Cervecería Catalana – Barcelona

February 8, 2014February 8, 2014Leave a comment

Cerveceria Catalana is Ciudad Condal’s sister restaurant. The layout of the restaurant is quite similar, with a bar table and dining seats as well. Focused on tapas, I find that the two restaurants offer many tapas that are the same. I couldn’t really tell a difference in terms of food or price. The only thing that seemed missing way my favourite smoked salmon montadito!

Grilled Razor Clam

Razor clams aren’t very popular in Vancouver, but they are everywhere in Barcelona! I don’t recall myself eating them before, but my sister had and suggested we order them. The Grilled Razor Clams aren’t bad as they weren’t too tough or soft. It had a nice chewy texture to it and the light seasoning was perfect when grilled. A bit of seasalt and lemon made the dish perfect. However, in perhaps one or two of them, we found a little sand. It wasn’t a lot, but you could feel it. I guess they are quite difficult to clean. Because of the sand, I found them average.

Grilled Cuttlefish

We finally ordered the right cuttlefish! The Grilled Cuttlefish is one of my favourite seafood to order in Barcelona. It’s a must order at Cerveceria Catalana or Ciudad Condal. The cuttlefish at these two restaurants are the most tender I’ve ever had. It has the same seasoning as the razor clams, and the simplicity of it is what makes this dish so wonderful. Absolutely love it!

Foie with Roquefort Flauta

These are flautas. They are essentially a baguette sandwich, but mini sized and a bit narrower. We chose the flauta filled with Foie and Roquefort. Roquefort is French sheep milk blue cheese and since I’m not a fan of any blue cheeses, I found the taste to be a little strong. Mixed with foie, which also has a strong taste, but one that I enjoy, made this flauta full of strong flavours. I thought it was just average. After eating half of it, I didn’t really want any more of it. Since foie’s texture is very soft and almost slimy, it’s not exactly the most appealing or texturally satisfying food. Decent to share, but probably wouldn’t order this again.

Veal with Pepper

The Veal with Pepper is quite a good montadito, and one that I have ordered again. However, it’s quite pricey as it is around 3 euros for one. The veal is grilled and seasoned to perfection and is extremely tender. On top, it has a padron pepper, which are typical Spanish peppers that are smaller in size. They are actually very mild in spice, and only very few are spicy. The one here was very mild and didn’t even have much pepper taste to it. The Spanish, however, enjoy just eating these peppers as tapas. It added a nice grilled flavour to this montadito.

And that was our meal for two! Absolutely filling and at a decent price. Remember to grab a bar seat again to see what daily montaditos they offer.

And to finish off, here is a picture of the Magic Fountain in Barcelona. It’s situated right in front of the art museum at Plaza Espanya and is a must see. Beautiful colours and display of water accompanied with music.

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!

Brulerie Caumartin Cafe – Paris

January 27, 2014Leave a comment

The beautiful Notre Dame Cathedral! Anyways, after a day of exploring, we ended up at the shopping area on Blvd Haussmann. It was time to eat dinner, and we decided we should treat ourselves to a decent meal. We wandered into a street next to Le Printemps, which is a huge department store. The street had a few cafes, but Brulerie Caumartin Cafe caught our eyes as they featured a neon sign saying Moules et Frites for 11 euros. I’m a sucker for mussels or clams, so off we went!

Moules et Frites

I think the cafe is quite tourist friendly, as the table next to us were an American couple. The waiters also speak English quite fluently, and are extremely friendly. They joke around and such, making the experience much better. The cafe itself is quite small, but we luckily found a seat. Of course, I ordered the Moules et Frites. This dish is supposed to be popular in Paris, so definitely try it out when you’re here. I still remember having one of the best Moules et Frites in Paris back when my teacher told us where to eat. I wish I remembered where that was now… Anyways, this was the biggest bowl of mussels I’ve ever had. The picture makes it look like there isn’t much, but trust me, the size was ridiculous. I had only finished half of it, and was already getting full… Even my sister questioned if there were any empty shells, because there was so much! Nope..not one empty shell in the pile. I wouldn’t say the sauce was the best I’ve had. It was quite watery, mostly of a celery and onion white sauce. It wasn’t bad though. A white wine sauce would’ve been perfect, but I couldn’t complain with so many mussels at only 11 euros. The mussels were slightly smaller, but they were extremely fresh. Fries were also not bad as they weren’t too oily. I was very pleased overall!

Smoked Salmon Crepe

My sister said she had to have a crepe while in Paris! I mean, crepes originated from France right? It was dinner time, so she chose a Smoked Salmon Crepe. Savory crepes are always a good alternative to sweet ones if you’re not into sweets. The amount of Smoked Salmon was a little less than expected. She said it was only decent and had better before. Oh, and a funny note is that “iced tea” means “sprite” in Paris… We ordered an Iced Tea and ended up with a Sprite, and the American couple next to us laughed and said they wouldn’t have thought about that as well… Ah..love it when words have so many different meanings in different cultures!

