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

[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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

Although I had been to Barcelona several times in the past, those were all work trips, and apart from a single open-top bus tour a few years ago, I really did not explore the city or see the sights on previous occasions -- those were purely work trips.

This time, of course, Mrs yflyer was here. The next day, a Sunday, we headed out to explore some of Barcelona's attractions.

One of our first stops was Park Guell. Designed by Gaudi, this used to be a private residence, but has been turned into a public park, giving us a first glimpse of Gaudi's unique style and genius...



...this is not a very large park, but it was a stunning...



...anyone who sets foot inside enters a magical and beautiful world...



...intricate and maddeningly complex yet beautiful...







You also get great views of the city...



Park Guell is perched on a hill overlooking Barcelona. There is a metro station about 15-20 minutes walk from the park, below the hill, but as getting there involves an uphill climb, it is better to take a taxi to the park, and then walk down to the metro when you leave.

On the walk down to the metro after leaving the park, I passed this street sign, which seems to embody the dream of many Singaporeans...

[yflyer]

For the next few days, we moved to another hotel close by, the Silken Diagonal. This was a 5-7 minute walk from the Four Points, also along Avinguda Diagonal. This is located next to Torre Agbar, a distinctive tower shaped like a cyclinder with a rounded top. It is close to Glories shopping mall, which has a large Carrefour supermarket wihin it.

This hotel is right next to Glories metro station, just a few stops from Placa Catalunya, making it very convenient to get around Barcelona.

When visiting Barcelona, there is always a question of whether it is worth staying in a hotel in a prime location like Placa Catalunya, or Las Ramblas, or if it was ok to stay a little further away.

Based on this trip and past experiences, I would say it is very feasible to stay away from Placa Catalunya or Las Ramblas, as long as there is a metro station close by. There is no need to pay a premium to stay right in the centre of town.

The Silken is a hotel with very modern styling. We were lucky this time round, and were given a room with a very good view of Gaudi's Sagrada Familia, less than 2km away.

[yflyer]

The next dish was a cross between a prawn and a crayfish, beautifully grilled...



...and after that endless procession of seafood...finally a meat course...a creamy cannelloni with beef filling...rich and yet smooth and very easy to eat, this was a very enjoyable dish...



...we thought that the cannelloni, being a meat dish, signalled the last course...certainly I was already feeling quite full.

But we were mistaken: our main course had yet to come...

...we simply stared open-mouthed with surprise when our waiter presented our mains: two different mains -- quail for me, and lamb for Mrs yflyer. How and why they decided on different main courses for me and Mrs yflyer will forever remain a mystery, but I do know that we forfeited any right to make any decision on what to eat the moment we stepped in...

My quail was delicate...



...Mrs yflyer's lamb was hearty and rich, with a depth of flavour not often encountered...



After all that, again based on our waiter's judgement of what would tickle our taste buds, we were presented with a soft cheese, layered with truffle, in lieu of dessert...



...a wholly unexpected and novel combination for us both, but it was a heavenly choice...the dry, musky, taste of the truffle was a beautiful contrast to the cold, runny and pungent cheese...a delightful way to end our meal.

And after that, a complimentary free flow of two dessert liqueurs...Xantiamen Licor de Hierbes and Aguardiente de Orujo Xantiamen Blanco...



Just like the last time, the itemized bill came to just over EUR 100 a head for the food, with the suggested wines very reasonably priced as well...one of the more expensive meals we had in Barcelona, but a very delicious and memorable meal, notable for letting the fresh ingredients and seafood speak for themselves, as well as just the novelty of not knowing anything about what was coming next until it was placed in front of you...

[yflyer]

I had just enough time to shower and change, before it was time to head out for our late lunch at Passadis Del Pep. A restaurant I've covered previously on SQTalk: Tucked away inside a building, with no visible signboard outside...



...and no menu inside. There was no need to order: the restaurant would decide what you eat.

You were given a complimentary half bottle of Cava to start...



...and then the dishes would come...mainly seafood but with the possibility of a meat course or two towards the end...

The last time I had come here, it was on a previous work trip, with an old friend and ex-colleague: It was the most memorable lunch of that visit, and I had promised to bring Mrs yflyer one day. Well, promises are made to be kept!

Apart from the cava, we asked our waiter to recommend a bottle of white wine...he brought a bottle of El Perro Verde, a fruity Spanish white wine made from the Verdejo grape that would go very well with the seafood to come...



Spanish chorizo...



Razor clams, served piping hot...



Jamon Iberico, eaten with bread with olive oil and rubbed tomato...





Sea snails...



Small prawns (Or are they shrimp?)...



Calamari...



Delicious large prawns, grilled and sprinkled with salt...we enjoyed sucking the warm liquid out of the heads...



Each dish was served on a common platter for sharing...

By now we were starting to feel a little full, but we pressed on...

[yflyer]

Our next meal stop that day was a mid-afternoon meal ("Lunch", but taken a little later in the day than is common in Singapore) at Passadis Del Pep, but before that, I thought I would work off a few calories by heading to the beach for a run.

This is not the first time I have covered this running route on SQTalk, but it remains one of my favourite running routes, and the weather in Barcelona that week was perfect. Total running distance that day was just over 11km.



My run started from the Four Points Sheraton Barcelona Diagonal, down Rambla Del Poblenau, a tree-lined boulevard lined with restaurants and shops that goes right to the waterfront.





From there, I turned right and ran along the scenic, windy, beachfront...



...towards Port Olimpic...



...reaching the striking W hotel, before heading back the way I came...



Here is another picture of the W hotel, taken on another run later the next week, when it was clouder, but no less bright and sunny...



On the return route, back along the same beach, I took care to turn off the beach at the junction towards Poblenau, and not overshoot towards the next stretch of beach, the section of Mar Bella Beach from Poblenau to Diagonal Mar...where the waterfront promenade continues, but where the beachgoers there have a slightly more liberal view of a fun day at the beach...



...not noticing the sign was a mistake I made on my very first trip to Barcelona many years back...jogging along Mar Bella Beach, fully dressed in PT attire and increasingly wide-eyed at the spectacle before me, only noticing the sign indicating exactly what kind of beach that was, when I reached the far end...

[yflyer]

Another highlight of Boqueria Market was this place that had a very good selection of jamon iberico.



The premium jamon here was all hand-sliced (Very important, as you get superthin slices that allow you to really savour the ham), and they had a very generous tasting policy, where you could sample many selections before making a decision.



They all tasted subtly different, although I would be hard pressed to distinguish them.

We bought jamon to eat there, as well as many flat vacuum packs, of different varieties of jamon, to bring home. There was a bewildering array to choose from, from different parts of Spain, acorn-fed (Bellota...noticeably richer in taste), and aged for different number of years.

[yflyer]

Spices...



Fruit...including tropical fruit...



...fruit juices are apparently a fairly new thing here, but very popular now...

[yflyer]

Elsewhere in the market, there was a lot to see...

Seafood...





Percebes (Goose barnacles), a delicacy not commonly found elsewhere...





A lot of different meat was available from specialty stores, including beef, lamb (some of them displayed whole), chicken and rabbit...



...and a lot of specialty meats, organs, and parts, displayed in all their full, squeamish glory...