There´s always time for thanksgiving when we slow down to savour the little moments of timelessness. Yes, time is personal, it sways and ebbs, pulls and pushes you to action or inaction as the case may be.
If by Rudyard Kipling
...
If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with Kings — nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
If all men count with you, but none too much:
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And which is more; you'll be a Man, my son!
Sunday, September 28, 2008
Saturday, September 27, 2008
Honest Barcelona
If it´s good honest food you´re looking for in Barcelona, try out these gems:
Restaurante Can Maño -- freshest seafood in Barceloneta
It´s a no-fuss coffeeshop-style restaurant good for spying on locals (and more on what they´re eating). Don´t miss the grilled mackerel called barat in Catalan, grilled squid and baby squid called chipirones. In short, head for the seafood and give the meat dishes a miss and down it all with Free Damm, the local beer with or without alcohol. Top it of with a cortado, espresso with a little milk, and save some bread to dip into the rich coffee. Closed Saturday evenings and Sundays.
Taktika Berri -- best Basque tapas in town
It opens at 8.30pm, but get ready to queue at 8.15pm. Worth standing up if you can´t get seats at the counter. The trick is to wait for the hot stuff which comes out of the kitchen around 8.45pm. There is however a good choice of cold tapas. Go easy and wait for the best to come. Chicken satay, blood sausage with rice, hake omelet, cod croquettes, battered anchovies and more do a bold debut each night (save Saturday evenings, Sundays closed), tempting eyes and palates.
Seal your encounter with sidra (cider), chacoli (young wine) or mosto (grape juice).
Shanghai 1930
Here´s a place for home-cooked favourites and cuisine with a Mediterranean touch. Roast duck, steamed fish and tofu pair well with their rice and noodle dishes. For the diehard Spaniard, there´s jamón to savour. Ask for cili padi, chilli muy picante, if you´re Malaysian.
Any suggestions on Catalan cuisine? I´m at a lost here.
Vicky, Cristina, Enough!
Please Woody,
If you want to mock someone, do it. Just don´t take it out on a city you´ve made a caricature of. Barcelona, poor soul, has more to it than Gaudi, Las Ramblas and cavernous homes with glorious gardens.
Don´t get me started on that very un-Catalan name of Juan Antonio which Mr Bardem plays with gusto. Bedroom eyes employed to such degree as to induce blind adoration for ´´one of Spain´s national treasures´´. Vicky, Cristina, Barcelona disappoints in more ways than one that I came out of the cinema thinking what a mockery Woody Allen has made of the Spanish, and Barcelona in particular.
Funny thing is, we all seem to have forgotten some Catalan displeasure over public footing of the partial bill for the film. What a response they got! At least it´ll do some good for tourism in this sunny part of Spain.
Read on:
Truly nuts
No, it´s not about a feline´s bollocks. Rather, Tiger nuts, better known in Spanish as chufa, makes a beautifully refreshing milky drink called horchata. The Chinese have their staple soy milk and tofu made from the humble soy bean, which pales in comparison to the scrumptious Tiger nut.
Come to Barcelona (or Catalunya in general) and Valencia (the city and the region) and search for this traditional summer drink in good horchata shops. Look for Orxateria la Valenciana, in calle Aribau between Gran Via and Diputació in Barcelona. It´s the standard for all things good.
Read on:
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)