Barcelona food shopping

[Rogelio]

My two cents:

http://www.aquisabemosvivir.com/

[vserna]

- Jamon Serrano ham (poor brother to Parma Ham)

- Rioja red (Cross of Burgundy v Chianti)

- Olive oil (quite good actually)

My God! I'm crosseyed!!

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And I'm flabbergasted, Luis... To see comments of this caliber on a board such as eGullet, where we've covered these subjects in depth, is a bit disheartening...

Almass, please do a little search about jamón ibérico, right here on this board (just click on the search engine!), and then come back and explain this "poor brother" theory to us. Thanks in advance!

[scordelia]

One stunner that I brought back from Barcelona (and impossible to find in the US!) is Cordineu's cava made from Pinot Noir. It is a deep pink in color and dry and crisp with many subtle flavors. Try it with dark berries and dark chocolate.

This goes way beyond the standard pink champagnes!

[dfunghi]

Just to weigh in on the "Poor Brother" situation.

Having purchased Parma Ham in Parma from a purveyor at the market after surveying all the action and finding the best source, where I was able to taste diferent hams . Some sweet, some more "dry" and all wonderful and all artisinal.It was better than any Parma I had in USA ever. Then on my first trip to Spain ( 2000) I had Iberico Bellota for the first time , since it is unavailable in USA, and it floored me! Never had I tasted anything like it. Still to this day I will say that it is one of the most delicious, unique, and pleasurable foods I have ever been lucky enough to eat. A top shelf Bellota is one of the finast foods on the planet IMHO. Worth the 125Euros a kilo. With over 20 years in the food biz and a size 44 waistline I have tatsted many , many foods. Iberico stands near the top of a short list of truly remarkable foods. In Spain Jammon is taken with the seriousness that wine is in Burgundy. Terroir, age, variety, and the skill of the maker all matter.

If anyone does not believe this to be true just eat them ( Parma -vs- Iberico) side by side.

[Almass]

- Jamon Serrano ham (poor brother to Parma Ham)

- Rioja red (Cross of Burgundy v Chianti)

- Olive oil (quite good actually)

My God! I'm crosseyed!!

←

And I'm flabbergasted, Luis... To see comments of this caliber on a board such as eGullet, where we've covered these subjects in depth, is a bit disheartening...

Almass, please do a little search about jamón ibérico, right here on this board (just click on the search engine!), and then come back and explain this "poor brother" theory to us. Thanks in advance!

←

vserna.

No need to be flabbergasted. Do the search yourself and not on eGullet but in real life with Parma Ham purchased in Italy and Iberico purchased in Spain. And if you think you are in the right, then we agree to disagree and no need for the repartie!

[pedro]

vserna.

No need to be flabbergasted. Do the search yourself and not on eGullet but in real life with Parma Ham purchased in Italy and Iberico purchased in Spain. And if you think you are in the right, then we agree to disagree and no need for the repartie!

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Almass, I for one I'm interested in reading your arguments which make you thing that Parma ham is superior to Ibérico. And if no argument other than experimentation, that's it buy them and compare them, is offered, then I'm afraid that we would have to be far more specific about what's to be compared. Are we talking of making a comparison of the very best of each products, a random selection, or what? Just the fact of having 5 official D.O. for Ibérico, each one with its own nuances (feeding, climate, aging periods, . . .), makes the whole comparison process quite difficult.

[FoodMan]

Our flight back to the US leaves Sunday evening, so in general are shops ,food shops or other goods (clothes, shoes...), open on a Sunday? We are so used to having shops open 7-days a week in the US that we forget that this is NOT the norm and we are remined of it everytime we visit my family in Lebanon .

Elie

[pedro]

Don't count on finding shops open on Sunday, unless it's the first Sunday of the months (even then, you'd only find open the shops from major chains mostly).

[hazardnc]

FoodMan, my family visited Barcelona last summer. I don't know how much time you will have, or if this is of interest to you, but we took a "foodie" tour with this company My Favorithe Things. The kids were a bit bored with this, but my husband and I loved it. We visited a granja (dairy bar), the Boqueria, a tapas bar, a spice shop and many other Barcelona food destinations that I found interesting and fun. One of the best places we visited was the cheese shop Formatgeria La Seu in the Gothic Quarter, run by a delightful Scottish woman. She sells sampler plates with a glass of wine, and will chat up a storm!

