The ample portions of local foie gras came in two styles: the usual mi cuit, but with a firm, interesting texture and deep flavor which suggested home-made rather than mass produced; or a terrine with dashes of prunes and other dried fruit, soaked in a good sweet wine. The latter nearly made me cry. My appetizer was a rustic sort of dish I've ordered before: the sweet local fava beans, cooked to tenderness, then quickly sauteed with chunks of terrific dried ham, lightly dressed with olive oil and sprinkled with fresh mint. And it's a big plateful. I usually eat a meat dish next, with a red from the local producer Raimat, but mindful of my earlier history lesson, I ate the Alchemist's salt cod. Ungarnished, as is customary, the fish needed more vigorous flavoring; the mild crust of spices didn't really kick it out of blandness. It was topped with some bitter olives, which did add some drama. I drank a rose, Mas Comtal Rosat de Penedes, 2000 (I drink a lot of rose in Barcelona, where it is taken quite seriously, and is not a "pink confection").For dessert, slices of fresh goat's cheese with a sweet tomato marmalade. I chose a mysterious dessert wine called "Hydromiel", which turned out to be a kind of honey eau-de-vie with some frightening sediment which eventually settled. I recommend the moscatels. The check? Embarrassing. Four courses, drinks, tip: about forty bucks. If I'd eaten meat, I would have drunk a more expensive wine, but it would really be hard to push the price much higher here. I was about to get an early night, but my walk back to the hotel took me past El Ateneu again. I stopped to read the menu. Then, as if possessed by higher powers, I found myself seated in the wine bar section, saying to myself "Only an entree." I ordered their tartaro de caballo, one of my favorite dishes. Yes, horse tartare, dark and rich. This one was a little under seasoned, but I corrected that myself. I thought a dessert in order after all. Something was described as "Plum Cake" on the Catalan and Castilian, as well as the English, menus. When it arrived, there was no sign of plums. It was a light, lemony sponge with a few caraway seeds. "Flummery?" I asked myself, in the grips of another Nero Wolfe flashback. Then I realized with a shiver that, if I queried the dish, I would be told that the kitchen had run out of plum cake and had substituted authentic clouty dumpling flown in that morning from Scotland. For once, I decided to shut up and eat it, and the accompanying scoop of fresh yoghurt and home-made bitter orange marmalade were fine.

. Mercat de la Boqueria just off La Rambla is the best known market. Breakfast the next morning inside Barcelona's central food market, La Boqueria. There are about half a dozen full scale tapa bars dotted around the market floor, and most of them have had something of a refurb since I was last here. Artichoke tortilla and a glass of rose. Morning drinking is encouraged; the two old guys next to me were polishing off a bottle of cava for breakfast.

We happened to chance upon another that seemed bigger if not better, I believe it was the one on Mallorca and Cassanova

Edited March 9, 2003 by robert brown (log)

[lizziee]

Robert,

What an extraordinary job!!!! It makes Frommers, Time Out, Fodor's et al look like a joke. I'll take eGullet anytime.

How labor intensive was it to do all that cut and paste?

[robert brown]

Lizziee, I couldn't have done it without you. Thank you so much. I really think the restaurant, if not general travel, advice we find on the site is the as pure and informed as one can get. Do you really think that the typical freelance food and travel writer has the open-mindedness and experience that people such as you, Bux, Wilfrid, and Victor have?

I probably could have had a couple of leisurely meals in the time I invested compiling this. I look forward to going and adding my impressions.

Edited March 9, 2003 by robert brown (log)

[CyN]

A really great project, Robert, and much appreciated by me.