Barcelona finale

One of the best parts about new places (about life?) is the food, if you are open to trying new foods you can learn a lot about a place and truly experience it through it’s food. When people visit us at our home they will eat deer and fish, I let place dictate what I eat and appreciation for the food of different places increases my enjoyment of places, Barcelona was no exception.

Some of the best places we visited in Barcelona were the markets, places I suspect many do the bulk of their grocery shopping as grocery stores were hard to find and quite small when we found them. My favourite parts of the markets were the fish/seafood stalls where all manner of sea dwelling creatures could be purchased for consumption. I suppose I was too distracted by all there was to look at in the markets because we took no pictures there, no kids in front of the fish table pictures.

What struck me about the fish stalls was the variety of species available for purchase. If it comes out of the water and you can eat it, it was there. At the first market there was also a stand where they deep fried sea creatures, we bought some squid and a mixed container that had a variety of batter covered fish and bits, including what I know as needle fish (very small), not the first time that a fish thought of by some as food for fish became food for me, deep fried goodness.

Beyond the fish tables were many stands selling land animals and it appears that all parts of the animal are sold and consumed. Some of the animal parts were identifiable, I can spot a liver, a kidney, a heart, a skinned head, others…. not so much. Then there are those who not only can identify but can tell the seller which one, or which part they want because they have an old family recipe that they are going to go home and make with these ingredients I can’t even identify, and I wish I was coming for dinner.

Having friends who live in the city also helped with the quest for local food. We have found it overwhelming when it comes time to pick a place to eat (beyond the bread, meat, cheese, and fruit from the backpack meals) and it was nice to have locals take us to good restaurants and order what they already know is good on the menu. Highlights for me were the beef with goat cheese tapas, the black rice that came with the paella (blackened with squid ink), the small white fish with olives and vinegar, and a variety of fish cakes all of which made we want more.

While out for dinner I mentioned how the fish stands at the market have species that are at least similar to ones we have in the waters at home but that we didn’t eat them and in some cases that I didn’t know what to do with them. Broth was the easy answer and I found myself wondering if I might try a bullhead broth when I get back, could be that everyone will be targeting them after they try my sculpin soup. One species that they were excited about were urchins, which I mentioned were eaten on Haida Gwaii too. Our friends love urchins and were very excited to hear about going kayaking and picking urchins up out of the water. As a matter of fact while we were going on about how much we loved Barcelona, our friends were asking questions about Haida Gwaii and seem to be formulating plans for a trip of their own. It was great to visit a city like Barcelona, and it was great to see that our friends who lived there were as excited about where we live as we were by their city.