Trotters and Tripe

We just got back from a whirlwind of a visit to Barcelona. What a beautiful city!

The high-speed train from Valencia gets us to Barcelona in just under three hours. On Wednesday afternoon, we checked into our hotel, dropped our bags, and took a stroll through the Gothic Quarter before heading to out to a fútbol game. Barcelona, or Barça, as the locals say, was playing Almería which happens to be the worst team in LaLiga this year. It was not the best game ever, but let’s leave soccer commentary to Ed.

Day two in Barcelona was a food tour! Hard to imagine us on a food tour, right? We’re big fans of exploring places where the locals eat and shop and this time, the focus was on traditional Catalan food.

Our first stop was breakfast at La Pubilla where we had a cup of cafe con leche and two interesting breakfast entrees – Pues de porc amb Mongetes (pork feet, aka ¨trotters¨ with beans) and Sobrassada amb our ferrats (sausage with fried eggs). Our tour guide, Lynda (an Aussie who moved to Barcelona 30 years ago) made a point to tell us that rather than meat, the first dish was actually “just cartilage” – very crunchy. The Catalans love to combine sweet and savory, so the salty sobrassada was drizzled with honey. Delicisoso!

We wandered about the lovely Gràcia neighborhood stopping at a local market where we sampled Catalan cheeses and cured meat, a seed and nut shop for marcona almonds, dried figs, and tiger nuts, and a shop selling all things olive oil. Did you know almost half of the world´s olive oil is produced in Spain? In fact, Spanish extra virgin olive oils are ranked some of the best in the world – in 2023, six of the top ten were made in Spain.

In preparation for lunch, it was time for that most versatile of beverages – vermut. Each vermuteria produces their own Vermut de Casa, a barrel aged infusion that typically begins as white wine with a variety of spices and a bit of sweetner to encourage the development of more alcohol. It’s the perfect accompaniment for tapas, in this case, anchovies and boquerones. Apertif, digestivo, before lunch or after a big meal, this is a most practical indulgence.

Finally, with appetites well stimulated, we arrived at Cal Boter for lunch and got deep into the spirit of Catalan cuisine. A salad of pickled onions was followed by Callos con Garbanxzos (Tripe with Chickpeas) and Bacalla man Alioli (Cod with aioli) all washed down with a glass of vino tinto (red wine) poured from the traditional Catalan shepherd’s flask. The cod was delicious. The tripe wasn’t my fave – the flavor was OK and the texture was, let’s just say, not crunchy.

The Spanish love their sweets. Our final course, postre (dessert) involved popping into one of the many pastisserias where everything is hand made in house. We sampled several classic Catalan Christmas sweet treats before stopping for churros and chocolate.

A long siesta was just the thing after this marathon culinary adventure. But by 10PM, we were on our way to a sketchy part of town for a feast of vegetable biryani, lamb vindaloo, raita, chicken tandoori, and of course pappadam and naan.

Hoping to walk off some calories, the focus for Barcelona Day #2 was shopping the small artisan shops in the Gothic Quarter.

Then, on our last day we walked across the city to check on La Sagrada Familia. Progress has been made since we last visited this most unusual cathedral in 2018, but there is still much to be done. The latest projected completion date is 2026 – 100 years after Antonio Gaudi’s death.

Whew! We’re looking forward to being back in Valencia for the holidays. Christmas celebrations here go through January 6 when the three wiseman arrive, and gifts are exchanged. More on that next time.

Happy Holidays!