Tag Archive for: Barcelona

Traditional Spanish Recipe – Scrambled Eggs with Mushrooms

Traditional Spanish Recipe-Scrambled egg with Mushrooms 

At our autumn guided Boqueria market visits we stop at the famous Llorenç Pelras stall to buy rovellons.  Here is a traditional Spanish recipe for a very simple and tasteful dish for breakfast or a starter. The proportion below  serves two for breakfast, and the side-by-side presentation features the mushrooms as a separate flavor. The traditional Spanish recipe can also be assembled as scrambled eggs or an omelet. With more cream or half-and-half and doubling the recipe, it easily converts to a quiche filling or a frittata. Read more

The W Hotel in Barcelona

At Gourmand Breaks we like to keep up to date and recently paid a visit to check-out the trendiest most fashionable hotel everyone in town is talking about, the W Hotel. 

The hotel also known as Hotel Vela, is an avant-garde icon created by world-famous Spanish architect Ricardo Bofill. It rises above the spectacular beachfront in Barcelona, one of Europe’s most stylish and cosmopolitan cities. Read more

Festa de la Merce

Ever since the Virgin of Mercy saved the city of Barcelona from a plague of locusts in 1687, the city has been celebrating the miracle she helped create with the liveliest festival it has all year- known as Festa de la Merce.  Happening at the end of September and on the 24th this year, the parties for Festa de la Merce will go on for four days through the night and early hours of the morning with wild fireworks, strangely costumed giants, colorful decorations and musical concerts lining the streets. It is a kind of end-of-summer celebration, so participants of the Festa de la Merce usually party as hardily and as noisily as they can.

Among the events not to be missed are the huge casteller, or human-castle building, contests, as illustrated above left. 

To see the unique Barcelona Castells or to experience the celebrations of Festa de la Merce for yourself why not let us customize a private Food, Wine and Cultural Tour for you.

La Diada

Catalan people

The red and yellow stripes of the Catalan flag drape windows, balconies, walls, make up flower bouquets and wave in the fabrics Catalans hold up in the street all day on La Diada, or Catalonia’s national holiday. Celebrated on September 11, the day of Catalonia’s defeat under Spanish armies in 1714, La Diada brings attention to both the defeats and the optimistic future of Catalonia.

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Mushrooms in La Boqueria Market

 Located in the back of la Boqueria market is the remarkable collection of Llorenç Petrás: baskets and baskets of gourmet mushrooms with different sizes, colors smells and flavours from all over the world. His stand at La Boqueria Market, which has earned him the nickname “wizard of mushrooms,” is one of the best of its kind in Europe.

And now that we’re entering the best season for mushrooms—at the end of summer and beginning of fall—his collection is at the height of its diversity. Petrás’s humble stall in La Boqueria Market is unique because he still sells his product in person, even though he’s made unknown fortunes selling to luxury clients in both London and Paris.

At Gourmand Breaks we frequently organize for our guests la Boqueria market private guided  tours, followed by private cooking classes with our professional chef as well as tastings at all the most authentic ´foodie´ hotspots in the city!

Montserrat Tomatoes

 

It’s too bad Montserrat tomatoes aren’t grown widely out of Spain because they’re gorgeous specimens. As soon as you cut slices of this Catalonia-grown tomato, which looks like some giant mutating piece of produce at first, an elegant almost floral-like design falls onto the plate. Delicate ruby-colored pockets of juice stud its center and especially taste divine when sprinkled with olive oil and sea salt. As a Catalan specialty here, the Montserrat tomato often finds its way onto the platters of the area’s innovative gourmet chefs including the world-renowned Ferran Adria.

Almost exclusively produced in the Emporda region of Catalonia, the seeds for the Montserrat tomato are created by the local farmers themselves and not commercialized as of yet. Harvesting of this tomato lasts from June until early autumn, so if you want some, hurry up and come visit!

On a Secret Barcelona Gourmet Tour  you will be shown around La Boqueria Market in Barcelona by a professional chef, select only the best Montserrat tomatoes and other fine local produce and then head to the kitchen to create some delicious and authentic Spanish recipes!

Fideuá Traditional Spanish Recipe

Ingredients for traditional Spanish Fideua

  • 10 oz. fideos (or angel hair broken into 2″ pieces)
  • 2 tbsp olive oil
  • 1 medium-size onion, finely chopped
  • 2 cloves of garlic, minced

Barcelona Through Woody Allen’s Eyes- Vicky Christina Barcelona

Ever since the advent of the Google image search, we’ve had a habit of longingly gazing at several pictures of my travel destination until the date of our trip. But if you’re preparing a trip to Barcelona and its surrounding areas now, there’s new enticing visual imagery that will beat the Google image search any day: Woody Allen’s new movie Vicky Cristina Barcelona.

At Gourmand Breaks we love Woody and we love Barcelona, that’s why we have just launched our  Vicky Cristina Barcelona Tour visiting the movie locations here.  We are the first and by now the only travel agency in Spain to have this tour available – the city of Barcelona provides a pretty background to the plot and here at Gourmand Breaks we believe it will be great fun for Allen’s and travel lovers to be able enjoy the Mediterranean culture here, the same as Vicky and Cristina did.

Vicky and Cristina are two American girls, one of which is working on her studies in Catalan culture, and the seductive relationships that entangle them during their trip to Barcelona. While I can’t guarantee you’ll be seduced by Scarlett Johansson, Penélope Cruz or Javier Bardem on your own trip, I will guarantee that the scenery of Barcelona and the Catalan countryside surrounding will, just like it does in this sensual film.

At Gourmand Breaks we don´t stop at Barcelona- we offer food, wine and cultural tours around Spain, Portugal and SW France, why not see if there´s something for you on All Our Private Tours 

 

 

Experiencing the Born District

 

This multi-media fashion map from the New York Times–called “The Born Supremacy“–is a handy little feature on Barcelona’s booming Born District that’s worth taking a look at before visiting.

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