Several people have mentioned bringing back meat and cheese products. I did bring back a fresh cheese (supposedly banned - aged cheese are fine), with no problems, but our customs agent's only question was "Do you have any meat products." You may be okay if the meat is sealed, but I think it will all depend on who you face when you arrive in the US.

Something to buy would be the pincholine olives, which are hard to find in the US. I also brought back pimenton (the smoked paprika), canned anchovies from Cadaques and canned tuna packed in olive oil.

I would have brought back wine, but if you bring a case, you may have to carry it on board as the airlines sometimes give you a hard time about liquids in breakable bottles being checked with the luggage. I did not want to haul a case.

[dfunghi]

Foodman, Sunday all shops worth going to will be closed as is the Boquria. Shop on Saturday if you can.

[dfunghi]

We could not find Formatgeria La Seu and we looked and looked. We asked nearby shops and noone knew it. Is it still there? It was a tiny street so we walked up and down the whole way with no luck. We did enjoy yummie pastelerias in the area however so it was not a total loss.

[FoodMan]

Foodman, Sunday all shops worth going to will be closed as is the Boquria. Shop on Saturday if you can.

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Thank you all for your help. hazardnc the Formatgeria La Seu in the Gothic Quarter is on my list to visit now.

Apperantly Colmado Quilez, my first choice for goodies is even closed on Saturday afternoon. So, Friday and Saturday morning are the shopping days. On Sunday we will probably just visit the Picasso Museum.

Elie

[FoodMan]

We could not find Formatgeria La Seu and we looked and looked. We asked nearby shops and noone knew it. Is it still there? It was a tiny street so we walked up and down the whole way with no luck. We did enjoy yummie pastelerias in the area however so it was not a total loss.

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well, what do you know...I googled them and found that they have their own site with directions and a map and everything.

Click Here

Elie

[Behemoth]

I'm really astonished someone was able to smuggle a ham in their suitcase. Those beagles zeroed in on the meat products like sharks on a flailing swimmer in a summer blockbuster movie. I was very glad it wasn't my würstchen on the line! I wouldn't risk losing a beautiful $$ slab of ham -- better stick with the canned stuff.

[orangeblossom]

We could not find Formatgeria La Seu and we looked and looked. We asked nearby shops and noone knew it. Is it still there? It was a tiny street so we walked up and down the whole way with no luck. We did enjoy yummie pastelerias in the area however so it was not a total loss.

←

well, what do you know...I googled them and found that they have their own site with directions and a map and everything.

Click Here

Elie

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Hi. Not sure if this is still valid, but thought i'd still post it.

When i was in Barcelona in March, the shop was opened only on certain days (afternoons of wed-fri, sat morns). This was because Katherine the owner's was busy taking care of her mother who was gravely ill. Good luck finding the place and hope all's well with Katherine (she doesn't know me, but I had been there a couple of times).

p.s. - the shop is a little hard to find (esp if they are closed - the graffiti-ed shutters don't help!). Easiest way i found was to go all the way down calle Jaume 1 (which is off the Generalitat) towards calle Laietana and it's a little little alley on your right. There is a cafe at the "junction" between Jaume I and the alley.

[Mar Calpena]

By the way, as far as ham is concerned, Teruel is currently becoming the hottest D.O. -and it's as good as the best-, and, best of all, it's still not as expensive as some others (but will definitely become so...)

Edited May 19, 2005 by Mar Calpena (log)

[dfunghi]

The Formatgeria La Seu must have been shuttered when I was there. It is a tiny street only a coouple of blocks long and we searched. Now that I see thier website I am even more disappointed.

As to bringing home any type of food if the dogs are on duty you will get caught no doubt. We were fortunate as perhaps they were on a bathroom break

[Luis Gutiérrez]

By the way, as far as ham is concerned, Teruel is currently becoming the hottest D.O. -and it's as good as the best-, and, best of all, it's still not as expensive as some others (but will definitely become so...)

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Mar, I guess you mean among the white pig hams. Very different to the Ibérico ham, and in a completely different category IMHO.

Salud(os),

Luis

[Saborosa]

Formatgeria La Seu did have to close for a few months as Katherine had to go home to Scotland to care for her mother. But she's now back and open and will certainly welcome custom after having to close for such a long time!

