“Should I start the conga line”

Well, I am back in Paris after 10 amazing days in Barcelona (bar-they-lo-na). I brought my computer and had every intention of blogging about my culinary and tourism adventures but in the end, I just really did not feel like it. I think I was slightly overwhelmed the entire time that I was there. France is a great place to be a foodie. But when you are a vegetarian, someone lactose intolerant, health-conscious foodie, Spain, and especially Catalan, is heaven. Don’t tell any one,  but I may even prefer Spanish wines. I will concede that the French still have the Spanish beat on desserts. The best desserts I had (excluding fine dining Michelin star establishments) were from a French patisserie. 

While the food was amazing I am sticking to simple foods for the next few weeks as my poor tummy was overwhelmed. The best part of the trip was hanging out with Eduard and his lovely black lab Trutx. Eduard is fluent in English but we did manage to have a few miscommunications. One evening when we listening to music and cooking,

 “Should I start the conga line?” he asks

 “Umm... Yes, absolutely you should” I respond with enthusiasm.

Why not add some conga to the evening. I turn around expecting to see him take off in true conga-fashion but he is just staring at me.

“Jess?” he asks.

“Yes” I respond.

“Did you understand me? I asked if I should open the wine”

“Ohh.. um yeah” I reply... somewhat disappointed but my hopes not dashed. Maybe after a bottle of wine I will propose a conga line.

Met Eduard and we wandered over to a local vegan restaurant off of Catalunya square.  I ordered a tofu delight and he took the veggie (pronounced beggie) burger.

For diner we headed back to the centre of town to a restaurant called Senyor Parellada in the Born neighbourhood. This is a great place, the staff was friendly, the olives delightful (if not a little salty) and the food was delicious. However the food did come in rather large portions. We opted to share an appetiser of root vegetables cooked in a tempura style and we could not finish them. For the main course, we ordered two dishes to share.



The first was a white fish served on a bed of steamed spinach and topped with cheese. It was very nice. The other dish was fideua- a traditional Calatan dish made from noodles and squid ink. It tastes pretty good but I did look rather silly for the rest of the evening walking around Barcelona with black lips.

We had a light breakfast of fresh fruit and oatmeal and then headed to the gym. I took a spinning class while Eduard worked out. We then headed off to Hoffman's for lunch. Eduard had taken cooking classes from the chef for a year and we were given star treatment. When we arrive the chef greeted us and took us on a tour of the kitchen. It was amazing. Everything was so perfect, new, clean and fresh. Even the garbage was stored in a temperature controlled room.

The chef assured/informed us that he was going to serve us a set menu and adapt it for vegetarians.

When we got back to our table we were presented with our first taste sensation.  The starter course consisted of Parmesan cheese sticks, yoghurt with salmon roe, a fresh tomato salsa and fish-ball things and a variety of root veggies fried as chips,  all presented on this board and complimented by champagne... we were off to a good start.

Our second course was octopus Carpaccio served with potato foam and red pepper and pea spherifications.

Can't remember round three...oops

The fourth course was tuna fish and roasted veggie rolled into grilled eggplant and served with a Parmesan crisp, and a basil sauce.

Round five- still going strong- grilled squid served on a bed of spring veggies with an Asian inspired marinade. It was perfect.

This was a white fish (cod maybe?) served with artichokes, mushrooms and covered with a potato and cheese layer. They cut the potatoes into small circles and then layered them on top to resemble scales. It was pretty incredible.

We made it through the savoury and out came three desert courses. This was a lovely Tiramisu. I was served a chocolate fondant that was fond-tastic- it kept on oozing out melted chocolate goodness and it was served with a lovely vanilla gelato made in house.

This was a gorgeous platter that came with fresh fruit in a shot glass and two squares that had to be eaten in one bite because the inside was some serious vanilla cream goodness that was explosive when you chewed but also explosive in flavour. It  was one of the most beautiful eating moments of my life. It was just such a pleasant surprise.

But back to the shot glass- the waiter puts down the dish and we are impressed with the sugar slinky-thing but them he tips over the shot glass, takes out a knife and smashed the glass. I was a little freaked out, to saw the least, but it turns out the glass was made of sugar. It was stunning.

This was followed by a lovely selection of local chocolates and some coffee. We actually did not manage to finish the chocolates, we were simply too full and overwhelmed with goodness.