Calçots

We spent the first couple of days, agape and agog, marvelling at the grandness and enormity of everything in the Eixemple (Modernista) district. Compared to manageable Tallinn, everything was now on scale gigantico. We were wiped by Sunday, and decided to take a breather in the Gracia district and have a wander through Gaudi's Park Guell -- touted as providing natural respite if suffering from art-and-architecture overload and accompanying neck strain and eye blur. Gracia was hopping this Sunday morning -- literally -- we happened upon this swinging scene around lunchtime in Plaça de la Virreina.



Stomachs were grumbling, so we dropped in at restaurante "La llar de Foc". We'd watched a steady stream of slow-stepping neighbourhood oldsters enter the place as we stood outside for too long, perusing the mostly indecipherable menu (in Catalan) and deciding whether or not to head in. Thank goodness we did! A sign on the door promised "Hay calçots" (We have calçots) -- though the hand-drawn diagram wasn't enough for us to make a culinary ID.

Nevertheless, our spectacular waiter made sure we ordered them, and made us promise not to start munching until he'd demonstrated how they should be eaten. These turned out to be grilled leeks with romesco dipping sauce -- the charcoaled outer leek layer slides right off -- and were absolutely delicious. We also ate red peppers stuffed with cod paste -- served in a cheesy cream sauce -- Catalan torrades (toasts), rubbed with garlic and fresh tomato, rabbit, ribs with rosemary and a bottle of red. The place was packed and buzzing and the calçots were being slurped up on all sides as we left to walk off the kkals in Park Guell.

A few short blocks down, we were lured by smoke and smells of sizzling meats and crackling veg, and heard the chit-chatterings and rustling-and-bustlings-about of a sizeable group of folk. We rounded the corner to find... a neighbourhood outdoor calçot feast! These leeks must be a seasonal Catalunyan delicacy.