Vacationing outside Barcelona

[Christopher Haatuft]

Im going to a festival this summer in a smal town called Calella north of Barcelona and I will need some time to recooperate after the shows. I plan on renting a car and Id like to stay somewhere cheap and nice away from the tourists (most of them anyway). Also the eating has to be good. I find that the touristplaces in Spain is about as gastronomacly interesting as stale bread. So please let me know if you have a recomandation for a nice little town or hotel somewhere within a couple of hours drive of Barcelona.

[The Viking]

Vel min venn, nå har du virkelig tråkket i salaten! Calella ligger midt i det området hvor du definitivt finner noen av Spanias beste restauranter, nevner i fleng: Sant Pau, Hispania, El Raco de Can Fabes, og 12 mil lenger nord El Celler de Can Roca og El Bulli...

Gjør du et søk på disse i dette forumet vil du ha mer enn nok hygge deg med...

The short version translated from Norwegian:

My fellow countryman, you've really put your foot in it, listing the above mentioned restaurants and recommending the "search" button...

But in all fairness: The original poster is a young promising chef from Bergen, Norway who will be awed at the culinary experiences that the Costa Brava has to offer.

[Christopher Haatuft]

Vel min venn, nå har du virkelig tråkket i salaten! Calella ligger midt i det området hvor du definitivt finner noen av Spanias beste restauranter, nevner i fleng: Sant Pau, Hispania, El Raco de Can Fabes, og 12 mil lenger nord El Celler de Can Roca og El Bulli...

Gjør du et søk på disse i dette forumet vil du ha mer enn nok  hygge deg med...

The short version translated from Norwegian:

My fellow countryman, you've really put your foot in it, listing the above mentioned restaurants and recommending the "search" button...

But in all fairness: The original poster is a young promising chef from Bergen, Norway who will be awed at the culinary experiences that the Costa Brava has to offer.

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Young promising chef from Bergen, huh? Tell my boss that... I know about El Bulli, of course, but the others were new to me. So what your saying is that Callela is a nice place to stay, then? I would like to get away from there after the festival Im going to, but then Ill aim for somewhere near, I guess...Any recommandations for nice villages nearby?

Ohh...not saying that the spanish cuisine is not interesting, of course not. But I get tired of getting served chips with everything. I guess you have to leave the tourist infested beach resorts to get to the good stuff?

Edited April 21, 2005 by Christopher Haatuft (log)

[Bux]

There are actually good restaurants scattered in areas accessible from the coast and even great ones right on the coast. Sant Pau (Chef Carme Ruscalleda) is almost right off the ocean. I believe there's a strip of beach and then a train tack. That's all that separates its garden from the sea. The trains running on the track are electric and very quiet. Their occasional appearance has no ruinous effect on the meal at his fine restaurant. In fact the train station is but a blck or two awy and makes the restaurant easily accessible from Barcelona without a car. From Calella, you might be able to walk to Sant Pol de Mar and Sant Pau. This is an elegant Relais Gourmand, although, at least in summer, like most of the area, it's very informal. neither tie nor jacket seem to be needed. I think the restaurnat has two Michelin stars and three soles from Campsa. In my opinion Campsa is generally more reliable in Spain.

Just a few kilometers further south is Arenys de Mar and Hispania, a repository of traditional Catalan food. The menu is overwhelming with its extensive choices. It too is in sight of the sea, but almost inaccessible to strangers. You must take the correct exit from the highway outside and then manage not to miss the turnoff to the restaurant or you will find yourself in a semideserted industrial section next to a nature beach as we did. Once we reached the restaurant there was not a tourist in sight. At lunch it was packed with what looked to be large tables of office workers, business men and local families. Trays of food and wine continually passed by us too quickly for me to observe exactly what the locals were eating and drinking, but the hostess helped us select from that vast menu. Fortunately, my wife's first langauge is Spanish. I do not recall English being spoken. Campsa awards it a sol and I see Michelin has finally seen fit to award it a star in the latest guide.

Sant Celoni, inland from the coast, is home to El Raco de Can Fabes, one of Spain's great table. It's long been both a three Michelin star and three soles restaurant. Santi Santamaria is one of Spain's masters. There's been a report or two of a recent meal that was below expectations, but consider that the expectations here should be as high as they are at any restaurant in Spain or France.

By comparison, Girona and El Celler de Can Roca, is a trip, though probably well under an hour's drive. After all Girona is only a 100 kilometers from Barcelona. From reports here, and my one meal at the restaurant a few years back, I'd say this is the one restaurant in Catalunya you really want to visit, second only to elBulli. I don't think Michelin has yet recognized it as three stars, but Campsa has it at three soles. There are numerous mentions of Can Roca on the site if you will do a search. The name even appears in several threads on the first page of the Spain forum, but I'll mention Luis Gutiérrez's post on his meal as noteworty. Girona is an interesting town with a medieval section that's rather recently been uncovered and restored from the rubble that buried much of it. It's well worth a day's sightseeing in addition to a visit spemy original request.cifically for Can Roca in the suburbs.

These may be the most important restaurants to know in the immediate area, but I know there are more, and I'm sure I haven't discovered most of them. Just avoid the restaurant that have menus posted in more than six languages, especially when they don't list the same foods in each menu. I have a vivid memory of the joint in Lloret de Mar, a town that would be charming and probably was before it was over built, that offered spaghetti in Italian, fish and chips in English, sausages in German and of course paella in all menus. It was surrounded by shops selling souvenirs, post cards and bathing attire.

In the meantime, I'm looking for interesting places to eat and stay further inland west and maybe north of Girona and Vic. I've driven over the Pyrenees from Ceret to Girona and liked the countryside. Please don't respond to that request here, but to

[Saborosa]

Their occasional appearance has no ruinous effect on the meal at his fine restaurant.

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Her restaurant, please! Sorry. Sure it was just a slip, but there are so few celebrated female chefs in Spain (and the world!?) at that level, it would be a shame to lose one!

To get from Calella to Sant Pol you could walk (about 3km roughly) but some of the route is along the side of the coast road and isn't all pleasant. You can't walk along or next to the beach the whole way, as far as I can remember. Alternatively take a train or taxi (about 5 mins).

[Christopher Haatuft]

Thanks Bux and Saborosa! Very nice responds. This will defiantly make my holiday a lot better!

[Bux]

Their occasional appearance has no ruinous effect on the meal at his fine restaurant.

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Her restaurant, please! . . .

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Absolutely. In my defense, I thought I typed "this" restaurant and unfortunately, even a spelling checker wouldn't have caught that. I knew it was a she because I had read an article about chef Ruscalleda, or at least as much as I could in Spanish. I was most impressed with her description of the openess of Spanish kitchens and the exchange of ideas that was rapidly spreading as young cooks moved around the best kitchens. She reinforced my sense that what's happening in Spain is akin to the fervor we've experienced during some of the more dynamic art movements in the 20th century.

[Christopher Haatuft]

How about renting a motorhome? Anyone done this in Spain? The best price I can find on the net is about 1500£