La Niña

Last weeked we headed for Sitges looking to try some paella. Sitges is a small town located some 20 km south of Barcelona. During the summer Sitges is always full of tourists that enjoy the quiet beaches the town has to offer. During the winter, rumour has it that this is one of the best places around for a good paella!
The train ride takes about 40 minutes and offers some beautiful ocean views. Sitges welcomes you with an old fascioned train station and quaint little streets meandering down to the beach. The restaurant La Niña is located on the beach front, you can find it easily if you turn right by the curch and continue along the promenade. Actually, La Niña is only one of three restaurants, all adjacent to each other, all belonging to the same owners. The other two are called Santa Maria and La Pinta, after the names of the three ships in Cristopher Colombus' fleet when he first went to the New World. They are a great place for a sunday lunch with some friends or family. The food is too tasty to waste your stomach on starters, so we went straight to the main courses. This time we had:

Arroz negro
Paella marinera
Fideuà blanco

We had been planning to try arroz negro for some time, and this was our chance. Literally black rice, this dish is similar to paella, with rice and seafood, but squid ink is added making it completely black. The recipe for this traditional Catalan dish (also common in Valencia) includes cuttlefish or squid, rice, garlic, green cubanelle peppers, sweet paprika, olive oil and seafood broth. The taste is definitely worth the black teeth you get after eating.

Like the arroz negro, the paella marinera came in a traditional paellera, the shalow pans in which these rice dishes are cooked. It was a rich paella with plenty of seafood, including enourmous mussels, shrimps, crayfish and squid. The rice is yellow because of the saffron and you just can't stop eating it. Finnaly, the fideuà is a typical dish from Valencia. Basically, for the untrained eye, it looks just like paella, but instead of rice you have noddles. In fact "fideu" is the catalan word for noodles. Myself, I prefer the paella, but many people like the fideuà better. You have to try both and choose for yourself.
This seafood feast was absolutely wonderful. By the end we were so full that we could almost fall asleep right there on the table. Of course it all went down with a delicious sangria de cava. This time the sangria had strawberries and the mixed tastes of cava and red fruits was really, really good. ¡Salut!


Price: 22 euros/person
Address: Passeig De La Ribera 65-68, 08870 Sitges
Phone Number: +34 938940999

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Origen 99,9%

This time we went to the ever-active Born district of Barcelona. This is one of the best spots in town to find nice places to eat, snack, drink or simply hang out. A friend had recomended us a restaurant that specializes on Catalan cuisine. In fact, the Origen 99,9% is a chain of restaurants present throughout Barcelona, that not only offer regional specialities, but also claim that all products used in their kitchen are local (at least 99,9% of them!).

We were presented with a vast menu, and ended up choosing the following for 4 persons:

Starters
Coca d’escalivada amb romesco
Coca de ceba i anxoves

Main Course
Calamars farcits
Ànec amb préssec
Vedella amb peres
Espinagada

Of course, like in any Catalan place, the meal started with the usual bread with tomato. The novelty was that we just got bread, whole tomatos, whole cloves of garlic, some olive oil, and knives. We had to do the spreading ourselves. Fun!
Then came the cocas. Coca is a special type of bread, somewhat similar to pizza, and the ones we ordered were nicely covered with caramelized onions (ceba) and anchovy fillets from l’Escala (anxoves); and grilled red peppers, onions and eggplant (escalivada) served with romesco sauce. Delicious.
Then we had Calamars farcits, squids stuffed with minced meat, mixed with hard-boiled egg, garlic and parsley. The squids were covered with a sauce made of chick peas and the squid's own ink. Apparently this is one of the most resounding
recipes in Catalunya. Continuing the meal, the Espinagada is a spinach pie served with fresh vegetables. Both other dishes were made with meat and fruits. Anéc amb préssec means duck with peaches and it looked just as tasty as it sounds. The duck is an animal highly valued in the Catalan gastronomy. There are many fruits that can combine with duck: pears, apples, plums, cherries or peaches, like in this case. Vedella amb peres is veal with pears. Again, the fruity taste mixed well with the meat. Of course all of these were drunk down with a delicous Sangria de Cava, a sangria made with Cava, the traditional Catalan version of Champagne. The ambience was completed with soft music, including at least one Portuguese fado, and of course great company. Origen is a great place for a meal that is both informal and exquisite.

