food blog

[Marlene]

I imagine Barcelona to be a most romantic place. Your descriptions make it come alive for us.

-Marlena the happy blogger When is the awards ceremony?

I'll bet it's warm there. I'd kill for warm right now. Actually, I'd just like to be able to get to my BBQ (by sunday of course )

[bloviatrix]

I'm enjoying my vicarious vacation in Barcelona. Thanks for packing us in your bag and taking us with you.

Edited February 26, 2004 by bloviatrix (log)

[ludja]

I can't decide whether reading this thread is helping or hurting me in keeping my Ash Wednesday (Lenten) fast today... ! In one sense the evocative descriptions can almost substitute for actually eating the dishes, but on the other hand, they have me salivating!

[Mabelline]

Marlena when you awaken, I'd like to ask you about the average prices of small, medium, large Jamons; anyway that you could illustrate the value. I understand that it is a 'surgically-thin sliced ham',but I've got no concept of the value of it over there.

Youall seen any Bassets yet? Sneaker and Smokie have been on the phone with Madeleine.

[marlena spieler]

hoisted myself up onto a stool for a marketplace tapas breakfast at el quim de la boqueria: fried artichoke pieces, eggplant tortilla (fritatta), bread rubbed with tomato, and a plate of olives. and a beer.

if you eat nothing else in barcelona, i think you have to eat here. its such a happy little marketplace bar, quite sophisticated, with food that is exquisite. really exciting dynamic food, and yet quite traditional. a wonderful combination. when the waiter and chef realized i was a food writer they brought out business cards from others who have trod this way: paula wolfert, fred plotkin, narsai david, and jesse cool. i knew them all, and imagined them happily perched on a stool eating these wonderful things, as delighted as i was. also, the waiter pointed out to me different specialities they make as people ordered them, let me look at the plates etc. one of the most compelling: fried eggs topped with tiny teeny baby squid sauteed with garlic and parsley.

i walked and walked and went to the museum of contemporary art, the picasso museum and the dali museum, the last two of which are in the gothic quarter of town. around two i roused my appetite and went for lunch. there is a special menu del dio, and menu del noche, special fixed price menus and they are very reasonably priced and marketplace based.

i ate batter fried wild spring onions, caÇots, with romescu sauce. the sauce was delish, but to be honest, i don´t like fried things too much and would have preferred the calcots barbecued. i should have just pulled the batter off, silly me.

then i had a veal and mushroom braise, with was quite strongly flavoured with orange, and a meaty jus, really nice. and diced apple with watermelon for dessert.

IN the market i bought a bag of different fruits and sampled them when i got home. a whole mandarin, a whole pear, a big piece of orange, slices of lemon, and a chunk of melon. and a ring of pineapple. the mandarin was the best, with the outside sugary but the inside still fruity. the others were too sugary, though the orange chunk was pretty wonderful. the lemon one was very hard and hard to eat but tasty.

price for a whole jamon varies depending on the type of ham, but i was please to see hams for as little as E45.......spanish hams, by and large, are sliced thicker than italian prosciutto, and also it is sliced with the grain rather than against it. there are special ham holders that you put the ham in and it holds it at the right angle while you slice away.

gotta go, some of the other members of the conference have started to arrive. tomorrow i´ll try to scribble some notes about the classes they hold at la boqueria market--three times a year i think, for a week each--but also they said there are weekly classes for children. today there was also a group of children parading through the market, different children, same scene: adults parting and letting them through, tutting and tutting, and saying aren´t they sweet in spanish, the kids agog at the whole of everything around them.

í don´t think i can face another meal today.

but i´m sure that when i get back tonight, i´ll have nibbled something you´ll all just have to know about. and of course, i´ll tell you every little morsel.

adios,

M

[Toliver]

...to be honest, i don´t like fried things too much and would have preferred the calcots barbecued. i should have just pulled the batter off, silly me.

Marlena,

Speaking of fried food, do you see a lot of it there?

I ask because I have friends who lived in Madrid for a while (many years ago) and that was one of their complaints about the food. They said they encountered fried food everywhere, even the vegetables (like your onions) were usually fried.

Or is the cuisine of Barcelona completely different?

