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GerryOlds2TheReturnofGerry

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Halfway through a Last Word at Boadas. Next three evenings are packed so might wander around some old tapas bars tonight.

Bars in general are very quiet. The staff blame Dry January and the weather. The weather is dry too but I was finding it chilly even though it's in the 50s. Realized I am not dressed as I would be in New York.

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Bar Celta may be about the only old school tapas bar left anywhere near the center of the city (yes, there's a hole-in-the-wall here and there). Same food, same owner forever. The tapas are big. I usually order morcilla, but I'd had it for lunch. Bunuelos de bacalao, chipirrones. Only room for a plate of bacon (plus comps) at Bodega 8, where I also heard a lot of soccer stories from an English couple.

Oh the bunuelo photo was last minute.

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13 hours ago, Wilfrid said:

Halfway through a Last Word at Boadas. Next three evenings are packed so might wander around some old tapas bars tonight.

Bars in general are very quiet. The staff blame Dry January and the weather. The weather is dry too but I was finding it chilly even though it's in the 50s. Realized I am not dressed as I would be in New York.

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Did the bartender use green chartreuse in making your Last Word? Or some other liqueur?

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After enjoying the ineffable peace of the upstairs galleries at Museu Frederic Mares, lunch at La Pineda. For once I ordered the half-size surtido des embutidos and I was glad I did because it was not burdened with stacks of chorizo. A glass of dark Catalan rose, Hereus.

ETA: The colorful sausage in the middle row is Morcon, a fabulously bulbous sausage traditionally encased in a pig's bladder. I don't think I've had it here before.

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Details to follow, but while I am enjoying a late digestif: I took two very old friends to La Sosenga, one of my favorites here. I was kept away from the check, but it looked like 140 euros.

Right, the incredibly good eight course tasting menu is 32 euros per head. We must have run the check up to dizzying heights with the bottle of local organic red wine and after dinner drinks.

Stupid. 

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Last night, La Sosenga, this gem in an alley near Els 4 Gats. My third time. You must reserve (or risk a solo walk-in for the one or two bar seats). You must be on time because she will come to the door and call out your name.

The two women front-of-house are so charming (especially because I am remembered) but they run this place uncompromisingly tightly.

Tasting menu only at the table. Eight courses, nine if you count the terrific bread course: country bread with butter whipped with white mushrooms; traditional Catalan coca flatbread with girolles, butifarra and tomato.

Then croquette of roast beef with mint and leek. A vegetable millefeuille with pickled onion and onion juice. Black turnip with chickpea puree, local truffles optional. Basque-ish bacalao in pil pil sauce, olive and spinach, raisins too. Quail with potato, glazed shallots and sweet-sour sauce. Local cheeses. A choice of rather sweet and squidgy cheesecake or delicious flan flavored with mushrooms.

Again, all the above for 32 euros, tax included, gratuity optional (we left one).

Unless you are expert in local Catalunyan organic wines, leave it to your server. The prices are within a narrow range, 25 to 35 euros. She presented us with a funky, cool bottle of red (a Marselan from the nearby Garraf Massif mountains), then rich glasses of cloudy dessert wine.

Meager remnant of bread course pictured and I guess the croquettes went fast. Also Casa Carot, cheese source near Placa Jaume, which I had not previously known.

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On 9/12/2024 at 8:02 PM, Wilfrid said:

It’s an old school thing, isn’t it, to fill a martini glass to the brim and beyond so that the bartender can’t move it without spilling and mopping and the only way to start drinking is to go face down in it.

 

I looked back on my post from last September and yay, they switched to coupes at Ideal Cocktail Bar.

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Dinner at Hisop, of course. In the almost 20 years I've been eating here, nothing has changed and nothing needs to change (except arguably the availability of wines BTG although there are pairings if you do the tasting menu).

I ordered from the carte, but happily one of the dishes calling to me from the tasting menu showed up as the second amuse: artichokes with pig's feet and sea snails.

The first amuse consisted of the tiniest tail of some fish, full of flavor, and a soup made from the same fish with trout eggs.

Then "calçotada" de trufa; small leeks with truffles shaved at the table. That came with a terrific truffled romesco sauce. Porgy with beans and a kind of wild mint (poleo). The glorious pigeon which comes with a firm and intense pâté of innards. Cheeses.

Dry sherry to star, a half-bottle of Embruix red, sweet sherry with cheese, cognac and coffee. Mignardises.  168 Euros for everything.

 

 

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What a last night. Boadas, quiet all week, was packed. I was offered the last seat by the door, but how long was a crafted cocktail going to take?

I retired to the bar at the Meriden where the drinks are well made. My only companion at the bar, a stunning young African woman keen to click glasses with me. We had really good conversation and when I got up to leave she offered to buy me a drink. Mm.

Retreated to wine bar behind my hotel.

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Relaxing at Zona D'Ombra, peaceful wine bar behind my hotel. A rosado and a tinto from Emporda and a fancy Ribera del Duero. Really delicious sobresada drizzled with honey. Moist duck and port pate very like dog food by look, smell and texture but of the best kind. Santa Maria cheese.

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