Price: 18 euros/person
Address: Passeig del Born 4, 08003 Barcelona
Phone Number: +34 932956690


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Café Ninoska

You can't always go to fancy places. Not on our pay checks anyway... Today we went to a small snack-bar for a quick lunch. However, we were very surprised with the quality of the food and decided it was worth sharing here. The Café Ninoska is owned by Peruvians and so they have some Peruvian cuisine in the menu. Like most places in Spain, you can have a full meal, including starters, main course and dessert all together in a special menu that goes easy on the pocket. The two of us had:

Starters
Ensalada de la huerta
Entremesa de la casa

Main Course
Bistek con patatas
Seco de Ternera

Dessert
Tarta de la casa

The ensalada de la huerta is a simple fresh vegetable salad, but it was nicely presented in a square bowl and looked atractive to the eye. The entremesa is a mix of diferent sausages, ham and Manchego cheese, together with a salade made with chicken, pasta and mayo. The delicious Spanish sausages are perfect to build up your appetite for the main course.
The bistek is simply a grilled beefsteak, but this one was seasoned to perfection. The main surprise of the day was the seco de ternera. This Peruvian stew is made with beaf, potatos, carrots and pees and seasoned with plenty of coriander and parsley, which gives it a green colour, and further spices that made the whole deal slightly hot and extremely good.

The dessert was also quite good, the pie was made with chocolate and crema catalana (typical Catalan custard tart), and filled that last empty spot in our stomachs.
The Cafe Ninoska may not be a gourmet restaurant, but is certainly a good option for a nice unexpensive meal with a south-american taste. We are sure to go back there to further explore the Peruvian options in the menu.


Price: 8.5 euros/person
Address: Avinguda Icaria, 131 (Villa Olimpica) - Barcelona
Phone Number: +34 932212444


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Cal Boter

The Cal Boter is a restaurant located in Gràcia, one of the historical areas of Barcelona. They mostly offer Catalan food, which we were very eager to try. We went there yesterday, for a very relaxed Sunday lunch.
We found the place in a small street near Passeig de San Joan. The entrance looked very informal and as we entered we found a room with picture-covered walls, and traditional looking tables and chairs. The decoration seemed straight out of a family home and made you feel welcome from the start. For a party of four we ordered:

Starters
Xatonada
Crèpes de bolets
Pa amb tomàquet

Main Course
Tira de vedella a la brasa amb patates i mongetes
Roast beef amb puré de poma
Conill a la brasa

Dessert
Mousse de xocolata


We started with the Xatonada, a typical salade made with fish (cod, tuna and anchovies), peppers, lettuce, olives and the special sauce. The mixed tastes of fish and vegetables made for an excelent starter, which we greedily ate together with the always present Pa amb Tomaquet (bread with olive oil and tomato). The other starter was crèpes de bolets, crèpes filled with mushrooms and covered with a deliciously creamy mushroom sauce and nutmeg. The combination worked surprisingly well as the two starters offered very different tastes to our palate and most certainly opened our apetites for what was to come.

The main courses all consisted of meat, and they all were a treat for the carnivorous animal in us. The tira de vedella is a spare rib, straight out of the grill, and stands as proof that you only need a bit of salt and pepper to turn good quality meat into a delicous meal. It was accompanied by french fries and white beans, but with all that meat in front of you, you don't really care what else is in your plate. The roast beef was seasoned with pepper and mustard and the sweet taste of the apple puree mixed wonderfully with the tasty beaf. The conill a la brasa is simply roast rabbit. Although we are not sure how it was seasoned, the final result was very, very good. The house wine was served in a special jar and completed the meal with its soft taste.
Finally come the dessert, an absolutelly perfect home-made chocolate mousse. It was just like my mother used to make it, and I hardly need to describe it any further.
Our first incursion into Catalan cuisine was a complete success, and let us open for more gastronomic adventures in this beautiful "country". The meal definitely set the scene for the football match later that day, when FC Barcelona beat Real Madrid 1-0.


Price: 20 euros/person
Address: Carrer Tordera, 62 - 08012 Barcelona
Phone number: +34 934588462


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Bon Profit!

"Bon profit" means bon appetit, or enjoy your meal in Catalan, the oficial language of Catalunya. This "country" within Spain is best know for its famous and beautiful capital - Barcelona - but hides within its border many more treasures waiting to be found. One of the highlights is certainly the food, not only the local specialties but all the different tastes available in this cosmopolitan and diverse setting. With this blog we aim to keep note and share the wonderful gastronomical experiences this region has to offer.