Appetites

Work continues to fly by.  We got two samples in yesterday (halfway through!) and, as I was walking out the door, I realized that I only have three more weeks of work.  Which means that I only have a month left in this country.  Which, of course, means that I better get cracking on that Barcelona Bucket List (over 100 items in total, but I'm halfway through)!

After work, I headed down to the Santa Caterina market.  The impractical thing about this market is that it closes at 3:30 pm during the week.  Except, I discovered, on Thursdays when it closes at 8:30 pm in a seeming concession to those of us who work.

 Mercat Santa Caterina is was just renovated in 2005 (oroginally built in 1848 on the same site), which makes it the newest market in the city.  Architects Enric Miralles and Benedetta Tagliabue got rather creative with the market, which has an undulating roof with hexagons of 67 different colors forming patterns.  Apparently, this design represents the color and life of the fruit and produce stalls situated throughout the marketplace.  From above, it looks like fashionable camouflage. But to shrimpy, normal-sized humans like me, it sort of just looks all crinkly.

 Inside, it's just your average market (Barcelona has 40 of them, so it can have an "average").  Despite being "open" late last night, the majority of the stalls were shuttered by 6:30 pm.

 I mingled with the last few visitors as the vegetables were packed up, the last packages of cookies exchanged hands, 

Please note the incredibly clear translations.

 and the stalls were sprayed clean.
A few other shots, from the stalls that were still open:

As someone who has slaughtered and eviscerated chickens, I was a bit surprised that they did all the other steps and then left the legs on.  I'm not sure why, unless it was for easy carrying?

Brain!

Walking around the market, I also saw whole octopus for sale for the bagillionth time.  It makes me really want to cook a whole octopus while I still have the chance.  If anyone has some good, very-basic-kitchen-implement-friendly whole octopus recipes, let me know.

Whenever my wanderings take me anywhere near the Gothic District, I inevitably walk over to Las Ramblas to pick up the green line so that I don't have to walk the Hallway of Death at Passeig de Gracia while switching Metro lines.  Yesterday, my wander was rewarded by stumbling across this strange contraption in the plaza of the Cathedral.

 My first thought was, "Are they making a replica of Gehry's famous Goldfish?" (which is on the Barcelona beach; make your own comparison by looking at the most complete photodocumentation of the Gehry's Goldfish ever created)  Alas, they were not.  I had stumbled upon a festival hosted by an Architecture Think Tank called EME3.  An architecture think thank?  You think they don't exist, but they do.  And they're hosting a festival to show everyone how they "serve as a worldwisde connecting node to discover, understand, and share new ways of architecture and urbanism strongly related to the reality of contemporary societies."  Check out EME3_2012 here.

A tent for a music and tapas event.

I also spotted this beautiful building in the Gothic District.

While trying to unearth the architect and other details, I stumbled upon an urban legend, instead.  The building that now houses Hostal Levante was previously a "house of pleasures" for many years, including those at the turn of the 20th century.  Among its many customers was the young Picasso, who was so "inspired" by his experiences there that he painted Les Demoiselles d'Avignon to commemorate his... adventures.

After an afternoon of adventuring, it was time for some sustenance.  Naaman's friend Lance arrived yesterday, so we took him out for tapas at Cerveceria Catalana.  The place got amazing reviews online, from tourists, study abroad students, and a few Spanish food blogs, so how could I resist?  The sangria was supposed to be amazing, so I decided it was finally time to try it.  I hadn't particularly liked any of the red wine I'd (tentatively) tasted, but I wanted to give this Spanish tradition a fair chance.

And it was really good.  They also serve a cava-based citrus fruit sangria here, which I hear is also great, but didn't try.  I don't like champagne, either, but under the wonderful spell of fresh fruit? Who knows.
Since it was Lance's first tapas experience, we ordered a bunch of classics, including pa amb tomaquet (Bread with tomato).  I've been really disappointed with my restaurant experiences of pre-made pa amb tomaquet.  They're never crisp enough, never garlicky enough... plus, making it is half the fun.  If you come to Barcelona, find somewhere that provides you the material and lets you scrub away with garlic cloves and tomato halves yourself.  Or, kids, try this at home.  See this post - about halfway down - for my step by step instructions (as passed on to me by a rowdy table of Catalan men).

Next, we tried the chicken and ham croquettes, which were creamy, ooey-gooey deliciousness.  And big for croquettes, which was fine by me!

Another classic: patatas bravas.  I wasn't a huge fan of these; I like the potatoes to be a bit crisper to contrast the smooth texture of the sauce that softens the potatoes, but they were fine.  There's no proper way to make patatas bravas; it's whatever suits your tastes (you will therefore find that they're a bit different everywhere you go in terms of proportions, size of potatoes, crispiness, taste of the sauces).

We got an order of grilled mushrooms, which were really yummy.

And, because there really should be seafood at any meal in Barcelona and Lance wanted to try some octopus, we got these:

Good, but not quite as fresh and I'd like.

And then, dear god, it was time for the cheese.  They had a nut-encrusted warm Camembert topped with jelly.  Since we were already getting full, we ordered just one, but I definitely could have put away my own.

Having successfully introduced Lance to the beauty of tapas, I considered the day a success.

Spotted: The biggest, most impractical bicycle I have ever seen in my life.

As my labmates told me upon seeing this picture, "Dear God, you can find ANYTHING in the Gothic Quarter these days."