My last day in Barcelona

The last day after doing sightseeing in the morning in Parc Guell and Sagrada Familia, we went to have lunch at a Chiringuito. For the ones that don’t have any idea of what a Chiringuito is, let me elaborate. It’s a simple construction usually located in the beach or in a touristic area, selling food and drinks. The first ever Chiringuito was opened in 1913 in Sitges, really a coincidence that part of my family is from there.

One of the many Chiringuitos in Barceloneta

Rum and Coke AKA "Mentirita" Little Lie

Well Barcelona Mediterranean coast is full of these places. We ended in Moncho’s el Chiringuito near Bogatell beach. Their menu simple, classic seafood and traditional Spanish dishes. We ordered fried calamari, patatas bravas, and Iberico ham as starters and then paella to share.

Moncho's el Chriringuito

The food was really good, the place was completely packed, and the service was excellent. Don’t miss the experience if you are in the Mediterranean coast in Catalunya.

Busy Lunch Time 

A Tasty Paella

Paella reminds me the Seinfeld episode “The Raincoats” where the Seinfelds are avoiding having dinner with the Costanzas.

George: Aaaa! Aaaa! Ah ha. They had plans huh? They were busy. They were busy with their...”big plans!”

Jerry: What are you talking about?

George: Mom and Pop Seinfeld

Jerry: Look I don't know.

George: All right I happen to know what they did last night, they had dinner with Kramer.

Jerry: Oh they were tired it was a last minute thing.

George: So what's the deal they don't want to have dinner with my parents?

Jerry: That's right.

George: Is there something wrong with my parents?

Jerry: Absolutely

George: Because my parents happen to be two pretty wonderful people.

Jerry: These the people you currently live with?

George: Yes.

Jerry: Uh huh

George: So are they coming tonight or not?

Jerry: Look I really don't know what their plans are.

George: Ok, fine. It's going to be very interesting, very interesting if they don't show up tonight. You know my mother made all this Paella.

Jerry: What is that anyway?

George: It's a Spanish dish. It's a melange of fish, and meat with rice. Very tasty.

Jerry: I, I'll tell them

Basque Cuisine and Cider House in Barcelona

One day wandering around the Gothic quarter in Barcelona, we spotted a place we were looking for by completely chance. Sagardi, a Basque restaurant based on the typical cider tavern. The origin is the farmhouses in the Basque country, where visitors went to try and buy the new cider, to counter the alcohol effect they serve simple local food. Later on cider houses opened their business and following the example they started to serve pintxos.

The place

The place sells excellent cider and to eat an amazing pintxo bar with more than 80 different options, all of them at the same price (2 Euros) and served in a toothpick, and when you ask for the bill the waiter counts how many toothpicks do you have, pretty simple. 12 locations in Spain (6 in Barcelona, 2 in Valencia, 1 in Zaragoza, 2 in Madrid, and 1 in Andorra), and 1 place in Buenos Aires Argentina.

Pintxo Bar

The food was amazing, I ate at least 12 pintxos, including iberico ham, tortilla, goat cheese, txistorra, blue camembert, shrimp croquettes, and mushroom croquettes. The food was so good I could have been eating all day.

Pintxos

More pintxos...

... And more pintxos

If you’re in any of these places don’t hesitate to stop in Sagardi you are going to love it.

The cutest photographer

Cider reminds me the Seinfeld episode “The Race” where Jerry is dating a woman named Lois.

Jerry: Elaine, only one other person in the world knows what I am about to tell you and that's George. When we were in the ninth grade they had us all line up at one end of the school yard for this big race to see who was going to represent the school in this track meet.

Elaine: Uh uh

Jerry: I was the last one on the end. George was next to me. And Mr. Bevilacqua, the gym…

Elaine: What's that?

Jerry: Mr. Bevilacqua, the gym teacher.

Elaine: Oh, of course.

Jerry: He was down at the other end. So he yells out, "Ready, On your mark, Get set" and I was so keyed up I just took off. By the time he said go I was ten yards ahead of everybody.

Elaine: No.

George: I looked up. I couldn't believe it.

Jerry: By the time the race was over I had won. I was shocked nobody had noticed the head start.

Elaine: Really?

Jerry: And I had won by so much a myth began to grow about my speed. Only Duncan suspected something was a miss. He's hated me ever since. Now he's back.

Elaine: Well what happened when you raced him again?

Jerry: I never did. In four years of high school I would never race anyone again. Not even to the end of the block to catch a bus. And so the legend grew. Everyone wanted me to race. They begged me. The track coach called my parents pleading. Telling them it was a sin to waste my god given talent. But I answered him in the same way I answered everyone. I chose not to run.

Elaine: So now Duncan is back?

Jerry: He's back. And I knew he would be someday. Man that's some tart cider!

Qu Qu Catalonian tapas for breakfast

With a massive hangover, probably similar to the one in the movie, we went to Passeig de Gracia to see a two of Gaudi’s masterpieces and have breakfast. We spotted a nice place, recommended by “El Pana Lonely” (Lonely Planet for the ones that didn't read my previous post) some sort of high end tapas, so we decided to give it a try. The place Qu Qu (Quasi Queviures) a modern style tapas/wine bar very well located.

