Tapas is the food to eat in Spain. By the end of my week with Chris, and my next week with colleagues, everyone was tired of tapas. Except for me. I love tapas and could eat them everyday. A typical tapas menu has cured meat plates, cheese plates, bread with fresh granited tomatoes, croquettes (fried balls of beschmel), fried peppers, potatoes bravis (fried potatoes with spicy read sauce) and Spanish omelette (potato and egg).
Chris ate tapas his first night out while I was in the room and he loved all the food he got. The next day we went for tapas together. I still wasn't feeling 100% but that didn't stop us from ordering a table full.
The first day we went out for breakfast we found a little cafe close to the hotel. We sat outside that morning, and just about every other meal after that. We were outside as much as possible. We each got a coffee and a chocolate croissant. The croissants were to die for and so we settled in to eat breakfast here every morning. In both Italy and Spain I could get decaf coffee everywhere! After we sat there for a while one the first morning Chris asked, "What is it you think Spaniards eat for breakfast? Coffee and cigarettes?" It sure looked that way. Every morning we sat there people around us would drink multiple espressos and smoke cigarettes.
The night that Chris was not feeling great, I headed over to the beach for dinner. There's a row of restaurants that sit on the beach. They all have a generous patio for sitting, it's the kind of place I could spend a whole vacation hanging out at. I passed one place and saw a man eating mussels. That was all I needed to see.
The most touristy part of town is La Rambla. It is a tree lined pedestrian mall that's almost a mile long. On this road is La Boqueria, a large open air market. If you are looking for ham, you must go here. You can even buy it in ready to go single servings. Spanish ham is delicious and it's a special skill to be able to slice the ham from the leg. Spaniards buy these legs and sit them on their counter. They last a few weeks, and every time they want some ham, there it is.
There is more than meat in the market, but let's be clear, there are lots of stalls that sell pork. Along with your single serve ham portions, there's also single serve cheese portions.
We have a friend, Enric, that grew up in Barcelona. He had suggested a paella restaurant on the beach. Between the time we made reservations and the actual trip, a group of friends went to Barcelona for Enric's wedding. They took his advice to eat there and agreed, it was the best paella ever. We were really looking forward to that night.
The restaurant sat right on the beach and it was an open air style dining room. The food was amazing and we were certainly happy we went. We had a nice big salad, bread with tomato, and seafood paella.
The last night we were there for dinner we had a picnic by the sea. We had Spanish ham, cheese, fresh bread and tomatoes. It was just about perfect. Chris doesn't love the sand. When we got to the beach and I saw that there was a pier of sorts with rocks, I thought that it would be perfect; I could be by the sea and Chris wouldn't have to sit in the sand. The only down side to that was the rats. Oh well, at least the view was beautiful, the food was delicious, the temperature was perfect and there was a full moon rising. After dinner we sat and watched the water (from a different spot), then walked back to the metro along the beach.
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