[marlena spieler]

HI Tolliver: fried food in barcelona: there is a lot of fried food, but in fact there is less than i expected from having been in other places in spain. one of the things they do in frying here is use olive oil (not extra virgin, but non virgin, ie trollop) which is, not exactly lighter but just sort of tastier and more digestible. tonight in fact, as we were rambling along the ramblas and through a few alleyways in search of dinner, we passed on one of the tapas places as i didn´t like the way the oil smelled, and there was a whole counter full of batter-fried things to choose from.

the one thing i do like thats fried is croquettas, and i think i waxed lyrical about that yesterday. again though--the oil really needs to be good, and in my book, for frying that means olive oil.

a friend of mine arrived this afternoon so she and i did a mini tapas trawl, me being the native after two days here, i knew the ropes. i took her to a place i wanted to try the other night......full of people, students, families, old guys, young guys, and a lovely boy dog named: Lola whose owner was very friendly, wanting to talk about london, about san francisco, and also speak in italian as lola the dog is from italy. i was relieved that at least the dog was italian as i´m much more comfortable with italian than i am with spanish (or catalunyan).....i throw out about five different pronounciations and hope that one will make sense and not get me into trouble.

we ate: morcilla (spicy blood sausage) with a few shreds of onion (I don´t like blood sausage anything and lola became a special under-the-table friend at this point); a wedge of zucchini tortilla; salt cod salad with tomatoes--the cod was hand pulled and the dressing light and lemony; tomatoes and white cheese which we didn´t know if it was greek or catalan but it was fresh and tangy and who cares if we are in barcelona eating feta, it was darned good feta and i´m a big feta fan; we also had hot sizzling little tiny chorizos; bread and i think that was it. and a beer.

tomorrow the conference begins, but we´re planning on getting up early and going back to the market; my friend has a digital camera and we´re going to take photos of everything we eat and as much as we can of everything else, to download onto this blog (might have to wait until sunday to download it though).

ah, early night, i know i shall sleep well in the knowledge that I am full of my daily allowance of chorizo.

[marlena spieler]

actually tolliver, i think i didn´t answer you completely. calcots--the green onions--usually are barbecued, not fried. so i feel hopeful i´ll come upon them again. but i have heard that asparagus is battered and fried sometimes. but then i also see them in tapas bars, piled up roasted, or scrambled with eggs, etc.

lots of other things on menus, though, lots of beans and rustic home things and stews and the sort of local traditional cooking that one doesn´t always see on restaurant menus. its very touching and exciting to eat here for this reason.

also, not a lot of other things on plates, quite simple presentations. portions that are reasonable so that you don´t feel stupified.

x

m

[Toliver]

lola became a special under-the-table friend at this point

Sometimes it's good to have friends in low places.

Thanks for posting about what language you're using. I was wondering how you were doing when it came to "more tapas, please."

I look forward to the pictures!

[bloviatrix]

Thanks for posting about what language you're using. I was wondering how you were doing when it came to "more tapas, please."

Isn't holding out a plate licked clean with begging eyes the universal language for more?

[marlena spieler]

another day, another visit to la boqueria market. i mean, i know there are other things to do, and husband points out that he went to st catherine market yesterday, but i mean, la boqueria moves to its own beat, as if it has its own momentum. all of life is there.

i was dying to take my friend, food writer josephine bacon, to the market for breakfast at el quim. also, she is the one with the camera, so if we actually get our photos up on sunday she will be the one to thank.

josephine and husband (mine) ate: fried eggs topped with the tiniest little baby squid, garlic and parsley. i am allergic to seafood, alas so could only watch them. husband was thrilled to be eating baby squid for breakfast, with eggs, a different sort of English breakfast. i mean, squid instead of bacon. we also had a big plate of fried artichokes, more eggplant tortilla because i wanted them to taste it, and more bread with tomato and olive oil because its wonderful.

then we stopped for coffee after much more walking around, to warm up our fingers, and also to share an ensaimada, a light pastry covered in powdered sugar, a catalonian speciality (we used to eat them in ibiza which is also catalonian). josephine bought a big bag of preserved fruit, on my advice: melon, orange, citron, and a wonderful whole preserved carrot! I´m going to make her bring it to the gala dinner tonight for dessert.

husband bought the biggest bag of strawberries i´ve ever seen, costs 1 and a half euro, so sweet and fragrant and fresh! we ate them with our next coffee and when a beggar asked for money to feed her child i dished up huge handfuls of strawberries and the baby was really happy!

have i mentioned the little ducklings and chicks in the bird market in the ramblas. i fell in love with these baby ducks, little ducklets, and at 1 euro each, i wanted to buy one and keep it in our hotel sink. but we´d have to stay here until it was grown up enough to make it on its own out there in the cruel world.

then we walked down the passeig de gracia where the gaudi houses are, an elegant wide avenue. and ate lunch: bocados of ham, (little sandwiches) with tomato rubbed on the bread before the ham is added. i drank mint tea, josephine drank lemon-ade, and husband the caffeine maniac had cafe con leche.

will tell all about the event this evening, what we eat, what its like--it will be very glam, quite formal, about 30 ambassadors are coming, more than the number of countries i can name. prince wilhelm of prussia was, as usual one of the judges.

and if are any morsels of gossip, i´ll just try to fit it in between the morsels of food i report on.

gotta get ready, and try to squeeze into my little black number, after all the jamon and chorizo, i might need two little black dresses to make it around me.

and mabelline, tell smokey and sneaker thank you for keeping little madeline busy. i´m bringing her a can of "yellow cat tuna" para los gatos.

