Thursday, August 6, 2009

Barcelona

After spending a short, rich visit in Barcelona, the image that stays with me is of the incredible palette of fresh fruit that I saw in La Boqueria - the central market: whole fruit, fruit juices in various combinations, cut fruit, new fruits I'd never seen; fruits I'd seen before but never seemed quite as delicious as they looked here. Although Barcelona has its share of McDonald's, Burger King, Subways and even "Dunkin' Coffee" - I need to find out what's "wrong" with the word Donut so that it couldn't be used in Spain - my image of the locals is that they weren't eating as much junk food as they were fruit and, often, the beautiful breads whose aromas wafted through the streets of the Gothic Quarter near my hotel.

Prior to arriving, I'd signed up for a Gourmet tour that I hoped would be a Barcelona equivalent of my noshwalks, offering tastes-on-the-go. Alas, it was more of a gourmet history tour than an actual eating tour, although I did get a comprehensive map with all the places we visited listed - with photos, too - and I later found that the tour is on-line, so I could have done it myself. Oh well.

But since pictures speak 1,000 words, or however the saying goes, here are more pictures...






Sunday, June 14, 2009

A foodie wish list

Some random thoughts... It's been such a long time since I posted that I thought I'd job this quick list whlie I'm still trying to figure out why I'm having problems uploading photos. I did dip into the blogspot troubleshooting page and found out I'm not the only one to have this problem since the site was redesigned. But I haven't found a solution yet. What's weird is that I was able to upload 5 photos to one post - and then not again.

List by 2s....

1. Two cuisines I most want to get to know better: Philippine and Venezuelan

2. Foods I want to learn how to make well: sushi and Mexican mole sauces

3. Neighborhoods I want to spend more time exploring: area around Bronx hub; neighborhoods in East Bronx (including Parkchester) where new immigrants are settling

4. Current favorite "ethnic" fast-food places: Cachapas y mas in Inwood (which recently opened a 2nd outpost on Broadway near 177th Street and expanded its base restaurant) and Merit Food Palace in Jackson Heights (Bangladeshi and Himalayan (Tibetan and Nepali) foods

5. Current favorite Caribbean foods (after working on Noshnews): Trinidadian doubles and black cake, found on Church Avenue and surroundings in Brooklyn - Flatbush, Crown Heights, Prospect Lefferts

Blogspot won't let me post a photo!!!