Category: Food trips
-
El Celler de Can Roca
Does “the world’s best restaurant” live up to the hype? Yes. Oh, yes. El Celler de Can Roca is a spacewalk so high in orbit above the level of ordinary that diners almost need airtanks at tableside. Review: El Celler de Can Roca restaurant, Girona, Catalonia It was around the third main course of the…
-
Epicurean Ways – Priorat and Montsant Tour
A guided tour of Catalonia’s spectacular Montsant and Priorat wine regions. IMPORTANT EDIT: Rachel Richie, the guide I describe meeting in this post, later became a personal friend. I enjoyed many conversations and lunches with her and, like everyone who knew her, always admired her erudition and generous spirit. She died in December 2016.…
-
Trip Report: Munich (Germany) 2015
Notes from a one-day visit to the Bavarian capital. It was cold and grey, which pleased me. I’ve enjoyed the Mediterranean summer but it was nice to get an early taste of winter by heading north. I pulled on a sweater and buttoned up my long wool coat and hit the streets of München with the…
-
Trip report: Newcastle upon Tyne (UK) 2015
Food in Newcastle is getting better by the year. Here are some highlights from my recent trip back home. As eagle-eyed readers with an ear for accents may have guessed from this blog’s tagline (‘Get it doon ya in Catalunya’) I am a Geordie, born and bred in SE Northumberland near Newcastle upon Tyne, but I…
-
Manlleu Pork and Beer Festival 2014
This year’s meat feast in Manlleu, some 80 km north of Barcelona, was a perfect platform for the new generation of Catalan craft beer brewers and a testament to the lasting appeal of traditional gastronomy. After having thoroughly enjoyed last year’s Festa del Porc i de la Cervesa I wasn’t going to miss a second helping. Unfortunately, the…
-
Cal Xim
Cal Xim is as good a choice for a traditional country lunch as you’ll find in Catalonia. It’s less than an hour’s drive from Barcelona, in the Alt Penedés wine region where you can also enjoy some excellent vineyard tours. I don’t get out on my motorcycle as much as I used to; it’s not very practical…
-
A Stairway to Hog Heaven: Manlleu ‘Pork and Beer’ Festival
The blizzard of conceptual marketing, ‘quirky’ logos and bizarre brand identities that sweeps endlessly from the offices of advertising agencies has left many of us yearning for a simpler age. Credit, then, to the good people of Manlleu, a small town an hour north of Barcelona. Tasked with naming their local fair, they put their collective…
-
Seville
This is a food blog about Barcelona so of course my first post will be about the famously Catalan, er, Seville… I never claimed to be focused. I’ve just returned from a marvellous visit where I got to see some of the best of Seville in the company of the delightful http://azahar-sevilla.com/ whose blogs on…