BARCELONA: Devour Barcelona Food Tours; Picasso Museum

Hola friends and family: On our way to the "Devour Barcelona Food Tour" this morning, we came across yet another large, fresh food market called Mercat de la Conceptio. This market was built in 1888 in the centre of Barcelona in the L'Eixample District. Today Conceptio is known to be the flower market. When you first walk in, you see a large area of fresh, lovely, colorful flowers and plants, and the beautiful fragrance of a flower shop is the first thing that greets you! Walking through, it is another experience of one specialized area after another - from large varieties of fresh fish on ice, to the famed Iberico ham shops, to cheeses, to olives, and the list goes on!

As we made our way through the market, we spotted a tiny coffee bar with 6 or 7 stools along the counter. Ron ordered coffee and I saw a hot chocolate sign. I ordered what I thought would be plain hot chocolate (like we make). When the chocolate arrived, it was yet again the dark, thick, semi sweet liquid which I had already consumed on two previous occasions. Well, it was just as delicious all over again. Yikes.

We continued on our way to what is known as the Gracia neighborhood to meet up with our Devour Food Tours guide and the other members of the group. On the way, we walked down a street called Passeig de Gracia (which our tour guide later told us was the most expensive street to live on, not just in Barcelona but in all of Spain!) This is a beautiful area of the city and one which I doubt we would have discovered if it was not for the food tour. We walked past the Casa Mila, popularly known as La Pedrera (the stone quarry) which is a modernist apartment building in Barcelona. It was constructed by Antoni Gaudi between 1906 - 1912. It is one of the most famous buildings of Catalan Modernisme or Catalan Art Nouveau and it is spectacular building! The balconies are so unique and as soon as you see it, you know it must be Gaudi!

Soon we arrived in front of the Valentino store on Passeig de Gracia, where we met our Devour Food Tours guide, Fiona. Fiona was a young, friendly woman who was born and raised in London and came to Barcelona on a bit of a vacation a few years ago. She loved it, and when the holiday was over, returned to London and quit her job the same day. She then came back to live and work in Barcelona (I think I've heard similar stories about 3 times since we've been here). There were 11 people in the group. Each person introduced themselves, stating where they were from and each person was asked to share what food came to mind when they thought of Spain. There were a variety of answers including tapas, paella, sangria, fish. Ron said he was "sick of tapas" (which probably wasn't the best thing to say) when you are in a glorious city like Barcelona and don't really know that much about tapas. I think I pretended I didn't know him when he proceeded to say that "so many of the tapas" were the same. (I just stared straight ahead). Fiona explained that the tour would include mostly "hole in the wall" places that the average person would probably never find. Our focus during the tour would be to taste many different and delicious foods of Spanish cuisine. There was a great variety of experiences, and I will share a few of my favorites. We started out at a little place called "Can Tosca". We were served a grilled botifarra sandwich, which was complimented with a glass of sparkling Cava (white sparkling wine). This is a pork sausage which was cooked in a clay pot called 'presca de perol'. The sandwich was served warm and the meat was so flavorful. Botifarra is one of the most important dishes of the Catalan cuisine. Next, we headed to the Mercat de l'Abaceria Central to try some olives and salt cod on skewers.

We continued on in the market and tried out two varieties of ham, jamon serraqno and jamon iberico de bellotta (acorn). The meats were delicious, and Fiona explained how the diet of the pigs made all the difference in the taste of the meat. We could certainly taste the nutty flavor of the Iberico de ballotta. I noticed this ham costs around 80 euro per kg.

We tried out some delicious cheeses, one of which was the traditional Manchego cheese, which is a cheese made in the La Mancha region of Spain from the milk of the sheep of the manchega breed. Delicious! Our next stop was a shop full of a variety of organic Spanish extra virgin olive oils. Fiona gave us lots of information on olive oil, and I decided I would be using Spanish olive oil from now on. (I actually heard Ron discussing the fact that we - meaning him and I NEVER looked for Spanish olive oil). I had to ask Ron if he had ever looked at ANY olive oil in a store in his whole life. We tried 3 kinds, and the difference was amazing. My favorite turned out to be an oil called, OLEI. I'm hoping to get a bottle and pack it in my suitcase to bring home, as I'm not sure it can be found in Canada.

We continued on our way, and I must say, we were with a group of fun and friendly people. Again, it's so great to be with a group of people who have a like minded interested in food and culture and who find it exciting and interesting to go around and see what's out there. Here's a picture of a lovely couple we met today: Marta and Pablo - new friends from Monterey, Mexico

We also went to a lovely spot called L'Anoxoveta which was operated by a exuberant man named Carlos, an engineer turned tapas chef. Carlos gave us a demonstration of how to make a common, but delicious snack in Spain called "Pan Con Tomate". It was so simple, but so delicious. You could see that the right ingredients made all the difference!

My favorite tapa Carlos served was a Bomba (previously mentioned in other blogs). This was the best one I've yet tasted. This Bomba had potato and ground beef inside, and was sitting in a small plate of sauce called Brava. The sauce was spicy and tastey. The Bomba was topped with aioli. I'd like to have eaten a few more of those.

Another delightful sample offered to us was homemade pork meatballs in a bean and pea gravy from a very tiny place called La Botigueta del Bon Menjar. I had a spinach alternative, with raisins and pine nuts. It was just delicious, also. Our guide Fiona commented that many of these old, tiny, family-run establishments are going by the way side, due to the popularity and convenience of food that can be obtained and prepared much faster and easier.

Our 4 hour tour ended with us all tasting another delicious Catalan food - a dessert of mini cremats, served with coffee or espresso. It reminded me of a tiny crème brulee on a small pastry. Just delicious! Soon we said good bye to our group, but I'd like to mention two other delightful people we met today - a father and daughter, Ted and Cayley from Los Angeles. (I'm sorry if I spelled your name wrong). They were planning to see Barcelona play Arsenal at Camp Nou around 9:00 pm this evening. We hope you guys made it to the football game, in spite of the rain!

The group disbanded, and Ron and I walked along Passeig de Gracia in the direction of our apartment. We had every intention of walking back, but our feet were tired, so we hopped the metro! When we arrived back we put our feet up for awhile and then walked the very short distance to the Picasso Museum. This was really interesting, as it was mostly the work of Picasso in his early years. The museum is housed in adjoining medieval palaces. There is a collection of over 4,000 pieces of art, but at any one time, only 400 pieces are available to see. You may have formed an opinion about Picasso's work based on his abstract cubism however this museum provides insight into his early years of apprenticeship and youth and other periods of his long career.

When we stepped out of the museum, it was raining quite hard. Fortunately we had one umbrella, and it only took us five minutes to get back to the apartment. Tomorrow - is our cooking class. We'll be learning to make paella! Adios! Karen