Ciutat Comtal - Tapas

                My first experience eating tapas was at a well known restaurant called Ciutat Comtal near Passeig de Gracia.  The restaurant came very highly recommended for tapas so I was excited to eat there.  A friend of mine and I went for lunch one day after classes.  It was very crowded when we got there and we almost didn’t stay.  It is a nice restaurant with a long wooden bar that curved around to the corner of the restaurant.  The bar was lined with an assortment of different tapas.  Behind the bar, waiters in white jackets served plates of tapas to customers who couldn’t get a table and instead stood or sat at the bar.  We finally got a table outside and ordered some Pilsner Urquells.  When the waiter came back with our beers we ordered a few different tapas.  I forget the name of my favorite one but it was French fries covered in fried eggs and ketchup.  It was mind-blowing, I had never tasted anything like it.  I basically licked the plate clean.  We also ordered tuna and red pepper sandwiches were also really good.  I also tried an avocado pasta salad that they called the California salad.  However, my favorite by far was the fried egg and French fry mixture.  Also, the experience of sharing tapas is very different from normal American customs.  I think the Spanish custom of sitting for a long lunch and sharing what you ordered with everyone at the table is much more enjoyable then eating quick meals on your way to work or in the car.  I have to admit that tapas is easily my favorite part of Spanish food culture because you get to eat a variety of delicious little meals instead of one dish of the same thing. 

Tapas

Osama Bin Laden's Death

Osama Bin Laden

Americans rejoicing outside of The White House

There have been a lot of memorable international news stories that I have read and heard about since I have been in Barcelona.  The one that is easily the most significant for me is the one that occurred yesterday in the Pakistani town of Abbottabad.  The death of Osama Bin Laden, the terrorist mastermind of the September 11, 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center in New York City, has brought relief and rejoicing to all Americans.  U.S. officials say that they located Osama using intelligence and the observance of a high security compound that they believed would be used to shelter a high profile terrorist target.  They learned about the compound in August of last year and said that construction on the compound began five or six years ago.  Intelligence officials learned about the compound by tracking couriers that they believed were within Bin Laden’s inner circle. Officials said that helicopters were used in the attack which quickly turned into a firefight.  Bin Laden and three other men were killed as well as two women who the terrorists used as human shields.

                The news of his death brought rejoicing to cities all around the United States, especially in New York City and Washington D.C. where people took to the streets at Ground Zero and in front of The White House.  This is a very emotional event for most Americans.  Growing up twenty minutes from Manhattan and having friends and family who lost their lives in the September 11 attacks, I am especially joyful and looking forward to my return home to New York on Saturday. 

Ovella Negra

Me at Ovella Negra

With friends at Ovella Negra

Tables at Ovella Negra

One of my favorite nightlife spots in Barcelona is the Megataverna Ovella Negra.  It is an enormous and rowdy drinking hall in an old factory warehouse in the Poble Nou area. When I first walked in the atmosphere was reminiscent of a German beer hall with long tables and groups of people drinking from large containers called “toros.”  Normally, a few people sit around and share a toro at a table.  A toro is a large cylinder filled with beer with a nozzle at the bottom so that people can fill up there glass from it.  I was immediately excited when I walked in because there were a lot of Spanish people in chanting in unison and I knew that this was going to be a fun environment.  We got our first toro from the bar and struggled to find seats before finally getting a table that we could all fit at.  There were some drunken people chanting and standing on the table next to us.  One guy tried to hop of the table and slipped and crashed onto the floor in front of everyone.  Ovella Negra was unlike any other place that I had been to in Barcelona and maybe Europe in general.  In the back room they have pool tables, foosball and ping pong.  Every time that I have been there it has been very crowded, loud and rowdy – the perfect atmosphere to start a night of drinking.  Another benefit of Ovella Negra is its proximity to Razzmatazz, the biggest club in Barcelona.  Razzmatazz is another enormous place that was converted from a factory warehouse.  We normally started our night at Ovella Negra and then walked around the block to Razzmatazz when it got later in the night.  Ovella Negra and Razzmatazz are two places that I will never forget about Barcelona because they are unlike anywhere I have ever been in my life. 

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. 

