I absolutely love Barcelona. I’ve had the fortune of visiting about 5 times, and it’s become a home away from home when in Europe. On one of my first visits, I took a total shot in the dark from internet searches, and signed up for a culinary tour of the old city, Barri Gotic. The tour started off at about 5pm, when my husband and I met up with our guide, Nadia in a square in Barri Gotic. This was no ordinary tour, as there was no microphone and mini-speaker, no guide holding a flag high as hordes follow and no embarrassing touristy stops. It was a simple private walking tour; just us and our guide. This however, did not come cheap. It cost 97 Euros per person (in the current economy, that’s about $150/person).

The plan was to visit 5 local restaurants / bars, sample their fare, and learn a bit about the city while getting there. Right away we loved Nadia; she was from London but had lived in Barcelona for 10 years. She was also a writer for Time Out, which is a great travel resource in many cities. We started off from the square, walking the cobblestone streets of the Barri Gotic, and winding our way through tiny alleys that had no names.  Our first stop was a Galician bar called Bar Celta. Galicia is a region of Spain that’s located in the northwest, on the ocean and bordering Portugal. This is a fiercely proud region (as with many in Spain), and have true love of football (soccer, here in the US), even the walls of the bar were painted in Galician soccer colors. The restaurant was laid out like a lunch counter, with covered display cases spanning across all counters. The specialty here was pulpo (octopus) that is steamed for a day and then sliced and served with sea salt and paprika. While in Bar Celta we sampled the phenomenal pulpo (Yes! Octopus is so good), pimentos (non-spicy peppers that are fried and salted – one in every 20 or so IS very spicy), and Ribiero style white wine. Every time I go back to Barcelona I spend at least one evening at Bar Celta. 

Next we walked only a few short blocks down the street to a little corner bar called La Plata. This place was maybe the size of a small living room, and there were locals wall to wall and spilling out onto the street. The specialty here was sardines. There were only a few choices at La Plata and we tried them all; deep fried sardines (head and all) – they tasted like french fries, ‘salad’ which was tomato and onion, and wine, served from a keg in the corner, costing a whopping 25 cents per glass. This is rumored to be one of the oldest bars in Barcelona.  

We continued down what I now know is Carrer de la Merce and came upon a place specializing in chorizo and sidra (cider) called El Corval. The preparation of the chorizo consisted of the sausage being put in an earthenware dish, and then adding alcohol to flambé. I have a great picture of my husband stirring the chorizo while it’s on fire. We ate our chorizo with crusty bread and blue cheese. Fantastic. As far as beverage, we had traditional sidre, which is similar to what we know as fermented apple cider (such as Magners or Strongbow). Sidra is a Basque specialty (I’ll talk more about the Basque region momentarily) and is served in a large bottle. The bartender put the glass on the table in front of me, turned his back and then poured the sidra into my glass from over his shoulder. This is the traditional way to pour sidra.  

Feeling fully and satisfied, we continued on to our last 2 stops. Continuing in the Basque vein, we headed to Euskal Etxea, the Basque cultural center in Barcelona. Basque is a region in northern Spain, bordering France and the Atlantic Ocean. The Basque region is very nationalist and has seen separatist fighting and violence over many years. Underneath the turmoil of this region, the people are resilient and believe in food and friends. This region is often credited with Tapas; small plates of food shared with friends over time. In many Basque restaurants, as it was in the cultural center we visited, the bar is covered with plates of various foods, served on toothpicks or small spoons. Eating is a bit of a sport, squeezing through people at the bar to get the tasty treats. The food was delicious, and what I found interesting, is that the cost of the tapas was based on how many and what type of toothpicks we had accumulated. Fancy plastic toothpicks were 2 Euros each, wooden toothpicks were 1 Euro each, and things is spoons were more. It was a full honor system, where at the end of our stay we handed them to the bartender for him to add up.  

Next we meandered to the final stop of the evening; a cava and anchovy bar called El Xampanyet. By this time it was about 9pm so the place was quite crowded with happy locals. We ordered up our plates of filleted anchovies in oil, and glasses of cava. France is known for champagne, and only ‘sparkling wine’ made in the Champagne region of France can be called as such. In Spain, they have cava. It’s often made in the traditional way of ‘methode champenoise’, which is a natural way to create the bubbles. As a side note, this traditional method will usually give you much nicer, smaller and longer-lasting bubbles, versus other methods. The cava was fantastic and we had many glasses. For the first time of the evening I was not sold on the food; they were very fishy-tasting and a bit to slimy for me.  

Thus ended our culinary night in Barcelona and we left the cava bar with a bottle of wine we had purchased, so we could enjoy our great night. The following night we were in line for a classic and famous tapas bar in the Born district, called Cal Pep and ran into some folks from North Carolina. We told them about our tour the night before and they immediately called Nadia and set one up. We heard that they enjoyed it as much as us!