Eyescream and Friends – Barcelona

January 24, 2014Leave a comment

I realized I hadn’t posted a lot of pictures of Barcelona, so these pictures are slowly going to creep into my posts. I call this city my second home now, because it is seriously one of my top cities in Europe. Who can say no to a city where going to beach in the end of September is totally normal? This is Barcelonetta by the way, which is one of the most popular beaches for tourists. It’s pretty cool since there are clubs, bars, and restaurants just lining up along the beach. Barcelona has other beaches further away from the city center which are more clean and much more quiet. Oh, just looking at these pictures make me sad… At least Vancouver hasn’t been raining the past few days…

I was in love with the palm trees when I first came. It makes it feel like you’re on vacation all the time. Almost like you’re at a resort in Mexico! However, they were actually imported for the Olympics. Anyways, this is the boardwalk along Barcelonetta. Taking a stroll down here is amazing!

Anyways, if you get off at the Barcelonetta metro stop, it actually takes around 10 minutes to get the beach itself. It’s quite a far walk, but it’s a pleasant walk because there are lots of restaurants along the way to entertain your eyes. If you keep walking towards the beach, just a little before the actual beach, there is a store called Eyescream and Friends. The graphics are so cute that it lured us in.

I feel like not enough people know about this place! It’s actually a little hidden, perhaps because it doesn’t have the flashiest signs. I still can’t get over how cute and simple their advertising is.

They claim that they sell gelato, but I find it to taste more like shaved ice. Perhaps shaved ice isn’t a common word for them there. The place is half self-served, which makes everything a bit more fun! First, you decide if you want the complete pack or just the gelato. Of course we wanted to get the whole deal. It’s pretty expensive for gelato as it’s 4.30 euros for the whole package. Well worth it to try though!

Next, you grab their little trays. The design is seriously so cute. I love how everything is cardboard or wood, so totally environmental friendly! They seriously win for such a cool design concept.

Then you can choose two toppings. There’s a section of chocolates, chocolate sauces, jams, condensed milk, caramels, graham cookies etc…

Or you can opt for gummy bears, pistachio sauce, chocolate chips, etc…

Now that you have popped your two toppings into the right spots in the tray, you hand over the tray to the employee, and he/she will head over to the machine to squeeze out your gelato (or shaved ice). You can choose from 7 flavours: vanilla, chocolate, strawberry, yoghurt, cheesecake, wildberry yoghurt, and mango. They also have some daily flavours sometimes. Then they will add two sugar googly eyes to your eyescream!

And voila! Is this not the cutest dessert ever? I chose Mango, with white chocolate chips and gummy bears. Absolutely tasty and amazing to look at. I almost didn’t want to dig in because it looked so cute! The texture is like ice cream and sorbet. So refreshing on a hot day! I would highly recommend checking eyescream and friends out if you’re near the beach! It’s pricier than a typical gelato, but how often can you have so much fun with gelato?

Ciudad Condal

January 15, 2014December 10, 2014Leave a comment

I’m so excited to write this post, becuase Ciudad Condal is my absolute favourite tapas restaurant in Barcelona! Whether you are here for just a few hours or months, you must give Ciudad Condal a try! I’m not paid to sponsor them or anything, but I swear that everyone I’ve brought here has had a great meal! I’ll have more revisits, as I’ve been here probably 5 times in the 4 months I stayed in Barcelona. Anyways, Ciudad Condal essentially is another name for Barcelona in Spanish, as they used to be the County of Barcelona. In Catalan, it is Ciutat Comtal, hence you will see two confusing names.

The place was extremely packed the first few times I went, (mostly because it was the summer, or early fall months, and there were tons of tourists). Yes, this place is very tourist friendly, with most of the servers understanding English, and the people at the bar are actually Filipino and not Spanish. However, this place is definitely not a tourist trap! To get the most of your experience, try to aim for the bar seating. Seating is very limited here, and you cannot reserve a seat there. You essentially wait around behind the people eating until you spot them leaving, and you just gotta snatch a seat.

