Somorrostro - Paella



Paella

 My second experience with Catalan food culture was my first time eating paella.  It was in late February when my parents came and visited Barcelona.  My parents, my roommate and I went to a restaurant a few blocks away from my apartment in Barceloneta called Somorrostro.  Somorrostro is a small seafood restaurant on Carrer de Sant Carles near the Barceloneta market.  We arrived a little early for a typical Spanish dinner so the restaurant was almost empty when we arrived.  It was a dark restaurant with a kitchen connected to the dining room so you could see the chefs cook while you were eating.  I had to act as translator between my parents who spoke very little Spanish and the waitress who spoke very little English.  We looked at the menus and the daily specials and my parents ordered two bottle of white wine.  There were a few things on the menu that I didn’t think people ate, such as kangaroo.  I thought for a while about trying the kangaroo because I was definitely intrigued but I felt obligated to get paella because I was eating at a seafood restaurant in Barceloneta.  As a table, we shared a platter of tapas for an appetizer.  It was an assortment of seafood – calamari, octopus, shrimp and other things that I ate without really knowing what they were.  It was a large platter so I was almost full by the time the paella came out.  My roommate and I split the paella.  It was a large black plate with rice, large shrimp and shellfish.  It was extremely filling because the rice was very thick and mealy.  The shrimp was also different then I had ever had it before because it still had all of its skin and whiskers on it.  I could barely finish my plate but it was a delicious experience and the wine complemented the rice and seafood very well.