La Boqueria

Steve and I loved Barcelona. Gaudi's buildings were amazing, and it is easy to see the sights just by strolling around. I imagine we'll post soon about Gaudi and the Picasso Museum (which was an exciting and much different group of art than I had seen at the Picasso Museum in Paris, or in collections at other museums).

For now though, let's talk food. One of the absolute highlights of the trip was definitely our visit to La Boqueria.


This food market is one of the oldest and most impressive open markets in Europe. The market is huge and has SO many exciting things to see, including forbidding looking women wielding large knives. There were stalls for everything: seafood, cured meats, cheese, beef, lamb, cheese, chocolate, fresh fruits and vegetables, cheese, and wine (did I mention cheese?). We wandered around for about 45 minutes, just amazed by how fresh everything looked. It would be exciting to be a chef in Barcelona!

Spain's famous cured hams:

(The jamon iberico de bellota that Karee mentioned in a prior comment sold for 163-euro per kilogram! Very expensive, but good.)

The chocolate stall... I don't know if my mom could have resisted:


Lots and lots of cheese:

In addition, we had several great meals during our trip. Seafood paella at the old port was delicious and fresh (the meal also featured an impromptu rainstorm that naturally caused many, many drinks to be drunk while we waited it out). We had a great dinner at Cometacinc in the Gothic Quarter, which included delicious puffed pastry straws, filled with melted cheese. Yum! Saturday's dinner at L'Olive was also great. Pan con tomate, grilled vegetables, duck confit, and costillitas (small lamb cutlets). Tom and Nancy, I'd highly recommend any of these places during your visit... all were nice, reasonable, tasty, and their menus (along with most in Barcelona) included English translations in addition to Catalan.

Tonight, however, we're cooking a simple roast chicken (pollo asado) at home. Time to come down off the way we ate in Barcelona, or we won't make it until January!