The great pizza experience

Once upon a time, in a well known restaurant in Barcelona, a group of 17 people couldn't find a place to have dinner. So worried were they, even the idea of going to KFC had turned up. But there was a couple of heros coming from the Nothern Regions who had kept an ace up their sleeves: the group's classical Gino's (at Rambla Cataluña, although you can find one at Plaza de Aragón in Zaragoza), from the Vips chain.

We had dinner in a lovely crowed place where we couldn't even sit all together (however, we almost did...). Great pizzas, better pasta and good Lambrusco,... it was more than what we had expected at the beginning of the night. Charming waitresses, taken out from a boxing ring, tried really hard to take out the dishes, although a couple of pizzas and glasses of wine avoided it by commiting suicide from the plate they carried. I liked the Caesar's and the pasta salad; my ravioli were also quite successful. Of course, the best thing over all was the friends I was eating with; when are we repeating it...? I'm sure the waitress at "El racó" is still waiting for us with open arms... if we are only 10...

La Grande Dame de la Champagne

Yes, my dearest friends from Catalonia, there are some great "cavas" in this region (obviously, not the ones which make publicity with Sharon Stone), but they're still far away from the ONE and ONLY. Have you guys ever tasted a bottle of La Veuve Clicquot Ponsardin? You will have to recognise that it is just the best you have ever had in your hands.

From the moment you uncork the bottle and you can hear that wonderful "pop", you know something great is about to happen... and then an aromatic sea (which goes from peaches to nuts), goes inside your brain. When the tiny little bubbles explode in your mouth, the same fruity feeling in your tongue.

The "Maison", settled in Reims, has been producing champagne for the last two centuries, but it was in 1805 when the widow of the heir took the bussiness and made it so successful, becoming the first woman running a champagne bussiness; that's why it has such a name. She was also called "La grande Dame de la Champagne", and to honour her, there's a champagne with that name: La grande Dame.

Please, taste it; you won't regret it.

Paella en El Laurel: De la mano de Arthur II

Continuación.
Pasamos finalmente al comedor. La vajilla aceptable, servilletas de tela y un servicio correcto. Sacaron unas aceitunas, y con eso y unos bocados al panecillo fuimos matando el hambre hasta la llegada de los rezagados. Al final, más de media hora tarde, pudimos comenzar. Se sirvió, para empezar, una tapita de pan con tortilla de patata -un pelín seca-y una lámina de pimiento rojo a modo de remate; siguió una ensalada de hoja de roble, tomate y gulas que a mi entender fue lo mejor de la velada. Por fin, llegó la paella, que tenía un aspecto inmejorable. Pero...el arroz estaba pasado, la cosa no tenía vuelta de hoja. Aunque iba bien surtida de marisco y el sabor era bueno, la textura del arroz lastraba completamente el plato. Aquí hay que reprochar la actitud de A. M-B. que a voz en grito, y espero que este leyendo esta crónica, clamaba: ¡Está pasado, este arroz esta pasado, no se puede comer! A.P., que había recomendado el local, lo reconocía, recordando a su vez, que si los asistentes hubiesen sido puntuales el resultado habría sido probablemente distinto. Lo peor llegó con los postres: unas extrañas pirámides de algo parecido a la trufa flanqueaban un corte de helado de nata y vainilla que flotaba en un viscoso mar de crema. Una creación intolerable, debieran retirarlo de la oferta.

Paella en El laurel: de la mano de Arthur (I)

No me voy a detener en los motivos de la cena, que eran varios. Nuestro querido amigo A.P., nos sugirió la idea de tomar una paella y finalmente se encargó, además, de reservar. El local está situado en lo que antaño fuera solar de la prostitución zaragozana -ahora apenas quedan algunas-, al lado de un insigne monumento de la ciudad, la puerta del Carmen. En lo que respecta a la ambientación podríamos decir que era austera, siendo una pena que conserven esos horrendos espejos y el suelo de terrazo que yo dataría en los sesenta-setenta. Salvados estos detalles el servicio fue atento y el local carecía de esa molesta rumorosidad que muchas veces arruina una cena; podríamos confesar que éramos nosotros quienes, en todo caso, alterábamos la paz del local. Tomamos unas cañas antes de pasar al comedor mientras esperábamos a los rezagados. Continuará...

