Mercat de Mercats 2013 Barcelona

February 18, 2014Leave a comment

Mercat de Mercats is an outdoor food festival in Barcelona that lasts for three days. In English, it’s translated to Market of the Markets. In 2013, it took place in mid October near the Barcelona Cathedral as you can see in the back.

Its a food festival to showcase the best of Catalan and Mediteranean food and cooking. There are around 30 market stalls, 50 local producers, 12 market and city bars and restaurants and 16 wine cellars, who take part! Pretty impressive! You’ll find everything from wines, cavas, oils, vinegars, cheeses, meats, seafood, and cooked tapas.

I thought it was pretty cool that people were walking around with wine glasses since they had paid for some wine samples. Not something we normally see in Vancouver!

I didn’t get a chance to try any of the food since I had just passed by after doing some grocery shopping alone. Wasn’t exactly in the mood to try food by myself. There were tons of good looking tapas though! I ended buying some olive oil and balsamic vinegars as gifts though. It was from a local producer with all the packaging done by the producers. Pretty neat to support local producers!

Some of the stalls in La Boqueria market were present, including the burritos stand.

Check it out if you’re in Barcelona this year during the festival!

Tapa Tapa (Arenas) – Barcelona

February 16, 2014February 16, 2014Leave a comment

I took a Spanish history class at ESADE, and it was one of the best classes offered there! Truly learned so much about Spain and coming from a country with such a young history, it was so interesting to actually finally understand some of the European history. One our our assignments was to visit an assigned site in Barcelona. For my group, we were assigned to visit the Olympic Museum and then check out the Estadi Olimpic Lluis Companys, which was the stadium that was renovated for the 1992 Summer Olympics. For tourists who are only in Barcelona for a few days, the Museum is definitely not worth your time as it only gives a timeline of the history of the Olympics. However, the stadium is worth a visit if you are going to see Montjuic since it is on the way up the mountain and also free. Not anything impressive, but it’s pretty cool to know how the Olympics really changed Barcelona from a city of nothing to one of the top tourist destinations! The Barcelona Olympics is said to be one of the only Olympics where the investment and costs actually benefited the city more than any other host city in Olympic history. It’s almost difficult for any city to repeat the dramatic change that occurred.

Anyways, after an afternoon researching for our assignment, we headed back to Plaza Espanya on the bus. Next to the Arenas, which is now a mall, but a bullfighting arena in the past, is Tapa Tapa. There are around 3-4 Tapa Tapas around Barcelona, and it’s known to be catered towards tourists.

We chose to settle here anyways to grab a snack. The menu barra really caught our eyes since it was a pretty good deal. I believe the menu was only 8,60 euros, which is really cheap! An amazing deal, since most of their tapas are at least 3 euros anyways. I’ve been to other Tapa Tapas before as well, and I realized that they do not offer this lunch menu. I think it’s because the Tapa Tapa at the Arenas has less traffic, especially tourists. The other locations include Maremagnum at Port Vell and on Passeig Gracia, which constantly has tourists. Since it’s a tourist spot, they also offered an English menu to make things easy.

I think what attracts tourists to Tapa Tapa are the colourful pictures of their menu that’s always placed outside. For foreigners, it’s always great to see pictures to know what they’re ordering.

For our menu, we were given a choice of water, soda, or beer. I ended up choosing a sparkling water. It’s called “agua con gasse” in Spanish. I find that Europeans drink sparkling water a lot more than Americans. It’s not something very common for us. This one was called Vichy Catalan, and the bottle was really cute!

Potato Omelet

We each ordered the set menu, but chose to share some of our food, so hence there are lots of food pictures! To start, we all chose the Potato Omelet, which is a typical Spanish tapa. I actually ate this quite frequently at school, since it was an affordable item at the school cafeteria. It would come in a sub with the potato omelet inside. Potato chunks are mixed with egg to form this little cube. It’s usually served cold and placed on bread that has been brushed with tomatoes.

Lettuce with Goat Cheese Salad with Vinaigrette Dressing

My friends ordered this as they were huge fans of goat cheese. I still haven’t been able to acquire to this taste, so it was only okay for me. Came with some croutons, and the vinaigrette dressing really made the salad tasty!

Three Cheese Risotto – Gorgonzola, Emmental, Brie

Some of us also got the Three Cheese Risotto. I loved this one! It was very creamy and cheesy since it had three types of cheese. For people who aren’t into very strong cheeses, this dish may be a little strong for your liking. Since I’m not into blue cheeses, the Gorgonzola really hit my taste buds. However, since it was mixed with two lighter cheeses, it wasn’t as strong.

