Emirates SIN-DXB-BCN in Y: Paella, Xuxo & FC Barcelona vs Sevilla@Camp Nou (Part I)

[yflyer]

After Park Guell, we caught the subway to Las Ramblas, for a stroll along this famous pedestrian promenade...





Off the main promenade, streets on both sides of Las Ramblas were also worth exploring...



This nearby square was surrounded by restaurants, probably catering more to tourists and visitors than locals, but still a very tempting place to sit down for a snack or a drink...





There was a strong police presence along Las Ramblas that day...



This had the effect of driving many of the regular street vendors along Las Ramblas underground...literally underground: they waited in the metro stations until the coast was clear...



...it must be a very interesting game of hide-and-seek...I am sure the police know they are there...but I guess the police have different, more urgent priorities.

[yflyer]

What else did we do that Sunday? For dinner, we would head to Port Olimpic for a seafood dinner...

But first, another run. This time, I would take a slightly different route, running to the Sagrada Familia, then heading down to the waterfront near Port Olimpic, before returning to the hotel via Rabla del Poblenau.

There is nothing like a brisk run along the streets of a city to get a feel for a city...





The Sagrada Familia was only 2km away from the hotel, so I got there very quickly, and jogged slowly round, marvelling at its architecture.





The next weekend, Mrs yflyer and I would head inside for a full tour. On that day, I was content to simply admire this Basilica from the outside.

I continued my run towards the waterfront and continued my route back to the hotel, just as the sun was setting.



Total distance that day, just over 8km...

[yflyer]

Dinner that evening was at Port Olimpic...a popular restaurant and dining area right next to the yacht/boat harbour...



Now this is a fairly touristy area, but not really in a bad way...think of it as the equivalent of East Coast Seafood Centre in Singapore...great seafood by the sea, full of tourists, but with the restaurant competition ensuring that the quality remains good and the pricing fairly reasonable...

We dined at La Fonda Del Port Olimpico...



This place is worth visiting just for the stunning seafood displays outside the restaurants here...





We had an enjoyable evening of grilled seafood and paella, washed down with large jugs of sangria.





Simple pleasures indeed...

[yflyer]

That dinner at Port Olimpic marked the end of a whirlwind weekend of dining and sightseeing. The week ahead was a hectic week of meetings and work.

Mrs yflyer was on her own during the week, and she made the most of it, exploring the city on foot, and by subway, making a trip to La Roca Village, a 40 minute bus ride away, to shop at the Premium Outlets there.

Our itineraries would only coincide towards the end of the week, after my work had been completed.

During the week I did manage to check out Boadas Cocktails, one of the first (if not the first) cocktail bars to open along Las Ramblas.



Not a bad spot to spend time in the evening...the bartenders there really knew their stuff...

[yflyer]

And not far away, along Las Ramblas, there was a ticket booth, officially licensed to sell tickets to FC Barcelona's football matches.



Tickets were still available for the match on Sunday, 28 February...



...very tempting!...

[yflyer]

At the end of the week, Mrs yflyer and I resumed our vacation with dinner at Llamber...a restaurant close to the Born Cultural Centre, near the Arc de Triomf.



This was a stylish restaurant...



...with a modern, imaginative menu...



Cocktails were perfectly mixed, and very creative...





We ordered dishes to share, including seared tuna...



...and what must have been one of the most perfect salads we had ever come across...as intricate as a floral arrangement, with every petal and leaf in place, glistening in bright primary colours. And it tasted perfect as well, ultra fresh, with a sweetness and crunch never encountered at home...



A single anchovy, layered on bread and cheese...intensely flavoured, with an almost overpowering (maybe too overpowering...) layer of cheese spread under the salty anchovy...



A wonderful dish of squid ink paella topped with baby cuttlefish...



...the stock and flavour of this dish were intense...I took a bite, and was momentarily disorientated and lost in memories of the past as the flavour of this dish recalled the rich seafood and crustacean flavours of my favourite Hokkien mee stall that used to be at the corner of Jalan Tua Kong and East Coast Road in Singapore...it was as if a long lost favourite dish from Singapore had been reborn a continent away in Spain...

