We started our last day in Barcelona with a morning walk and big breakfast. The city is alive with people rushing to work, construction underway, vendors opening stores, and tourists wandering around. I love the storefront roll up doors that come down at night, protecting the shops from theft and vandalism. Doors are painted with murals and a few have graffiti, but tags and random graffiti is promptly removed from the walls of the buildings.
Steve had a beautiful cappuccino and chakchouka While I stuck with the universal avocado toast and an Americano. Take a minute to appreciate this avocado toast--it was amazing.
After breakfast we walked along a Roman wall and defense towers from the 4th century. The 4th century! The wall circled the city of Bàrcino, as it was called then. It's in pretty good shape even still. In some areas buildings have been built on top or around it, so the wall can be seen incorporated into later architecture as well. Amazing.
Next we headed to Barceloneta beach, not far from where we were staying. It's actually an artificial beach, created with imported sand from Egypt in the 1990's, ahead of the 1992 Olympics. They top it off with new sand periodically. The area is pretty touristy with beach vendors who are more aggressive than we like, but the shoreline is beautiful and the Mediterranean Sea laps in and out peacefully.
We had to check out Mercat de la Boqueria, a daily market that has been officially in operation since the 1800's though vendors have been selling meat there since the early 13th century. Today it's an explosion of color, sights, sounds and smells--wow! You could find beautiful fresh produce, cheese, baked goods, meat, poultry, seafood... It's beautiful but the meat was a little too graphic for our tender American sensibilities!
We thought we'd grab lunch here as the empanadas looked amazing. The ones we chose were disappointing though as they were reheated in the microwave. It's probably a better place to shop for ingredients than prepared food, at least by the time we were there. We swam our way through the crowds snacking on delicious fruit and nuts we found along the way.
On our last night in Barcelona we attended a paella class on the recommendation of my good friend Mary Ann who was here a year ago. It was hands down our best meal so far! The owner, Sara, was warm and welcoming and so knowledgeable. Her business is at her childhood home very near Güell Park in Gràcia, a neighborhood that is more residential and protected from too many tourist spots by requiring businesses to be service or education oriented. Sara started the cooking school after the birth of her first child in 2012. She was an interior designer with a passion for food and culinary training.
But back to the paella! We learned all the secrets, starting with the best freshest ingredients and spices, the perfect bomba rice, high quality olive oil (but not extra virgin), handmade sofrito, high heat, moving the ingredients quickly, no touching the rice after initial shaking... Not hard at all with six people on a pan and Sara directing us. To be clear, it's really labor intensive, but the last 20 minutes are cook time, so we were able to sit down and enjoy wine with tapas prepared by Sara.
The paella was absolute perfection! Coming soon to a backyard in SE Portland!
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Our son-in-law, Mike, spent a year studying in Madrid and makes a mean paella. I see a paella cook-off in your futures. I do his tax return in exchange of a meal of paella and I believe I get the better of the deal! Wonderful pictures!!!