If you don’t want to wait around, then you most likely will still need to wait. However, you will leave your name with the hostess and she will call your name when your table is ready. There is always a line up, so the best times to go are around 5 or 6 pm, although you would need to sip on a drink before the montaditos come out. I suggest sitting at the bar because you will get the view of what’s in this picture. Food! Since most of the items are not always on the menu, as a foreigner and first-timer, it’s easiest to just point and order. No need to figure out the confusing menu, and if you want something specifically on the menu, you can also order from the bar here. The bar people are also extremely friendly and I find they give the best service! So what essentially are montaditos? They are similar to pintxos, where ingredients are served on top of a piece of bread, but without the toothpick.

Other than montaditos, they have flautas, which are very skinny baguette sandwiches filled with your choice of ingredients. They also have a variety of tapas and desserts. Prices are not the cheapest here, but they also aren’t too expensive. I would rather pay here at an average price for some decent food, then for two meals of cheap bar tapas. It’s just worth it! Trust me!

Anyways, we started off with a pitcher of Sangria. Yup, I think I was starting to get sick of this… The sangria here does not have a lot of fruits, but instead lemons. It was alright. I found it quite pricey for what it was and relatively expensive compared to many restaurants.

Now let’s get to the montaditos! This was our first time here, and we unfortunately did not know the trick to sitting at the bar. The bar was filled with people, so we just grabbed a seat in the dining area. We had serious troubles figuring out what to eat since the menu doesn’t show the names of the montaditos. My sister ended up having to get up and take a few photos of the montaditos at the bar and bring it back for us to decide. We ended up telling our waiter what we wanted by describing what was on each. We got the Iberian Ham, and Smoked Salmon. The Iberian Ham is a must try in Spain. Well, I mean, Spain is famous for this! However, I’m not a huge fan of it, so trying it once is really enough for me. I find the pork taste to be too pungent for my liking, but people here love this stuff. However, what I can rave about all day and night is this Smoked Salmon montadito. If you like salmon, then you must order this. I never knew smoked salmon could be cut so thick and be so smooth. Each one has around 1.5 pieces of salmon layered on top of each other. Underneath is a slather of cream cheese, and on top are diced peppers which give it a really fresh taste. You won’t regret ordering this, and this is one of the reasons why I come here.

My sister is a fan of pasta salad, so of course she ordered that. It’s quite a large serving, but it’s around 6 euros, so I guess that’s reasonable. They come with two pan de tomates, which are baguettes brushed with tomatoes and olive oil. This was quite good, but it gets you filled up really quickly. They also have a variety of other salads, and if you sit at the bar, you can see all the different types.

Patatas Bravas. This is another typical Spanish tapa, which you can essentially find at almost any Spanish tapa or bar joint. However, each place does it slightly different. They are essentially fries, but diced into cubes and topped with a tomato and spicy aioli sauce. Some places only use one sauce, while others use a variation of the sauces such as mayonnaise or garlic sauce. I enjoyed these since they weren’t fried too oily and the sauce was really good. This aioli sauce was a bit garlicky!

I had looked over at other people’s tables and saw some grilled cuttlefish. However, I didn’t know what that was on the menu and we settled on the ‘Roman style’ Small Squids, which apparently meant calamari. Bummer. But these were still alright. The batter was light and fluffy and the squids were very tender. I swear Spain has some of the best squid and cuttlefish! Anyways, if you want the actually grilled ones, just let your server know “grilled cuttlefish”. Yup, it was on the menu too…but who knew…

Lastly, we got the Prawn Skewers. They are quite expensive, at about 3 euros each, but the good thing is that the prawns are huge. They were lightly salted and extremely fresh! So I guess that was worth it. Plus, they actually fill you up quite a lot.

All in all, Ciudad is a must try in Barcelona. I have never told my friends about a restaurant so much. Whenever I’m asked for restaurant advice in Barcelona, Ciudad is the first place I recommend. It’s truly an experience there, and the seafood is amazing. Remember not to order too much though! This was a meal for only three people, and we were so full we couldn’t finish our food. You think that tapas are small at first, but as you eat, you’ll realize they really do fill you up! Remember that there’s always a piece of bread!

