Salvador Dali Show in Barcelona

Dali ceiling

Dali art

Dali

Salvador Dali EGG

If you are lucky enough to visit Barcelona this spring or summer (2011), you should not miss the Salvador Dali show.  In the center of the Barri Gotic sits the magnificent Barcelona Cathedral.  The Dali show is in the plaza surrounding the Cathedral.

Dali is the essential Catalan artist.  His whimsy and surrealism captures Catalonian spirit. Perhaps he created it.  This exhibit displays paintings, sketches, and sculptures by the artist as well as photographs of the artist.  It’s a comprehensive show that is enlightening, fun, puzzling, and entertaining.  Just like Dali himself. 

Mostly known for his wild mustache and his painting The Persistance of Memory, there is a great deal more to be learned here about this complex artist.   He started life with the name of his dead older brother.  If that’s not enough to make you loopy, his mother died when he was sixteen.  He dabbled in films, set design, and was the first artist to experiment with holography.  He married the great love of his life and when she died, it is said that he lost his mind and his will to live.

If you don’t have time for a side trip to Figueres where the artist lived and the Dali museum is, you should not miss this show.

Return to Barcelona: First Stop, La Boqueria

produce in La Boqueria

jamon

jamon manchego bread

La Boqueria

Returning to Barcelona means a return to La Boqueria right in the middle of La Rambla, the most famous boulevard in the city.  My favorite market in Europe, La Boqueria is the perfect first stop in Barcelona to have a snack of tapas and shop for a picnic. Before I leave I’ll load up on goodies to bring home. But as soon as I arrive, I need to have tapas.  The classic tapas place is Bar Pinotxo, run by Juan and his family since forever.  Belly up to the bar and grab a stool if you can find one.  If not, wait because it is so worth it.  Try anything.  It’s all good.  If it’s early in the day, try an empanda or an ensaimada with a cup of coffee.  Or, try a bowl of Juan’s indescribable chickpeas.  Hearty and full of flavor, this dish alone makes me come back to Barcelona. 

Now that you have a full belly, wander the aisles and you’ll find fresh produce, fish, spices, and an overwhelming array of cheese and meat counters.  This is a great place to buy fixings to take with you when you go sightseeing.  We bought bread, jamon, and machego cheese at Aroma Iberic and we were set for the day as we went in search of all things Gaudi.  We nibbled as we went.  NOTHING in this world is tastier than iberico jamon on a piece of fresh bread, topped with a slice of cheese. For dessert, load up on chocolate treats at Vidal Pons.   I’m definitely going back.   Soon.

Dream Desserts in Spain

It’s astonishing how attractive people in Spain are and even more astonishing is the fact that they don’t weigh four hundred pounds each.  If I lived there, I’d have a weight problem and I’d certainly develop angina from all the cholesterol I’d consume. 

First and foremost, I’d consume pork products daily. Iberian jamon for breakfast, chorizo at least once a day, and I would have to have frequent, large samples of a wide variety of sausages.  Moving on, for snacks I’d nibble on Spanish cheeses.  I’d offset the cholesterol from the cheese with copious amounts of red wine.  The vino tinto would cancel out the cheese because we all know how good red wine is for us, don’t we?

If all that didn’t kill me in a few months time, the desserts definitely would.  First, can we talk about churros?  Fried dough.  Lots of it.  On a plate and served with something akin to hot chocolate but it’s really more like thick chocolate pudding.  The churro is dipped into the thick chocolate drink and devoured for breakfast or for a snack.  That sound you just heard was me sighing with desire and unbuttoning my pants because even the thought of this gooey, wonderful mess makes my waist expand.  Churros are made upon request and you can watch the entire process at almost any stand that sells them. 

 

 

Chocolate & Churros

Another popular and seductive treat is waffles.  Waffles served with oozy, drizzly, thick chocolate and—if you’d like even more decadence—ice cream.  Like I said, how do these people not explode?  Irresistible!

