The restaurant is located in Carrer Avinyó, one of the oldest and most stylish streets in Barcelona's Gothic neighbourhood, dating to the Romans. To emulate Spain's increasingly popular and profitable tapas, Maria created the bomba, a meat-and-potato croquette with a spicy sauce with hints of mustard and tomato that's a well-kept family secret.Ĭa l'Agut is a symbol of Barcelona. 'Pretty soon other restaurants run by Spanish migrants coming from post-war impoverished areas like Murcia and Andalucía spread across the city, introducing an as-yet-unknown tradition in Catalonia: the Spanish tapas(small plates that would tapar (cover) the drink to avoid insects from drowning on it),' said Josep. At first, they only served coffee and sailors used to bring their own breakfast. Josep's grandmother, Maria, opened La Cova Fumada with her husband when they came to Barcelona from rural Tortosa in the south of Catalonia. Today, the restaurant is owned by Josep Maria Solé Fresquet and his family. Its name means 'the smoky cave', and it recalls the days when the walls were stained black from the fumes of its old kitchen. La Cova Fumada opened in 1944 in La Barceloneta, the city's historical fishing neighbourhood. It serves the kind of food – such as fricandó (beef stewed with chocolate, onion and red wine) and rice mar i muntanya (combining fish, seafood and vegetables) – that food journalists like Casanovas have begun referring to as 'situated cuisine', meaning deeply rooted in place and tradition. Though La Pubilla is open all day, Casanovas recommends showing up around 09:00 and pairing your fork breakfast with samfaina (a kind of Catalan ratatouille).Ĭasanovas and I ordered stewed pork feet with a fried egg on top, which we watered down with a glass of strong red wine and accompanied by pa amb tomàquet, the classic Catalan way to eat bread with some garlic, a gently squeezed tomato and olive oil on top.Įven as Barcelona grapples with overtourism, La Pubilla remains a largely locals-only joint.

The tradition originated in the late 19th Century when factories and mines spread across Catalonia and workers needed a strong protein meal early in the day. Today, the small restaurant in Barcelona's bustling Gràcia neighbourhood serves traditional Catalan dishes such as aubergine carpaccio and bacallà (dried, salted cod with pine nuts), though it's best known for its esmorzar de forquilla varieties.Ĭatalans typically go for 'fork breakfasts' at about 09:00. After working as a line cook for years elsewhere in Spain and abroad, in 2008 he opened La Pubilla, a name typically given to the eldest daughter in Catalan families. Owner Alexis Peñalver was born and raised in the Pyrenees, where his grandmother used to cook meat for breakfast – an incredibly filling meal that Catalans call esmorzar de forquilla ('fork breakfast'). Here are five of Casanovas' favourite places to eat. Today, if you push beyond the pre-prepared paella (which is better in Valencia) and sangria, visitors to Catalonia's undisputed culinary capital will find dishes found nowhere else in Spain, like 'fork breakfasts', beef slow cooked in chocolate, grilled frog or spicy snails. These ingredients are often fused together in a slow simmer, with aubergines and tomatoes from the Llobregat river valley stewed alongside lobster or pork in a mar i muntanya (surf and turf) medley. 'In Catalonia, a highly industrial region, slowly stewing xup-xup, referring to the noise of slow-cooked recipes, is key.'Īs Casanovas explained, 'the harbours along the coast have traditionally brought exotic cuisine Barcelona more than other regions of Spain' and seafood has historically been considered 'nobler' than meat. The south cuisine relies mostly on frying the ingredients, the north cuisine revolves around stewing and the regions in the centre of Spain tend to roast meat,' said Marc Casanovas, a Barcelona-based food journalist and the author of No Soy Uno de los Vuestros, about a Catalan chef. 'In the Iberian Peninsula, three main ways of preparing food predominate. Located in Spain's north-east corner, the triangular-shaped autonomous community has long drawn influences from those it borders: the Mediterranean to the east, the Pyrenees mountains and France to the north and the rest of Spain to the west. The proud capital of Catalonia, Barcelona not only has own independent-minded identity and language, but also boasts its own unique cuisine.

Joplin places to eat