Txapela – Barcelona

January 14, 2014December 10, 2014Leave a comment

There are now 3 Txapelas in Barcelona, and the one we went to was one of the larger joints on Passeig de Gracia. When we went in a mid-afternoon, the place was filled with people. It took a while for us to be noticed, and then seated.

Txapela was recommended to us by a local, but is definitely filled with tons of tourists as it is centered in the city centre and easy to find.

The menu is basically your table mat, and it shows colourful pictures of pintxos, which have become one of my favourite things about Spain! They are essentially little snacks where the bottom is usually a piece of thinly cut baguette, and on top can be anything from cheese to meat to fish. It really depends on how creative the restaurant gets! Other than that, they also offer some typical Spanish tapas, a few selection of desserts, and drinks. The menu is not in English, but since the pictures are so pretty, I just chose based on the appearance. Not a lot of frustration with ordering since you can just point or say the number.

These were some of the pintxos that my table ordered. I just love how they always look so pretty, so even if it doesn’t taste good, you can get sold just by the appearance.

And these were the ones I got. I got the Pincho Urruti, which is a classic cannelloni with wild mushroom sauce. It’s pretty small, but the mushroom sauce was so good. Everything just melts in your mouth. On the right on the plate is the Pincho Mallorca, which is warm brie with spicy pork sausage. This was okay, but I found the pork sausage to have a very strong pork flavour which I wasn’t very used to. Lastly, I got the Pincho Arantxa, which is pictured on the left of the plate. This included prawns, bacon and grilled mushroom, which was my favourite pincho. I just enjoy grilled seafood and grilled mushrooms, and everything was lightly salted, so you could taste the freshness.

The pintxos range from 1.45 to 2.45 euros, so some can be quite affordable. However, you need at least 3-4 of them to be sort of full. As a snack, that is perfect, but for a meal, you may need 5. Don’t order too many at first, as they can really fill you up. You need to remember that each pintxo has a piece of bread under, which for some reason will fill you up! All in all, not a bad pintxo joint, but it is definitely not my favourite. It’s a good place to start if you want to try a variety of pintxos at a decent price though.

Gilda – Sant Cugat

January 11, 2014December 10, 2014Leave a comment

Studying at ESADE inside the little village of Sant Cugat means small choices of food to choose from. The school is basically 10 walking minutes away from restaurants and cafes, and after a long day at school, you really get lazy to walk out of that area. And to be honest, the cafeteria at school isn’t the best if you want an actual meal. That’s when we choose to walk right across our school building to Gilda, which is next to the Innovation Centre at ESADE. It’s literally less than a minute away, and perfect for us lazy students. Most people get their buffet menu, since it’s relatively cheap at around 9 euros for all you can eat. Otherwise, you can choose to pack as much food as you want into a container for a set price, which I have never tried.

First off, you can get unlimited drinks, and this even includes wine and beer. I guess in Europe, alcohol is so cheap that it’s no big to have all you can drink… And next, there is a wide selection of salads to choose from. My favourite is to get some romaine lettuce, add some cucumbers, corn, and imitation crab and top it off with a long island dressing. They also have several types of other salad ingredients and pasta salad. Then you head over to some actual main entree food, but it’s not even the main entree yet. This is usually a small section and changes pretty much everyday. What doesn’t change is that there are always those thin crusted pizzas. They are so absolutely thin I can always have a bunch, and they are surprisingly really good! Then, there are usually two different entrees they change up everyday. That they, they had chicken wings and fideau noodles, which are like paella but in noodle form. These are usually decent as well. Some other entrees I’ve had were chicken nuggets, fettuccine, mixed rice, and drumsticks. They also always have a dish of veggies and french fries.

