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Sunday, February 18th, Badalona, Spain
We
finally got some rain here in Barcelona. It poured
for most of the day yesterday. Luckily, we had
made plans to go with Josep and Montse on an excursion
to a cava
vineyard followed by a calçotada.
They invited us to join them and a group of 40 friends
and family. It was a little challenging to
understand the presentation they gave about the vineyard
in Catalán, but
we didn't need any help when it came time to go to the
tasting room! The label is Cordoníu.
Very tasty.
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The
real event, however, was the meal afterwards. We
went in a caravan of nine cars into a small village in
the countryside called Salomó.
The restaurant specializes in calçots
(cal-sots), which is a
type of onion; kind of a cross between a leek and a
spring onion. They are grilled over an open flame
with grape vines in huge fire pits. To eat them,
you grab the middle leaves and peel off the burned outer
layer of skin, dip what is left into a wonderful sauce
based on tomatoes and almonds, and chew off the bottom
part in a big sloppy mess. The first thing you do
is put on a bib.
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The
feast is traditional in Cataluña
between mid November and April. This first
appetizer course of calçots
is accompanied by vases of wine served in traditional
decanters called porrón.
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As
the rain started coming down more heavily, we moved
inside for the rest of the meal. Traditional
butifarra and
beans, were followed by lamb and a delicious cake for
dessert. Cava and wine were poured generously
throughout the meal. We had a wonderful time
getting to know some more locals, many of whom spoke
English, although I got plenty of opportunity to
practice my Spanish. Josep and Montse were
wonderful hosts and we enjoyed their relaxed and
easygoing attitudes immensely. What a thrill it
was to get such an insider's view of life in
Cataluña. One of
our party was cousins with the owners of the restaurant
and we were privileged to participate in the annual
outing.
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The
girls had tons of kids to play with and the language
barrier was never an issue. They both are picking
up more than we imagined, and Cassie is constantly
correcting my pronunciation.
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Their
friend Gina wound up spending the night with us on the
boat for our first real sleepover here in Barcelona.
In
other news, our neighbors' cat, Cuca, had five kittens
on Friday. The girls have been anxiously awaiting
the event, knowing that before we leave Barcelona, we
will be taking one of them with us as the newest
addition to the Zia crew.
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Many thanks to our friend Craig Homenko for his assistance in setting up the website.
We also would like
to thank our buddy Scott Brunner who has been kind
enough to host the website on his server.
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