Eating Melbourne

Yes, I know, I haven’t posted in forever. No, I wasn’t being lazy, I was totally eating stuff. In Spain. It was RESEARCH.

I had two weeks over there, including Barcelona, Seville, Granada and San Sebastian. I ate my bodyweight in jamon, and drank so much Rioja that my liver threatened a walkout.  I managed to get by with my three beginner’s-classes-worth of Spanish, plus my trusty Lonely Planet phrasebook (although still managed some spectacular faux-pas, such as ordering toast with “donkey” instead of butter).

How was the food? Well, pretty good, and VERY cheap compared to Melbourne. But not mind-blowing. Mostly it was pretty rustic, and actually that was when it was at its best – a simple plate of the best jamon, some crusty bread, and a big bowl of hot pimientos de Padrón.

Enough talking. LET’S GET TO THE FOOD PORN.

Barcelona:

Where I saw some markets that crap all over the Queen Vic; spent 20 euro on a “famous” roast chicken dish that turned out to be pretty much the same as the hot chicken place in Clifton Hill; and discovered that pig’s trotters, for all their nose-to-tail foodie chic, are pretty much just fat and skin. Oh, and ate a lot of fried little fishies.

Seville & Granada:

Seville: where we managed to eat three meals a day, despite nobody speaking any English (which is fair enough, it is Spain after all) and there being no menu in half the tapas bars. There was a lot of pointing at other people’s food. Oh, and there are chips with EVERYTHING. I also ate caracoles (snails), which are far more disturbing-looking than the French escargot. They had little faces and antennae. I kept waiting for one of them to yell “UNFAIR TO SNAILS!!” like Gus from Mr Squiggle.

Granada: where they have free tapas. Yep, you order a beer, they bring you food. Our favourite place was Bodega Castaneda.

San Sebastian:

Where I found my happy place. It’s like Paris, only smaller and cuter, and by the sea. Oh, and cheaper. We ate pintxos (Basque for tapas) pretty much every night; everyone recommended me to go to La Cuchara de San Telmo, which I liked but wasn’t blown away by. We had an amazing three-course lunch at Kaskazuri – spectacular food, wine and coffee included, for 24 euro a head. Unbelievable.

Does anyone have a recipe for tarta de queso? I don’t like cheesecake, but I loooooved the light gooey Spanish version – particularly at La Viña.