Hola

I had booked a market tour and cooking class with cook and taste for my first full day in Barcelona. I got a little lost on the way there and only just made there in time. We went off to the Boqueria market where there was very colourful displays all things gastronomique. It wasn’t a place for the squirmy or vegetarians as there were a large number of all things dead and some still alive.

It was so vibrant and alive with passion for their wares , it got me quite excited that I will be staying next to a market in Madrid.  There is an olive oil shop there with over 200 different types of Spanish Olive oil. Apparently it is quite the privilege to have your products for sale in the store. In the southern end of Spain there are 500 different types of Olives. They use olive oil in the same liberal way that the French use their butter. At least oil is a good fat. The store had an olive oil tasting for 10 euro that I would like to go back and do. She showed the difference in the ham from a normal pig and a happy pig. The jarmon from a happy pig is a lot more expensive than the normal pig, we bought some happy jarmon for our  Salmorejo ( which is a variation of a gazpacho ) .

We spent around an hour at the market and then walked back the short walk to the cook and taste HQ. It was a very well thought out space. Neat, colourful and funky artisan light shades.

The teacher Marejo Jose ( maybe not spelled correctly) was fantastic and highly organised. She was witty and engaging. We made a traditional Catalan bread with tomato,garlic and oil rubbed on it ( not sure what it is called) Salmorejo, millefeuille of roasted vegetables and cod brandada,seafood paella and crema catalana. We all took turns in doing a task. The food was delicious and the wine was in abundance. Most of the other 13 people on the tour were Americans but there was a lovely Chinese born Australian residing girl who was filling me with inspiring stories of her solo travelling. Look out world here I come!

One of the Americans  had never heard radiotherapy called by that name before so she thought it was music therapy. That made me go

 

she was a nice lady I shouldn’t be making fun but hey

It was a great day, very good value for money. I would love to do another course here. You should definitely go if you are ever in Barcelona.

Later that day I went to the area my cousins were staying in by Metro. They also have a great Metro system.They were staying in a very quirky and funky hostel called Generator. We wandered around for a while and found a tapas place called “tapas and latas” . We didn’t realise that latas means cans so some of the “dishes” were meats etc brought out in the cans they were bought in. Malcolm did very well selecting some really yum tapas and then walked me to the Metro station for my trip home. When I got back to “my hood” I went to a tiny bar, that made great cocktails, to meet up with a few people from the class. It was very nice catching up with them in a different environment. I had a few micheladas  and then made my way back to my very comfortable apartment.

Barcelona is an amazing city, the area I am staying in is El Born, there are lots of amazing little laneways with shops scattered here and there. Every other street has a little farmacia on it.  I wish I was here for longer than a week.I already miss it and I haven’t left yet.

This post has been posted to you from my 50m2 private terrace.