Common Food & Drink in Barcelona
Barcelona's markets offer a visual guide to the city's cuisine (Photo: Stoisko z cukierkami image by Grzegorz Sikora from Fotolia.com )
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Catalonia and its capital, Barcelona, is the center of "nueva cocina espanola," the vibrant culinary movement led by an exciting of group of Spanish chefs -- most notably Ferran Adria -- who have elevated and reinvented their country's gastronomy. Their inspiration comes in part from everyday Catalan cuisine, which is influenced by this northwestern autonomous region's mountains, lowland meadows and fishing ports, plus its history as a seafaring and trading power. Barcelona's flavors are bold and dishes are hearty, embracing a variety of influences from the New World to the Eastern Mediterranean.
Catalan Flavors
Barcelona's cooks like strong, fresh flavors, and garlic, onions and olive oil are favorite ingredients. Tomatoes are another. A relative newcomer to a region whose culinary roots go back to Roman times, the New World tomato was quickly embraced and now is the star of what is perhaps Barcelona's most famous dish: pa amb tomàquet, as it is known in the Catalan tongue. Catalans are proud of their unique heritage and culture, and Catalan, a language once banned during the Franco regime, is often heard in the city. A generous slice of rustic toasted bread is rubbed with fresh garlic and a ripe tomato, drizzled with olive oil and sprinkled with coarse salt. It is eaten for breakfast or as a merienda, an afternoon snack.
Essential Sauces
Four sauces play an important role in many Catalan dishes, each matched with seafood or meat, roasted vegetables or rice dishes. Alioli is a simple garlic and olive oil sauce. Samfaina is made from eggplant, peppers and tomatoes. Picada sauce, called romesco in Castilian Spanish, is a mix of onions, dried chiles, tomatoes, olive oil and almonds or roasted hazelnuts. Onion, garlic, tomato and parsley are combined for sofregit (sofrito in Spanish).
Culinary Adventure
Dishes in the region reflect cultural influences rooted in Catalan adventures in trade and conflict. Fruit and aromatic spices flavoring meat stews show the influence of Arab and Eastern Mediterranean culture. Rustic dishes, like a stew of rabbit and snails, have their origins in the Pyrenees mountains and Catalonian countryside -- Catalan cooks are known for their adventuresome pairings. As in much of Spain, pork is king and no part of the animal goes to waste. Catalan butchers are noted for their sausages, identified as botiffara blanca and negra to distinguish their ingredients -- the latter is a blood sausage often served with white beans.
Seafood Bounty
One of the most famous dishes in the region is suquet, a seafood stew originally made on Catalan fishing boats. Fish, shellfish, mussels, clams and lobster are cooked in olive oil, lemon, white wine and Spanish paprika to make a filling seafood soup. A popular summer salad, esqueixada de bacalla, takes salted cod (bacalao in Castilian Spanish) and serves it with tomatoes, peppers, olives oil and salt. Seafood also stars in fideua, Barcelona's version of paella, made with thin noodles rather than rice.
Refreshing Beverages
The region is more well-known for its white wines than red, especially cava, a champagne-style wine. Spanish coffee is strong and served espresso-style, or "con leche," with milk, to accompany a mid-afternoon pastry. Barcelona's residents prefer to order mineral water rather than drink tap water with meals, either "sin gas" or "con gas" -- carbonated or still -- and the locals dine late, at 10 p.m. or later.