What to eat Barcelona? culinary specialties and gastronomy

Tapas are an integral part of the city's cuisine and, as in the rest of Spain, are not just simple snacks, but true moments of sharing. There is an incredible variety of tapas, and some recipes depend on the creativity of the chef, but there are also some emblematic recipes of the region. For starters, why not indulge in a simple pa amb tomàquet, made with bread rubbed with garlic and tomato, generously drizzled with olive oil. As basic as it is delicious. A little more sophisticated, escalivada consists of a mixture of oven-roasted vegetables, often served on bread and garnished with anchovies. Another popular dish is cargols a la llauna, usually accompanied by aïoli. Barbecued with a mixture of lard, herbs and spices, these snails are very common. Another tapa prepared over the coals is calçots, very sweet green onions grilled and served with a salsa romesco, a creamy sauce made from tomatoes, peppers, almonds and olive oil. These long, leek-like onions are emblematic of the town of Valls, near Barcelona, and are eaten as part of the calçotada. Many tapas are simply charcuterie, as Catalonia, like the rest of Spain, is an expert in this field. The term embotit describes different types of sausage and salami, whose fillings can vary enormously, with botifarra, for example, a variety of sausage served grilled, while fuet and paltruc are closer to a sausage. Paltruc negre, on the other hand, is made with pig's blood in the style of a black pudding. Jamón ibérico, although widely consumed in Barcelona and the surrounding province, is not unique to Catalonia, but is produced throughout much of Spain and Portugal. However, local varieties are known as pernil ibèric. The lighter esqueixada salad is prepared fresh from peppers, tomatoes and cod, cooked and shredded, and is a favorite on hot summer days. More hearty, amanida catalana is a lettuce and tomato salad richly garnished with cold meats and olives. Another snack, coca de recapte, is a type of savoury pie filled mainly with cooked vegetables and fish such as sardines or anchovies. The term " recapte " refers to whatever you can find in your cupboards, so coca is very versatile, and a popular dish par excellence.

In addition to appetizers and tapas, there are many more hearty specialties, including a wide range of fish dishes. The highly refined sarsuela is a festive dish of seafood cooked in a sofregit sauce of tomato and onion, flavored with saffron. It's a dish generally eaten by the middle classes, unlike the simpler suquet de peix, which mixes fish and potatoes in a tomato sauce, sometimes served with aioli. A similar cod dish is bacallà amb samfaina. While many Spanish rice-based dishes such as paella originate in the Valencia region, Barcelona is home to certain specialties such as arroz a la cazuela, a rice in sauce generally garnished with rabbit meat and pork, but more often prepared with seafood in coastal regions. The better-known arròs negre is colored with squid ink and garnished with squid and shrimp.

There are also many meat dishes, some of which are robust winter recipes, such as faves ofegades, made with broad beans and sausages. More surprisingly, conill amb xocolata is a rabbit stew in chocolate sauce. Conill amb cargols, a dish in sauce with rabbit and snails, is the quintessential peasant speciality. A mixture that may seem strange, even though these two ingredients are commonly found in Spanish gastronomy, as in the traditional paella valenciana. Finally, escudella i carn d'olla is a soup richly garnished with winter vegetables and meatballs.

To finish on a sweet note, it's impossible not to mention crème catalane, delicately flavored with lemon and cinnamon. This dessert is emblematic of Barcelona cuisine. It's usually served as a crème brûlée covered with a thin layer of crunchy caramel, but can also be used as is to garnish pastries such as xuixo, a deep-fried croissant generously dusted with sugar. More simple is mel i mató, a fresh sheep's milk cheese with honey and walnuts. For a sweet snack, nothing beats panellets. These small bites of marzipan and pine nuts are traditionally served with a glass of sweet wine on All Saints' Day. Last but not least, xocolata desfeta, halfway between drink and dessert, is a hot chocolate so thick you could stick a spoon in it, even though it's usually used for churros(xurros in Catalan), which are best eaten for breakfast.

There are many places to sample all these specialties, but nothing beats a detour to the Mercat de Sant Josep or Mercado de La Boqueria. The oldest records of this market, one of the most famous in Europe, date back to the ^13th century. At that time, however, it was still an informal structure, with merchants selling their wares right on the street. In the ^15th century, it was used as a pig market. It wasn't until 1826 that La Boqueria finally acquired legal status. It wasn't until 1840 that the infrastructure we know today was built: although the plans were modified many times, in 1911 the market was finally equipped with a roof that is still in place today, turning it into the covered market we know today. Located on Las Ramblas avenue, it boasts a wide variety of fresh produce and countless Catalan specialties. La Boqueria boasts numerous restaurants where you can sample the local cuisine. As well as snacks to be enjoyed on the spot, this market is a great opportunity to take a few specialties home with you. Catalonia boasts many products with a protected geographical indication (PGI), such as llonganissa de Vic, a popular tapas sausage from the Osona region north of Barcelona. On the sweet side, torró d'Agramunt is an almond- or hazelnut-based nougat flavored with honey. You can also discover other fresh products that are more difficult to transport, such as apples from Girona or poultry from Penedès and Prat. There are also many grape varieties in Catalonia, a dozen of which have a denominación de origen (DO), the Spanish equivalent of our appellation d'origine contrôlée (AOC). White, red or rosé, among the best known are wines from Penedès, Terra Alta and Tarragona. As Spain is the world's leading producer of olive oil, it goes without saying that Catalonia is not to be outdone. For aficionados, it's worth noting that most of the olive trees in the Barcelona region come from the arbequina variety, which is used to produce a number of top-quality PGI olive oils such as Garrigues, Siurana and Terra Alta.

With such a rich and unique cuisine, Barcelona and Catalonia as a whole have quickly established themselves as the epicenter of inventive gastronomy, blending modernity and tradition. In the wake of Catalonia's most iconic chef, Ferran Adrià, pope of molecular cuisine - who may soon reopen his ElBulli restaurant as a gastronomic laboratory - a new wave of chefs has emerged, with Manresa native Jordi Cruz leading the way. Awarded three Michelin stars since 2017 for his restaurant at the ABaC hotel, this meticulous chef and aesthete of good produce is known to the general public for having been a judge on the Master Chef TV show. Other innovative Catalans based in Barcelona include Albert Adrià, who, despite the fame of his brother Ferran, has managed to make a name for himself thanks to his mastery of Nikkei cuisine (a fusion of Peruvian and Japanese influences), Carles Abellán, who reinvents tapas at his popular Tapas 24, and Albert Raurich, who combines Catalan and Asian cuisine at his Dos Palillos 1-étoile. Although his chef is not Catalan, but Basque, one Barcelona address also testifies to the city's culinary vitality: the Lasarte restaurant, awarded three Michelin stars (C/ Mallorca, 259), is run by Spain's most starred chef, the indefatigable Martin Berasateguy, appreciated for his to-the-point aestheticism. Following in the footsteps of France, Catalan gastronomy could well become part of UNESCO's intangible cultural heritage. At any rate, this is the wish of the local authorities, who submitted an application in 2014 (www.cuinacatalana.eu). The quality of the products, the uniqueness of the terroir and the innovation of techniques are all elements that should play in favor of its candidacy.