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El Racó Del Sikkim
Asian food in Barcelona has improved dramatically while I’ve lived here. Thirteen years ago there were a few Pakistani restaurants that ranged from awful to mediocre and a lot of enormous Chinese restaurants that were permanently empty. I have long harboured suspicions that the primary purpose of these businesses was not in fact to sell…
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Pizzeria Ninones
2015 update: The pizzas at Ninones are still pretty good but the service has become progressively worse over recent years. Bear that in mind before you visit. And the ‘no truly great pizzeria in Barcelona’ line below is no longer true. Give N.A.P a try. A quick mention of a local favourite. Pizzeria Ninones isn’t…
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Mmm…bacon!
Last week I bought some organic pork belly from BioSpace (www.bioespacio.com, C/ València 186, Barcelona) and set about making some bacon as an experiment. Nothing complicated, just rubbed in a cure of sea salt, black pepper, soft brown sugar and some crushed bay leaf, put into a big, airy tupperware in the fridge then turned,…
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El Cabàs — “tot del camp”
Breaking from the run of restaurant reviews I’ve been posting, this time I want to mention a noteworthy shop for those days when you’re doing the cooking yourself. Barcelona’s great in that — as well as its local covered markets — it has a proper, old-fashioned greengrocer on almost every city block. This makes access…
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Bar Restaurante Ginés
Barcelona food’s not all about creative, competitive chefs and the transient fashions of the contemporary culinary scene. Sometimes you just want lunch. Wherever you live or stay in the city, chances are that somewhere in your local barrio there’s a restaurant that’s always full. It will look like all the bars around it: resolutely non-designer,…
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Embat
I am not electronically tagged; nor am I under court orders to patronise only “bistronomic” restaurants in the Eixample as part of some bizarre, 5-star community service initiative. It’s just the way things are working out recently. This time my excuse was the visit to Barcelona of Jonnie — writer of the excellent food blog…
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Topik
Another week, another Eixample bistronomic restaurant… Please forgive the somewhat monothematic nature of this blog recently. In my defence I would make the point that the restaurants visited represent some of the best value in the city and as this is a blog without an expenses budget, value is high on my list of desirable…
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Gelonch
2017: UPDATE – Gelonch has now PERMANENTLY CLOSED Last week I went for lunch at Gelonch (C. Bailén, 56, (+34) 932658298, www.gelonch.es). I was here not too long ago to interview the owner/chef Robert Gelonch but as that’s still awaiting publication I’ll not dwell on the restaurant’s decor or philosophy and instead dive straight into the…
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Restaurant Etapes
Please note that there is now a more recent post about Etapes from 2015. When I was recently preparing a magazine article on the best ‘bistronomic’ restaurants in Barcelona — very broadly defined as those offering high-quality. modern, innovative cooking for no more than €25 at lunchtime — a new name was suggested to me…
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De Tapes per Barcelona
This is the second year that Estrella Damm (Barcelona’s inexplicably popular, over-gassy, favourite beer) have promoted a tapas competition together with the city’s association of bars and restaurants. The website can be found here. The idea’s simple: each participating bar offers a small glass of Estrella beer alongside a tapa of their own creation, all for…
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Reserva Ibérica — bargain breakfast
UPDATE: Reserva Iberica has now MOVED. It can be found nearby at Rambla de Catalunya, 61. As this was thedoughball’s last day in Barcelona and she’d missed the escudella party on Saturday, we all met for a late breakfast/early lunch at Reserva Ibérica (C/ Aragó 242, www.reservaiberica.com). Reserva Ibérica’s a great little ham shop with…
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Escudella i Carn d’Olla
This is as Catalan as it gets. Escudella i Carn d’Olla, which can be roughly translated as soup and poached meats served over two courses, is the Catalan ur-dish. This is the taste of home, of hearth; the kind of peasant food that makes locals go all misty eyed and start talking about about their grandmothers…
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Ravioli
I’m aware that I’m straying quite regularly from the Catalan brief implied in the title of my blog but I’ll excuse myself on the grounds that Barcelona’s a fairly cosmopolitan place and food’s too interesting and too international to bury in dull regional coffins. I first learned to cook in Italy — but not in…
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Puff pastry — masa de hojaldre
Don’t worry, I’m not going to try to make it. Flaky pastry’s about as close as I come when home cooking. No, this is more of a request for advice. Which brand should I buy? I like to keep some puff pastry in the fridge or freezer for impromptu meals. At a push you can…
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Embutido…
…and lentejas Or embutits and llenties if we’re staying all Catalan, but spiced sausages and lentil stew are such pan-iberian staples that it seems best to stick to the more familiar terms. This is comfort food and convenience food both. Lentils offer all the wonderful, winter-warming goodness of other legumes but without the need to be…
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Caldeni
2015 Note: There is now an updated review of Caldeni here. 2014 note: Caldeni now has an excellent ‘meat bar’ spin off next door. Check out my recent post on Bardeni. In the company of Dan, a friend and fellow food enthusiast, I headed for lunch yesterday to Caldeni (C/ València, 452) near the Sagrada…
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Mangled menus
Note: this was originally posted on my work website www.bcnfreelance.com but it’s probably more at home here. It’s a truism that we eat with our eyes. The appearance of food is inseparable from how it tastes; indeed, experiments have shown that even skilled chefs are sometimes unable to identify flavours if presented to them in…
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Seville
This is a food blog about Barcelona so of course my first post will be about the famously Catalan, er, Seville… I never claimed to be focused. I’ve just returned from a marvellous visit where I got to see some of the best of Seville in the company of the delightful http://azahar-sevilla.com/ whose blogs on…
Got any book recommendations?