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April 25th 2008

Published: April 30th 2008

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las Ramblas

View of the lifeline of Barcelona from the third floor of No58, Cook and Taste facilities

My 30th and Catalonian Cuisine

After 9:15am on the 25th of April (2008) I am entering the 3rd decade of my life. Our societies do seem to make a huge fuss about birthdays. Our birth is something we can't control, or achieve, however the odds of us actually existing are so high that I do agree on the principle of celebration.

In my opinion only the 18th birthday should be noteworthy due to the legal repercussions of adult life. For the next 10 years I am however going to use a different first word when asked about my age. This fact should render the day some significance to say the least.

My birthday this year coincided with the Greek Orthodox Easter weekend. However, since I live in protestant England I already had my Easter bank holidays back in March. Of course I am not going to be lame and visit Greece for the Christian festivities, instead I chose to follow my interests and attend a day at the only global sporting event that I do follow, the Formula 1 grand prix racing.

Following a three week hiatus, F1 is in Europe for the first time in

Cook And Taste

nicely surprised

the 2008 season for a race on the 27th of April at the famous Catalonia track where most teams undertake their winter testing.

I 've been to Barcelona before, and was fascinated by it's most famous son, the modernist "architect" Antoni Gaudi, whose creations are really the only reason anyone needs to visit the famed Catalan capital. Karen has not been to Spain before or to an F1 race so I am excited about her experiencing a new culture (food, wine and flamenco) and a global sporting event.

We flew with trusty Ryanair from London Stansted. For once we opted to splash out a bit and not book the cheap 6 in the morning flight. After all, it takes around an hour and a half to get to stansted from woking and I am supposed to be taking things easy for the day. Things in work were hectic and last days preparations for this small break were intense. For the longest time, I am actually glad I am out of the office today.

As usual, check in, security control and boarding the flight was a breeze in nice and efficient stansted airport (designed by the greatest architect

Cook And Taste

Slicing the potatoes for the tortilla

of all times). I even got an emergency exit seat which was a nice birthday gift from the airplane.

Flight time was a bit under a couple of hours. The airport at Girona is tiny and in no time we were on the bus (21 euros return) for Barcelona. Bus journey was an hour and ten minutes. However, we were probably at least 45 minutes faster coming out of the airport than we would be if we landed at the international Barcelona airport and thus our detour to Girona really didn’t cost us that much in time but greatly saved us in airfare price. Small airports rule.

Once in Barcelona, after getting a bit used to the underground train system (they have underground mainline trains running close to the metro system) we made it to our hostel near the major street of las ramblas. We did book a private room in the hostel which was really past our age and life attitude. Average age 22, average nationality, American, average pastime, hanging out. We had to make our own breakfast which consisted of chocolate and marmalade and then WASH our own plates and cutlery. And we paid 60 euros

Cook And Taste

my favourite: supervision with wine

a night. So if you are in Barcelona and over 25 do yourself a favor and do not book into Hello BCN at number 8 La Font. Instead pay a bit more just for the privilege of being treated like an adult. Even the keys were in the form of a watch that you wear. Surely a necessity following a myriad of lost keys from the drunk adolescent revelers of the establishment. I mean come on, don't you know I am thirty years of age? lol

As a surprise to Karen I booked us into a cooking class which I found out after visiting this site. The place is called Cook and Taste and is located at 58 Las Ramblas. The classroom is basically into a converted apartment where the living room and a bedroom were turned into a large kitchen. You cook a 4 course meal, wine is provided, you then eat what you cooked, get the recipes home, have fun and pay 60 euros. There are cheaper alternatives like the 18 euros one organized by our hostel but based on the photos with minors and sangria making I thought it would be best to give it a

Cook And Taste

delis

miss.

Our chef, Teresa arrived promptly at 17:00hours at the pre-arranged time. She had just been on a tour of the nearby market with our classmates, Heather and Juliet who are from Manhattan island, even though Heather currently lives in London for a year. For 12 euros you get to go with Teresa for the tour and learn about different tricks of the cooking trade in relation to picking out ingredients. However, we couldn't make it in time for the tour and so we just joined the class for the cooking (and subsequent eating) section only.

Following the introductions we quickly warmed up to our new company and felt really intimate and comfortable in no time at all. We were going to cook a 4 course meal comprising the following:

• A cold tomato soup with aioli sauce for starter
• the famous Spanish tortilla
• a sea food paella
• and a crème Catalan, a kind of crème Brule

Wearing our aprons Heather and I made a start with the crème separating the yolks with the whites, whisking the yolks with sugar, adding milk, lemon jest, bringing to fire, stiring, adding starch and voila, crème

Cook And Taste

whisking the eggs for the creme

Catalan. Juliet and Karen soon joined in on the action. Teresa started passing around little errands for everyone. I was given the task of chopping the potatoes and was even given a few tips on that. What you should do is crab the potato with a cat claw action, hold the knife from the blade and use the knuckles to control the cutting action. After a while I was chopping away like a pro. The girls were busy, separating the egg yolks with whites, boiling and peeling the tomatoes, trimming cheeses, and other wonderful things. After a glass of white Catalan wine we started on the paella, chopping the prawns, squids, cleaning the mussels, whilst Heather fried the prawns and prepared the base for the paella, fried onions and tomato. When the base was sufficiently cooked the sea food was added, heat reduced and the paella rice added. Apparently Heather is allergic to white fish and thus Teresa quickly prepared a separate vegetable stock just for her. How nice.