[marlena spieler]

can a girl eat too much jamon, and one tortilla too many?

maybe.

but not yet.

last night big festive event in llotja de mar, a 1385 building which was the first stock exchange, then an art school where both picasso and miro started their painting careers, and now you can rent it out for parties. it is magnificent, with high archways throughout, and a deep Spanish elegance.

dinner was okay: i´ll wax lyrical later as i´m running out the door to try to find a cooking demonstration by vefa alexanoiu of greece, she´s making eggplant, both of our favourites and i´ve heard that a moroccan chef is there, so off i head.

we ate: tapas-y nibbles: bread with tomatoes, jamon, croquettes, coca--the pissadeliere-like pastry of catalyunya, with tomatoes and onions. and then creme of black truffle soup, lobster souffle in a zucchini, lamb with zucchini and a roasted pepper stuck into it, two chocky desserts, and the best thing: exquisite pine nut croqantes and thin dark chocs, both of which were so divine that i wrapped them up in a napkin and stuck them into my bag. if anyone is so lucky to find themselves sitting next to me on the plane this afternoon, remember: i share.

i was accepting the award by the way for rose levy barenbaum, for her bread bible. rose is the most excellent of bakers and most excellent of friends. she can turn even a wild child in the kitchen into a person who can bake happily (this is me, she gave me the courage to face the yeast....).

gotta go, the eggplants away.

x

marlena

[marlena spieler]

missed breakfast and headed over to a cooking demonstration which was given as part of the mediterranean conference. there were 5 or 6 chefs, from tunisia, israel, greece, cyprus, and morocco. it was a tiny kitchen and the chefs tempers were fraying a bit. the moroccan chef decided that there was neither room nor time, so she backed out of the presentation.

vefa andreaoiu (sp?) greece's answer to nigella for mature audiences made: stewed lamb wrapped in eggplant, giant white beans stewed with tomatoes, a country salad, and.......tzadziki.

i was so hungry by then i was nearly crying, though you all know what i've been eating this week and a half, so i really had no good reason to be hungry. the israeli chef did an interesting dish of lamb wrapped in chickpea puree then encased in warka dough, and served with fava beans and sumak. of course as we didn't have a chance to taste, i couldn't tell you if it tasted good. sadly. (it looked lovely).

the tunisian couscous smelled really enticing, the spices, the tomatoes, the fish and the vegetables were all arranged like a still life on top of the very light grains which i have now learned how to steam properly.

wonderful to see some of the guests from last night again, and fun to see who was a delight and who was a b***h. always a fun game. anyhow, when i left the love vefa and i kissed, and vefa invited me to be on her television show in greece, and i had to hold myself back from grabbing the bowl of tzadziki and running out of the building.

stopped and got a bocadillo of jamon, a serrano ham sandwich, oh don't they just do them so well, with the tomato rubbed on the bread and the drizzle of olive oil, what a wonderful way to make a sandwich. then grabbed an ensaimada, a light sort of croissanty roll but not so buttery, with a last cup of cafe con leche. and hopped onto easy jet.

east jet really was easy, so much easy than getting the train back home which was hard, very hard. it took much longer to get home from gatwick than it did to get from barcelona to london. and when we got back it was snowing.

and i was too tired to make something to eat, and so despite the fact we were hungry, and despite the fact that i wanted to go out with a bang, and cook a whole bunch of wonderful catalonian goodies, (i brought home jamon, chorizo, and an interesting cheese, back of lemons, coffee) i just ran out of energy.

we ate a tuna salad--lots of onion, green onion, celery, and capers in an olive oil mayonnaise--with tomato wedges, lettuce and sliced cucumber, almost a barcelona meal......and it was sooooooo good. and now we're ready for bed.

tomorrow i'll see if my photos have turned out and if they do, i'll post them either on this thread or on to a new one.

and now, sleep well all, tomorrow we find out what marlena eats.

Its been wonderful fun you all.

[marlena spieler]

buenas dias, Marlena here. I meant to sign off last night saying: tomorrow we'll read about what Marlene eats, but i guess i was subconsiously not wanting to go away, for I wrote Marlena instead. confusing? yes.

But from here on in, Marlene will be driving this tasty eating machine, the foodblog.

old habits die hard, though; i --and husband--find ourselves telling everyone we meet what we're eating, and telling everyone esp at the food conference, about the blog and egullet. husband also wants it known he forgot to tell you all about an apple he had last wednesday, and about the fact that he found the free morning coffee room at the hotel in spain, where there was coffee and bunuellos for free and in true british fashion, he was not shy!

Adios mes amigos, and happy eating.

sunday 29th february 2004

Marlena, Alan (the husband) , and Madeleine