Three Cheese Croquettes

This was by far one of my favourites! Ever since my first time trying croquettes, I have been so into them! These were purely just cheese, and hence extremely cheesy when you bite into them. The outer layer was also deep fried, but not too oily.

Crispy Shrimp

These were great to snack on! Reminded me of popcorn shrimp back at home. It came with a garlic mayo. The outer layer wasn’t too thick, and the shrimps were still fresh.

Trio of Mini Hamburgers with Cheese, Onion and Mustard

This was also one of our favourites. They were actaully hamburgers without the burger. So essentially the beef patty only. On the left, the patty was topped with mustard. The mustard was so delicious! Not the cheap American yellow mustard on hot dogs. This was grainy mustard with mustard seeds still in it. My absolute favourite! In the middle was a patty topped with melted cheese. This was also quite good, but the cheese cooled down quickly, so wasn’t as cheesy anymore. Lastly, on the right was a patty topped with grilled onions. I didn’t expect this to taste anything special, but the seasoning they used on the onions and after being grilled really made it a great patty!

To finish off your meal, there’s coffee! It’s popular to finish your meal with a cafe! We really enjoyed this since they let us choose any type of cafe. Usually, it’s strictly coffee. They let us choose and we chose the Cappuccino. It came with plenty of foam and topped with a bit of coffee powder. Not shabby!

So even though many people say Tapa Tapa is just for tourists, I think the lunch menu at the Arenas is quite worth it. I’ve been to the other locations and don’t think it’s as worth the money you pay for, and agree that they are quite touristy. Our service was attentive, and sitting at the bar was lots of fun! You get a taste of typical Spanish tapas at a great value.

Bits and Pieces of Berlin

February 15, 2014Leave a comment

After Munich, we took a midnight bus to Berlin. The bus was around 8 hours long and it was a pretty terrible ride. Bus smelt like beer and the chairs were extremely uncomfortable. But the price was definitely a fraction of what we would pay for a flight. If you’re looking for a hostel, I would suggest the Cats Pajamas Hostel! Extremely cheap and one of the cleanest and friendliest hostels I have ever stayed at. We hadn’t done research for Berlin, but we were recommended to take a biking tour of Berlin. Our friend recommended us Fat Tire, which I would definitely recommend to everyone. It’s a great way to explore the city without going by foot. It was also fun to ride a bike around the city, and it was pretty safe even on large roads. Only downside is it’s a bit difficult to take quality pictures since you only pause for a bit and you also want to listen to the guide explain the history. Anyways, our tour included a lunch break where the tour guide took us to this restaurant near a park. It had outdoor seating with heaters and was a fun way to grab a snack. Of course, we tried some beer from Berlin. I wish I remembered the name of the beer, but it’s been way too long. I just remember it to be really good! Especially after biking on a cold day.

We also grabbed some food and I got the sausage in a roll. I believe the beer garden was called Der Schleusenkrug and it was in the Tiergarten, which is a beautiful garden. The beer garden had a barbeque and grill stall, which is where we got our food. I thought this was just okay. The bread was a bit hard, and the sausages weren’t the most amazing I’ve had. It was also quite pricey since it was in the garden, but the atmosphere made it fun!

On our way back to the hostel, I was getting hungry and stopped by a bakery in the metro station. It’s sort of like seeing a Dunkin Donuts or something and this shop had a variety of German pastries and desserts. I picked up an Apfelkuchen, which is basically an Apple Cake. At first, I thought it would be more of strudel, but the texture was crumbly, so much more like cake. It was topped with slices of apple and almonds. I quite enjoyed this!

For dinner, we had wanted to go to Burgermeister, which was one of the top restaurants in Berlin. To our surprise, it was more like a stand and the seating was outside under the metro bridge. Apparently the stall used to be a public washroom…Interesting…Anyways, it was pouring rain, and there was a huge wait and was probably impossible to find a seat. We ended up resorting to look around for food nearby. And guess where I suggested after a cold rainy day… Vietnamese food! Yes, in Berlin of all places… We found Saigon and More just across the street and settled there as they had free wi-fi. Of course. I had the Beef Pho and honestly, it was great to have some warm soup with an Asian flare. But really, this was probably worse than any 24 hour Pho restaurant in Vancouver. I mean, it satisfied me for the time being, but the noodles were not the typical pho noodles, and they were cooked pretty al dente which is odd for Vietnamese noodles. The soup was also flavourless, which is a big differentiating factor for pho. Prices and service were decent, but definitely not very authentic.

