Published in The Northern Echo October 29th 2011. View clip here
Catharine Hewitson managed to fit three lunches into one day as she re-visited Barcelona to enjoy the Catalan cuisine which tickles her tastebuds
Stalls burst with the most weird and wonderful fruits and vegetables, rows of dried chillies in every shade from scarlet to burgundy and, at the butcher stands, every part of an animal you could care to mention.
And, best of all, there is tapas.
I had read good things about Pinotxo tapas bar. Apparently so had everyone else and I had to wait patiently until a seat at the counter became available. I started with navalles (razor clams), one of the bar’s speciality dishes. The succulent clams needed nothing more than a drizzle of oil.
My next dish was a recommendation from the waiter: patates vertes. Working out that this meant green potatoes I hoped that he wasn’t trying to bump me off. Sliced boiled potatoes were smothered in a vibrant green sauce which my tastebuds worked out was a blend of parsley, garlic, onion and grated egg. I finished off my meal with a plate of meaty berberechos (clams) which chattered away on the cooker as they were steamed.
The best thing about tapas is that you can order light bites rather eat a heavy meal in one sitting. The primary benefit for me is that I can justify grazing all day. That said, I will forever remember Wednesday 25th May 2011 as ‘The Day I had Three Lunches’.
First I headed to the Mercat Santa Caterina in Barcelona’s El Born quarter. At Bar Joan I ordered calamari; squeezed with lemon juice and washed down with a few beers.
My second lunch was in the Barceloneta district at Can Paixano; a small, unmarked bar where Ibérico hams hang from the joists and a glass of rose cava is less than a Euro. I nudged my way to the bar and chose the croquetes (cheese and potato croquettes) hoping that something relatively stodgy might soak up some of the many glasses of cava I was about to have.
For my final lunch I headed back to Pinotxo for another plate of those curious green potatoes. Feeling thoroughly satisfied, I waddled back to my hotel for a siesta.
My love of Catalan food stems from family holidays to Canet de Mar, a small coastal town about 50km north of Barcelona. My most memorable meal was enjoyed in a shack on Canet’s beach in 2003. It was basically a gazebo with plastic garden tables and the chef cooked on a camping stove. We feasted on grilled sardines with a smattering of parsley, calamari with aioli, fried baby squid and juicy prawns fried in garlic. Everything about the meal satisfied: it was light, fresh and bursting with flavour. Afterwards we sank back into our plastic chairs and dug our feet into the sand beneath our feet, having eaten the best seafood of our lives.
Four years later my family returned to the same town. One night we set off from our hotel to find a restaurant, feeling (as always) in the mood for seafood. We spotted a modest cafe overlooking the town square. Inside, harsh fluorescent lights reflected off Formica tables, but the specials board lured us in. My Mum and I ordered the seafood platter, expecting an array of mussels and prawns arranged neatly on a bed of lettuce. What arrived was something very different. The dish was a mound of six or seven different types of whole fried fish; the colour palette a myriad of browns. My A Level Spanish lessons hadn’t covered obscure Catalan fish so we had no idea what the creatures were. Nevertheless we were game and with a few squeezes of lemon we were ready to tuck in.
It was exciting slicing into each fish, chewing each morsel and trying to place what it might have been when it was swimming around in the Mediterranean Sea. We guessed that we might have had red snapper, sea bass and plaice. It could’ve been sea cucumber for all I cared.
All of the meals I have enjoyed in Catalonia have taught me to appreciate the simplicity of a slice of bread rubbed with a garlic glove and hunk of tomato (pa amb tomaquet) or a bowl of steamed clams at a bustling market tapas stand. Catalonia can, however, offer a more upmarket dining experience. It was only a few months ago that world renowned chef Ferran Adrià closed the doors to the three Michelin starred El Bulli at Roses in Northern Catalonia.
Adrià is well known in gastronomic circles for pioneering culinary foam and some of his other creations include Parmesan snow and Kellogg's paella. As fun as that sounds, I’m happy to settle with a heap of fried fish.
All photography by Catharine Hewitson
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