I had so much good food in Barcelona that I had to dedicate an entire blog post just for them.
Here’s my review on Quimet & Quimet, El Quim, Taktika Berri, Granjala Pallaresa & Travel Bound’s paella cooking class. Mmm, I wouldn’t mind re-living that week of my life again…
Quimet & Quimet
Quimet & Quimet‘s a small wine bar serving montaditos, i.e. tapas on bread, or open sandwiches.
It’s a tiny place with only a few round high bar tables and no place to sit. The 4 of us went during lunch time and were lucky to have gotten a whole bar table to ourselves to order lots of plates to share and not having to worry about where to put them. Even though it’s meant to be less crowded during lunch time, the place was still quite busy.
Their montaditos were made-to-order, and they had an English menu so ordering was not an issue. Just pick what you want, order over the counter, then they would call out to you when your dishes are ready or they would bring the dishes to you.
Left: Cod fish with olive pâté, 2.5€. Right: Anchovy with cheese, 3€.
Left: Scallop with caviar, 2.5€. Right: Prawn with baked red pepper, 2.5€.
Left: Salmon, yoghurt and truffled honey (*do not miss this!), 2.5€. Right: Tuna belly with sea urchins, 2.5€.
Left: Foie-gras with mushroom, 5.5€. Right: Salmon with sweet egg, 2.5€.
Left: Mussels with caviar, 2.5€. Right: A picture of pure happiness.
It’s amazing how Quimet & Quimet created these heavenly open sandwiches with mostly canned food. Taken apart, each of the ingredients couldn’t be more ordinary; but put together, the ingredients that’s been given a new life as montaditos become the elites of all food. So cheap, yet so fine.
Mind blowing.
Best sangria that I’d had. The fruitiness, sweetness and wine was well balanced.
Dessert: Pineapple with avocado (*do not miss this!), 2.5€. I didn’t quite taste the avocado but this dessert was heavenly.
Dessert: Medlar in orujo grape spirit, 3.65€. The grape spirit was quite strong, yet it was really nice.
{Quimet i Quimet} Address: Poeta Cabanyes 25, 08004 Barcelona, Spain Website: http://bit.ly/Quimet Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Quimet-y-Quimet/177424185646006 Hours: Mon-Fri 12pm-4pm, 7pm-10:30pm. Sat 12pm-4pm. Closed: Sunday.
El Quim
El Quim‘s located right inside the famous La Boqueria market. Being inside of a local produce market means that the food is always fresh.
It has received accolades and praises internationally, including from the famous foodie show host, Anthony Bourdain.
It was a real challenge trying to find seats for 4 at this busy eatery. Seats were really limited (even though they had opened up a second shop in the market, just a few steps away) and there was no name-list or anything of the sort because the staff were all very busy cooking. All we could do was just wait behind the bar stools for the people in front of us to be done, just like in a food court.
We spent almost an hour waiting for our seats. Yes, it was worth it.
Egg with baby squid, 19€.
A close-up of the egg that was done beautifully. My favourite dish.
Squid ink paella.
Prawns in garlic with cava reduction, 19€. Scrumptious.
Fish of the day.
Mussels.
They have an English menu which is also available from their website: El Quim English menu.
{El Quim de la Bouqueria} Address:Stalls 584-585-606-607-608-609, Boqueria Market, Rambles Website: http://elquimdelaboqueria.com/en/ Hours: Tue-Thu 7am-4pm. Fri & Sat 7am-5pm. Closed: Monday, Sunday and holidays.
Paella cooking class (by Travel Bound)
A trip to Spain without having some paella would be incomplete. We took it a notch further and joined a paella cooking class in Barcelona.
The cooking class we joined was organised by Travel Bound. The price was 22€ (with a slight discount for booking at our hostel, St Christopher’s Inn) and it included: a trip to the Boqueria market; paella cooking instructions from a local chef, hands-on sangria making lesson; all-you-can-drink Sangria; and tapas + paella for dinner.
The first stop was the Boqueria market, here, the chef showed us what to get for our paella. It was great to be involved in this process to see how the locals shop in the market and see where our food came from.
Then it was demonstration time. The chef was pretty thorough with the explanation and the recipe, in good English too.
Whilst we waited for the paella to cook, we were served with a plate of tapas (potatas & cheese) and some jamon for us to DIY our own tapas on the table.
Followed by some sangria mixing.
Then, ta-da! Look at this humongous pan of paella the chef cooked for the class! We each got a full plate of paella for dinner (there were about 20 people in the class) and there was still plenty left for second serves.
I reckon joining the paella cooking class was a fantastic way to have a taste of this signature Spanish dish. It was money well spent for the guaranteed freshness of our paella feast and a fun learning experience (and don’t forget the all-you-can-drink sangria!).
{Travel Bar cooking class} Website: http://www.travelbar.com/travel-bound-barcelona/activities-in-barcelona/spanish-cooking-class.php Class starts at 6pm every day at Travel Bar.
Taktika Berri
Taktika Berri was highly recommended by my blogger friend, Sugared & Spiced (awesome blog, by the way).
This place specialises in “pintxo”, i.e. tapas ‘spiked’ on a piece of bread with a toothpick, a typical Spanish bar food. The best way to enjoy it is to hog a seat at the bar so it’s easier to keep an eye out on the new pintxo coming out from the kitchen. The pintxo were laid out on the bar table like this and whoever wanted something would just reach out and grab it (sometimes over other people’s shoulder).
As we sat down at the bar, the waiter gave each of us a plate, then it was up to us to pick out whatever we liked from the bar table. Most of them were cold dishes but occasionally there would be hot pintxo like omelet and fried cuttlefish coming out – the popular dishes would be gone fairly quickly so there’s no time for hesitation.
Keep all the toothpicks as you eat on. At the end of the meal, all you have to do is to present those toothpicks to the cashier and the price of the meal would be calculated by multiplying the unit price (1.65€ when we went) with the number of toothpicks!
Do come earlier at night or come here for a late lunch to beat the crowd as Taktika Berri is a local favourite and tend to get very busy.
{Taktika Berri} Website: http://taktika-berri.vipgourmet.com/
Granjala Pallaresa
Well hello, churros! Granjala Pallaresa‘s located conveniently just a short stroll from La Bqueria, and here we had freshly made churros with sinfully good hot chocolate dipping.
Like I said, sinful…
Look at the silky and thick consistency. The hot chocolate here is for dipping and not really drinking – a plate of churros and a cup of hot chocolate would make any day a better day!
This one with a huge wad of cream was the Swiss chocolate. Oh boy.
The next day, Ju and I came back to try the flan at Granjala Pallaresa. It was worth coming back for!
{Granjala Pallaresa} Address: Calle Petritxol, 11, 08002 Barcelona, Spain Website: http://www.lapallaresa.com/La_Pallaresa/Inicio.html
HER{curio}MAJESTY. I was here. February 2013.