[yflyer]

Our last shared main was an aged beef entrecote grilled and served on edible coals...



...of course the edible coals were either potato or sweet potato roasted till slightly charred, but they went very well with the steak, which we ordered medium-rare...

A glass of wine to accompany the steak...Les Crestas, a Syrah from Priorat...



Wine prices in Barcelona were very reasonable...the glass of Les Crestes Syrah was EUR 4.10 on the restaurant menu...

We ended with "Casadielles", traditional Asturian dumplings with rosemary ice cream...



Another very enjoyable evening out, and a great start to the "2nd leg" of our vacation together...

[yflyer]

The next day, our itinerary focused not on nourishing the body, but the mind and spirit: this was our long awaited visit to the Sagrada Familia.

We bought admission tickets to the Sagrada Familia online (Thus bypassing the onsite ticket queues) and signed up for the 50 minute English language tour as well.



Although there were cranes towering overhead, and with construction likely to continue until at least 2026, the cranes do not detract too much from the Sagrada Familia's striking beauty and architecture, which is timeless and has an impact on visitors which has to be experienced to be believed.



One of Gaudi's guiding principles was that "nature is the best architect" and his style was organic in nature, yet very precisely grounded in geometry and mathematical principles.

I would definitely recommend taking the guided tour...this will give you insights into the construction of the Basilica, as well as Gaudi's life and times, that make for a compelling tour. The guide we had that day, the lady on the right hand side of the picture below, was excellent as well, weaving an absorbing tale, with all facts at her fingertips.



To add to that, the price of admission and the cost of the tour also go to funding the ongoing construction of the Basilica.



The elements of the design are all based on nature, and there is a reason for everything that is carved into the design...





This beautiful and intricately carved door was carved by Japanese sculptor, Etsuro Sotoo, one of many craftsmen who have worked on this structure.

[yflyer]

The exterior of the Sagrada Familia is stunning, but nothing really prepares you for the grandeur and impact of its striking interior...

ll these trips I had made to Barcelona in the past, I had only observed the Sagrada Familia from the outside. Maybe the inside wasn't even complete when I first visited this city.

That day, I was at a loss for words when I entered inside for the first time.



Full size image of the picture above here.

A huge expanse of space, an indescribable, organic series of arches and structures, light streaming in from multicoloured stained glass, and a hushed atmosphere of silence despite a large number of visitors...







Mrs yflyer, and I suspect many other visitors, was moved almost to tears...



There is also a museum exhibit which shows models, artifacts and pictures relating to Gaudi's approach, and the history of this remarkable structure.

[yflyer]

At the end of our visit to the Sagrada Familia, we took a leisurely 20 minute walk back to the Silken Diagonal hotel.

Staying at the Silken, it is almost impossible to lose your way, as it is right next to the Torre Agbar, the rounded cylindrical tower that is visible from kilometers away.



It is even more visibile in the evening, when it is lit up in different colours.



That evening, we had dinner at another restaurant, Suculent, which is about a 7 minute walk from Las Ramblas.



The restaurant has smallish dining spaces on the ground and second floor.



We were seated at the bar counter...

I ordered a G&T to start, which is served here in fairly large glasses. Not all G&T's are created equal. This one hit the spot.



We ordered several starters and mains to share...

First up, marinated fresh anchovies...still plump, smooth and glistening...



Then we had lobster tartar with chicken crunch (Crispy chicken skin, in fact)...



This was an inspired dish...with the cold lobster chunks going very well with the crisp chicken skin.



They really know how to prepare octopus in Barcelona, these chunks of octopus were moist and juicy.

[yflyer]

Another indulgent combination was the steak tartar served on bone marrow...



This tasted quite spectacular...



Bone marrow isn't the healthiest thing you can eat, but when served like this, who could resist?

Next up, a beef oxtail and mushroom croquette, eaten with the hands...almost liquid inside, covered by a very thin crust. I was amazed that it held together and did not disintegrate when I picked it up and put it in my mouth.



