FOREVERBARCELONA - A Barcelona Tourguide. Learn about my Barcelona tours and daytrips. Private customized experiences for independent travellers that want to feel like a local!
Tuesday, January 29, 2008
Saturday, January 26, 2008
Calçots sauce, the way my mom does it!
For those that want to try to eat it at home, here is the recipe as my mom does it! Enjoy!
YOU'LL NEED:
YOU'LL NEED:
1 garlic bulb
3 red tomatoes
1 slice of bread
A handful of roasted almonds and hazelnuts
2 garlic cloves
Olive oil, vinager and salt, as much as you like.
Some sweet red pepper powder.
1 sweet red pepper (a local one called "nyora", not the salad kind: smaller, roundish and a bit spicy). It is sold dry and you'll have to put it in water to soften it. Here is a picture (I took it beside an onion to give you an idea of its size):
1 sweet red pepper (a local one called "nyora", not the salad kind: smaller, roundish and a bit spicy). It is sold dry and you'll have to put it in water to soften it. Here is a picture (I took it beside an onion to give you an idea of its size):
INSTRUCTIONS:
Roast the garlic bulb and the tomatoes in the oven.
Frie the slice of bread.
Mix all the ingredients in the mixer.
Done! Good appetite!
It's CALÇOTS time!
Hi again!
Wintertime is the Calçot season in Catalonia: both a social event and a culinary experience for the locals!
Calçots are a special type of green onion that is harvested in the winter. Catalan people organize "calçotades" with their friends and families, that could be socially considered our equivalent to summer american BBQs.
We get together and buy litterally hundreds of units (one serving is around 10-12 calçots). We grill them in the barbecue until they are quite burnt outside, and they are traditionally served on roof tiles to preserve the heat.
Before starting to eat, you must remember to put on a bib (if you are eating them in a restaurant, they'll provide them for you). And now you are ready!
First of all, pinch the root end of your calçot with your fingers, and pull the burnt skin out. It's the easiest way to clean the calçot.
Then dip the white tender part of the onion in the calçot sauce (a local sauce very similar to romesco... another Catalan sauce).
Keep grabbing the calçot by the green leaves, lift up your arm and aim the calçot at your mouth. Be careful with the sauce drops!
So you see, this is a fun (but a bit dirty too) tradition!
If you are not lucky enough to be invited by local friends, you can still try the calçots in most good tapas bars and traditional Catalan restaurants, even in some market bars.
But if you have an extra day left, I reccomend you to take the RENFE train to Valls, the hometown of Calçots.
Have fun and good appettite!
Wintertime is the Calçot season in Catalonia: both a social event and a culinary experience for the locals!
Calçots are a special type of green onion that is harvested in the winter. Catalan people organize "calçotades" with their friends and families, that could be socially considered our equivalent to summer american BBQs.
We get together and buy litterally hundreds of units (one serving is around 10-12 calçots). We grill them in the barbecue until they are quite burnt outside, and they are traditionally served on roof tiles to preserve the heat.
Before starting to eat, you must remember to put on a bib (if you are eating them in a restaurant, they'll provide them for you). And now you are ready!
First of all, pinch the root end of your calçot with your fingers, and pull the burnt skin out. It's the easiest way to clean the calçot.
Then dip the white tender part of the onion in the calçot sauce (a local sauce very similar to romesco... another Catalan sauce).
Keep grabbing the calçot by the green leaves, lift up your arm and aim the calçot at your mouth. Be careful with the sauce drops!
So you see, this is a fun (but a bit dirty too) tradition!
If you are not lucky enough to be invited by local friends, you can still try the calçots in most good tapas bars and traditional Catalan restaurants, even in some market bars.
But if you have an extra day left, I reccomend you to take the RENFE train to Valls, the hometown of Calçots.
Have fun and good appettite!
Friday, January 25, 2008
New Picasso Museum!
On Monday 21st, the Picasso Museum opened in exclusive for the city official tourguides to present us the new distribution of their paintings and the new look of their rooms.
I was very impressed to see how much it had changed: new colors in the walls that underline the paintings, a wiser itinerary, better lightning...
The Meninas rooms aren't ready yet, but they plan to renovate them through the year. And we couldn't get to see the new Prints Room because the operators were still working on it, but it must be ready by now and I can't wait to see it! The museum has a great collection of Picasso's prints and having them on show will be very helpful to introduce some of his main themes, passions and obsessions.
I was very impressed to see how much it had changed: new colors in the walls that underline the paintings, a wiser itinerary, better lightning...
The Meninas rooms aren't ready yet, but they plan to renovate them through the year. And we couldn't get to see the new Prints Room because the operators were still working on it, but it must be ready by now and I can't wait to see it! The museum has a great collection of Picasso's prints and having them on show will be very helpful to introduce some of his main themes, passions and obsessions.
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