Lil' Eats

I had some time today to wander around and check out a bunch of little places I found on the interwebs and basically noshed my way around town.

Chök - Their beautiful display of gourmet doughnuts caught my eye as I walked by. It's around the corner for La Bocqueria and boy oh boy was I bummed out that Adam wasn't in Barcelona with us. Surely, Adam would have organized an extensive tasting of doughnuts had he been here. Instead, I admired the treats and bought a chocolate covered churro.

Lots of doughnuts

Wait, there's even more doughnuts

Chocolate "salami" or chocolate ganache mixed with crushed cookie, shaped like a salami and dusted with powdered sugar

More doughnuts, this time displayed on dowels

Lis Bakery - This gardenista review of the La Bocqueria Market referenced xuxus or xuixo, a custard filled flakey pastry, which led me to Lis Bakery about 10 minutes from my hotel. 

Cute little storefront 

Some xuixos in the window

 

Whole

Yummy custard filling with crisp flakey crust

Horchateria SIRVENT - Croissanteria, Focacciaria, Horchateria...don't mind if I do. I had to turn on my iPhone to make sure I was heading the right direction and it was worth the data I used to find it. It's a little dessert and drink cafe that serves horchata...hence the name horchateria. I enjoyed a cold glass in the cafe and bought a takeaway cup for Adam's mom to try.

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Butifarring - This was another one I found on Culinary Backstreets. Homemade sausages served in crusty baguettes. I ordered the Classico Catalan style sausage with onions and cheese and an itty bitty mini one euro beer. They also recommended the aioli and spicy braves sauce as toppings.  I would have inhaled the entire thing, but I didn't want to fill up an hour before dinner.

Char grilled homemade sausage with mini beer

Cafe Granja Viader - I walked by this churro and chocolate place at least three times today to triple check their hours and make sure I didn't miss out. I insisted we go after a very filling tapas dinner and it was a tasty little treat. The dark hot chocolate was not too sweet, not too dark and the viscosity was just right for dipping my hot churros.

Cafe Granja Viader

Dark Hot Chocolate and Churros

Roca Moo

We checked out the La Pedrera first thing this morning and enjoyed a long leisurely lunch around the corner at Roca Moo. Their lunch special included:

• Four small "snacks"
• Extra little appetizer
• Soup
• Appetizer
• Main course
• Desser
• Extra dessert aka petite fours
• Oh, and there was sparkling water, one class of wine and coffee to boot

Note: Sorry about the lackluster photos. Adam's better at taking food photos because he's a perfectionist and infinitely more patient. I just wanted to eat. Language barriers also left us with very succinct food descriptions and we're not sure 100% what was in everything. It was tasty!

Small starter snacks. Strawberry & Campari bon bon with liquid inside. Some sort of melon cute with red savory flakes

 Small starter snacks included small arepa like sandwiches and a crispy shrimp stick with carefully placed dots of sauce and caviar

Extra appetizer of cod foam and fried cod skin

Cold cucumber soup and tomato soup with olive ice cream and a bunch of other surprises like mussels 

Vegetable ravioli with arugula foam

Duck with figs and some sort of white apple gel foam

Pineapple with cheese ice cream, dehydrated pineapple slice and crunchy freeze dried bits of something tasty

Not pictured...petite fours included mango pate fruit, chocolate truffle and chocolate caramel candy

Catalan Way Today

Day two in Barcelona and it's Catalan Day. Catalonian flags are flying everywhere: over buildings, over the Sagrada Familia, as sarongs, on shirts, on portable flagpoles and my favorite of all, on people's backs like superhero capes. It's very festive and quite crowded. I use "quite" in the way Adam uses it which means "very" crowded. If only it wasn't frowned upon to creatively wear the American flag, we might encounter more flag wear back home. Creative flag wear may not be a great trend overall, but American flags as superhero capes could be the next big thing. Watch out Cap'n America!