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...