After dinner, we stopped by a bakery and I picked up a Berliner Pfannkuchen. I chose this after doing a quick search on Google to see what were some common German pastries. This is a traditional Northern Germany pastry and is very similar to a doughnut but without the hole in the middle. instead, it’s filled with a jam filling. It’s also topped with sugar or icing sugar. I thought this reminded me of those Asian doughnuts you get at the Chinese bakeries, except it was filled with a jelly. Not bad!

Doner Kebabs are extremely popular in Berlin. Some even say that the doner kebab was invented in Germany because there were so many Turkish living here. Doner kebabs are essentially a Turkish dish made of meat cooked on a vertical rotisserie. The meat is usually lamb, beef, or chicken. Some people also refer to it as a shawarma or gyros. The meat is sliced off the rotisserie and is put inside a pita bread. Inside, it’s also filled with a variety of veggies, like cucumber, onions, tomatoes, chopped lettuce, cabbage. Sauces are also an important part of this snack and can include hot sauce, garlic sauce or a yoghurt sauce. I have to say, I was really impressed with the Doner Kebab here in Berlin. The pita bread was soft, and the mixture of ingredients was just perfect!

Another well known snack in Germany, and especially Berlin is the Currywurst. Well, actually currywurst was invented in Berlin, and hence so famous. I don’t have a picture here, but my friend ordered it and we were a bit disappointed. Currywurst is a fast food dish, and as the name says, it has pork sausages (wurst), and they are cut into slices. Then they are topped with lots of ketchup or tomato paste, and topped with lots of curry powder. The curry powder was what disappointed me. I thought that it would be a curry sauce. I’m not a big fan of just having curry powder sprinkled on my food, so I wasn’t a huge fan of this dish. However, it seems to be a popular snack for everyone else. I also thought it was cute how this stall was called Checkpoint Curry, since we were literally just across the street from Checkpoint Charlie!

And to finish the post off will be a beautiful piece of the Berlin Wall. A must see when visiting Berlin. Compared to Munich, Berlin is a city with so much history. In my eyes, Munich is a much more modernized city and was extremely clean. It’s also known to be a wealthy city. Berlin, on the other hand has much more culture and history behind it. Sometimes, walking down the streets, I can feel the city to be a little saddening and cold, and after seeing the Berlin Wall, you can really get a sense of all the struggles and pain people went through. I mean, you will only get a sense of it, and can never really understand what happened back in the days.

Amorino – Barcelona

February 1, 2014February 1, 2014Leave a comment

The first time I learned about Amorino was actually on a fashion blogger’s Instagram. They are famous for their ice cream because they shape it into a flower! Super pretty, so it’s a must try when you find an Amorino. We had headed back to BCN, and there are around 4 Amorinos in the city. It’s weird because I think Amorino is from Italy, yet there are around 17 shops all over Spain, but only 3 in Italy… Amorino is also found in various European cities, and even in New York! The one we visited was on La Ramblas, and therefore extremely convenient for tourists.

Their gelato is known to be fresh and made daily with natural and top quality ingredients. There are no food colourings involved, which is always a plus. They have an assortment of fruit flavours as well as the typical chocolates and creamier flavours. If you want your ice cream shaped into a flower, you must get a cone. They aren’t able to shape flowers in a cup. The gelatos are quite expensive. I believe it was almost 5 euros for a medium cone. I think the best part about Amorino, is that you can choose as many flavours as you want. None of that two or three flavours only policy. This way, you can try a bit of everything!

And look at this beauty! Mango in the center, Amorino Chocolate around, Amaretto on the outside, and a petal of Raspberry! I love how they shape each petal. Your flower can turn out really nice if you use vibrant colours on the outside. Of course that means you would probably have to choose some fruit flavours! The only downside to this flower shape is that the gelato can get quite messy when it starts melting. Other than that, the gelato is excellent! Really smooth!

Laduree – Printemps Paris

January 29, 2014Leave a comment

The famous Laduree of Paris! You’ve probably seen these macarons in their little pastel green boxes. I’ve been dreading to try these because people say they are the absolute best! We had saw the Laduree store in Milan, but we knew we were going to Paris, so of course get it from it’s home city! There are several Ladurees in Paris, with the one on Champs Elysees being quite famous. That one has a sit down cafe and is always packed with tourists. We found a Laduree pop up shop inside Printemps, which is another department store situated right next to Lafayette. Other than the pop up store on the first floor, they also have a sit down cafe on the upper floor. They offered breakfast there and had a specific time for customers who wanted to just dine on desserts.