The starter dish was prepared quickly; the pealed tomatoes were blended and put into 4 whiskey glasses. A dash of the aioli sauce was added with a mixture of crushed

Cook And Taste

Hard at work

nuts in oil and the whole thing was sealed with a dollop of trimmed smoked cheese. It was a cold dish to be eaten with a spoon. The tortilla was forming along nicely; the fried potatoes with onions were added to the egg mix and slowly cooked. A Catalan terracotta implement was used to turn the tortilla around so that the other side could be cooked evenly. Teresa demonstrated how the flip could also be achieved using a normal plate. I finally realized that you can not have a thick omelet just by using eggs, it's really the potatoes (or similar) which add the thickness to the dish.

Whilst the paella was slowly cooking we took our seats and Teresa turned from a teacher to a waiter serving her pupils the food they prepared. The starter was simply heaven, all these new flavors simply erupted into my mouth. The tortilla was awesome, Karen being a vegan gave me her piece too. Each slice was accompanied by toasted bread which we were instructed to rub on a garlic clove and a tomato and smear with olive oil. Delicious. Who would have thought? The paella was a match made in heaven.

Cook And Taste

heather and karen hard at work

You could actually taste all the different sea food in there. None of that melting of flavors. The prawns tasted like prawns and the squids like squids. Everything was cooked to perfection. We were all pretty full by the time Teresa brought out the Crèmes from the freeze. Our eyes suddenly lit up when she pulled out a torch underneath the bench and set it on fire. Yea She simply spread some sugar over one of the plates and pointed the torch over it. I just had to try it, which i did immediately afterwards. Oh the Joy, this is what I call cooking. When you use a blowtorch to cook something you just know you are doing something right. It's not just the caveman talking, it just makes sense. Teresa showed us the traditional implement used to caramelize the sugar, a round piece of iron stuck to a holding stick. Not as dangerous or fun, plus it takes ages. Bring on the torch. The crème was really nice as well, the lemon flavor was pretty strong and that was just from a pinch of lemon jest. Amazing.

The food was awesome, the experience great, the wine was flowing,

Cook And Taste

putting the final touches on the starter

and the company was inspiring. There I was in one of the most famous streets in the world in one of the great cities of the globe celebrating my 30th birthday. Could not have asked for more.

Of course, even though I asked her not to, Karen informed everyone that it was in fact my birthday that day. Everyone wished me well, said our goodbyes and parted our ways, merry and gay, into the Barcelonian night.

I took Karen into a place I read about on the guide book. It is called Bosc de les Fades, situated next to the wax museum a few meters down the las Ramblas. Basically, the whole place is decorated like an enhanted forest, complete with waterfall and vegetation. Think of Tim Burton movies and you are not far off. Had a couple of Sangrias from the tap, one of our favourite drinks, finally being drunk at the right place (and time).

Afterwards, we went down to the port for a walk around the olympic mall which is situated over an elegant timber footbridge over the water surrounded by yachts and motorboats. Karen had a waffle with chocolate since she didn't want

Cook And Taste

cheers

to try the creme catalan due to the eggs (I wonder how you make egg-free waffle though).

Whilst on our night stroll, I was thinking about the attitude Teresa had regarding the whole Spain-Catalan thing. It was good to get the perpective of a local for something I only encounter in written form. Being an outsider I never really considered the huge divide that separates two apparently distinct nations. In essence we are not in Spain right now, we are in Catalonia, which is an occupied nation by the Spaniards. Of course the history is quite complicated and interluding periods appear here and there but at the bottom line most citizens of the catalonia region want to be independet. They are autonomous but that is apparently not enough.

Catalonian is widely spoken now in the area following the downfall of the military dictatorship of Franco. The Catalonian language has more to do with French than Spanish. Grafiti of Free Catalonia, and Catalonia Not Spain are left to litter an otherwise clean city. Foreigners are of course forgiven of their ignorance. I will make sure I will not have to be forgiven again. However, I do find it sad

Cook And Taste

burn baby burn

and unfortunate when apparently modern advanced western people have patriotic and nationalistic tendencies.

We were both very tired and so we had an early lie in at around 22:30hours. The sightseeing commences tomorrow.

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