 Quasi Queviures

The place

The Booze

So I opened with an iberico ham montado,the bread Catalan style, tomato and garlic, just nice, simple, and tasty. Then I went for a gazpacho, I love gazpacho, very well executed, nothing like cold tomato soup to help you recover from a hangover. Then a variation of patatas bravas, quite good and I was keen to have them, spicy aioli sauce instead of the traditional tomato one, good traditional flavours again. And finally a montado with txistorra, pretty good the spicy flavour of the txistorra.

Iberico Montado

Gazpacho

Patatas Bravas 

Txistorra

Great place to go and have a couple tapas, relax for a while, and then continue your journey exploring the city.

The lamp fits perfect with Barcelona 

Decor

Gazpacho reminds me the Seinfeld episode “The Soup Nazi”.

Soup Nazi: You are the only one who understands me.

Kramer: You suffer for your soup.

Soup Nazi: Yes. That is right.

Kramer: You demand perfection from yourself, from your soup.

Soup Nazi: How can I tolerate any less from my customer?

Customer: Uh, gazpacho, por favor.

Soup Nazi: Por favor?

Customer: Um, I'm part Spanish.

Soup Nazi: Adios muchacho!

Completely packed, cheap champagne, and good food... only in Barcelona

My second stop in my trip in Barcelona was Can Paixano Xampanyeria. An old style champagne bar in the Barceloneta area opened in 1969. The place was completely full, you feel like you are in the Jubilee line in rush hour travelling from Canary Wharf to Waterloo, yes like a sardine, or just let say like home. But how this place is so popular, the answer cheap drinks. Cava, Rose or Brut options, with prices less than a Euro for most of the champagnes.

The Place

The atmosphere is excellent, you will be drinking cheap excellent booze, meeting and talking to everyone as the space is quite limited, you will be completely soaked in champagne, and finally have the opportunity to try the excellent botifarra sandwich, which is traditional Catalan sausage.

Champagne and Cheese

Just amazing experience in Barcelona, the best anecdote I can give you is after two hours drinking and eating we asked for the bill and it was so cheap that we decided to stay there longer, just priceless for everything else Xampanyeria is the place.

Botifarra

Be aware they close at 10pm and the house rule is for every couple drinks you will have to eat something.

Some of the food options

Champagne reminds me the Seinfeld episode “The Engagement” when Jerry is celebrating George’s engagement.

Jerry: Hey, wait a second. Wait a second. ! How about some champagne?

George: Champagne?

Jerry: Yes, come on! How often do you get engaged? Come on!

George: Okay! Alright!

Jerry: You know what? No champagne… I'll see you later.

The most populous city in Catalunya

My family is originally from Catalonia, or as my great grandfather would have said Catalunya. And believe it or not until a couple weeks ago I hadn’t been in any city within the region. So I had to do something about that and what better place to change that embarrassing situation than going to Barcelona for a weekend.

Las Ramblas

The city is amazing, an architectural gem, superb food, excellent night life, and the relax of the Mediterranean Sea. The places to visit are Gaudi’s masterpieces La Sagrada Familia, Park Guell, Casa Mila (La Pedrera), and Casa Batllo. Also Carrer del Bisbe in the Gothic Quarter, Arc de Triomf, Columbus Monument, Las Ramblas, also you can pass by La Boqueria market or even better having a sunbath in Barceloneta or Bogatell.

Park Guell 

Casa Mila "La Pedrera"

Casa Batllo

La Sagrada Familia

But I couldn’t only do sightseeing I had to enjoy the local cuisine, so I ate as many montados as I could, and went to different places to try the food. For the ones that doesn’t know what is a montado, is basically a kind of tapa with bread and on top anything from shrimps, txistorras, to a classic portion of tortilla.

Montados

This time I didn’t do any research so I had no idea, but my friend Armando had the Lonely Planet Guide, which we nicknamed it “El Pana Lonely” (Pana is kind of slang for friend or mate in Venezuela) so we gave our luck to the our new “Pana” and went to our first gastro-experience.

First Catalonian experience: A Bigger Fish To Fry

Armando was looking for a place in the Gothic quarter he had been before, and he was almost sure that Bar Celta Pulperia was the one. So we arrived to the place which obviously wasn’t the one, but we were so hungry that we didn’t give importance and it was a good test for our “Pana Lonely”.

Bar Celta, you might have a tapa of octopus Paul

The place was a tapas seafood restaurant, a kind of small place, with a huge bar, to have a caña (very small pint) and eat any kind of fried seafood. So we got fried crab, fried squid, and finally a Spanish tortilla. The food was good, the beer cold, and the price reasonable. Good start but not the brightest tapas in Barcelona to be honest, simple fried seafood food, but pretty sure there were better options around the area.

Caña in the bar

Tortilla

Fried seafood 

More fried seafood

Barcelona reminds me the Seinfeld episode “The Hot Tub”.

Jerry: Feel much better here at my home base, Jean-Paul. It's a controlled environment.

Jean-Paul: It's a marathon, you know. 26 miles! I need to get some sleep!

Jerry: Hey, believe me, if I'd been with you there in Barcelona, you'd be polishing that medal right now.

Jean-Paul: Left a comfortable hotel bedroom for this!

Jerry: That wake-up guy was trouble!