I’ve saved the best for last.  The Spanish island of Mallorca in the Balearic Islands seems to be the only place in the world where a pastry called ensaimada is made.  I was introduced to this unique taste treat on the PBS show “Spain…On the Road Again” with Mario Batali, Mark Bittman-the New

Ensaimada Heaven

York Times food critic, Gwyneth Paltrow and Claudia Bassols.  This series provides great armchair travel through Spain, its best sites and (even better!) its best foods and wines.  Mario ferreted out the best ensaimada in all Mallorca.  High on my priority list of places to go, its a bit of a challenge to find.  Deep in the heart of Palma de Mallorca, a tiny hole-in-the wall place on a tiny side street contains one of the world’s seven wonders.  In Ca’n Miguel you can find the lightest most amazing pastry I have ever tasted.  Wound into a spiral and baked, this creation melts into your mouth and left me unable to speak.  Cooked with no one knows how much pure lard (yes, lard) I would eat it twice a day if I could.  The name apparently comes from the Arabic word saïm which means pork lard.  You can get ensaimadas filled with cream or plain.  Although the cream is delicious, it’s so good on its own that I prefer the plain.  Large ensaimadas are the size of a pie and when you leave Mallorca you see people carrying them back to the mainland in pastry boxes handled as carefully as infants.  They are every bit as precious.

 

 

Ca'n Miguel in Mallorca

A Market to Die for: La Boqueria in Barcelona

 

La Boqueria

 

La Rambla is a street where you can find anything. Stroll down this long boulevard cutting through the old city, the Barri Gotic, and you are instantly reminded of Paris.  The lovely buildings with their wrought iron balconies are quite reminiscent of Paris.  But the resemblance ends there and quickly.  The Champs Elysees doesn’t host birds, turtles, street performers, or the famous Mercat de La Boqueria, the one market in the world where foodies must come before they die.  Unlike like Mecca, once will not be enough. 

From early in the morning throughout the entire day, the market is bustling with buyers.  Wander in at seven or so and you will find the market filled with restaurateurs there to buy fish just pulled from the sea that will be on their menus and tables by evening.  Wander up and down and ogle the gorgeous varieties that nearly leap off the tables; they look that fresh.  Tables of snails, gambas, sardines, huge fish, small fish (I’m starting to sound like Dr. Suess; I know, I know). 

After you have gloried in the fish, it’s time for breakfast.  Near the front of the market is the famous Bar Pinotxo where you can get strong coffee and a fresh, warm pastry.  The owner Juan Bayen has been there forever.  Look for the photos of him as a very young man.  Watch him greet his regulars and put their order in front of them before they say a word.  But get there early or you will find yourself six deep, waiting to get your order in. (See the picture!)  Come later for lunch.  Everything is delicious, but I especially loved the chickpeas served warm and cooked with sausage. 

Here in La Boqueria you can shop for ingredients to take home to cook Spanish dishes like paella.  Buy some Spanish pimenton; smoky paprika that’s hard to find elsewhere and gives paella its crazy, delicious flavor.  Buy sea salt and bomba rice, as well as Spanish saffron and you will be cooking happily for months to come.

There is a plethora of pork product stands and it’s hard to know from whom to buy.  Try the old standby:  watch and wait and see where the locals go, but it seems as though it’s hard to get bad jamon (ham) here.  I purchased several kinds of Iberian jamon, sausage and chorizo and it was all so delicious, I was ready to run back to Barcelona as soon as it was gone.  (Don’t ask how I got it home.  That’s a story for another day.)

Cheese stands were also in abundance and the amazing Spanish cheeses did not disappoint.  Manchego is the dry, delicious cheese I selected to bring home.  It goes perfectly with a smooth glass of Spanish red wine; vino tinto. 

On the way out of the market, make a stop at the chocolate stand.  They hand you little plastic baggies and a scoop and you help yourself.  I thought I had stocked up.  By the time my plane landed in the US, my baggies were, sadly, empty.

I’ve made myself hungry.  I’m off to have a glass of vino tinto and a piece of Manchego cheese.  Adios!