Coup d’Etat – Paris

January 25, 2014Leave a comment

After a few days back in Barcelona, we were off again to our next destination: Paris! I’ve been to Paris when I was in high school for a penpal exchange, so it was great to be back after several years. I guess Paris didn’t change much, but it was weird that we were off to wander the streets ourselves this time. On my last trip to Paris, I had an Italian teacher who taught us French and knew Paris by heart. She was able to recommend us food at cheap prices, but of good quality. I found it to be a struggle this time without a local. Anyways, we had finished checking out the Louvre and we needed lunch so we wandered the area and ended up near the Rivoli metro stop. Many people were eating outside at Coup d’Etat, but we found it a little chilly and headed inside. The atmosphere is pretty hip and cool.

French Onion Soup

We decided to share two appetizers and one entree. First, we got the French Onion Soup, since we were in France! This was so delicious and filling! Their appetizers are huge! The soup was really thick, with loads of onions, bread soaked in the soup and topped off with lots and lots of cheese. If you love cheesy food, this is the perfect item for you.

Caprese Salad

My sister was still craving her Caprese Salads, so of course we ordered one. This was presented beautifully with tomatoes layered at the bottom. A few greens on top, and the buffalo mozzarella in the middle. It was topped with a chip that seemed to be a vegetable. Not quite sure what it was, but not bad! The mozzarella was fresh and another cheese dish meant we were completely filled up!

Croque Madame

Last but not least, when in France, order a Croque Madame (or Monsieur). It took us a while to figure out what the difference was between a madame and monsieur, but apparently a madame is the same as a monsieur but topped with a sunny side up egg. Both sandwiches have ham and cheese. There was so much cheese on this that we didn’t end up finishing it. Three dishes of cheese. Not exactly sure what we were thinking. However, it tasted wonderful and came with a side of salad to lighten things up.

And here was our lunch! Overloaded with cheesiness! Also to note is that in Paris, tap water is quite drinkable. Therefore, when you ask for water, just let them know you want tap water. Finally a city where water is free again!

And we’ll finish the post with a view of the Louvre!

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!

Bits and Pieces of Milan

January 22, 2014January 22, 2014Leave a comment

Blogging while traveling proved to be a huge challenge. It’s even harder to remember what the name of the restaurant was 4 months later. I didn’t do my work as a food blogger to take down the names of the places I ate at, but there’s some worthy meals I had that I think should be recognized! I hope anyone reading this and planning to travel to Milan can hopefully find the places! So here are some of the random meals I had while in Milan:

Mignon! Yes I believe this is what these cute mini pizzas are called. I call them pizzas since they are really a squished down bun filled with ingredients on the top. This one was ham and cheese, except sometimes they surprise you with an olive right in the middle. This place was near my hotel, which is near the Lambrate metro station. It’s called Pizzeria Mundial and after doing a quick search, I realized that it’s actually quite popular! They are known for their warm and soft dough and they offer a variety of other products, including pizzas. This place is very busy most of the day, especially in the mornings, so you need to be quick before what you see is sold out!

For dinner one of the nights, we were tired and strolled around the luxury shopping area to look for food. Of course that’s a bad idea because everything is expensive in that area! We wandered into this mini square which had a few cafes and bars that looked more affordable. We saw the sign saying Free Wi-Fi and we immediately fell for it since we were desperate for some Internet. Not sure what the place is called, but it is a cafe. We sat outside and ordered a few dishes to share. This is the Caprese Salad which is very typical in Italy. However, this one came on bread! It is essentially fresh buffalo mozzarella cheese with tomatoes, basil and olive oil. The cheese isn’t strong and it has a rubbery texture to it which I really like. I’m not a fan of tomatoes, but this whole dish really goes well if you eat everything together!

We also got a Ravioli with Ham. When in Italy, you eat pasta. But honestly, I don’t think this place was great for pasta. Their pastas are not handmade nor fresh, so it was quite a disappointment. Price-wise, yes – they are definitely cheaper, hence what we get.

We also shared a Carbonara, which again was just alright. If you have the chance, be sure to try some good carbonara though, as it is famous in Italy, especially in Rome. It is an egg based pasta dish and can be quite filling.

Pretty much when we have nothing to do and are thirsty, we end up going to a gelato shop. They are everywhere and these were mostly around the Duomo area. On our first day, we literally went to three gelato shops in the day. One time, it was one after another. Literally gelato shop hopping… Anyways, I think the coolest thing about some of the shops I saw in Milan were that their gelato are filled with fruits or the actual product of the flavour itself. For instance, I was addicted to their melon gelato, because you would actually get bits of melon in it and it was a thirst quencher on a hot day. If you really prefer creamier gelatos, then those will also have ingredients in it such as the bueno chocolate wafers.

I got the Melon and Tiramisu I believe. If the shop has banana, you should also give it a try! It’s pretty good! I became addicted to trying a bunch of fruit gelatos as they are much more light.

