Barcelona eating

For anyone who keeps up with our travels by reading this blog it will come as no surprise that one of our favorite things about exploring new cities is enjoying good food and drinks! Barcelona, of course, was no exception to the rule. As usual, we found lots of good places to eat and drink, ensuring that our holiday weekend was a huge success. Here I am enjoying the first meal of the trip, a late lunch on Friday afternoon in a small bar/cafe in the Barri Gòtic , one of our favorite neighborhoods in Barcelona. We were literally the only people in the place, and I don't think the owner was thrilled with us interupting his afternoon break. Nonetheless, he served up the perfect feast. In this picture you'll notice all the essentials for a good Barcelona tapas meal: pa amb tomàquet (thick slices of toast rubbed with olive oil, tomato, and garlic), manchego cheese, olives, patatas bravas (fried potatoes covered with garlic sauce), boquerones (white anchovies), jamon iberico (the best ham ever), and red wine. Yum!



Here's Kirk enjoying some anchovies and an Estrella Damm beer during our Saturday night "tapas bar crawl" during which we ate dinner throughout the night as we visited different tapas bars in the Barri Gòtic . When it comes to anchovies, I tend to prefer the white ones. Both kinds (the white and the gray/brown) are soaked in vinegar and taste very salty, but I found the white ones to be a bit milder. I especially liked the tapas bars that serve pintxos, which are bite-sized slices of baguette piled with different combinations of meat, cheese, and fish held together with a toothpick. You serve yourself (the pintxos are sitting on trays on the bar), and when you're done, the bartender figures out your bill by counting the toothpicks. How cool is that?!