Hola part 2! I'm Back from Catalonia

Before heading over to Catalonia, my family knew we'd have to adjust to a different eating and lifestyle. We yanks like to have an early morning breakfast, a lunch, then barrel on through to the end of our work day before going home for dinner at 7:00 or 8:00 PM.

The Catalonians, and Spanish have a different approach that we worked ourselves into. First there is an early morning breakfast (something we never really did wake up for) followed by a day of work until about 2:00. In the early afternoon everyone breaks for a three hour lunch in which the largest meal of the day is typically eaten. We didnt typically comply with this rule. Lunch was usually our Tapas time. Catalonians usually have their tapas time at dinner.

Food in the area wasn't mind blowing or that special. The idea of Tapas seems very exotic and fun, but when you get down to it, it's mostly just meat and potato appetizers that aren't too tasty. They're just filling. Every menu seemed to have Iberian ham, shrimp, french fries, and little sandwiches. While tapas themselves aren't too exciting, not all Tapas are equal.

The tapas in the touristy areas around La Rambla were awful to look at, smell, and eat. Everything had a look of those hot dogs that role around in their own grease under heat lamps at the 7-11. Tapas and food in touristy areas were just gross. If you got off the beaten path however, you could easily find freshly prepared tapas. One of my favorite places was Tapas 24. I had a huge plate of some really good fried anchovies. Our local neighborhood bar, El Roble, had some high quality Tapas too. Pau Gasol even thoguht so!

As for meals that weren't tapas, I never really figured out what Spanish and Catalonian cuisine were. There was definitely a lot of seafood, and meat, but it wasn't prepared that differently than you'd find anywhere else in Europe or the world.

Drinking in Barcelona was pretty good. Sangria was a popular drink for us. Every restaurant had their own way of making it and we had our favorites (nice smooth fruity taste) and non-so-favorites (too much alcohol, not enough mixing.) The only beer Catalonians seemed to drink was Estrella Damm. It's light and not that great tasting. Spaniards just aren't into beer. One day my sister turned me onto Clara which is a mix of Damm and Lemon Fresca. That was definitely a good drink that was really refreshing on warm summer days. I can't wait to recreate it for friends.

One habit the Catalonians had that annoyed me was not finishing their beer. Typically they would drink from their glass until about three quarters of their beer was gone. Then they'd stop and just leave it. Apparently the Spanish are afraid of those last 2 ounces of really light beer getting them completely wasted. No local ever left an empty glass at the table. I tried it once and didn't like the custom.

Finally, the owner of a fondue restaurant turned me onto a drink called Ruavieja. It's a really sweet drink meant to be shot. I brought some bottles back.