Textil Café

There's a sort of restaurants that I have come to love specially, and these are the Museums restaurants. What's the best way to rest when you are starving after spending the whole morning wondering around a Museum? It's own café. And we must take into account the efforts of this kind of Cafes to become more personal and comfortable.

The Tèxtil Café (at the Textil Museum) is one of my favourites in Barcelona, and I always choose it when I don't know where to go eating in Barcelona. You'll find it at the Born district, an area where many galleries, restaurants and jazzy boutiques can be found. The building chosen for the Museum is the Llió Marquis Palace, from the 13th century, sharing the Montcada Street with the Picasso Museum.

The best thing of the Café is the gotic patio, where, due to Barcelona's great weather, you can have dinner in January (the closer to the gas heater, the better). At the Café you can exhibit your art work and jazz is played every spring and summer sunday.

About the food,... the menu is light and international. Nothing special but accurate. Sandwiches and salads are served with some more elaborated products. However, if I were you I would avoid the vegetable cous-cous.

El café que pone...

MUEBLES NAVARRO. This is the complete name of this Raval's located bar. A long time ago this cool bar used to be a forniture warehouse. The usually kitch style of this kind of shops becomes comfortable when you come to choose one of the big sofas and spend the whole Sunday evening with a friend. Yes, if we wanted to sit on a sofa or a big armchair, we could have met at home, but we would have missed the cake we took. And that is just the feeling they want to communicate: being like at your own home... if you your home is big enough to have cornucopias on the walls.

The place is big enough (around 300m2) to keep the smokers away from the non-smokers, and in case one of those chimneys breaks the rules, there's always a friendly waiter advising them. It's usually opened until 2 am, and during the weekend until 3. The name of the street ir Riera Alta 4. Enjoy it!

As good as popular

The third week I was living in Barcelona I was speaking with some friends about the areas where each one lived. After saying I lived in Guinardó, somebody told me that, if I lived close to the Paseo Fabra i Puig, I had to know an Aragonaise Bar called "LA ESQUINICA". I'm afraid I didn't, but I still tried to remember the name of the restaurant. Two weeks later, a good old friend of mine who has been living in Barcelona for years, told me about a "very cañí" place at Fabra i Puig, where there were different types of "tapas", and not expensive at all. The name was again LA ESQUINICA. But three weeks ago, a friend from Figueres told me he had once been hours in a car with his boss, looking for a restaurant called LA ESQUINICA. Well, definitely, I had to go to such a popular place.

So I did. I must say I expected something much more grotty than what I found, after all the seedy descriptions I had heard (people from Aragon are really humble; the place was more than fine). It's a simple but cute place, very typically decorated. The ceiling had plenty of "cachirulos" (the typical shawl from the village festivity in Aragon) with different colours, depending on the town or village it comes from. The waiters were very pacient and friendly, singing all the tapas they could offer as the multiplication table; obviously, he had to repeat it a dozen of times. Once we had made up our minds we asked for longaniza (the spicy pork sausage from Aragon), some toasted bread with tomatoe, sauté mushrooms, and spicy potatoes (spécialité de la maison). Everything was tasty and we could hardly finish it, so plentiful it was.

Fortunately, we had gone dinning like the French do: 8 pm, otherwise, we would have had to wait about an hour to get a table. After 20:30 people have to get a number, as at the greengrocer's, and wait in the street until there's a table for them. The system is quite primitive but it works. When living, someone gave me a lollipop, but I still don't know why (something related to the fact of being in the smoker's area, but I have never smoked; weird...