The Food of Catalonia
by Pamelagrace Beatty
Spoiler alert, this is only about the food I actually ate in Catalonia. It does not represent all the different foods Catalonians enjoy. Now that I’ve said that, here is what we ate while traveling through the Catalonia part of Spain. Foodies, en garde!
Bon Appetite!!
I love to eat. I am a “live to eat” person as they say. My boyfriend, with whom I was traveling, eats to live. I see food as an adventure. Planning it, preparing it and eating it are all a creative and intriguing experience I love taking part in. My boyfriend? Not so much. So, I am not sure he enjoyed the gastronomical trek as much as I did. For example, we had this amazing buffet that was included in the cost of the hotel room we stayed in overnight in Barcelona. When they said breakfast was included, I was expecting the usual coffee and tea, meager rolls, toast, packaged oatmeal, and cornflakes. Maybe there would be orange juice, bagels and cream cheese at best. That had been the kind of breakfasts I had grown accustomed to at so many hotels on my local journeys.
So of course I was ecstatic to see a lovely buffet laid out, with lots of choices from fruit, to pastries, (oh the pastries…croissants, sweet rolls, muffins, donuts, bread for toasting and MORE), yogurt, cold cuts and sliced cheeses, scrambled eggs, mushrooms, salsa and refried beans (we were in Spain, remember?) and sauteed vegetables for those who felt they should have something green with their breakfast (that was not me). They had multiple choices of drinks: orange juice, milk, tea and different sorts of coffees done through a machine which made delicious coffee drinks. The cappuccinos were exquisite!
My traveling partner (aka boyfriend) ate his usual eggs and yogurt. I felt I would be disrespecting all the trouble the hotel went through preparing and presenting this layout if I only ate a tiny bit of it. So, I sampled as much as possible! I confess, I was in heaven! Breakfast is my favorite meal of the day, but usually I eat a conservative one consisting of toast, or oatmeal (gah!!) or sometimes yogurt or scones. Maybe once a week I have a “real” breakfast that may include scrambled cheese eggs and mushrooms, and potatoes and bacon or sausage; or pancakes or grits (yep grits. My roots are southern). We know if I had too many of that type of breakfasts, I would have to continually replace my wardrobe, which I don’t want to do! But, since we were on vacation, I indulged myself. I sampled everything and it was lovely. Just so you know, I never saw that kind of breakfast again on our trip.
Croissants and Coffee, Oh My
Part of my vision for traveling in European countries like France or Italy, was to walk out of our hotel down to the nearest little café and have delicious coffee and croissants. The “down” part is left over from my trip to New Zealand where every morning I walked down a long hill to the heart of Auckland, and did exactly that. I loved the walk. The scenery was pretty, and the coffee and croissants were really good. It was fun to start my day off with the exercise and the coffee. I thought that was how it would be in Spain, and it was, but not in the little village where we first stayed.
The tiny village (couldn’t really call it town), didn’t quite fit my picture of cafés and coffee. The area we were in was mostly residential. There were a couple of bar-restaurant combinations but it took a day or two for us to manage to find those and understand what was available to order, and how to order it! My traveling partner and I discovered how good the bread and goat cheese were so when we were able, we bought different breads and cheeses and enjoyed them tremendously.
Restaurants, Cathedrals and Lunch
My traveling partner’s friend, Bea, wanted us to have fun on our trip, so she drove us all over the countryside and took us to her favorite restaurants and little villages. We would never have gotten to those places without her. There was no general transportation, and neither I nor my traveling partner wanted to drive when we couldn’t speak the language and had no idea where to go.
Bea took us up into the hills to a darling hotel, restaurant, and
scenic spot with an ancient cathedral and remnants of walls over a thousand years old. My traveling partner found lots to photograph while there, and even on the way. When we ordered lunch, we got bold! My traveling partner ordered a smothered duck and pear combination. I ordered lamb and sauteed potatoes which turned out to be a local dish. Was delicious.
Another place Bea took us to was a very old monastery that was now a restaurant. It was lovely. The sanctuary was open to see and was said to be the place where the Knights of Templar went to pray before battle. The restaurant still had the original brick and stone walls inside. Bea ordered little red peppers (not hot) stuffed with shrimp and I ordered stuffed eggplant for our first course. We shared. The flavors were mild but pleasant. My traveling partner had linguini with salmon. Our main courses were delicious. I got bold again and ordered the ox tail dish. The gravy was rich and mouthwatering. I meant to save a bit for Bea’s dear wolf hound but he didn’t score on that meal. I ate all of it.
Google Translate
Our next exciting food adventure took place in a bigger town, Olot, actually the ancient capital. Bea took us to her favorite restaurant there. It was nestled in between colorful homes and farms and fields and ancient buildings. It was surrounded by trees and the tables were covered in white table clothes. Very elegant. Once again, I got bold with my ordering, only because I didn’t know exactly what I was asking for. We discovered we could use Google Translate to tell us what the menu said. All we had to do was open the app and place our phones over whatever it was we wanted translated. We could also use it to speak a different language and to translate what someone was saying but that was a bit too complicated, so I didn’t use it much. Translating a menu was easier.
The translator helped me decide, and I knew I was getting fish, and the now-famous sliced potatoes of the region, which I had developed a fondness for. What I didn’t know was the fish was not a filet like I am used to in the states. It came with head and tail attached and eyes that stared deadly out into space. I didn’t spend a lot of time looking at the eyes. They were a little unappealing. I also had never eaten a fish with head and tail. I wasn’t sure where to start. So, I surreptitiously watched Bea who had ordered the same thing, to see how she approached cutting up the fish. She fiddled around for a while so I decided “To heck with fish etiquette” and just figured out what would work. Probably wasn’t the “proper” way to eat a whole fish but it worked nicely.
A cautionary note about Google Translate: We went on one jaunt to Olot all by ourselves. Bea told us to be sure and go to her favorite restaurant there. She thought we would enjoy it. We managed to find it, with the help of our GPS (did you know the phone GPS works in other countries?) It picked up where we were and could direct us to where we wanted to go. The only downside was finding the names of the streets. Lots of the streets looked like alleys, and many had NO name posts. That drove me crazy! (I had the same problem in Dublin until I learned the names of the streets were high up on the corners of the buildings. That was not the case in Olot).
After a few twists and backtracks, we found the restaurant. It was very romantic and pretty. It had indoor and outdoor seating. We chose indoors. Once again, we flipped out good old Google Translate and confidently ordered our suppers. I got braised pork and, of course, my favorite potatoes, and a lovely salad. Here’s where the caution about using Google Translate comes in. I thought I was ordering braised pork roast. I got something more like pork jowls which is very fatty and not what I thought I was getting. My bad. I picked out the bits of meat and pushed the fat across the plate. The sauce was good and the potatoes did not disappoint.
Final food fun
We went to one of Bea’s favorite restaurants right after her art show. It was all fish. Mostly many varieties of shell fish. Bea ordered a number of entrees. There was a large group of us there to celebrate her art opening. So, we needed lots of food. I tasted some of everything except calamari legs. I drew the line there. I don’t understand how anyone can eat those because they look like little baby octopuses. I like the slices that look like little rings of whatever and don’t remind me of where the food came from.
I admit I was also challenged when I looked at the deep-fried squid ink at another of Bea’s favorite restaurants. There was no taste, just a lot of black ink on my teeth.
So, thanks to Bea, we had the most delightful food experience ever! She is quite the adventurous woman.