Then comes the exciting part. You must remember to hold onto your ticket they give you when you pay in the beginning, because this is your ticket to your entree! There is a whole list of what entrees you can get, and this one was the Steak. Honestly, I wouldn’t suggest getting the steak, because it is usually a hit or miss. The problem is that the beef in Spain is cut very thin, so they often overcook it. Either that, or the restaurant is afraid of getting us sick, so cooks it to well done. And as someone who loves their meat medium rare, this is way too tough. My favourite that I have had is the Iberian Pork Shoulder. This one is always cooked to tender and has tons of flavours. I’ve also tried their Burrito and their Chicken Hamburger. I wouldn’t say they are amazing, but they are definitely much more worth the price you get compared to the cafeteria at school. By the end of this entree, I am usually fully stuffed. Yet, I always try to squeeze in some desserts. They often have a few selection of cakes, sometimes cream puffs, and always a soft serve ice cream machine. There are also a variety of fruits to choose from to finish off your meal.

Restaurante Japones Wok – Barcelona

January 10, 2014December 10, 2014Leave a comment

I guess my Asian food craving continued, as a few days later, my friends and I decided to go to an all you can eat Japanese restaurant called Japones Wok near Arc de Triomf. It seems that this metro station area has a lot of Asian food. Anyways, for lunch, you can have all you can eat for 9.50 euros. Not bad, considering you’re in Spain. However, the little trick is that you must order a drink as well. And their drinks cost at least 2 euros, even for a bottle of water. You end up paying over 10 euros for your meal because of that. And to think that all you can eat places in Richmond are bad sometimes….well yea, let’s just be grateful for that. At Restaurante Japones Wok, which is considered a very good Japanese restaurant in Barcelona, it really isn’t just Japanese food. You get a mix of Japanese and Chinese food. I haven’t really seen any Japanese locals in Barcelona for the four months I stayed, but learned that most Japanese restaurants are operated by Chinese. So here we have some Chow Mein, Fried Rice, Calamari, Beef Stir Fry, Assorted Grilled Seafood, Seaweed Salad, Gyoza and Sushi. There’s actually a lot to choose from, and they even have a section of dim sum… For sushi, there actually isn’t a lot to choose from, and each piece is very dainty and small. I almost feel embarrassed if I take more than two of each as they don’t put out a lot each time. The fish is definitely not as fresh as the ones in Vancouver, but they are bearable.

What I liked about this place was they also have all you can eat teppanyaki. That’s something that wouldn’t be as common. You choose a variety of seafood, meet, kebabs, and vegetables and place it on a plate. Then you line up, and the chef will grill your items right in front of you. Pretty cool, and the seafood here is quite fresh. I also ordered steak, but I have learned that their steak in Spain is basically a thin slice of beef. It almost reminds me of pork because it is so thin, and after grilling it, it becomes super tough. Not juicy like the ones back at home.

But if you’re looking for some Asian food, give Japones Wok a try. It won’t be authentic, but it can satisfy your cravings in the meantime. Also, they have a variety of candies and gummies along their buffet too! Yes…I ended up eating a lot candy instead…

Cheng Ji – Barcelona

January 9, 2014December 10, 2014Leave a comment

When M came to visit me in Barcelona, he craved Chinese food. Okay, well really, he just craves it anywhere he goes. Luckily, my friends on exchange knew where there were some decent Chinese food, so off we went. Cheng Ji is near the Arc de Triomf metro station. The workers there can all speak Mandarin and Spanish, which makes it a little more legit. I have to say, having this Chinese drink after a month on exchange, was quite satisfying. Anyways, I ordered the Gang Chao Niu He, or Dry Beef Chow Fun. Ordering this reminded me of how my mom would always order this at restaurants and I would always complain. Sadly, it was actually nice to have something so familiar to home. However, I have to say the dish was quite below average compared to the ones we have in Richmond. You can tell from the picture that the sauce is completely lacking. It wasn’t oily enough, although I normally complain about the oil. And hence, everything was just sticking together too much. They did, however, have a decent amount of beef to bring some flavour to the dish. The Seafood Fried Rice is something that might be worth ordering here, as it was one of the more decent dishes. Overall, not bad for what you get in Spain if you really crave some Chinese food. Prices are decent as well.