That was all we had space for on that occasion. Earlier in the week, I had visited this place with colleagues, where I tried several other remarkable dishes, including these:

Red prawn ceviche, which tasted as good as it looked...



Raw and cooked oysters...



Smoked sardines and trout eggs with Ajoblanco (A traditional Spanish cold soup sometimes called cold gazpacho)...



Calf tail stew with chocolate sauce and baby carrots...very tender ox tail in a rich dark brown savoury chocolate sauce...



For dessert that evening, Mrs yflyer and I had strawberries stuffed with white chocolate...



...and a very light dessert of pineapple with fennel and a gin and toffee foam...



This was amazing food, prepared with a rare level of freshness and refinement. This was a restaurant I would want to return to.

[yflyer]

At that point in the trip, I think I was running out of adjectives and superlatives to describe the cuisine in Barcelona...folks here eat well. Very well!

As far as restaurant dining was concerned, we were almost done on this trip. And I suspect readers of this TR will find a certain amount of food fatigue setting in as well...

But on the day before Mrs yflyer's flight back home to Singapore, we had one last hurdle to clear...one more dish to try: A proper paella in a specialist paella restaurant. In other words, the art of making paella taken to obsessive levels.

On a recommendation from a relative who knows something about such things, made a reservation for 2pm lunch at Xiringuito Escriba, a well known paella restaurant set right on the beach, and only open daily in the afternoon.

[yflyer]

But before heading to Xiringuito Escriba for paella, we headed to Placa Catalunya, and the beautiful streets of Rambla del Catalunya for a stroll.



Along Rambla del Catalunya, we stopped by Colmado Quilez, a gourmet grocery store, to pick up several tins of canned razor clams and other seafood. This wasn't canned food in the category of convenience food like Spam or Campbell's Soup...these were premium seafoods carefully tinned to preserve, and in many cases, intensify the flavour. What an interesting concept.



The store had shelves stocked high with all manner of groceries and gourmet food items.



If we weren't in a hurry to head to our paella restaurant later, we could have spent a very long time in there...

We did also stop briefly at El Corte Ingles, a large department store located at Placa Catalunya...



We checked out the supermarket in the basement of El Corte Ingles. It is always interesting to see what the supermarkets are like in different countries.

Inside the supermarket, a small counter sold freshly fried potato chips and crispy fried pork crackling...



Of course Mrs yflyer could not resist buying a packet of each.

The wine section in the supermarket had a high-end wine dispenser which served up tasting portions of wine for a small fee -- just EUR 0.40 a taste. A great idea.



Elsewhere in the store, you could see that the locals really enjoyed their Gin & Tonic. A mindboggling area of both gin and tonic water were on sale here.



An entire shelf filled with different brands of tonic water...



This must almost be their national drink...over here they usually serve their "Gin Tonic" in large goblets, for example at this place in El Born...

[yflyer]

Finally it was time for our paella lunch...

Our restaurant was one of a series of restaurants dotting the Barcelona beach front...



Our lunch venue for the day: Xiringuito Escriba, set right next to the beach.



It was already very busy by the time we arrived...



We had a table facing the water.



The paella was prepared in an open kitchen...paella in large pans was bubbling away...quite an impressive sight...

[yflyer]

We ordered red sangria...



This is a sweet and very refreshing drink, however we realized it was a little too sweet to really pair with the food coming up, so I also ordered a glass of white wine and asked the friendly waitress to recommend something that would match our starters and paella...

The white wine they served was this one, L'Ecrivain, which was dry, fruity and quite delicious.



Our starters were prawn and cod tartar, with sake and raspberries...



And an endive salad with chicory and roquefort sauce...



Our black rice paella, with cuttlefish, clams and green pepper, arrived in a humonguous pan...



...even considering that the paella was spread quite thin on the large pan, this was a lot to eat...



...but it was quite delicious, and I think we did it justice...



The dessert selection was presented on a tray for you to choose from.



Unable to put another spoon of anything into our mouths for at least the next 2 hours, we passed on dessert...

Overall, quite a wonderful place for a meal...seriously delicious paella in a wonderful beachfront setting.