[FoodMan]

Barcelona was a blast! I will post a few shopping related pictures soon enough. I just wanted to thank all of you for great tips.

One of the places I visited was Formatgeria La Seu, and chatted with the very friendly Scottish lady who owns it. It's is really amazing how much she cares about her cheese. I bought some Manchego and she announced emphatically that there is no way she will vacuum pack cheese. She then quized me how long the flight would be, then after some consideration she said "Ok, it will be ok, you can take some back home" . Honestly she spent about 5 minutes carefully wrapping the cheese and even gave me an extra change (piece of wax paper) to change the wrapping if it got too sweaty. Since I bought some olive oil from her as well, she made sure that my wife did not put both products in the same bag . We chatted about her website, and the map she had on it since it clearly guided me top the store. She said the site is horribly outdated and the e-mail is wrong in addition to other info. On a sadder note, she said the store closed for a while because she had to tend to her ill mom who passed away eventually.

If you are in the Gothic quartyer anytime soon, do stop by the store and get some much loved cheese.

Elie

[FoodMan]

Sorry for the delay but I finally downloaded some of the "Food Shopping" related pictures. Enjoy:

Boqueria-

We actually bought some dried sausages from this guy and his father. Both very helpful and nice.

...More seafood. Sorry I got carried away but it was amazing.

Some stuff I bought at Colmado Quilez-

Window Shopping-

The best for last. These two are probably my favorites, a shop that only sells "bacalao". It's called if memory serves me right "El Casa De Bacalao", I could not believe my eyes when I saw this amazing shop with it's different piles of different varieties of salt fish! The owner is very proud of his products and was more than happy to let us look around and take a couple of pictures. He also made it clear that he cannot sell us any of this stuff for our trip back because he does not vaccum pack his precious fish and it will not make it to the US. So all we have left are these pictures:

[Bux]

The extent of what's available in Spain in terms of what we here in the US see as a rather simple product, dried cod, affords a an excellent view into the depth of Spanish cuisine in my opinion.

[Almass]

vserna.

No need to be flabbergasted. Do the search yourself and not on eGullet but in real life with Parma Ham purchased in Italy and Iberico purchased in Spain. And if you think you are in the right, then we agree to disagree and no need for the repartie!

←

Almass, I for one I'm interested in reading your arguments which make you thing that Parma ham is superior to Ibérico. And if no argument other than experimentation, that's it buy them and compare them, is offered, then I'm afraid that we would have to be far more specific about what's to be compared. Are we talking of making a comparison of the very best of each products, a random selection, or what? Just the fact of having 5 official D.O. for Ibérico, each one with its own nuances (feeding, climate, aging periods, . . .), makes the whole comparison process quite difficult.

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I missed your post and hence answer only now.

Myself and many like minded people think that "in general" Parma ham is superior to Serano ham. Now this is not only a personal palate judgement but translated in sales figures among delicatessen food shops and a small chain of restaurants belonging to the same group in both the UK and France. I assume Serano ham would fare higher in Spain and Parma ham would fare higher in Italy for obvious reasons.

Of course we can sit and debate what type of delicatessen, what type of ham and selling to which type of customers and same for the restaurants. Irrelevant of the customer profiles, the sale of Serano ham is eclipsed by approx 3.5/1 v Parma. Such facts are hard to digest if you are a Spanish ethnic person or very much entrenched in your own opinion. But unfortunately this is how the dice rolls.

You say potatoes and I say tomatoes.

Maybe you like to go to a restaurant to enjoy the entertainment and I like to go to a restaurant to enjoy the food. You may like Adria and I like Roux. You may drink Rioja and I drink St Emilion and coke in the can to that matter.

You say potatoes and I say tomatoes.

[pedro]

Thanks for your reply, Almass. Yes, you're comparing tomatoes with potatoes.

Since when sales figures are a valid indicator of superior gastronomic value? Were such the case, we would have to conclude that Serrano is superior to Ibérico, since the former is sold in much larger quantities no matter which type of store you choose. Naturally, salmon eggs would be superior to caviar.

Wait a sec! Perhaps the price has something to do with it!

[cuenllas]

...and Renaults better than Lamborghinis....

Besides the price, like it always happends with Italian goods, think about the ratio spanish vs. italian restaurants in the world...

Don´t worry, we will keep it for us since there´s not that much

Edited June 25, 2005 by cuenllas (log)