Anyways, by the end of our shopping trip, we were kind of broke again… But i insisted we had to try these little macarons! I believe they are around 1.7 euros for each, which is decent if you think about the price of macarons in Vancouver.

We ended up only getting two, since we didn’t want to carry them home. If you get less than 6, then they put them into a little bag.

I got the Rose and Orange Blossom flavour. Okay, seriously, they are so delicious! When you bite into them, the outer layer is so airy! And the other thing is that I find macarons in Vancouver to be too sweet, but these ones have just a subtle sweetness. The orange blossom is a must try! I haven’t seen this flavour elsewhere before. It’s got a hint of orange flavour and is so fresh! Absolutely love it. These little guys are a bit smaller than the macarons back in Vancouver, but I understand why people go crazy over them now!

Picnic by the Eiffel Tower!

January 26, 2014Leave a comment

A trip to Paris is not the same without a picnic by the Eiffel Tower. For those of you who are traveling in Paris during the warmer months, this is a must! It’s just nice to take a break from intense traveling and get a feel of how the Parisians relax. And with a view so spectacular, this is the perfect place to do so. I would suggest bringing pastries and sandwiches from cafes near your hotel if you see them, since it can be quite difficult to look for food after you arrive at the Eiffel Tower. The park itself is huge and therefore requires a lot of walking to get to the other side. Anyways, we did not think of ahead, and ended up having to wander around looking for pastry shops. Luckily, we found Boulangerie Pâtisserie Felice Lapelosa. It is on Avenue Rapp, and offers a wide selection of pastries, sandwiches, and bread. There is always a constant in and out of customers, and most are locals. We ended up getting a chestnut eclair, which was so fluffy and delicious! It wasn’t too sweet too! Then we got a quiche, which is pictured on the bottom right. This was alright as it wasn’t heated up enough. Lastly, we got a pineapple tart. This was quite good! The custard was smooth, and the hint of sweet and sour from the pineapple made it appetizing. We also wandered around and found a shop called Les Paris Gourmands. They have lots of chocolates, jams, and other sweets. We chose a mango macaron, which was a large size. This wasn’t the best macaron I’ve had, but the flavour was definitely interesting. My sister also picked up a jar of jam with rose petals. Unfortunately, this was confiscated in her carry on, and months later, I would have to head back here to purchase her jam again. Anyways, that happened, and now we currently have the jar in our fridge half full. It was definitely worth it as it surprisingly isn’t too sweet, and there are actually rose petals in it! The brand is called Favols, for those of you who enjoy jams, and apparently it can be found in many other stores that sell jam in Paris. Lastly, we picked up a bottle of rose in the grocery store. It was extremely cheap, and probably why it tasted pretty bad… Yea, maybe pick up a nice bottle of wine next time ; )

Look at that view! We were lucky enough for it to be sunny that day, since it was rainy all the other days. After having a picnic, take a stroll in the park. Such a relaxing environment. Oh, but do beware that there are lots of people who are trying to scam you in this park. They ask if you would like to donate for some sort of cause, and they will ask you to sign a piece of paper. If you see these people around, just ignore them. They’ll ask if you speak English, so just pretend you don’t or else they will continue approaching you! Many are young adults or even children. I’m not sure exactly how they will scam you, but just beware! Better to be safe than sorry. Don’t let these people ruin your picnic! Enjoy 🙂

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?

Bits and Pieces of Venice

January 23, 2014Leave a comment

City of water…If you guessed Venice, you’re correct! I don’t normally post pictures of myself, but I took so many pictures while traveling, I might as well share some of the scenery with you all! During our stay in Milan, we actually took a day trip to Venice by train. The train was pretty fast and we were there in less than 2 hours. Maybe even less! We decided on a one day trip, since we found that the hotels in Venice were extremely expensive! We basically had half the day to explore and hoped it would be enough. If you’re planning to go to Venice, I can assure you that a day trip is enough. The city is beautiful, but it’s honestly quite small. If you want to really take it slow, then a maximum of two days will give you enough time to literally explore the whole city. First off, we hadn’t done any research of this place. We were hoping there would be a tourist center where we could get some maps and such. Yea, there was a tourist booth, but all the maps cost money! We ended up wandering without a map and actually hit all the tourist spots! So no need to really buy a map…To be honest, I found Venice one of the most touristy cities I visited. I felt like everyone around me was a tourist, and I couldn’t really figure out if locals even lived here (well, of course they do). Plus, be warned that everything is expensive! They really know how to get the most out of us tourists…

