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| Fruity goodness at La Boqueria |
We didn’t come to Barcelona
with a food agenda, and again, I am by no means a food critic. For whatever
reason, once I started writing this post, I kept coming back to the topic of
food so this is just a conglomeration of some of our hits and misses at the
table.
Mercat de la Boqueria
Mercat de Sant Josep de la
Boqueria is a huge food market off of La Rambla, which I referenced on my last
post. It’s a popular attraction for tourists and locals alike for good reason:
it’s packed with fresh produce, seafood, spices, and other delectable goodies.
We were lucky to have it so close to our accommodations, so it was a natural first
stop after we settled in. The best part is that it’s all fairly inexpensive (or
maybe we were just happy to be using the Euro and not the pound). It is
definitely worth a wander if you’re in the vicinity and looking for a quick
bite.
Vicino Pizza Bar
I LOVE pizza. Love, love,
love it. So, whenever I travel somewhere, I either try to find a highly-recommended
pizza spot, or end up stumbling across a late-night spot after a night out (my
true gift in life… kidding). Jokes aside, I came across Vicino in my pre-trip
research, and since it was by la Barceloneta, J and I popped in for lunch one
afternoon. There were a good amount of people sitting outside, but we opted to
sit inside. The menu isn’t extensive, and J ordered an Inferno, while I went on
a whim and chose La Madonna. This was pretty random for me as I’m typically a
Margherita kind-of-girl, but I guess I saw vegetables and thought, “wow,
haven’t had those in a while”. So my pizza was basically pizza, loaded with
vegetables. The pizza is cooked in a wood-fired oven, and came out en fuego
(see what I did there?).
Overall, I liked my pizza—it
was hot, the crust had good flavor, and the mozzarella was yummy—but I couldn’t
love it. The reasons for this are that (1) there were just too many vegetables
and they weighed down the base, making it watery and (2) the cheese was good so
I would’ve liked more of it. I’m going to chalk it up to the pie I got though,
because I passed a man on my way out who had the same thing with a better topping-to-pie
ratio. J really enjoyed hers, and if I had the chance, I’d go back and give it
another shot.
Paella near Plaça Reial
One of the things I most
looked forward to in Barcelona (after Park Guell and men who resemble Gerard
Pique) was paella. Paella is a dish hailing from Valencia, containing rice and
traditionally chicken, rabbit, beans, vegetables, and seasonings (particularly
saffron, which gives it the yellow coloring). Seeing as it’s such a popular
dish, we figured we could go wrong with getting it on a whim. Plaça Reial is
lined with restaurants rich in outdoor seating, and since most of them are
packed all day, we picked a random one and grabbed menus. We requested a
pitcher of sangria, and a chicken and seafood paella to share (as it comes out
in the large pan and from what we’d seen, it’d be more than enough to share).
Our waited insisted we could not get one, we had to order individual paellas
but he could have them combined into one pan (okay…). In retrospect, that was
probably the red flag to lower our expectations for this paella, mainly because
the highlight of the dish is the socarrat, or crusted rice that forms at the
bottom of the pan from cooking.
gelaaati! Di Marco
We happened across this spot
one hungover morning while in pursuit for substantial food. Their eye-catching
dessert photography made an impression so we came back after our meal. I had my
eye on their one creation which was basically a warm, brioche bun with your
choice of gelato inside. It was definitely an interesting concept, but we all
got one and agreed it did not disappoint. In fact, the gelato was so good, we
came back the rest of the days were in Barcelona (the third time we walked in,
the guy at the counter just laughed). Would highly recommend!
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