Tapas Gaudi – Barcelona

January 7, 2014December 10, 2014Leave a comment

Tapas Gaudi is literally just 10 minutes away from my flat in Barcelona. It is right in front of the Clot Metro Station, hence I walk by it pretty much every day. When S came to visit me, we decided to go grab dinner and since we were too lazy to metro elsewhere in the city centre, we decided to give Tapas Gaudi a try. The place was never packed, but you would see the occasional diner in there at all times.

Seafood Paella

Since S was here for only a week, she wanted to get the most out of her paella. So of course, we ordered a Seafood Paella to share. Their paellas are around $16-18, but you do not need to order a minimum of two orders. But then again, the price is around the same as La Fonda’s when you order two there. It came with three shrimps, which remind me of crawfish. There isnt’t much meat to it as they are quite skinny. It also came with some clams and green beans. Again, it was alright. I’m still not a huge fan of paella. Having it once is honestly enough for me, personally.

Black Rice Paella

K ordered the Black Rice Paella, which does not look very appealing, but I actually liked the flavouring of this one more. Same ingredients, but a squid ink base as the sauce, hence the rice turning black.

Fried Milk

Lastly, S and I shared the Fried Milk as dessert. It came with some vanilla gelato and whipped cream, which were all beginning to melt. The fried milk reminded me of the ones back at home at Chinese restaurants. I actually quite enjoyed this. It was almost like a donut, but soft in the inside with a custard like texture.

Overall, Tapas Gaudi is just alright. I find that the prices are quite expensive compared to what you can get elsewhere. I believe it is mostly for tourists as it is situated right outside of the metro station. The food isn’t terrible, but it is just average for a high price.

La Concha – Barcelona

January 4, 2014December 10, 2014Leave a comment

After school, a bunch of us decided to head back to the city centre to grab some lunch. However, we had nowhere in mind so we wandered the Gothic area streets for almost an hour. We all wanted good food at a decent price and with such a large group, it was hard to come to a consensus. We were starting to get really hungry, and we finally decided to settle for La Concha. La Concha, like most restaurants in Barcelona, offer a menu del dia, which is a 2-3 course menu at a fixed price. These menus are often offered during lunch time until 4pm, and then some restaurants will choose to have a dinner menu as well. Since menu of the days are usually the best deal, we went for it, and it was only 12 euros for a first course, main entree, dessert, bread, and drink.

Fideua

There are a variety of items to choose for each course, and for my first course, I chose the Fideua. You need to learn that in Barcelona, their so called first course or appetizer is an enormous portion and could fill me up as almost an entree. The fideua was literally three large scoops on a huge plate. I was getting worried how full I would be by the end of this meal…Anyways, fideua is basically the noodle version of paella. Fideau means noodles in Catalan and is often seen on menus in Catalan or Valencian restaurants. The noodles are special noodles, which are very thin like angel hair. They are broken into tiny pieces and are served with shrimp or other seafood. There’s a sauce to it, but it is quite dry compared to paella rice. They also give you a side of mayonnaise, which you are supposed to mix into the fideua. However, I prefer my fideua without the sauce as it gets too saucey and salty.

Lacón a la Gallega (Galician Ham)

For my entree, I chose the Lacon a la Gallega, which is Galician Ham in English. This is a ham that originates from Galicia, which is in northwest Spain. It is a dried ham, and instead of using the whole leg, they only use the pork’s shoulder. The ham was paired with sauerkraut and lentils, and topped with a spice similar to paprika. Quite tasty but very meaty and filling.

Flan

Lastly, for dessert I had the flan which is similar to a caramel pudding. Even though it didn’t look too appetizing, it was quite delicious. I love how the top is slightly glazed and the whipped cream makes it even better.

All in all, La Concha was quite good for the price you pay. The people do not speak a lot of English, but they do their best to try and explain their menu which is all in Catalan. Overall, worth a try if you are in the Gothic Quarter.

Every Day is a Food Day

Category: Spain