Spritz Veneziano

So we were warned ahead of time that food would be expensive, so we tried to settle at average looking cafes and restaurants. After exploring the city, we decided we would grab an early dinner since we would be on the train around dinner time. We walked back towards where we arrived by train as we remembered there were a line up of restaurants. At this point, it didn’t even matter if they were tourist traps – honestly the city was catered to tourists. During our exploration, we realized everyone was drinking this orange drink in a glass. They often came in a wine glass, and my sister insisted that we had to try this. According to her, it must be the drink all the locals drink here… Alright, after doing some research on it, I can tell you that it’s so popular here because the Spritz Veneziano is actually originated in Venice! A-ha. Anyways, it is a drink prepared with prosecco wine, which is an Italian white sparkling wine. It is then combined with a dash of a bitter liqueur such as Aperol, Campari, or in Venice, Select. It is then topped off with sparkling mineral water. Sometimes it is also garnished with a slice of orange or olive. Sadly, all three of us hated this drink. I guess it was the bitter liqueur that they used, that really turned us off. Even worse, was this drink cost a lot, and the three of us had each ordered one. Just when we thought it would be a delicious, fruity cocktail…

Spaghetti with Clams in a White Wine Sauce

We had settled at this restaurant that had what was called a “tourist menu”. Now most of the restaurants in Venice basically have this. They also have something called a cover charge. Cover charge is essentially a charge per person for just sitting outside. Actually, I’m not sure if you need to pay a charge just for sitting. But we sat outside, and this was added to our bill. Not to mention that service was just terrible. And they expect you to tip here… Service like that really does not deserve any tip. Anyways, K and my sister order the tourist menu. If I remember correctly, it came with a salad, pasta and another dish, which I wish I could remember. This was their pasta dish which was Spaghetti with Clams in a White Wine Sauce. This was actually pretty good! It had a lot of clams and the pasta was cooked to al dente.

Seafood Risotto

For myself, I ordered the Seafood Risotto, which was off the regular menu. I absolutely loved this. It was a bit pricey, but I think it was still under 20 euros. It was really good though! The rice was cooked to perfection, not too chewy and not too soft. The sauce was amazing. There were bits of clams and shrimps inside and it came with three more mussels. The seafood was surprisingly quite fresh. Not the freshest I’ve had, but quite decent! Loved this dish.

And now let me show you some of the shops around the city! Venice is basically filled with narrow streets which are really pedestrian walking only. Every once in a while, you would see the canal, and then you would enter just a street with buildings on both sides. It’s almost like a maze. Along these streets, you will find shops from bakeries, to pasta shops to mask shops and etc. It’s extremely popular to see these shops that sell almond cookies and these gigantic meringues. If you’ve been to Macau in Asia, my friends told me that is what Venice really reminds them of.

There are also tons of pasta shops! Well Italy is famous for pasta, so it’s no surprise. They claim they are handmade, and I was just drawn into their colours and detailed patterns. I love how they are shaped into Venice infrastructure, gondolas, hearts and much more! The colouring is also natural as they are made from vegetables or spices, which is pretty cool.

More pasta! I thought these were pretty cool since it was curry flavoured. They also had some truffle flavoured ones. Mmm!

And yea…we ended up getting some gelato again. This was amazing because it was pear flavoured! I love how the Italians use every fruit they can think of. Super refreshing. Underneath is a scoop of pistachio. I can never get enough of that.

And my sister decided to buy one of those gigantic meringues. It’s literally the size of two fists put together. This one was pistachio flavoured. However, all we could taste was sugar. Well meringues are made of egg whites and sugar… It was so sweet that we both took a few bites and threw the rest out… You need ten people to finish this! It was pretty expensive too…

And last but not least, I’ll finish this post with a picture of gondolas! I didn’t get a chance to take one since they are quite pricey and wasn’t worth it when we only had three people. Also note that these guys don’t actually sing… Thought it would be all romantic like in those movies…Nope! Oh well, Venice is still a beautiful city to visit! Jealous of anyone who is heading there! Next post: we head back home to Barcelona!

Every Day is a Food Day

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