Barcelona: Tapac 24

Another great tapas place that I visited is smacked right down one of the cross-streets of Passage de Gracias, a major spot / road that is lined with branded shops left and right.

This lovely little hide-out is located in a cute little basement and it is where you can have little bites, sushi-counter style. We had no choice but to take a four-top spot away from the action though. The food was awesome and made a light enough meal that could fuel us for more shopping later.

pan con tomate

toasted bread spread with tomato and olive oil

Iberico Ham

Cava, beer, coke - they cost the same!

Deep fried anchovies

squid ink risotto - thumbs up! the flavour from the ink was so good.

deep fried eggplant with molasses - interesting combination that worked!

I have to try making this myself.

tortilla with ham and potato

the tab came in a can top. thought the presentation was pretty ingenious.

Carrer Diputacio, 269
Barcelona 08007
8am to midnight

Barcelona: El Xampanyet

El Xampanyet is another great Basque-tapas bar that I would strongly recommend. Great energy, cheap (relatively), and superb cava. Going in there at the peak hours (after 10pm) could be a bit daunting given the huge crowd inside as well as outside near the doorway. We were starving and just walked through the waiting line into the middle of the restaurant where we hung around the standing counter. Just our luck, a couple of people were leaving and a friendly looking man gestured for us to step right into their spots.

The friendly old man who took care of us three Asian girls.
He is probably the owner; his dad works there too and they look so much alike :)

He first served us pan con tomate, to accompany the tapas to come.

Marinated grilled sweet baby capsicum and bacalao with truffle sauce.

Anchovies in olive oil.


Different types of bivalves. The smaller ones were especially briney and sweet.

marinated white fish in vinegar that I don't particularly think was tasty. just sourish.Baby bell peppers stuffed with some creamy cheese. these were savoury and sweet and one of us loved it so much we had an extra orders. It wasn't just us who found this great; a stream of re-orders were observed.

Touted to be a special dessert baked by personally by the mother, this puff pastry with custard cream tasted quite ordinary but because it was baked by the mother and it was her specialty, I'll give it additional points for the memories.

I wanted some cheese and pointed to a manchego wheel behind the counter. Old man asked if we wanted "special cheese" and of course we said yes. He went to the side fridge to take out another smaller section of manchego cheese that was specked with coarse ground black pepper. Interesting to eat cheese like that; special indeed.

Address:
Calle de Montcada 22 , Barcelona

Barcelona: Pinotxo Bar

Barcelona is the capital of Catalonia, one of the 17 communities in Spain. In Barcelona, you must try tapas, or traditional bar food. Tapas is normally a very casual affair and almost at every cornerstone. Of course, there are high-end spots as well but I didn't get a chance to visit any.

A short summary of how a typcial tapas experience proceeds: the popular joints would require a bit of a wait for a spot to open up at the bar or one of the few tables. Just stand around the bar, or at the entrance to wait in line (if there's one). The waiters would usually ask you how many in your party and alert you once something comes up. Once you get a table, the food and wine would follow suit very quickly. When in doubt on what to order, look at what the others are having and employ the universal language of pointing and smiling apologetically for the language barrier.

Our first Barcelonian meal was at Bar Pinotxo (pronounced "Pinochio"; you can see a wood figure of this character sitting at the top of the sign). We were promised this dish of pan con tomate but it never appeared. Instead, we had normal white baguette. Nevertheless, the dishes made up for the mistake. Perfectly cooked grilled red prawns that was slathered with fruity olive oil, salty anchovies and more olive oil, gooey and crisp croquettes blended with bacalao (which is a salted cod) were our favourites. With our meal, we ordered glasses of white wine and beer.

The way the wine was served is rather special. A glass is given to me together with an entire bottle of wine. Initially, I thought the server made a mistake and thought I ordered a bottle, not a glass. But he explained with gesturing hands and halting English that we just go ahead to pour and drink. After the meal, they would see how much leftover wine and "know" how many glasses were consumed. So now you know :)

Back to food. We wanted a baby squid and chickpea stew that every other table was having, but it was about 2:30pm when we ordered and the dish had unfortunately ran out. The tuna in tomato stew was less popular with us because tuna being tuna, the flesh got tough when cooked. Still, it was a satisfying meal and a great start to our Spain eats. It wasn't as cheap as I anticipated; a meal for 3 of us came up to slightly >60 Euros and we suspected it was the prawns and anchovies.

The restaurant is located in the La Boqueria market, a popular market in Barcelona and right at the entrance.

I later found out that a Barcelona special is pan con tomate, or toasted bread rubbed with garlic and tomato and drizzled with oil and a sprinkle of salt. This dish is taken to accompany all the other tapas. I would end up having this dish almost every tapas meal and I loved it!

Stay tuned for more eats...

Address : La Rambla, 91, Barcelona, Spain
Opening hours : 6am-4pm Monay to Saturday
Prices : From 3 to 10€
Phone : +34 93 317 17 31
Metro/Bus : Ramblas