Torres Winery

Barrels of Cava

Vina Esmeralda

On the way home from our Valencia field trip, IES bought us to the Torres Winery in the Penedes region outside of Barcelona.  The Torres Vineyard is a traditional Catalan cava producing winery.  Our bus drove through the fields and pulled up to the main building.  It was an overcast day and the vines had just been clipped so the fields looked barren and dead.  Our group gathered in the lobby and we were escorted into another room where we got to try a glass of cava.  The cava we tried was called Vina Esmeralda.  It tasted young and fruity, dry but floral.  After everyone tried a glass we were escorted to a tram.  We all loaded into the tram cars and were driven around the winery listening to a recording that explained the process of producing and bottling the cava.  This was the first time that I had ever been to a vineyard or a winery so I was interested to see how the wines were produced.  The recording explained that the vines are clipped every winter so that they can bloom in the spring.  This explained why all of the vines looked dead on the drive in.  The tram took us through the factory and we learned how the grapes were crushed and fermented and how impurities, such as sediments were removed from the bottle.  This was one of my favorite experiences in Spain because we got to see the inner workings of a winery and try a glass of cava that was originally from the Penedes region.  I was especially interested in this field trip because my father owns a wine store and I was able to talk to him about cavas, the Penedes region and the Torres wine specifically. 

Bar Marsella

A crowded Bar Marsella

Glass of Absinthe

One of my favorite nightlife spots is a very old bar in El Raval called Bar Marsella.  El Raval is not the nicest place in Barcelona and it can be a little bit seedy at night – there was a group of pimps and prostitutes hanging outside the first time that we went.  When we got there it was very crowded and we barely found a table.  It is an old wooden bar with shelves that run along the ceiling with bottles of liquor from 19^th century.  They are all discolored and covered in cob webs which give the bar a historical feel.  Bar Marsella is popular for its absinthe.  Absinthe is a highly alcoholic beverage from France that was popular in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century.  A glass of absinthe was about eight Euros.  They give you a glass of absinthe, a sugar cube, a small fork and a bottle of water because there is a process to drinking absinthe.  First, you dip the sugar cube in the absinthe and place it on the fork that is laying flat across the rim of the glass.  Next, you light the sugar cube on fire but I am still not sure why you are supposed to do this.  Next, you squirt the sugar cube with war until it dissipates completely into the glass of absinthe and then you stir until the absinthe is a cloudy green-yellow color.  The absinthe is very strong and tastes a little bit like black licorice.  Absinthe is also known because it is said to have hallucinogenic properties.  While I did not hallucinate, after two glasses the absinthe gives a sensation similar to being high.  Two glasses was enough for me, but it was rumored that Bar Marsella was frequented by Ernest Hemmingway, Salvador Dali and Antoni Gaudi who would sit and have five or more glasses in a night.    

FC Barcelona vs. Atletic Club Bilbao

Before the game

FC Barcelona

Crowd

Cute girl sitting in front of us

On February 20, 2011, I went to see FC Barcelona play Altletic Club Bilbao at Camp Nou.  Being an American, the experience was very different from any other sporting event that I had been to.  The first thing that I noticed was the sheer size of the stadium.  With a capacity of 98,787, Camp Nou is the largest stadium in Europe.  In America, only college football stadiums come close in capacity.  At the start of the game, all of the players are introduced by name.  Each the announcement of each name, the crowd yells “Rey,” meaning King in Spanish.  The FC Barcelona team also has an anthem that the entire stadium sings before each match.  The anthem, “El Cant del Barca” sounds like a very old song that speaks about brotherhood and unification.  I also noticed that there was no alcohol served in the game which is very different from any American sporting event where everyone is usually drunk.  Nevertheless, the game was an enjoyable experience.

                The game was very close all the way through.  The action started right away with a David Villa goal in the fourth minute.  The game became quite stagnant afterward with a lot of change of possessions.  In the second half, Bilbao made things interesting by stepping up their offense and controlling the ball right away.  Bilbao’s Andoni Iraola tied the game up with a goal only five minutes into the second half.  Things really heated up after this and the crowd was getting very loud.  The game started getting quite aggressive after two yellow cards for Barcelona in the second half alone.  Then in the 78^th minute, FC Barcelona’s savior, the young Lionel Messi, scored a goal putting Barcelona up 2 to 1 with only 12 minutes to play.  The crowd roared and bowed their heads to the most talented striker in La Liga.  Overall, I was very impressed by European futbol and I will have a new perspective on sports when I return home to the United States.