I already wrote a post below about a recent trip my
husband and I took to Barcelona. (Check it out if you want). The trip was an
ongoing exercise in finding activities to enjoy together since we’re quite
different in our travel tastes and we arrived in Spain with essentially no
plans.
We may not have identical preferences, but one
thing we are both very passionate about in life is FOOD.
No matter where we went in Barcelona and the
surrounding coastal towns, there was delicious food to be had and after lots
and lots of eating—here are six foods I would highly recommend for anyone’s
Spanish vacation.
Tapas have sort of made their way to the United States, so
you may have already tried them. More likely, you’ve started hearing them
mentioned in movies and TV a bunch and not actually tried them yourself. That
was me. Tapas are essentially a delicious array of hot and cold appetizers and
snacks. They can be anything from cured meats to olives to croquettes to fish
to meatballs to seriously anything. Fried cheeses make the list—I find that if
you nibble on the edge of something bite-sized, warm and breaded and a river of
cheese pours out, all seems basically right with the world.
 |
| FYI, this is the one stock photo in this post. I was too busy eating the Tapas to photograph them... |
Also, if you're not an olive fan, try a few of the different kinds anyway. I'm not the world's biggest green olive person, but we had some tiny, salted green olives that were "Please sir, can I have some more?" good.
Tapas are available essentially everywhere hot food is sold.
There are tapas bars, tapas buffets, tapas to go and tapas with a Flamenco
show. The trouble won’t be finding them, it will be deciding which ones to try
once you do.
Here’s what I have to say about paella. It’s on the list,
not because I loved it, but because it’s everywhere and it’s an essential part
of the Spanish cuisine experience. You cannot visit Spain and not try it. It’s
also on the list though because part of the reason I didn’t like the paella
that I had was because I picked what I perceived to be the most authentic kind
rather than the kind that appealed the most to me. Trying the real-deal foods
of any place you visit is important and a big part of the fun, but it’s ok to
choose the variety that sound delicious to you rather than just choosing what
seems the most authentic.
Mr. B and I shared a giant pot of the most cultural-looking
paella on the menu, which was (almost literally) crawling with sea creatures.
We’re both a little obsessed with chorizo and kind of so-so on things that
still have their legs, but we skipped the chorizo in favor of what seemed more
“authentic” to us. We should’ve chosen what sounded good. Always be ready to
branch out and try new things, but you also know what you like—choose the
paella that gets you excited.
3. PATATAS BRAVAS
So, I’m cheating a little here. Patatas Bravas are
technically also tapas, but they need their own category because they’re just
too good. We actually only had them once and it was sort of accidentally, a
restaurateur gave them to us for free while we waited for the food we ordered
to be ready. We wouldn’t have known to order them, but now I’m telling you so
that you will know. Order them. Patatas Bravas are essentially potatoes
(sometimes cut like fries and sometimes cut like wedges) that are boiled in
salt and then deep-fried. They are then served with a spicy red pepper or
tomato sauce and a garlic aioli drizzled overtop. As I describe them, they kind
of just sound like fries. They are so much more. Must to try for yourself.
4. "WORLD'S FINEST STRAWBERRIES"
On our biking tour of the countryside (three days long), we
stayed for a night in a seaside town called Sant Pol de Mar. We were in an
AirBnB with a gravel-voiced smiling lady who spoke no English, and her hyper
French bulldog named ‘Happy.’ We asked her advice about dinner spots in town in
our broken Spanish and she answered with her phone’s Google translate that we
could check online. We were there in the off season so nearly nothing was open. We figured instead of choosing a place online and then finding it closed once
we got there in person, we would just walk out the front door and follow our
hearts.
Now Bryan’s heart map is usually astonishingly accurate.
Mine is a little less trustworthy. In this case, we both followed our hearts
along the railroad tracks through the purple and pink light of the setting sun,
enjoying the peaceful walk and the pleasant sea breeze and then finally
found…nothing. We got to the end of town and did not see a single restaurant.
We stopped to decide where to go next and happened to spot a sign that said
that this town was the “home of the world’s finest strawberries.”
Bold claim, but we ended up buying local strawberries every chance
we got the rest of the trip and each batch really was very fine. They’re much
sweeter and softer than in the U.S. and certainly worth tasting. While you’re
at it, taste the kiwis. They have surprisingly delicious kiwis, also grown right
there in the coastal region.
5. PASTRY
We finally did find someplace to eat in Sant Pol de Mar.
Moments after we saw that sign, we ran into our host out on an evening walk
with Happy. She still didn’t have a recommendation, but she had us follow her
to the part of town where our heart maps—if they were accurate—would’ve led us
for food options. She left us then to take Happy home and we continued to
search street after street of mostly closed restaurants for a place to eat
dinner. We passed a tiny bakery and, afraid that we might not find anything
else, stopped in to buy some “just in case” pastries.
Now, it’s possible that Spain hasn’t much been known for its
pastry because it gets overshadowed by its famous pastry neighbors: France,
Italy and even Austria (where croissants are actually from—Google it). But whether by borrowed techniques or
originality, Spain certainly holds its own in terms of baked goods. That night we bought a giant “just
in case” pastry in the shape of, and nearly the size of, a Christmas wreath. It
was flaky and crème-filled and topped with roasted almonds. It was so delicious
that we went back and bought another before the night was out. We also tried
coconut tarts, meringues (which in Spain is pronounced like the latin dance),
croissants and a rolled sponge sort of thing we affectionately called a “
Spanish street twinkie" (see lower shelf in the picture).
The point is, don’t let the flood of olives and meats and
the paella make you think Spain doesn’t have desserts worth tasting.
6. EMPANADAS
That said, if you can choose only one bready thing to
partake of on your Spanish vacation, let it be an empanada. Let it be three
empanadas, or ten. We fell so in love with empanadas that we came home and took
a cooking class on how to make them. It’s amazing that a little dough pocket
could be the canvas for such masterpieces, masterpieces that at one restaurant
literally brought me to the edge of tears.
Muns is an Argentinean-style empanada restaurant with three locations in
Barcelona. They have rows and rows of them and once you know which flavors you
want, they heat them up for you and brand them with a number—so you know which
empanada is which flavor. They
come out the absolute perfect temperature, I don’t know how they do it. I tried
three flavors: 1) Goat cheese, caramelized onions and walnuts, 2) Spinach and
emmental cheese, and 3) Tomato and mozzarella. They have three sauces for your
empanadas and somehow the stars aligned and I chose the perfect sauce for each
flavor, even though I was basically going off smell/my heart map. My heart map was redeemed! The textures
and combinations of flavors combined with that perfect heat made me a customer
for life (if I ever go back to Barcelona). The place is more expensive than the
empanadas at regular bakeries (which are also good), but they have happy hour
discounts in the mid afternoon so have a late lunch, or three.
Anyone reading this who has been to Spain, do we have the
same favorites? Did I miss one of yours?
Leave a comment below!
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