 |
| Mmmm... |
 |
| Mmmm...some more... |
 |
| Food display outside a restaurant |
 |
| And yet, another display...how can you not be hungry??? |
I’m sure this
is not a surprise to anyone: I love food.
I love wine. I love food
and wine. I love food and wine and
good friends to share it with. I
love food and wine and good friends to share it with and new places to
discover. Oh! And I love love LOVE Spanish ham. Like, REALLY love it.
So it should
not be too much of a surprise when Matt and I agreed to meet Steph and Todd in
a food-loving, wine-infused, ham capital like Barcelona for a few days. When Matt and I talked about the things
we wanted to do in Barcelona, my response was not, “tour the cathedrals, look
at museums, shop, do touristy things,” it was: “eat and drink my way through
this city.” And boy did I mean it.
Tapas is one of
those amazingly wonderful inventions that makes you say, whoever came up with
this, I would like to hug you. Or
maybe buy you some jamon (that’s the Catalan word for “ham” in Barcelona) and a
glass of wine and just talk about how awesome you are. Because tapas is one of those things
you cannot get enough of. For those
of you who aren’t familiar, tapas is the Spanish way to eat.
It’s more commonly known in the current trend in the States as “small
plates” and it’s designed to be shared with people around the table. It works like this: you look over the
menu (hopefully they have an English one, if not, you’re in for some
surprises!) and see that they have an extensive list of options of food. This can range from (NOTE: this is NOT
an exhaustive list!!) tomato bread, sliced cheeses, Spanish Tortilla, grilled
or fried anchovies, potatoes in garlic aioli and tomato sauce (oh my!),
empanadas, dry and aged ham, an assortment of olives, tomato and buffalo
mozzarella salad, miniature hamburgers, pork loin with cheese, roasted peppers,
and grilled or fried calamari. You
order an assortment of above items, and they come to you on small plates, small
portions, and easy to share. And
you eat. And eat and eat and eat. Because the small portions deceive
you. You think you are going to
need more and more, and as the waitstaff bring you one tiny little plate after
another, and you sit there sharing with 3 other people you think, “I’m gonna
need to order the jumbo portion next time”. What you don’t realize is after 30 minutes of indulging in
some of the most delicious food you’ve eaten all day (when was that last meal?
4 hours ago??), you start to get full.
Really full. VERY
full. And, oh! Here comes another
plate of food because you felt you wouldn’t fill up with ordering just 9 types
of tapas. Better order a second
round of that awesome filet bikini (sort of like a fancy grilled cheese but cut
into tiny triangles) because one just isn’t enough. But what is that?
Oh no, I forgot I ordered the eggs and potatoes with chorizo! And what else is he putting on the
table?? Oh that’s right, we wanted
more roasted peppers and that veal thing that looked really good. Wow. Whew. I don’t
know if I can finish…I’d better finish this glass of wine first…oh yeah, here
comes the stuffed peppers with goat cheese and that fantastic pork belly and
sweet potato concoction. Oh. My.
GOD.
And that’s
pretty much how it goes, every meal.
Every day. Well actually,
every 5-6 hours. Because what else
do you do when in Spain? I suppose
you could take in the sights, but that’s in between meals. And we MUST make sure we don’t miss a
meal here!!
By the end of
the trip, I could successfully admit that I feel I stimulated the meat, dairy
and wine agricultural economy. Of
course, if you see a ham and baguette sandwich stand somewhere…
No comments:
Post a Comment