Beautiful Fresh Fish

Bar Pinotxo

Antoni Gaudi: Architecture in Barcelona Part 2

 

facade

 

Gaudi's glass

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Gaudi’s buildings were part of what became known as the Modernisme style of architecture and Casa Batllo and Casa Mila are two incredible examples of the movement.  You can see other examples all over Barcelona and I recommend you spend one to two days at least, if you an architecture freak, which I happen to be.

Gaudi’s most incredible achievement is his design for La Sagrada Familia, the church where he spent the last years of his life.  It is still incomplete and the city hopes to have it finished within the next twenty-five years.  No one hurries in Europe, but the money has dripped in slowly and is now coming solely from the fees to enter the church and from the tours.

Although there is an amazing amount to see on your own, I recommend taking the tour.  The guide will explain why the façade of the building facing north looks like an entirely different building than the one facing south.  Inside, the nave looks like a marble forest.  Indeed, Gaudi was trying to make everything seem natural, holistic, and like it came from nature.  Some, but not all, of the windows are complete.  Gaudi’s love of light is so extreme that I had a difficult time taking photos because there was so much light inside. 

A visit to the roof yields amazing views.  A visit to the basement will allow you into the museum where you see a demonstration of how Gaudi invented a new concept in structural architecture.  Instead of using the traditional flying buttress for support (like Notre Dame in Paris), he experimented with chains and weights to see how much arch would support how much weight before the entire thing would collapse.  Once he had his dimensions, he flipped the whole concept upside down and made it in concrete, marble and magic.  I’m sure there is a better explanation from physical science and engineering, but you get the idea.

The entire cathedral is magical.  The complexity of the façade depicting the Nativity is worthy of hours of staring.  The Passion façade on the opposite side of the building is, by contrast, stark and certainly doesn’t glamorize the suffering of Christ.  There are just so many details to absorb.  I’m still pondering the numerology puzzle that adds up to 33 any way you try it.   

More than paintings, sculpture, and traditional art, I think architecture is not simply aesthetic, but a lifestyle.  Gaudi defined Barcelona, its people, and its lifestyle.  I don’t see how you can visit the city and not spend some time learning about him and appreciating all he left behind.  

La Sagrada Familia

 

Antoni Gaudi: Architecture in Barcelona Part 1

Park Guell Entry

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Spanish have quite a sense of whimsy and humor.  Think Salvador Dali and his melting watches,and the car outside his museum where it rains inside the car.   You have not seen Barcelona unless you have visited Antoni Gaudi’s Guell Park, several of his buildings, and ultimately the fascinating (and still incomplete) La Sagrada Familia, the cathedral he designed.

Briefly, the Guell Park was sponsored by Gaudi’s frequent patron Eusebi Guell.  Imagine Tim Burton meeting Hansel and Gretel and you get a glimmer of what this park is like.  Originally, the design was to be a planned community.  Sitting at the top of a hill overlooking Barcelona and the Mediterranean, the view is spectacular.  Bring a lunch or buy one at the cafe and sit on the curvilinear bench which surrounds the park.  It’s made of Gaudi’s signature tiny, colorful mosaics.  There are sea themes throughout the park; another one of his trademarks.  Still another is his willingness to forgo corners.  He uses no straight lines.

My favorite building to visit is Casa Batllo, although many disagree. His Casa Mila is more well-known and some say a better design. I don’t think so.  The best view of Casa Batllo is from across the street.  The facade is completely made of wrought iron and mosaics that glitter and change throughout the day as the pieces catch the different lights and shadows.  That view is free.  But pay the small fee and take the tour to go inside.  The rooftop alone is worth the price of admission.  Walt Disney must have visited here and been inspired.  There is a dragon’s back made of sparking tile and ceramics.  There is a ceramic cross that shines and glints in the sun.  Chimneys are made of more ceramics and tiny colored pieces form abstracts that seem to dance in the light.

Inside, sea themes predominate, as do archways, parabolas, and curves, curves, curves.  It’s an easy walk from here to Casa Mila.  They are both worth seeing.

Casa Batllo