One morning, we wanted to go to Luini again, but it was unfortunately closed. We settled at a cafe where we saw Italians taking espresso shots in their tiny Illy cups! They would literally stand at the bar, take their coffee and head off to work. My sister wanted to try that, so we headed in, but after looking around to figure out how the system really worked, the server told us to just take a seat. I guess we looked too touristy to know what we were doing. I guess standing to take an espresso in Italy remains on her checklist now. Anyways, we tried to figure out the menu, and they had some sort of special about a coffee and croissant for a set price. Keep in mind this is all in Italian and we don’t know any other than “cafe”. So we each got a cafe with a croissant. I chose a cappuccino, and I don’t normally even drink any type of coffee. The closest thing is a Starbucks white chocolate mocha, but that’s about it. But heck, I was in Italy, so why not. Illy is known for their high quality of coffee, and seriously, after this coffee, I have begun to enjoy my cappuccinos. Not sure if that’s a good thing since I’m afraid of being caffeine-addicted, but that was seriously some good cafe! As for the croissant, it was more than a typical plain croissant. They had a sticky jam in the middle which made it ten times better. It was so flaky! Absolutely one of my favourite croissants I’ve had in Europe. Sad news was our Italian had failed on us. Our bill ended up being twice what we had imagined. We didn’t bother questioning since we didn’t want to cause a fuss and we probably wouldn’t have understood what they said. However, now that I think about it, I’m pretty sure the deal was for people who stand at the bar only. It’s kind of a weird system in Europe, but most places charge you less if you take your coffee standing at a bar. If you require a seat, then the item becomes double the price. Kind of silly, but I guess Europeans who usually sit down will literally just order a coffee and sit there for half a day. Turnover is then very low and hence they charge you more. I guess it only makes sense in Europe!

Last but not least, another gelato! This was lemon and mango. Extremely refreshing! We literally ate gelato everyday in Milan! Now off to the next city…”city of water”… can you guess where?

Rong Hua – Valencia

October 27, 2013Leave a comment

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Yes..who knew I would be eating Chinese food on my trip in Europe. Well, personally, I had tried to avoid it, but M here clearly cannot live without his Chinese food, and persuaded us to try it. We found Rong Hua while walking towards the old city area in Valencia and it was among some boutiques and shops in the La Xerea neighbourhood.

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Surprisingly, the restaurant was filled with Chinese diners, which is always a good sign. I hope they were locals though, because I could not really tell if they were just tourists desperate for Chinese food. The inside definitely reminds me of a traditional Chinese restaurant and the employees were Chinese as well. They also have Wi-Fi here which is always a plus for travellers with no data like us!

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Fried Rice

Of course M would get his beloved Fried Rice. It actually looked pretty decent and was an okay portion. I believe it was under 5 euros, which isn’t too bad I guess.

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Chicken Curry

S and I decided to share a Chicken Curry and we also ordered some White Rice to go with it. It was nice to finally have some white rice again, but the curry was just…unspeakable. It was basically watered-down curry – probably one where you put powder and water, but it wasn’t even thick. You really had to slather the chicken in the sauce to get some flavour, but even with that, it was really flavourless. It was worse than some of the one’s I’ve had at food courts…

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Caramel Pudding

Lastly, S and I decided to share a Caramel Pudding, which is essentially their flan. This was the best of our whole meal. Smooth and creamy, this totally satisfied me.

All in all, I wouldn’t recommend Rong Hua based on what I had. I sense that the food is catered for the Spanish population, and isn’t traditional Chinese food. Oh, how I miss Chinese food in Vancouver so much!

La Surena

October 24, 2013October 25, 2013Leave a comment

La Surena is inside Centro Commercial El Saler in Valencia. This mall was near our hotel and on a rainy evening, M and I decided to look for nearby food. We ended up in the mall and on the floor where all the food stalls and restaurants were. We came across La Surena and thinking that I knew all the Spanish in the world after just taking Spanish100, I decided to attempt to translate the menu. I read chicken and fish and all, and naively thought that I would be having a fantastic meal for a ridiculous price. Yea right… So our meal came to $11 euros and that included 2 large pints of beer.

And this is really what he had ordered… 7 mini sandwiches and a salad for S (which was also the most expensive item on our bill). So apparently on specific days, you can get mini sandwiches for just 1 euro! Yea, and they were filled with all the ingredients I had attempted to translate…So I hadn’t exactly gotten the translations wrong, I just didn’t know they would be coming inside a sandwich…a mini one to be exact. And although M hates sandwiches, he admitted that these were pretty good! The ingredients and sauce inside really made it delicious. I actually wouldn’t mind having these agin to be honest. Just funny how I sort of tricked M into getting sandwiches when I really didn’t know. The place was packed and their other popular items are nachos which are also dirt cheap. This would be the perfect place to grab a quick snack and a beer. On different days, they also have other deals such as a bucket of beer for a really cheap price.

Every Day is a Food Day

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